Conducting baseline study before implementing any project in the watershed is crucial to evaluate the impacts of a project intervention on socio-economic status. This study was designed to characterize the socio-economic status of Garamulata community watershed in Shashamane district and provide baseline data and information for further project monitoring and evaluation of the intervention. We used a systematic and simple random sampling method to select 113 sample households. Descriptive statistics method of data analysis was employed. The study found that about 99 % of household respondents had an average of 0.58ha of land for annual crops, which indicates that there is a high shortage of land in the watershed. Constraints hindering the development of communities in the watershed were soil erosion, shortage of land, declining soil fertility, deforestation, lack of agricultural input, poor road access, shortage of livestock feed and fodder and population density.The community watershed is poorly contained both physical and biological soil and water conservation structures. There were also opportunities like suitable agro-ecology, labor force, school and informal institutions that have to be capitalized in the community watershed. Therefore, efforts to change lives in community watershed need to focus on addressing these constraints in future.

Keywords: Baseline study, Watershed, Monitor and Evaluation, Impact