Abstract:
‟Iddirs‟ are the prominent community based organizations, non-profit groups, locally formed,
locally staffed, and their actions are specific to the location they are operating in Ethiopian
communities which are established primarily for local work to generate improvements within a
community on the local level helping their members at the time of loss of family and relatives.
„Iddirs‟ are vital in reducing social and/or idiosyncratic crises. Experiences across Ethiopia in
general and the study area in particular showed that less attention is given by the government. In
addition, corruptions and embezzlement by iddir leaders hamper the potentials of iddirs in
enhancing community-based development. This is a research conducted on community based
organizations (CBOs) the case of Chancho town Meredaja Iddir and Chancho town Wotatoch
Meredaja „Iddir‟ in Chancho town. The major objective of this study is to assess the challenges,
opportunities and Contribution of community based organizations (CBOs) or „Iddirs‟ in bringing
socio-economic development in the study area. In order to gain a holistic overview of
developmental activities of the „Iddir‟ 50 members from the total population of 2115 members
are selected for FGD and interviewed 40 and 10 respectively from the above mentioned two
Iddirs‟ members; both primary and secondary data were collected during the fieldwork and
desktop review. Qualitative method is used to gain a broader understanding of the system and
the activities are involved for the increasing of the validity of the data. Keeping the above
realities in mind, this research, is focused on two „iddirs‟ (Chancho town Meredaja and Chancho
town Wotatoch Meredaja „Iddirs‟) which are exhaustively focused on investigating the socio economic development problems of households in Chancho town and assessed that the
challenges, opportunities and Contribution of community based organizations (CBOs) in
bringing socio-economic development. In order to build up the capacity of iddirs, and maximize
their involvement and efficiency in developmental activities both governmental and non governmental organizations are expected to encourage and work together with iddirs.
