Endline Evaluation of the Ethiopian Civil Society Coalition for Scaling Up Nutrition (ECSC-SUN): Enhancing Leadership, Commitment and Accountability to Improve Nutrition Outcomes Project (2019–2025)

Despite persistent structural drivers of food insecurity and policy-implementation gaps in Ethiopia, the 2019–2025 project *Enhancing Leadership, Commitment and Accountability to Improve Nutrition Outcomes—implemented by the Ethiopian Civil Society Coalition for Scaling Up Nutrition (ECSC-SUN)—demonstrated that combining systems-level governance with community-based interventions yields strong nutrition and resilience outcomes.

A mixed-methods endline evaluation revealed that the initiative effectively strengthened national and regional nutrition architecture, growing coalition membership to over 80 organizations and enhancing multisectoral coordination, leadership training, and accountability mechanisms like the Joint Scorecard. Simultaneously, community interventions in the Afar, Somali, and Tigray regions delivered transformative local impacts: moderate or severe household food insecurity dropped from 62.2% to 23.5%, while participants reported major gains in women’s income generation (97.2%), household decision-making power (98.3%), and adolescent nutrition awareness and agricultural engagement. Ultimately, while long-term sustainability hinges on securing diversified funding, climate-resilient livelihoods, and institutional ownership, the evaluation confirms that integrated, locally owned, and multisectoral models are highly effective for advancing nutrition security across Ethiopia.