CALL FOR PROJECTS PROPOSAL

ETHIOPIA

“Civil Society Innovation Fund”

2021

The French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement - AFD) is willing to finance Ethiopian
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) to implement projects aiming at strengthening the diversification and
innovation of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a pluralistic and democratic organizational sphere, novel
and creative civic activism and the defence of civic and associational rights of Ethiopian citizens (see the
Terms of Reference (ToR) in Section VII).
The AFD has earmarked a fund of maximum 2.1 EUR million to fund 2 to 4 projects, with duration of
maximum of 36 months. The projects selected are expected to be between 500,000 € and 1,000,000 €.

The project will be selected based on a project proposal (see template in Section III), to be provided
together with an administrative dossier (Section IV) and information sheets (Sections V and VI), to be
submitted electronically at the latest by 5 pm, Ethiopian time, on Wednesday, August 4th, 2021. Late
proposals will be rejected.1

The selected consortia of CSOs will be then invited to complete their appraisal processes, working closely
with the AFD Project Team, and submit a final comprehensive project proposal. This final proposal must
include any points arising from the discussions with AFD, thus allowing the Project Manager to present the
projects to AFD's governing bodies.

The documents of the call for proposals will be available from Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 on
http://csinnovationfund.org

Table of contents:

I. General framework defined by AFD

II. Selection and validation of proposals
III. Project proposal template
IV. Administrative record of the CSO sponsoring the project
V. Information sheet on the CSO sponsoring the project
VI. Information sheet on project partners
VII. Terms of reference (ToR)

For further questions and enquiries, applicants may write at the latest Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 to:
info@csinnovationfund.org, with a copy to
Benjamin AMARA (AFD – Project Officer, Ethiopian Office – amarab@@afd.fr)
Kidist Abayneh ABEBE (AFD – Project Officer, Ethiopian Office – abebek@afd.fr)
Thibault NOTTEGHEM (AFD – Fragility & Conflict Advisor, Paris Office – notteghemt@afd.fr)

All questions and respective answers will be shared on http://csinnovationfund.org regularly.

1
If, however, applications could not be submitted before the deadline, AFD reserves the right to consider late applications in case of major events
preventing submission, such as general Internet outages. In such cases, the deadline for submission may be extended.

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 I. GENERAL FRAMEWORK DEFINED BY AFD

Article 1. General terms & conditions

1.1 The call for proposals "Civil Society Innovation Fund" (the "Call") aims at financing projects managed by
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) registered in Ethiopia in the areas of gender, media and human rights.
The applicant must apply as a consortium2 and all consortium members:
- Must be registered in Ethiopia;
- Must have past experience in project implementation in the areas of media, human rights and/or
gender;
- Must agree to apply as a consortium and define how they will share roles and responsibilities;
- Should be able to collaborate smoothly i) with the Ethiopian authorities, as well as ii) with AFD local
office in Ethiopia and AFD headquarters;
- Must collectively demonstrate a capacity to implement and manage, financially and logistically, a
project of the scale of the proposal. In this regard, the cumulated average turnover of the consortium
over the last three years, or since the creation of the CSOs if established after the Civil Society
Proclamation in 20193, must be at least 70% of the yearly amount of the project budget. An excel
tool that the consortium can use to calculate the maximum grant budget they can apply for based on
their turnover is available on http://csinnovationfund.org. The Project Lead Institution will sign the
financing agreement with AFD.
1.2 The framework of the Call is to make available 2 to 4 grants amounting in total to a maximum EUR
2.100.000 (two million one hundred thousand Euros). The grants will support operational projects, with
a focus on strengthening the diversification and innovation of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a
pluralistic and democratic organizational sphere, novel and creative civic activism and the defence of
civic and associational rights of Ethiopian citizens (see the ToR in Section VII).
1.3 Only one proposal by consortium can be submitted and CSOs can only participate in one consortium.
1.4 AFD reserves the right to end this Call if deemed necessary.

Article 2. Procedural rules

2.1 Through this Call, AFD’s intention is to support the financing of projects developed and defined by the
Consortium of CSOs for a period of maximum 36 months.
2.2 AFD's financial support can contribute up to 100% of the budget of the project, including taxes.
2.3 Gender issues should be specifically taken into account through the proposed projects.
2.4 The budget cannot be used for (i) services already provided in other AFD-funded projects for the same
CSOs, (ii) services already provided in projects other than those funded by AFD.
2.5 The cost of the operations of the selected consortia will be funded with advance payments as follows:
– First disbursement based on the year 1 estimated budget of the project;
– Further yearly disbursements after the delivery of annual financial audited reports and technical
implementation reports, and based on actualized provisional budgets.
2.6 Project Lead Institutions are responsible of all the costs related to the design of their proposal. Under
no circumstances, AFD could be considered responsible for the costs incurred, nor can be required to
pay for it. Only expenditure incurred after signing of the financing agreement will be considered as
eligible expenses for AFD financial support.
2.7 In the budget, the following guidelines are to be respected:
2
The consortia applying may be formed for the purposes for this call only and do not have to be registered as legal entities with the ACSO. Consortia
must consist of at least 3 members. Existing consortia of CSOs that are registered as legal entities with the ACSO can apply as members of a
consortium for this call. However, a legally registered consortium cannot apply as a single applicant without other co-applicants.
3
For organisations founded less than three years ago the available annual accounts will be used to calculate the average annual turnover.

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 a. Administrative costs cannot exceed 10% of the total grant budget, meaning costs not directly
linked with the implementation of project activities related to administrative activities, and shall
include: salaries and benefits of administrative employees; purchase of consumables and fixed
assets and repair and maintenance expenses related to administrative matters; office rent, parking
fees, audit fees, advertisement expenses, bank service fees, fees for electricity, fax, water and
internet services; postal and printing expenses; tax, purchase and repair of vehicles for
administrative purposes, and procurement of oil and lubricants for the same; insurance costs,
penalties and attorney fees.
b. A minimum of 20% of the total grant should be used to support new and emerging CSOs outside
of the consortium, as well as CSOs currently in the process of registering, and non-registered civil
society actors.
c. The remaining grant can be used to finance other activities implemented by the consortium
members as well as operational project support costs directly linked with the activities.

Article 3. Submitting the proposals

3.1 Selection is based on a project proposal (see template in Section III), together with an administrative
dossier (see Section IV), and information sheets (Sections V and VI) to be all submitted at the latest by
5 pm Ethiopian time on Wednesday, August 4th, 2021.
3.2 For the selected proposals, the consortia will be invited to discussions with the AFD Project team, so
that additional technical or financial information may be added to the initial project proposal. The final
complete proposals must include all the points arising from the discussions with AFD Project team. It
will be submitted to the decision-making bodies of AFD for final approval.

