The Joint Ethio-Danish Development Programme (the Joint Programme) is a unique attempt to combine the sectoral expertises of three Danish NGOs in a joint approach to relieve food insecurity in a very poor rural area in Ethiopia.

The programme is located in the North Wollo Zone in Amhara Region. It is implemented by three Ethiopian NGOs: LWF/Mekane Yesus, ERCS (Ethiopian Red Cross Society) and Save the Children Denmark together with their Danish partners: DanChurchAid (DCA), Danish Red Cross (DRC) and Save the Children/DK (SCD).

The Joint Programme was launched in 1997 to alleviate food insecurity in North Wollo and to improve the coping capacities of households in the operation areas. It now includes 23 kebeles (villages) in Kobo and Habru woredas of North Wollo. The programme consists of three components: health (DRC), agriculture (DCA) and education (SCD), implemented in an integrated manner geographically and functionally. The Joint Programme is co-ordinated by two secretariats – one part-time in Copenhagen and one in Addis Ababa.

An innovative aspect of the programme is a research component called the Impact Study Group, managed by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS - formerly the Center for Development Research/CDR). The main focus of the research has been to seek to determine impact on the food security situation at household level, but the ISG is also charged with the task of analysing the experiences of implementing an integrated aid model like the Joint Programme.