About
SuDCA
Sustainable Development
Consulting Associates (SuDCA) is a development-consulting
firm registered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade,
Tourism and Industry under the Ethiopian Commercial
Code of 1960. SuDCA is a young agency established by
professionals with vast years of experience in its areas
of expertise. SuDCA is a pioneering agency active in
meeting the multi-faceted needs of the evolving institutional
partnership between government, its traditional partners
in international co-operation formed of the duo of donors
and NGOs as well as the emerging enhanced interface
with the private sector. SuDCA is a commercial consulting
firm built on the expertise of individuals with long-years
of experience in all key development sectors.
At SuDCA, client satisfaction through concerted teamwork
is a primary product. A focus on product quality and
timely delivery is ensured by rigorous staff recruitment
and systemic in-house product review.
SuDCA's principal client has thus far been NGOs and
Government and their respective donors (please also
see the projects we execute so far and their description).
However, participatory engagement by all parties of
direct and in-direct interest in development interventions
(government, donor, NGOs and private sector) and facilitation
of ease of access between key stakeholders is a core
part of our corporate philosophy.
A commitment to social responsibility in the harmonious
human utilization of the physical environment by agriculturists
and industry lie at the heart of SuDCA's corporate values.
Keeping the confidentiality of our clients’ organizational
secret and respecting the values and cultures of the
communities we serve is our overarching principle. Whereas
contributing to the mitigation and eventual eradication
of widespread hunger in Ethiopia is a key corporate
Goal.
Training and Management support form the bridge over
which knowledge transfers to client organizations are
executed. We strongly encourage the participation of
all key stakeholders in our consultancy activities so
that the products reflect the needs of our clients and
the community as well as appropriate skills are shared
with our clients and other program/project stakeholders.
SuDCA is committed to the adaptation and implementation
of indigenous and introduced knowledge by which the
farming culture and environmental protection efforts
of rural and urban communities can be enhanced, implemented,
monitored, evaluated and their strategies become further
refined.
It is also devoted to promoting self-reliance and social
progress of our society via competent consulting services,
employing community participatory and gender sensitive
development approaches.
SuDCA works in Eastern and Southern Africa in association
with international consulting companies. SuDCA’s
focus on the transfer of knowledge cuts across a number
of classical fields of sector development, ranging from
natural resources management, socio-economic assessments,
training and capacity building, project/program management,
agriculture, spanning such critical areas as institutional
strengthening.
For SuDCA long-term survival in the business has precedence
over short-term financial gains. Therefore, it provides
uncompromised quality service for its clients and respects
clients’ deadlines without violating the terms
of reference.
Geographic
Focus
The greater part of SuDCA's portfolio is focused in Ethiopia.
However, the agency has a Regional focus in the Horn of
Africa, Eastern and Southern African States as these countries
bear similar development constraints. Part of SuDCA’s
objectives is to nurture the development and sharing of
successful innovative approaches to economic, social,
political and technological development appropriate for
the citizens of these Regions.
Ethiopia with a population of over 70 million and being
a country with frequent manmade and natural calamities
is attracting large amounts of international development
funds. Key elements of the New Nile Initiative, new economic
partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD) have
been conceived, conferred or embraced at forums in Addis
Ababa. The city therefore holds the promise of reaching
markets not only of the significant funds flowing to the
country itself but also to many trans-boundary initiatives.
Ethiopia is one of the leaders of the new Nile and NEPAD
initiatives. Addis Ababa is the seat for the Africa Union,
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI), and Organization for Social
Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA),
Desert Locust Control Organization, many other regional
and international organizations and host to close to a
hundred foreign Missions and Legations. All of the aforementioned
facts will make Ethiopia an ideal place for reaching Africa’s
market.
The
Consulting Team
SuDCA can deploy a pool of well qualified experts having
rich experience in the various disciplines it is involved
in. SuDCA’s core team members are well versed in
their area of specialization and were working in various
governmental, non-governmental development and research
organizations and with various bilateral and multilateral
donors in Ethiopia as well as neighboring countries. This
will give us a special opportunity to mobilize quality
staff from within Ethiopia.
SuDCA executes its consultancies in close collaboration
of all relevant units, including the recruitment of consulting
staff. We go very far to ensure all our consultancy contracts
are done up to clients expectations and within the agreed
time frame. In order to meet this high quality expectation
we select our staff with utmost care. We carefully analyze
our consultants’ qualifications and experience as
well as their personality for teamwork. Our consultants
are assigned in areas where they have prior experience
and where they have demonstrated competence in the past.
The team composition is also closely analyzed to ascertain
the team possesses the required technical competence and
team spirit.