Article 4. Audit, reporting, review and learning

4.1 Applicants must include in their proposal a budget dedicated to external audits. The selected PLI will
have to contract with an audit firm; the method of selection and the final choice of the auditor have to
pass through AFD's no-objection. The auditor will need to carry out the necessary due diligence to
check that the funds have been properly used. The cost of the audit is considered as part of the project,
up to a limit of approximately 1% of the total project cost.
4.2 Semi-annual technical and financial reports of the activities carried out as part of the project must be
sent to AFD.
4.3 The AFD will carry out and finance a mid-term evaluation and a final evaluation of all grants under the
fund.

Article 5. Contract currency and payment currencies

5.1 Consortia must prepare their proposals in euros (EUR), which is the currency of the financing
agreement. The budget must include all taxes.

Article 6. Knowledge of the terms & conditions of the call for proposals
6.1 When submitting their proposal, the consortia are supposed to:
- have studied the terms & conditions related to the Call as described in this document; and to have
accepted them;
- have established an agreement between the CSOs that are members of the consortia;
- fully understand the nature and scope of the actions required, the local working conditions and all
the constraints associated with the actions;
- have studied the general terms & conditions (Section I), the administration file and the information
sheets (Sections IV, V and VI).

Article 7. Opening of the proposals and Selection Committee

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7.1 The proposals will be opened by the AFD Selection Committee, which includes representatives from the
AFD (the Project Manager from the Governance Department, the country office in Addis Ababa, and a
representative from the Crisis and Conflict Division).
A report will be drafted regarding the opening of the proposals, stating whether the submitted
proposals i) comply with the limit date/time of submission and ii) include the full set of documents
(project proposal and administrative dossier).
7.2 The complying proposals will be selected by the Selection Committee. After the opening, the scoring
matrix and the chosen proposals will be sent beforehand to all Committee members. An external
consultant and/or observers may also attend the Committee meeting to review and select the
proposal. The AFD Selection Committee will issue an evaluation report, which will include an analysis
for each project reviewed, justifying its selection or refusal. Results will be communicated to the PLIs
involved and published on AFD website.

Article 8. Clarification of the proposal

8.1 In order to make the proposals easier to review, assess and compare, the Selection Committee may ask
PLIs to clarify some aspects of their consortium’s proposal.

Article 9. Determining the compliance of the proposal

9.1 The Selection Committee may reject a proposal from a consortium if deemed not to have the human,
technical and/or financial resources to implement efficiently the submitted project.

Article 10. Assessing and classifying the proposals

10.1 The Selection Committee will assess and compare proposals recognized as complying with defined
criteria.
10.2 The proposals will be rated out of 100 points during the evaluation stage using the following scoring
matrix:

TITLE PTS CRITERIA

Overview over the proposed project (15)
Project Summary 3 - Relevance of the overall objective, intended results and impact, in
relation to the overall programme objective and outputs

- Presentation and understanding of the various emerging and new

actors in the civil society landscape

- Justification for key elements of your proposed budget in relation

to the programme objectives, including key budget posts

In depth initial 6 - Demonstrated knowledge of the context of the project, including

analysis / problem assessments of:
statement in the
proposed (1) the civil society sector, particularly regarding the need of
area/sector its diversification and increased pluralism, improved
innovation and strengthened capacity, and related
opportunities and constraints;
(2) the overall political situation and its impact on the
prospects for civil society development
Positioning of the 6 - Positioning of the consortium lead (PLI) and its partners; in
Consortium in particular the relevance of past and ongoing work in Ethiopia for
Ethiopia activities related to the Call for Proposals.

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 - Demonstrated value-add of consortium

- Incorporation of new and emerging actors in the consortium and

plans for working in at least two regions in Ethiopia

Presentation of the project (50)

Operational scope 10 - Presentation of a coherent and credible intervention logic (theory
and Relevance of change), including the main objectives pursued, the expected
results, the performance indicators and the underlying
assumptions

- Relevance of the proposed approach to identify and support new

and emerging actors in Ethiopian civil society

Methodology 14 - Relevance of the proposed activities to address project objectives

and local needs

- Relevance of efforts to promote CSO advocacy for a democratic,

peaceful and stable Ethiopia;

- Quality of proposed actions to support emerging and new actors

to join the formal sphere of civil society and contribute to its
diversification;

- Quality of propositions to strengthen the capacity of CSOs to

check and balance state power and ensure the full
implementation of the new civil society proclamation;

- Quality of suggestions for piloting new approaches to advocacy,

capacity building, service provision to innovate civic activism.

- Feasibility of the proposed actions (particularly the pilot and

innovative actions) including the coherence of the provisional
time plan of activities.

Selection of 6 - Relevance of the methodology employed in the efforts to target

Beneficiaries and select of the project beneficiaries (both within the consortium
and other project beneficiaries).

- Extent to which persons or organisations from marginalised

communities and/or different geographical areas are considered
in the process of implementation

Gender 6 - Relevance, plausibility and appropriateness of activities to be

undertaken to concretely address gender issues within the civil
society sector

- Evidence of concrete steps to mainstream gender into project

activities

- Experience of consortium members in implementing gender

focused interventions

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M&E 5 - Suitability of proposed framework for M&E.

- Conflict-sensitivity of M&E system

- Incorporation of gender considerations in M&E

- Evidence of learning and institutional knowledge building

strategies

Sustainability 4 - Evidence of the sustainability of activities beyond project

termination, including upscaling potential, and the overall
expected impact on the civil society sector/political context

Analysis of Risks 5 - Demonstrated understanding and adequate consideration of

contextual and political risks as well as project related risks

- Quality of the risk mitigation plan/strategy, including possible exit

strategy/plan

Resources employed (35)

Organisational 14 - The ability of the lead to manage the proposed funding will be
framework & judged on its turnover, its financial and administrative structure
Operating and procedure, its previous financial management experience
procedures
- Coherence of an organisational set-up proposed for the project,
including organisational chart, management structure,
procedures, and mechanisms for democratic decision-making
between partners

- Robustness of financial management systems in place to manage

and report on the use of funds.

- Evidence of steps to consider and improve the financial

management capacities of junior consortium members

Budget 11 - Relevance of the budget in relation to the operational scope of

the project and compliance to the budget guidelines in section 2.7

- Proportion of the budget that finances activities of new and

emerging consortium members

- Proportion of the budget that finances activities targeted towards

new and emerging civil society actors outside of the consortium,
including CSOs under registration or non-registered civil society
actors

- Proportion of the budget that will fund innovative approaches to

civic activism

Partnerships 10 - Evidence of existing partnerships between the consortium and

new and emerging actors in civil society

- Relevance of activities to involve new and emerging actors outside

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 of the consortium, and develop partnerships incorporating new
actors

- Relevance of activities to formalise inclusive partnerships in the

CSO sector, with a focus on the collective strengthening of new
and emerging CSOs

- Relevance of processes proposed for engaging for dialogue with

the local and national authorities.

