Communities are the central agents of their own lives. Colmeal guides communities to define, measure, drive their own change and shape their future using evidence they own and trust.
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Kenya, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda
Communities that have adapted and adopted Colmeal as their own approach to driving positive change.
Number of Mentors (who coach Colmeal to Community Facilitators) trained among implementing partners or global hubs (72 trained in the last 6 months).
More than 8,850+ people from communities engaged in Colmeal as Facilitators or members of committees.
Total number of people in communities where Colmeal was adopted.
In 2026, Colmeal was integrated into the municipality’s Gender and Development planning cycle.
Source: Gainza caselet (STRONGER project, 2026); Evidence Register C-213
Community members used Colmeal data on GBV and early pregnancy to secure a 120,000 PHP (~$2,000 USD) government grant.
“But we did random sampling — so it reflects reality.” Community Health Worker, Pinitan
Source: Evidence Register C-304; Pinitan caselet (TOGETHER project).
The Kakuma Probation Office adopted Colmeal independently for reintegration of people on probation and trained their peer offices.
Source: Evidence Register C-010, C-015, C-187, C-190.
Colmeal was integrated into ACTED’s AGORA DRR programme.
“Colmeal is not about participation in a project — it builds community capacity to lead their own governance and learning process.”
Source: ACTED Sri Lanka caselet (2024, published March 2026).
A community of 28 representatives identified key priorities and developed a structured action plan.
Source: Ou Soam caselet; Evidence Register C-078, C-080, C-081, C-118.
In Lukwor North, 90% of school-aged children were out of school and the nearest school was 3km away. Through Colmeal, the community uncovered a key insight: $200/year spent on alcohol per household vs $10/year for schooling per child. The barrier was not poverty, but priorities — and this was revealed through community-generated data.
What changed:
Lukwor North reached Milestone 7 (Goal Realization) — the highest level on the Colmeal scale.
Source: Lukwor North caselet (TOGETHER project); Evidence Register C-116, C-197, C-198.
“Communities own this Colmeal. They see it as: Let’s protect the future of our community,
so our girls and boys can go and stay in school. Before this was here, communities didn’t
really know their rights and were scared to report cases. Now they work together as a
community.” Senior Probation Officer, Probation Office Kakuma, Turkana West
Colmeal is currently the subject of independent academic research through the SAFE-T Kenya study — a quasi-experimental project funded by IDRC, GAC, and CIHR, and conducted by Burman University (Canada) in partnership with Moi University and ADRA Kenya.
The study examines Colmeal alongside two other approaches to reducing child, early, and forced marriage in Turkana West, Kenya.
This marks the first independent, externally led research on Colmeal — an important step toward peer-reviewed validation of the Colmeal results already experienced by communities and implementing partners.
When early adopters identified Theory of Change and indicators as key bottlenecks, we treated this as evidence. Together, communities, partners, and Salanga co-created the 2024–2025 Colmeal Simplification Initiative — shifting toward a principle-driven, more flexible, and locally adaptable approach.
“Initially, we didn’t have a structure in terms of spearheading the community development process. But now with Colmeal, it’s more of a step-by-step guide.“
Colmeal Officer, Kenya
Colmeal continues to evolve this way – grounded in evidence, refined through use, and co-created with those who apply it at scale.
“Before Colmeal, men had all the rights to make decisions. But now, women have a voice and they can make decisions. This is the best change.”
“Before the workshop, I had the misconception that the whole work was ours and we would do it. But after, I realised the whole process will be managed by the community; we will just support from behind.”
I am overwhelmed with joy to be a member of the [Community Management Committee]. I came with a lot of stress over several issues in my life that I lacked solutions to. However, after the training I feel more empowered with the knowledge on how to address some issues and am ready to transfer the knowledge to my community members when am fully trained. Colmeal has helped us to identify common issues in our community and how to address these challenges.
I’m grateful for the learning experience I get from participating in the committee. I wish there is always a meeting. I learn and somehow forget my problems in a meaningful way.
Before the first training for the Colmeal committee, my worry is more about how can I participate. What if I can’t answer their question or I will be asked to present in front of many people? How will my co-members react? But when I facilitated, I realized that I can do it and it was not that hard at all.
For me, the success of Colmeal depends on the cooperation of the entire community.
Colmeal is a true bottom-up development programing aimed at engaging the community to participate in the development of their area with the community being in the forefront. […] Colmeal is more sustainable since the local structure is comprised of all category of people from the different professions including the local leadership. ColMEAL will create a lot of impact in the TOGETHER project implementation area because of high level of capacity building that will be given to the different structures with emphasis on mindset change and community encouragement to work for their own development.
“In the past, even an eight-year-old girl could be married to a wealthy pastoralist. Now people know these acts carry long prison sentences. [With Colmeal] reporting has become something the community owns.”
