In today’s development cooperation landscape, resources are under pressure. Donor budgets are tightening, and competition for funding is sharper than ever. That means that a strong proposal needs more than a compelling story — it also needs a budget that inspires confidence: accurate, realistic, transparent, and fully aligned with donor requirements. Yet, we notice that in the process many organisations face a familiar challenge: with deadlines approaching the technical teams focus on the narrative, the result chain and the negotiations with project partners. Last minute changes are pushed towards the under capacitated financial staff to be included in the budget. The result? Stress, inefficiencies, errors, or worse: missed opportunities or rejected proposals. That’s where we can help.

In October 2025, Fair & Sustainable Consulting, represented by our colleagues [@Oscar Geerts] and [@Wolde Zewdie], joined partners to reflect on key achievements from the project “Stability and Socio-Economic Development for Vulnerable and Marginalised Communities in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.” This important initiative, funded by the European Commission and led by Trócaire/CST Ethiopia, is set to conclude by the end of 2025. Since its launch, the project has supported households in rebuilding their livelihoods in a region deeply affected by conflict.

On February 18, 2025, Fair and Sustainable (F&S) in partnership with Tanager convened key stakeholders from Ethiopia’s agriculture sector at the Haile Grand Hotel in Addis Ababa to celebrate a pivotal moment—the official launch of the Impacting Gender and Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture Plus (IGNITE+) program. This five-year initiative aims to transform African agricultural institutions by strengthening their capacity to integrate gender and nutrition-sensitive approaches into their operations and agricultural interventions—promising a lasting change for small scale producers and food system actors.