Article 11. AFD’s right to reject any proposal

11.1 AFD reserves the right to reject any proposal and to cancel the Call as long as it has not awarded the
grant, without incurring any responsibility towards the consortia concerned and without having to give
any reasons for cancellation nor refusal.

Article 12. Developing the projects

12.1 Once the project has been selected, the AFD Project Team will carry out an open dialogue with the
consortium with the aim of finalizing jointly the proposal. The PLI from the selected consortia are free
to incorporate or reject the suggestions and AFD is free to stop the process. Amongst many others, the
following specific points may constitute a reason not to accept the consortium’s final proposal:
- refusal to participate in a dialogue with the AFD Project team in order to develop/enrich the
proposal,
- refusal to give arguments explaining why amendments suggested by the AFD Project team have not
been incorporated,
- the final proposal does not reflect the content of the initial project proposal while including
satisfactorily all the items arising from the dialogue AFD has had with the PLI and its partners.

Article 13. Confidentiality

13.1 No information relating to the review, clarifications, assessment, and comparison of proposals or
recommendations relating to the award of the subsidy/subsidies may be disclosed to the consortia or
to anyone else outside the review and assessment procedure, from the moment the envelopes are
opened until the award of the subsidy or subsidies is announced to the selected PLIs.
13.2 Any attempt by a consortium to influence the Selection Committee during the procedure of reviewing,
assessing and comparing the proposals will have as a consequence the exclusion of the consortium and
its proposal from the process.

Article 14. Information on the selection process

14.1 The consortia selected by the Selection Committee will be informed by e-mail. The Selection
Committee sets the timeframe for the consortia to draft the full technical and financial file that will
support the dialogue and due diligence.

Article 15. Information on the award and signing of the funding agreement
15.1 Upon final validation of the selected projects, the AFD Project team will inform the consortium’s lead
CSO by letter and email, and send the draft financing agreement for approval before signature.

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 II. METHOD USED TO SELECT AND VALIDATE PROPOSALS

The process leading to the funding agreement is carried out in two stages:
1) Selection, by the Evaluation Committee, based on a project proposal (see template in Section III),
together with an administrative dossier (Section IV), including information sheets (Sections V and
VI) to be submitted at the latest by 5pm Ethiopian time on Wednesday, August 4th, 20214.
2) Sustained dialogue with the Project Team to further develop the project proposal into a final
project proposal that will be used as a basis for submitting the project to AFD's governing bodies.

SELECTING THE PROPOSALS

Selection, by the Evaluation Committee, based on a project proposal and an administrative folder
Each lead PLI has to supply electronic copies in pdf format of:
• its proposal, using the template project proposal with the cover sheet and the budget table signed
by the authorized representative to request financing on behalf of the PLI;
•
all the administrative documents required (Section IV), including the information sheet about the
applicant (Section V) and the information sheets about the project partners (Section VI);
Additionally, each lead PLI has to supply an electronic copy in MS Excel format of:
• the proposed budget for the Project and all relevant documents drafted under this format.

These electronic copies should be sent by mail to the email address below. Large files should be sent
through an online platform such as Wesend, Dropbox or other similar solutions.

info@csinnovationfund.org
Proposals must be written in English.

PREPARATION AND FINAL VALIDATION OF THE PROPOSALS

Once it has received notification that its project has been selected, the consortium can start the process of
compiling its final proposal, which will take the form of a final project proposal. This process will start with a
dialogue with AFD, who will keep the local authorities informed of its results when relevant.
Following this process, the Project Team will give its agreement on the final version of the project proposal,
only if it considers that the final proposal reflects the content of the initial project proposal while including
satisfactorily all the items arising from the dialogue it has had with the PLI and its partners. Once the PLI has
sent the final project proposal, the project will be submitted to AFD's governing bodies for final approval.

4
If, however, applications could not be submitted before the deadline, AFD reserves the right to consider late applications in case of major events
preventing submission, such as general internet outages. In such cases, the deadline for submission may be extended.

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 III.PROJECT PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

" Civil Society Innovation Fund”

Call for projects

Due date for submitting project proposals: Wednesday, August 4th, 2021, at 5pm, Ethiopian time
(determined by date/hour of arrival)
Electronic submission (by email)
Name of applicant:

1) INFORMATION ABOUT THE LEAD PLI SPONSORING THE PROJECT (1-page maximum)

Title of call for projects ``Civil Society Innovation Fund”

Applicant visionary awaking charitable Voluntary Agro-Pastoral Initiative For Development
Association.

Acronym AID

Legal status Local CSO

Address Addis Abab, Bole Bulbula

Telephone no +251926970072,

contact@aid-agro-pastoral.org ,
E-mail address of the applicant
agropastoralinitiative@gmail.com

Website of the applicant (if relevant) www.aid-agro-pastoral.org

Project contact name Abdulkadir Mohammed

E-mail address of project contact Abdulkadirm597@gmail.com

strengthening the diversification and innovation

of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a pluralistic
Project title and democratic organizational sphere, novel and
creative civic activism and the defence of civic
and associational rights of Ethiopian citizen

Year of establishment in Ethiopia 2015

Partners for project implementation AFD

Locations of activities Somali, Oromia and Bensangul Gumz

713,749.00. Seven Hundred Thirteen Thousand

Total cost of the action
Seven Hundred Forty Nine

Contribution requested from AFD To support our project by providing funds

Contributions from any other partners : local community

Duration of the action For 36 monthes

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2. PROJECT PROPOSAL

2.1 Overview over proposed project (5 pages maximum)

a) Project Summary (3 points)
The innovation project aims to contribute better quality public and CSOs services, and
increased voice and more equitable access to livelihood services and assets by pastoralist women,
national development, poverty reduction and the advancement of good governance and
democratization processes through creating accountable and vibrant service providers and service
user on government development sectors by the end of program intervention. This aim can be
achieved through promotion of the identified objectives by encouraging networking, information
and experience sharing and lessons learning among CSOs; to capacity strengthening in areas
including constituency building, internal governance enhancement, poverty reduction analysis and
domestic resource mobilization, among others. On the other hands, effective communication,
relationships building and genuine learning to capture and maintain knowledge & learning products,
in the course of strengthened collaborations in the improved dialogue-building will be the main
project trajectory.

