The College of Development Studies of Addis Ababa University has possessed over decades of demonstrated experience in research and community development since the early 1970s. The College has rich experience of conducting research that contributes to national development and policy in various development fields. Some of the major areas of the College’s engagement that demonstrate its capacity include the following:

• Managed to undertake the socio-economic study of pastoral and agro-pastoral Communities in Six Regions of Ethiopia through a project funded by Ministry of Peace with the support of the World Bank;
• Managed to undertake Study on the Housing Intervention Programs and Sexual Harassment of Beneficiaries in selected towns of Habitat Humanity Ethiopia’s operational Areas: Addis Ababa, Fitche and Debire Birehan;
• Managing a research project entitled as Women Economic Empowerment in Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ethiopian Economic Association through a Project funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a 3 years project;
• Managed to conduct the assessment of School Savings Schemes being implemented by Oromia Development Association, in six zones of Oromia National Regional State;
• A Three years project involving 3 (Three) Pronged Approach’s: An Integrated Context Analysis, Seasonal Livelihood Programing and Community Based Participatory Actions, funded by WFP;
• A project aimed at understanding multi-scale resilience options for climate-vulnerable communities and working to understand coupled system dynamics across scales in a manner that allows one to quantify the sensitivity of critical human outcomes (nutritional satisfaction, household economic well-being) to development and climate adaptation strategies
• Irrigation Management for Sustainable Dry land Agriculture, Food Security and Poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Capacity Building for Scaling up of Evidence-based Best Practices in Agricultural Production in Ethiopia (CASCAPE) is an agricultural development focused project that aimed at reaching and impacting tens of thousands of farming households with best-fit technologies, introduction and scaling-up of good practices in agriculture and capacitating local level experts and management at farm, community and district levels.
• In the area of the social and cultural determinants of uptake and utilization health services in different regions of Ethiopia, the College has administered a large five-year project supported by the Packard Foundation.
• In the area of sexual and reproductive health among pastoral areas in southern Ethiopia, the College has undertaken a two years research project in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health entitled: “The continuum of health care provision and utilization in the SNNP Regional State, Ministry of Health and Pathfinder International