Major Achievments

Agriculture: During the 2001-06 period, the food-deficit months were reduced from five to three months at Enebsie-Sar Mider, and from four to two months at Berek. On average, cereal productivity increased from 8.5 to 18.5 at Enebsie, and from 7 to 12 qts/ha at Berek, in the last three years, whereas the productivity at Lalo-Mamma had reached 20.3 qt/ha between 1998 and 2002. Farmers engaged in honey production at Amaro harvested 13.2 to 18 kilogramme of honey per beehive/annum. These figures exceed the national average, which is 11.54 qt/ha for cereals and five kilograms for honey per beehive/annum. Moreover, compared with the milk production of the years before 2002, the inhabitants of Amaro were able to get more milk from the improved goat species introduced to them. A commendable result was also achieved in the prevention of trypanosomiasis. 
Social services:

1. From 1% in 2001 to 22% in Enebsie;
2. From 37.8% in 2004 to 42.8% in Berek;
3. From 1.2% in 1998 to 51.2% in 2002; and
4. From 40.87% to 42 % at Amaro (2005).

Access to health services, too, showed the following increases:

1. From 57 % in 2004 to 87% in Enebsie;
2. It was maintained at 65.8% in Berek;
3. In recent times, 80.4% of the intervention kebeles in the Lalo-Mamma woreda have ready access to health services; and
4. A total of 16,739 people were protected from malaria in Amaro (2005). 

1. It increased from 88% during the previous year to 93% in Enebsie;
2. It was maintained at 68% in Berek;
3. The overall rate of enrolment reached 95.7%, and that of girls increased from 48.1% to 50.5% in the Lalo-Mamma woreda; and
4. A total of 799 (adults) were enrolled in the literacy programme, and 505 (school-age children) in the ACCESS programme in Amaro in 2005.

Natural resources management: The degraded marginal plots of farmland in the intervention areas were left to lie fallow for a certain period of time so that they will be productive again. For instance, about 308 hectares of farmland was made out of bounds for excessive human and livestock interaction at Enebsie. Between 1998 and 2002, soil and water conservation structures were built on degraded plots of farmland and communal areas, multipurpose tree seedlings were produced and planted on 516 hectares of individual plots of land in Lalo-Mamma.

Gender and HIV/AIDS: On average, females were made to benefit by 42% of the interventions in the programme areas. HIV/AIDS clubs have also been established in each programme area to combat the pandemic. Moreover, an in-house HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy was formulated and enacted in order to protect and support ASE’s employees. 

CBIs: The CBIs that were established at Lalo-Mamma, Enebsie, Berek and Amaro have been duly registered by the concerned government bodies. As such, they have since become strong development partners of both ASE and the Government. ASE and a Lalo-Mamma CBI jointly secured a total of Birr 1.6 million (85% of it for the CBI) and launched a capacity-enhancing project in October 2006. In May of 2006, Alem Birhan, a CBI at Enebsie, organised fundraising events for the construction and rehabilitation of school buildings at which more than three million Birr was pledged in kind and cash. Besides, Alem Birhan, in close collaboration with ASE, designed a feasible project, Lay Michael Integrated Water Shade Management, and secured Birr 217,000 from the Nile Basin Initiative Project (November 2006).

Staff training: Between 2000 and 2005, ASE provided a total of 14 staff members with training opportunities: five of them towards MAs, seven towards BAs and two towards college diplomas. Thus trained, the staff members were able to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the programmes.

Community training and education:

• A partnership was established with the Debre Markos Radio Station to disseminate information and promote extension services. In addition to that, preparations are underway to establish a community radio station, which will be the first of its kind in Ethiopia, at Amaro. The radio station will be called “Kore Radio Station FM 92.3”. As a license has already been secured for it, it is expected to be operational within two or three months from now.
• The best practices such as farmers field school (FFS), ACCESS, participatory community training and extension and curriculum for community training have been taken up by the governments and replicated.
• A facilitation and communication training (FACT) centre was established in Tehuldere to share ASE’s cumulated experiences with stakeholders and to enhance the capacity of the community, of GOs and NGOs as well as of ASE’s staff.   
• ASE has forged various networks with NGOs, GOs, forums, research centres and domestic and foreign universities. And it has already benefited a lot thereby.
• ASE has institutionalised participatory action research. And it supports farmers’ innovation through FFS and participatory technology development (PTD) approaches. Farmers’ research groups were organised and researches were conducted on their main problems. In the process, encouraging results have been observed; the farmers have developed self-confidence, as manifested by their eagerness to share with one another their newfound knowledge with regard to pest control through the use of botanical pesticide; and much indigenous knowledge was identified and documented.