The anticipated results have been categorized into the long-term results that this project framework
can contribute towards over a 5-10 year periods and the specific results (up to 3 years) that can be
achieved by this project framework by 2024. The long term results are productive engagement of
our consortium with regional governments, to improve implementation of pro-poor government
policies and more inclusive public services for poor people, increased critical mass of diverse
consortium member organisations with capability to respond effectively and innovatively to
development priorities determined by poor people in 'hard to reach' categories and More, diverse,
member of the consortium with capacity to dialogue, and relate, with a range of different
constituencies at apex system levels while there will be improved household and community status
of pastoralist people in the intervention areas of this strategic issue after 5 to 10 years, improved
social well-being of pastoralist women in this program intervention after 5 to 10 years, increased
diversified income of pastoralist women after 5 to 10 years program intervention at specific
community level.

The specific results (up to 3 years) that can be achieved by the project framework by 2024 are
increased access to diverse livelihood choices and opportunities for pastoralist women by 2024 of
the strategic intervention, increased access to basic social services of pastoralist women after 36
months of this project intervention and reduced vulnerability of pastoralist women by 2024 due to
different interventions under this thematic issue. While this innovative project has versatile
importance to CSIF in broad-spectrum, its main input will be to Output 1 : (New and emerging
civil society actors working in the field of gender, have received support allowing them to join the
formal sphere of civil society and contribute to its diversification) and Output 4 : (New approaches
to advocacy, service provision and capacity building to innovate in the area of civic activism have
been piloted and up scaling) advocating for innovative livelihoods strategy and outcomes.

The target groups will be CSOs existing, new and emerging CSOs, government development
priority sectors as well as pastoral women and men, customary institutions, CBOs and FBOs. As of
our experiences and best practices in similar interventions, we identified four major methods for the
project, such as integrative approach, consortium approach, community volunteerism, and
community institution development. The project process start from CSOs’ capacity assessment, data
anaysis, improvement action plan and implementation and performance monitoring.

The new actors in our project includes members of the consortium like Visionner Awakening
Voluntary Charitable Association (VAVCA), and extends to other non-members organization Guji
Girja, General Traditional Medicine Treatment and Provision Study Institute (G3TMTPSI), Unity
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DEvelopment Association (UDA), partnership for Relief and Development Organization
(PARADO) and the would-be emerging CSOs like Rescue Generation Alliance (RGA), Network
for Development and Relief Alliance (NDRA) Consortium for Integrated Development and
Humanitarian Action (CIDHA), and Collective Action for Relief and Development Alliance
(CARDA). Overall, both the members of the consortium and outsiders CSOs are right based CSOs
who belief in the right of the beneficiaries to have and/or not to have anything of intervention
without prescription from any entity.

The key element of the proposed budget are a budget for advocacy and lobbying for innovation,
budget for training on gender at work framework programming for transformative, training on the
power analysis and safeguarding, CBOs and government engagement focused capacity
development interventions (such as constituency building, issue based engagement, relationship
building, negotiation and facilitation skills, and addressing emerging needs for engagement) and
budget for meant for strengthening social and livelihood capacities of pastoralist women for social
transformation in support of increased voice and more equitable access to Livelihood services and
assets by pastoralist women.
b) In depth initial analysis / problem statement in the proposed area/sector (6 points)
The Ethiopian civil society sector has been suffering from narrow space for implementation of
Right-Based Development approaches. This sector used to face different redlines to cross to the
areas like human rights, democracy, good governance, rule of law, conflict resolutions, advocacy,
empowerment for gender and ethnic minority and restricted badly to the areas of development and
humanitarian. CSOs don’t accord with the right to enlightening the citizens the right to access to
quality education, good health, housing, food sovereignty and security etc and delimited to simply
provide those services without creating any awareness on the entitlement of those communities on
the services provided by them. This trend may likely continue as the government has started to slide
back to its former dictator after the so called internal reform born out in 2018. Because of the
precedent repercussions against CSOs that have worked on human rights and democracy advocacy,
most CSOs have been watchful not to work on the ongoing political crisis and its consequences.
Those who have tried to engage in reporting of human rights abuses, to monitor the government’s
use of power and force and to promote conflict mitigation have a fear of possible negative
consequence from their work. Several CSOs encountered intimidation by the government and
forced temporary closure of offices as a result of their reporting of human rights abuses or of
sharing information about conflict and conflict parties. Due to rising levels of instability, CSOs
have also encountered problems to access conflict and post conflict areas.
On the other hand CSOs have limited internal capacity to move beyond the business as usual in
their interventions by extending innovations and creativity. Likewise the government, the CSOs
sectors is anguishing from lack of modernism voiding convergent and divergent constituencies.
CSOs have very limited capacities to develop internal procedures and manuals including strategic
plan and different policies and manuals. Nowadays, several CSOs are without any manuals and
procedures except articles of association and ACSO’s establishment manuals. They lack project
cycle management and fundraising strategy and need to be strengthening with organization
development capacity building. There are fertile grounds with civil society support program
supporting emerging CSOs with very meagre resources and poor transparent staffs with limited
coaching and mentoring capacity.
For six years, Ethiopia’s political landscape has been marked by large-scale public protests,
uncertainty of political intents, increasing levels of inter-and intra-communal violence, political
instability and armed conflicts. This has affected CSOs ability to work and is likely to do so for the
years to come. This political instability hinders CSOs outreaches to the community, heightening the
fears to intervene with development and humanitarian actions. The fake election took place 21 st of
June, 2021 in some parts of the country is not promising. There likely are more political crises in
post election political trajectory. The CSOs’ space is narrowing again from the fragile government,
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 judging CSOs and/or individuals either from its side or from that side. These hasty generalizations
may lead to loss of interest from both CSOs implementing partners as well as donors.
c) Positioning of the Consortium in Ethiopia (6 points)
The lead is local CSO bearing certificate of registration in 2019 following the reform. The lead
hasfieldoffice in Addis Ababa and field offices in Somalia, Oromia regional state and Dire-Dawa
with 12 staffs and 21 voluntaries with annual turnover euros 243,999. Still Agro-Pastoralist
Initiative For Development (AID) is in need of organisational, technical and financial capacity
building. Policy advocacy, international best practices in human rights, and gender and networking.
In addition AID requires skills for human resource and financial management, as well as project
cycle management and fundraising. AID is currently implementing CSSP2 project and has recently
participated in 6 Ethiopian National Election by providing Civic and Voter Education at IDPs sites
of Oromia Regional State. AID is a member of consortium of CCRDA,PDN, Agricultural task force
, Wash, Shelter and NFI. The other collaborative partners are also established after the reform of
2019 having from 2-6 paid staffs with the total turnover of more than 29,000 Euros from different
donors. They are Tomorrow Hope Support Organization (THSO) and Visionary Awakening
Voluntary Charitable Association (VAVCA). Likewise the lead, the implementing partners need
organisational, technical and financial capacity building. Policy advocacy, international best
practices in human rights, and gender and networking. In addition they demand skills for human
resource and financial management, as well as project cycle management and fundraising. THSO
one of the members of the consortium has premature experience of working social accountability
with ESAP-3 (pipeline project) titled “Facilitating Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient (CNCR)
Economy Accountability mechanisms for the Assessment and Improvement of Basic Resilience
Building Service Delivery Performance in 15 Pastoral Woredas of Oromia Regional State.”