Programs
The
team is organized in five broad programs:
- Socioeconomic
Survey and Analysis (SESA) program
-
Capacity Building (CB) program
-
Natural
Resources Management (NRM) program
- Crop
and Livestock Husbandry (CLH) program
- Water
Resources Development (WRD) program
While
discharging our consultancy assignment we give special
care to ensure that they are done using gender sensitive
and participatory (of all stakeholders) methodologies.
Socioeconomic
Study and Analysis (SESA) Program
Most previous development interventions failed not due
to lack of technical expertise but more often due to poor
understanding of the socioeconomic circumstances of communities.
Systematically targeted projects that involve communities
right from the inception to the end are much more likely
to achieve their purpose most effectively.
All development interventions should pay serious attention
to the socioeconomic circumstances of the communities
they intend to serve before launching any development
program. In order to assist with this objective SuDCA
in its SESA program covers Baseline and Feasibility Studies,
Marketing and Income Generation Schemes, and other Social
Research.
Training
and Project Cycle Management(TPCM) Program
Lack of implementation capacities at various levels hindered
service delivery of governmental and nongovernmental organization
on one hand and consumption and facilitation of services
at community level on the other. If Ethiopia and neighbors
in the Horn are to use their enormous potential for development,
building the required human resources capacities for effective
program implementation cannot be overemphasized.
SuDCA's
Project cycle management interventions target enhancement
of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
capacities at client development organizations. Deriving
and disseminating lessons learned from program experiences
is an essential loop in conducting the TPCM program. Subject
matter focus of training includes both the physical sciences,
especially NRM, and socio-economic specializations –
project cycle management, crop and livestock husbandry,
strategic management, monitoring and evaluation.
Natural
Resources Management (NRM) Program
Economic growth particularly that of agriculture is constrained
by deteriorating regional natural resource base and environment.
Ethiopia’s loss of fertile top soil due to runoff
erosion is estimated to reach two billion metric tons
per annum.
This
huge soil loss is mainly attributed to abuse and misuse
of arable and non-arable land over centuries as a result
of overpopulation, fragmentation of farm lands, lack of
land management knowledge and lack of clear land use policy.
Likewise, Ethiopia’s forest resources shrunk to
about 2.5% from its 40% land coverage at the beginning
of last century due to the deforestation for ever-expanding
farmlands and for expanding grazing areas as well as fill
demands for fuel, construction etc. This trend is common
in most other countries of the region in varying degrees.
If
Ethiopia is to feed and improve the livelihoods of its
population the need for conservation of their natural
resources cannot be overemphasized. Cognizant of this
need SuDCA organized a very strong Natural Resources Management
Consulting Program. The program has a number of units
including Soil and Water Conservation, Forestry, Soil
Fertility, Resource Survey, and Environmental Impact Monitoring
and Evaluation. This is the strongest wing of our firm
with highly qualified staff making the team.
Crop
and Livestock Husbandry (CLH) Program
Generating 85% of employment, the overwhelming proportion
of GDP and nearly the whole foreign exchange earnings
agriculture is the mainstay of Ethiopia’s economy.
The agricultural potential of Ethiopia is considered significant.
The availability of ample cultivable land, huge water
resources for irrigation, and the current backward and
unproductive crop and livestock management practices are
some of the elements evidencing the huge potential of
the region in general to increase agricultural and food
production.
The region in general and Ethiopia in particular is far
from food secured; as a result, governments in the region
are struggling to increase their food production capacity
and feed their population. Ethiopia is striving to achieve
better food supply and accelerated agricultural development
through intensive application of organic and chemical
fertilizers, improved seeds and pest control mechanisms.
In order to take part in this very crucial and immediate
need of the country/region SuDCA provides quality consultancy
services in Agronomy, Crop Protection, Post Harvest Technology,
Animal Health, and Animal Production.
Water
Resources Development
Our water resources development program works on feasibility
study and detailed design of small-scale irrigation and
rural water supply schemes. 'with
the ever increasing drought episode in the country expanding
its horizon in terms of intensity and geographic coverage,
the need for efficient utilization of the country's water
resource endowments has never been more imperative.
Despite
the huge water resources potential of the country the
great majority of rural households and even urban dwellers
do not access a safe water source. In the pastoralist
and semi-pastoralist areas, farmers have to walk for several
hours even to access unsafe water.
In
some years, the problem is so severe that it claims the
lives of many people. Even most of the existing water
supply schemes are done without proper study on their
impact on the downstream side dwellers, livestock etc.
and caused serious conflicts among communities and/or
did not bring the intended improvement on the communities'
livelihood. This is the gap SuDCA aims to fill under this
program.
