Our Core Values

ECoDAs respect human worth and equal rights for all, irrespective of age, sex, tribe, religion, social status, or ethnicity.

ECoDAs believes the local people hold the key to creating socio-economic change in communities. Thus the local people are our key stakeholders in project design and implementation. We believe community action is sustained by community ownership not by external inputs; we thus build ownership by responding to communities’ priorities and putting communities as the frontline of our work with them.

ECoDAs’ work is based on cooperation between partners thus we believe charity is not enough but solidarity. Charity gives the giver control over the recipient but solidarity means respecting the partners’ integrity and their right to set their own conditions. Thus, we strengthen the capacities of grass roots people to master and improve their own lives and foster development of their communities.

We spend time to build mutual trust, respect and understanding within/between communities and any organization working with us toward our goals. This encourages knowledge and skills sharing within and between communities and organizations. We, therefore, build the confidence of local people, give them the tools and opportunities to move their communities forward, we ignite them to understand that they determine their own bright future.

We believe that financial sustainability is the key to true local ownership when local communities can take responsibility for their own growth. We therefore support and break the dependency mentality of our communities and operational ties that come with reliance on outside funds.

In addition, we strive to generate most of our operating budget. ECoDAs Bio Demonstration Farms have been the main source of the operational budget for our community support since 2015. Controlled and anticipated by locals, Demonstration Farms sponsors most of the need in our communities, breaking the cycle of too much dependence on external aid. Where appropriate we seek assistance from other organizations to strengthen our efforts.

We enforce a tight accountability system that separates the management team, field staff and the finance department. This strong accountability system pushes all our members to do what is right, not what is easy. In addition, we conduct spot and strict checks and balances and internal controls to ensure all our funds and that of our partners are spent with integrity and efficiently support the development of our communities.

Everyone has an opportunity to reach their full potential. We therefore deeply rooted in the strength of our members and communities in bringing the change we want to see in our regions.  We thus encourage and build capacities of communities to work together by sharing roles and responsibilities fairly.