The added-value element in the designed action can be verified as the project is planning to move
beyond the usual awareness rising to a balanced approach that combines the development of
attitudes and skill of individuals with those addressing complex CSOs and the government
relationships. The fact that, our project works to build relationships that foster collaboration
between civil society and other actors including government bodies, in order to respond better to
the priorities determined by poor people adds value element to the Civil Society Innovation Fund.

The new and emerging CSOs actors in the consortium will be on a cluster base. All new CSOs at
embryonic stage which are just beginning to form and define itself will be coached and mentored to
emerging and growing steps at which the organization can protect itself from many threats in the
project year. The other steps i.e. well developed and maturity steps will be worked out by the
organization itself as it will be their routine and daily business in our program sustainability. This
can be done though the capacity development training as well as coaching them to produce
necessary organizational policy and strategy documents and manuals. The same holds true for
consortium members as they require the same capacity development initiatives of the project.

The members of the consortium have a vast outreach experience working in different regions in
Ethiopia. They have an outreach experience of working in Somalia (AID), Oromia (VAVCA) and
Benishangule-Gumuz (THSO). The current outreach plan will be also based on their prior
experiences and so that AID will implement the project activity to be implemented in Somalia,
VAVCA will take care of the project implementation in Oromia while THSO will be assigned to
the project implementations take place in Benishangule-Gumuz.

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 2.2 The project: relevance, objectives, mechanism, methodology, actions, risks (10 pages maximum)
a) Operational scope and relevance (10 points)
The intervention logic (theory of change) underlying our project runs as follows
-
Better quality public and CSOs services, and increased voice and more equitable access to livelihood services and assets by pastoralist
women
- by the end of program intervention

-
Improved
- new and emerging CSOs Influenced CSOS and gov;t policies and practices, leading to Increased trust between gov’t and
engagement with gov’t and increased access adaptation of services, and uptake of best practices CSOs, reduced vulnerabilities of
to basic pastoralist women to multiple shocks
- social services that favor pastoralist increased livelihood options & opportunities for pastoralist
and hazards
women women
-

- invested on issues that matters to new and emerging CSOs, government and the people; engage key government interlocutors in the
If we
process and build coalition of change agents around the change agenda; generate evidences and create avenues for evidence-based dialogue
and learning among stakeholders and decision makers at different levels
-
Enhanced religiously & culturally sound community based saving & credit schemes for social and economic benefits
-
Supported entrepreneur capacities & business choices for pastoralist women

Enhanced asset building initiatives and capacities-supporting in cash and kinds packages
-

-
Improved value added market extension schemes from the livestock and their products

-
Capacitated organization of women for multiple common benefits
-
Introduced women tailored resilient schemes and capacities to reduce vulnerabilities
-
Adopted women favoured small scale technologies-fuel efficient stove, poultry promotion, etc
-
Increased integrated community based social response to multiple social and gender determinants 13/47
-

Activities

Result 1 : Built relationships that foster collaboration between civil society and other actors including government bodies, in order to respond
better to the priorities determined by poor people.
1. Support new and emerging civil society actors to start up or scale up activities in the fields of gender gender analysis training, media and
human rights, advocacy and lobbying training etc
2. Promote civil society collaboration among new and emerging actors
3. Support new and emerging civil society actors to obtain registration
4. Provide capacity building for new and emerging civil society actors
5. Facilitate CSO participation in democratic political reforms, including legal reform and its implementation
6. Promote CSO advocacy and action for the prevention and fight aligned with intra- and intercommunal violence in Ethiopia
7. Provide capacity building in relevant areas, e.g. identification and fight of hate speech, human rights, gender and media monitoring and
reporting and conflict analysis, communal dialogue, conflict resolution
8. Training on gender at work framework programming for transformative change at all levels
9. Provide CBOs and government engagement focused capacity development interventions (such as constituency building, issue based
engagement, relationship building, negotiation and facilitation skills, and addressing emerging needs for engagement)
10. Training on the power analysis and safeguarding (considering voice-the ability of people who are poor and their advocates to articulate
their concerns
Result 2: Empowered pastoralist women to take a proportional decision that affects not only their lives and livelihoods but their household and
community’s matters in pastoralist areas as well
1. Performing initiative that boost pastoralist women’s resilience to recurrent shocks
2. Diversifying livelihood options and income sources for asset poor women and vulnerable community members
3. Facilitating pastoralist household’s income through market value chain and linkages,
4. Strengthening partnerships among concerned government & customary institutions to tackle gender & social problems of
pastoralist women

Assomptions
- No severe drought that adversely affects the implementation and outcomes of the project as per the plan,
- Stable government policies in relation to CSO's and pastoral communities Clan conflict may occur and interrupt the
implementation of planned activities,
- Resolved security problem may create hindrance on the implementation of activities,
- No clan and political conflicts that may occur and interrupt the implementation of planned activities, 14/47
- No serious inflation adversely affecting the planned activities
-
The suggested output level performance indicator is to be measured quarterly and 100%-80% of
CBO’s, new and emerging CSOs, FBOs working with the consortium will be provided with
relationship building support and at outcome level performane indicator to be measured annually and
should be more than 50% of CBO’s, new and emerging CSOs, FBOs working with the consortium
will be engaged with government on policy, innovative livelihoods strategies, rights etc strategy
issues at least two times every quarter.

This action is about better quality public and CSOs services, and increased voice and more
equitable access to livelihood services and assets by pastoralist women, national development,
poverty reduction and the advancement of good governance and democratization processes through
creating accountable and vibrant service providers and service user on government development
sectors by the end of program intervention. This aim can be achieved through promotion of the
identified objectives by encouraging networking, information and experience sharing and lessons
learning among CSOs; to capacity strengthening in areas including constituency building, internal
governance enhancement, poverty reduction analysis and domestic resource mobilization, among
others. On the other hands, effective communication, relationships building and genuine learning to
capture and maintain knowledge & learning products, in the course of strengthened collaborations in
the improved dialogue-building will be the main project trajectory. Therefore, the project
objectives/sectors/themes/specific priorities set under this action is highly relevant to the
objectives/sectors/themes/specific priorities of the call for proposal Ethiopia CSIF2021.

b) Methodology (14 points)

As of our experiences and best practices in similar interventions, we identified four major
mechanisms for the project: integrative approach, consortium approach, community volunteerism,
and community institution development.

