The main objective of the EU-financed project, ‘Enhancing the Role and Participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Promoting Good Governance and Ensuring Inclusive Development in Ethiopia,’ is to strengthen local and grassroots CSOs, enabling them to become active participants in governance and development within the country.

Local and grassroots CSOs often have innovative ideas but lack the necessary capacity and experience to compete in calls for proposals and to manage significant funding. Therefore, a sub-granting (Third Party Financing) scheme is the most effective means of reaching and supporting small and emerging CSOs in Ethiopia. This project anticipates providing grants and technical support to 75 of these CSOs through a sub-granting scheme, with 36 CSOs having already signed grant contracts with project beneficiaries to date.

The project aims to increase the operational and financial capacities of CSOs, along with their associations and networks. Additionally, it seeks to promote partnerships and strategically position these CSOs to enhance the enabling environment for an inclusive CSO sector in Ethiopia.

Objectives:

Ethiopia currently has a fragmented and highly competitive funding landscape for CSOs. In this increasingly unstable funding environment, new and smaller CSOs face significant challenges. Although funding schemes are typically open to all CSOs, it is primarily those with greater capacity that benefit. For instance, all 27 grants awarded under the Civil Society Fund III programme were solely for relatively well-capacitated CSOs. Without a mechanism to support small and grassroots CSOs in accessing available funding, these organisations risk being excluded from the country's democratization and development processes.

To address this gap, this project has been designed to provide low value grants to smaller CSOS, to enhance the operational and financial capacities of these CSOs, as well as their associations and networks, enabling them to implement projects that benefit the communities they serve. Additionally, the project aims to promote partnerships among these organizations to foster a more inclusive enabling environment for the CSO sector in Ethiopia.

More specifically, the project seeks to:

• Increase the technical and financial capacities of local and grassroots CSOs, as well as their associations and networks to engage in national, regional and local development and policy processes.

• Strengthen partnership and positioning of local and grassroots CSOs to enhance the enabling environment for an inclusive civil society sector in Ethiopia.

Project Activities:

• Training and coaching on financial and grant management, leadership and team management, right based actions, social cohesion, gender etc.

• Financial support for CSOs to implement different actions and coaching and continuous guidance to support effective management of the grants
• CSOs awareness creation on the importance of partnership and supporting the set up/strengthening of CSO platforms at regional levels
• Establishing a multi-stakeholder dialogue forum at a federal level to facilitate CSO engagement in structured policy dialogue
• Create a digital system for monitoring, data collection and exchange of CSO projects activities and results
• Creation/strengthening of communities of practice for increased thematical and organisational exchange and learning
• Organise experience-sharing visits and regular exchange between local CSOs in Ethiopia
• Awareness creation on the role of CS to the public and government offices through media platforms, major community events, public holidays, sports, village meetings, panel discussions, round table discussions etc.

Expected Results:

• Strengthened financial and management capacities of local and grassroots CSOs

• Strengthened technical capacities of these CSOs in areas such as rights-based approach

• Financial and technical support enabled local and grassroots CSOs to implement various actions
• Built and strengthened platforms and partnerships amongst grassroots CSOs and associations
• Strengthened exchange and learning between grassroots CSOs, associations and networks     
• CSOs well well-positioned and accepted by the government and the general public as agents of development and stability in the country

https://www.welthungerhilfe.org/our-work/countries/ethiopia

https://costa834.wixsite.com/cosap

https://decethiopia.org/