Integrative approach: Emerging and new actors in civil societies will supported with integrative
approach with relevant government offices by inculcating and duly implementing CSOs’ and
government regulations. This will inform and develop the capacity of new and emerging CSOs to
bargaining and negotiating power establishing check and balance state power. The project builds on
the existing government and CBOs sector structures, and develops their capacities for effective and
efficient functioning, and establishes CSOs and communities grassroots structures to complement
the other structures in addressing the mandate of CSOs. In this context, the intervention is a real
change maker that aims at an integrative approach for institutional developments featuring stronger
and clearer enforcement of regulations, but also accommodates participatory principles and accepts
community and community groups as important players in the voicing their development priorities.
In this project, an integrated approach is used that fair, equitable, and real participation is ensured at
all levels including up to making decisions. With this approach, all stakeholders will take part to
discharge their roles and responsibilities as expected attributing the respecting gains and losses in
transparent and accountable manner.

Consortium approach: To achieve the project outcome, the project employs Joint Project
Management (JPM) of the consortium members (VAVCA and THSO) to ensure effective and
efficient coordination of activities. The Project Management Team (PMT) will work closely on
routine basis and meets quarterly to review the project progress. The PMT is responsible to steer
development of action plans, ensures harmony of implementation in line with action plan, trouble
shoot implementation challenges, and facilitates mutual learning from best practices. AID will
coordinate the PMT in line with a developed joint plan of action. The PMT is supreme body,
steering the project operation toward attainment of the results.

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Community Volunteerism: In as much as professionalism is required in any development
endeavor, community volunteerism as well is a key approach to ensure sustainable and lasting
community change. In this project, there are various capacity development activities to empower
the government officers and CSOs workers to enhance professionalism, and community groups to
enable them for informed local engagement. However, unless the community volunteerism is
nurtured in the right direction, the onetime good work will disappear immediately after project
phase-out. With an intention to nurture volunteerism, the project starts its work by identifying the
knowledge, attitude, and practice gaps of the target communities on all issues related to their
development priorities.

Institution development: With the intension to ensure the project model replicated and its results
are lasting, institution building is critical. This project from the inception works to strengthen the
existing relevant government and the CSOs sector structure so that they will effective and efficient
in providing quality services to the users. In the same token, the project works to reinforce and/or
establish community level grassroots organizations, which have clear understanding of their
mandates and their entitlements including the procedures on how to support the development needs
to improve its performance and challenge the sector if its operating out of its mandate and against
the government legal framework enacted for the purpose. This effort of institution building will
contribute to the success of the project while it is active and ensures sustainability when the project
is not operational any more. As part of intervention methodology we the consortium are planning to
utilize six tactics i.e. Awareness raising and citizens’ mobilization, establishment of SACs, selection
of CSOs and sectors, social inclusion and gender, social Accountability (SA) process service
assessment, dialogue between citizen and service providers, institutionalizations/sustainability of
the SA process and maintaining the roles of councils in SA process and how to enhance their
capacity.

Innovative advocacy activities which the project plan pilot to influence the principal state power
balance identified in the power analysis and thus bring about the desired change. The advocacy
activities will be developed directly from the power analysis and focus on one or more of the sub
objectives or directly on the goal. The innovative activities should reduce the influence of
opponents and to strengthen allies.

The project designed new advocacy campaign encompassing first the issues of CSOs in delivering
efficient and effective development priorities, then the advocates articulate an advocacy goal (long
and short), next the advocate identify the key policy audience-who has the power to bring about the
policy change, then the advocates develop a compelling advocacy message (effective, clear,
concise, and tailored to the target audience’s position, important to deliver a consistent message
using multiple channels over time) and tailor it to the interests of the policy audience. And the use
of appropriate communication channels selected to deliver the advocacy message to the policy
audience. This may include a press conference, and executive briefing packet, a public debate, a
conference for policy makers, etc. There are numerous options for message delivery. An advocacy
group should consider the audience, timing, cost, and other factors when selecting the message
format.

As a next step, the advocacy group seeks to broaden its support base among civil society members
and other allies. (the consortium increase our visibility by forming or joining networks-as we have
common goal and clear roles/norms within the group and coalitions. Beyond the network’s
membership, it is important to build support with other stakeholders such as community members,
universities, religious leaders, research institutes, etc. Raising funds and mobilizes other resources
to support the advocacy campaign. And finally, implement our advocacy strategy according to a
plan of action, as advocacy campaign will be most effective if it is planned systematically.

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Our advocacy piloting is collecting data running up the side of the model because it supports many
of the other steps. In order to select an important advocacy issue, the organizers often need to gather
information. They often need to research the position of a policy audience vis-à-vis the advocacy
issue. Data collection will be an on-going step. We gather and utilize accurate, timely information
supports all phases of the advocacy process. Likewise, monitoring and evaluation take place
throughout the advocacy process. Before undertaking the advocacy campaign, it is important for us
to determine how we will monitor our implementation plan. Can we realistically expect to bring
about a change in policy, programs, or funding as a result of our efforts? In specific terms, what will
be different after the completion of the advocacy campaign? How will we know that the situation
has changed? Before beginning an advocacy campaign, we, the organizers should determine how
they will monitor activities and evaluate results.

The innovative new advocacy campaign will utilize building relationships, indirect persuasion,
collaboration, pilot, research and reporting, conferences, capacity building, study tours, letter
writing, meetings with key individuals, negotiations, demonstrations, vigils, and media as part of
the innovative methodology.

The activites to be implmented but not limited to are as follows:

• Training on gender at work framework programming for transformative change at all
levels i.e. individuals level (power within- Informal individual change, consciousness,
attitude and power to- Formal individual change, to transform women’s & excluded groups
access to and opportunities & resources) and system level (Invisible power- Informal
collective change, to transform cultural norms and exclusionary practices and Visible and
hidden power- Formal collective change, to transform institutions, laws and practice).
• Training on the power analysis and safeguarding (considering voice-the ability of
people who are poor and their advocates to articulate their concerns (information,
knowledge and organisational capacity at the grassroots level), accountability-holding
agents accountable for their decisions, priorities, policies and faults of omission is an
important part of addressing responsiveness and sustaining voice)- and responsiveness- for
voice to be ‘heard’ and to have any influence, it is critical that public agencies are able to
‘listen’, respond and deliver on their mandate).
• Provide CSOs and government engagement focused capacity development
interventions (such as constituency building, issue based engagement, relationship
building, negotiation and facilitation skills, prtinrship principles and addressing emerging
needs for engagement).
As overall methodological approach CSOs capacity building and government engagement focused
capacity development interventions (such as constituency building, issue based engagement,
relationship building, negotiation and facilitation skills, and addressing emerging needs for
engagement) ensuring their ability to become active project partners. The pilot and innovative
actions are feasible in terms of resources utilized as it make the most of value for resources core
values as we as technical feasibility as the politics to be promoted through the project will be
bought-in-buy the government bodies as well as the civil society organizations.
c) Identification and selection of the beneficiaries (6 points)
The project will be implemented in almost all pastoral areas of the country i.e. Oromia, Somalia and
Benshangul-Gumuz. The project focuses on “the hard to reach” government organizations, civil
society organizations and people. The project works with seven guiding principles i.e. 1) Hard to
reach women, men & overlooked issues, 2) People & their capacities & assets, 3) Building trust,
4) Promoting creativity & innovations, 5) Promoting social equality, 6) Promoting decisions at
most local level, and 7) Value for resources for the poorest people. Our consortium defines
beneficiaries widely with ‘people’ as ultimate beneficiaries, special focus on ‘Hard-to-reach’
people and civil societies, regionally-led to close the Hard-To-Reach people/CSOs and provide
them an efficient service. For our project 'Hard To Reach‘ means at least one or combination of
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 the following situations like the geographic remoteness and/or under resourcing, overlooked or
underserved development challenges or themes and social marginalization. The project
beneficiaries are CSOs-new and emerging and the established ones working in those regions. The
criteria of selection will be low organizational capacity in organizational development, constituency
building, leadership capcity and technical capacity in project managment and fund raising
capacities. Due deligency capacity of having fullflegded internal manuals-including HRD, financial,
purchase and procurment M&E, safeguarding, gender workplace manuals. Furthermore, their public
rapport will be considered to invest on their relationship building capacity development. Their
innovative capacity to develop innovative program development will be onather areas of
intervention and need to be considered as a criteria for selecting them.

- The project tries to access them through investery CSOs in the region and ACSO, via field
assessment and mapping on the potential community development prioirty demands. These can also
be reached through mapping unique interventions, significant linkages and collaborations and
tangible impacts and achievements. These groups will be get involved to the project through
different consequative capacity development trainings, establishment of networking for desk
support for proposal development and coaching on the spot support by the consortium members.
This inclusion accounts both for the new and emerging CSO partners within the consortium and
project beneficiaries outside of the consortium.

d) Gender (6 points)
The ambition of the innovative project goes beyond the business as usual moving from needs and
vulnerabilities projects and initiatives include the assessment of and action to meet practical needs
and vulnerabilities of women and hard to reach groups within the process. This will involve
consultation with groups and an inclusive approach to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard,
bypassing empowerment that explicitly addresses strategic gender and hard to reach issues in its
core programmatic focus - as well as the process. Empowers individuals to make active choices, to
build their access to information, rights awareness and pathways to accountability) leaping into
structural transformation addressing a broader structural relations and institutions that underpin
gender inequality and social exclusion, often through collective action and/ or influencing the
enabling environment. The gender trajectory seeks to establish meaningful and sustainable changes
for hard to reach groups or on hard to reach issues).

Looking for the Transformative change i.e. long-lasting, sustainable change, change that challenges
existing structures of power inequality, change that (reduces power over (hierarchical, authority
based, top down), encourages power with (collective strength, shared leadership), increases power
to (individuals capacity to decide, shape their life & world and boosts power within (self
confidence, self worth) which is the ultimate goal of realizing gender & social justice.

Mainstreaming of gender and social inclusion in our innovative project through ensuring that
Gender Hard-to-Reach (GEHTR) is considered in the assessment, selection and refinement of the
project beneficiaries, integration of GEHTR into CSO’s and CBO’s capacity development (both in
the assessment and strategy), integrating gender and social analysis within members of the
consortium interventions/approaches, including strategic engagement, collecting and disaggregating
data and evidence, that reflect experience of children (girls and boys), women, youth and other
HTR, applying participatory methods and techniques to engage actively with the perspectives of
girls, women, youth and other Hard-to-Reach (HTR) groups, providing safe spaces for less
powerful voices to be heard. The consortium remains a promter of gender equity in every aspect of
the project and staffing. This particular project will reserve two third of the employment seats to
competent female candidates.

e) Monitoring and Evaluation (5 points)

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Objective, consistent and verifiable monitoring of progress towards the achievement of project
results is a significant responsibility. PMP will be foundation for the CSIF project team’s sound
results measurements. It will be rooted in a new and emerging CSOs and community based
information management system.
A. Results Monitoring
CSIF project plan for monitoring results achievement and evaluating why certain results are or are
not being achieved. Benchmarks by which to monitor activities are provided in the work plan. As
the project designer is currently working around the target area and have up-to-date information on
environment; M&E officer will oversee the design, implementation and analysis of a survey on the
diversification and innovation of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a pluralistic and democratic
organizational sphere, novel and creative civic activism and the defence of civic and associational
rights of Ethiopian citizens assessments during the first quarter of the project. In addition to
finalizing indicators and targets, the project in conjunction with the government will review and
agree with donor on data sources and methods of data collection prior to submitting the final PMP
at the end of the first quarter along with a revised year1 work plan. At end of the first quarter, we
anticipate having the PMIS fully operational.
B. Data Collection Systems
Currently, the project planner has successfully implemented an extensive M&E system that utilizes
two broad data collection systems–record keeping and conducting household-based surveys.
Building on the experiences gained from the process monitoring system, keeping records on
activities and inputs by the implementer will be an important source of information for project
management decision-making. Process monitoring will be supported by a computerized database
system whereby routinely collected data are regularly entered and analyzed to generate periodic
reports on process indicators to assess the performance.
C. The CSIF Project Indicators
In addition to monitoring progress towards the project’s benchmarks, the team will also measure
progress towards achievements of the results using the indicator descriptions may be defined by
donor. CSIF project places a high value on collaborative, participatory monitoring of performance
and results achievements with stakeholders, but will also be responsible to donors for the integrity
and validity of reported information. The quarterly measurement will be used to measure output
level indicator which is more or less about the number of new and emerging CSOs, FBOs working
with the consortium provided with relationship building support, while the annually measurement
that describes the percent of CBO’s, i.e. new and emerging CSOs, FBOs working with the
consortium engaged with government on policy, livelihoods, rights etc strategy issues at least two
times every quarter. The M&E Officer, with support from the executive director will train site
officers, Woreda officers in performance monitoring, the procedures and schedule for data
collection, the relevance of data that is being collected, and the importance of data verification. Site
officer will periodically verify the accuracy of the information provided by communities,
committees and local Kebele authorities. Methods of verification will vary according to the
specified measurement unit, but may include periodic, on-site review of records; interviews with
key stakeholders, officials and partners; and, informal field visits. The consortium members will
actively participate in CSIF strategic, annual and shorter-term M&E planning processes and
effectively carry out responsibilities under agreed M&E plans. Besides, the members of the
consortium collects, organizes and transmits M&E data and programmatic success stories in a
timely and effective manner. AID is known for its story writing capacity with its partners.
D. Evaluation
Results monitoring does not provide answers to why selected results are or are not being achieved.
Investigation of issues, problems, and opportunities to enhance results achievement is rather an
evaluation function. Civil Society Innovation project will undertake a mid-term evaluation at
middle of the project and a final evaluation at the end. Particular significance will be attached to the
mid-term evaluation, which will engage a variety of stakeholders and partners in looking in-depth at

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achievements, both qualitative and quantitative. The team expects outcomes will be programmatic
enhancement and refinements in direction, if needed.
Quarterly, final and ad hoc Civil Society Innovation project reports
The data at every level of the project will stream up and consolidated for regular and on time
reporting to AFD. Inception period work plan indicators, particularly at the process indicator level,
will be chosen based on CBO’s development plan indicators in addition to their environment role,
reporting requirements, and guidelines and the expanded response guide to core indicators for
monitoring and reporting on good governance, human rights, rule of law and advocacy system. The
monitoring data will be collected on a monthly basis. This information will be collected by AID and
the consortium and CSOs outside of the consortium or CBOs that are sub-granted through Civil
Society Innovation mechanism. The finally consolidated report will be submitted to AFD in
biannual bases and annual report as will be schemed particularly of interest in linking into a broader
AFD reporting system.
Civil Society Innovation Project Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System Plan
Monitoring and evaluation plan has been the part of the project design. M&E activities have been
scheduled on annual work plan. To save space on this matrix, rather than repeating details here, just
we have listed the monitoring or evaluation events. The details (e.g. schedule, data collection
methodology, etc.) for each M&E event (e.g. baseline, monthly monitoring, annual self-evaluation
and report, mid-term and final evaluation, etc) could be given in a separate table later, if we offered
the project.
f) Sustainability (4 points)
Project sustainability
The action follows an integrative approach in order to secure sustainability. The new and emerging
CSOs and the relevant government offices and the community work collaboratively; the project
builds on the existing structure, capacitates the key project stakeholders and work towards
institutionalization in the ground. In this context, the intervention is a real change maker that aims
at institutional developments featuring stronger and clearer enforcement of regulations, but also
accommodates participatory principles and accepts community and community groups as important
in develoment sector debates and management. To ensure the planned change, we propose a 36
month period for this action.
Financial sustainability: This project is financially sustainable in that it is designed to be based on
the existing government structure and in line with the service delivery plans. These two actors can
cover most of their own expenses related to the project interventions while the project is
operational, and continue to do the same even after the project is completed. Here, the financial
support need may be for the community groups, which are pivotal in this project implementation.
The project again by design works towards nurturing volunteerism among the community and
community groups but also through compensating some of their basic expenses. While the project
is operational, it will cover such costs. However, when the project expires, this costs will be
addressed partly by the relevant government offices budget. This financial sustainability issue will
be reflected on and agreements will be concluded in the process among the relevant government
offices, and community groups before project completion. The consortium will work to make sure
that these agreements are concluded and concerned parties have included this cost centre in their
respective budgets.
Institutional sustainability: As this project by design is using government and the community
structure, those structures will remain intact even after the project completion. Moreover, one of the
key mandates of this project is to ensure institutions are established and become functional at each
level. Accordingly, CSOs and government engagement focused capacity development interventions
(such as constituency building, issue based engagement, relationship building, negotiation and
facilitation skills, partnering principles and addressing emerging needs for engagement) and
monitored with backstopping support from project in the project life. They will also be equipped
with the necessary operational materials such as parnering principle guide, social accountability
toolkits, and other reference materials. Hence, as describes above under financial sustainability,
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with the finance support from the government and the private sector, these CSOs and community
institutions will continue to be operational.
Policy level sustainability: This project works mainly to raise awareness of the government and the
CSOs as well as the community groups on the relevant government legal frameworks for the CSOs
operational landscape, relationships building. To this end, various surveys will be conducted to
identify capacity gaps, trainings will be given to bridge the gaps, and forums will be organized to
reflect on the essence and application of the legal frameworks including the relationships. With this,
the relevant government offices will be clear on their legal mandate, and the CSOs will know to
which parts of the law to comply with and the community will serve as a watchdog on the use of the
legal framework for the best of all stakeholders involved. This process may provide the opportunity
for all actors to use the law with complete understanding and even to lobby and advocate for policy
improvements/changes based on compelling evidence.

g) Analysis of risks (5 points)

We have to realise that this project bares some important risks due to the project location exposed to
conflict situations, its requirement for high community voluntary engagement, and sensitivity of the
right-Baed development. The major risks have been addressed by strategies of the project, but a
legal, grassroots based, and continuous dialogue with all stakeholders is still needed to succeed.
Some details related to political, social, and economic risks and associated mitigation measures are
provided below.

Political Risk: one of the key risk areas that this project possibly encounter is lack of political will
on the part of the relevant government offices to allow the CSOs engage with rights issues,
advocacy and empowerment sectors as it may be counter attach on the goverments mal-behavour.
To address this challenge, the project will secure all legal clearances and approvals from all relevant
sector bureaus. Furthermore, the required orientation and deliberation will be held between the
project and the concerned government officers, and community leaders for them to understand the
goal of the project and appreciate its benefit for all stakeholders if implemented as designed.

Reportedly, the project locations are prone to resource based conflict. For a number of years now,
people have been killed, wounded, or looted as a result of the various skirmish among the
community groups, rebel fighters and the government. This may affect the smooth project
implementation. To address this challenge, the project will deploy staff from the local community
recruited with open bid and participatory selection process. The local staff will be advised to remain
neutral while conflicting situations occur. Moreover, the project will clearly orient the CSOs, local
community as it is working to ensure the community ownership of the process starting from the
beginning.

Social and economic risks: As experiences show, CSOs, government community members like to
be incentivised for any contribution they are making for an intervention. This will be one of the key
risks for this project in view of ensuring sustainability. Here, the project may not pay CSOs,
government and the community members for their time and contributions with understanding that
this is their own responsibility to shoulder, when even after the project expired. To address this risk,
the project works to nurture and build community volunteerism like of CSOs through engaging
them on various forums to convince them on the purpose of the project and the need for them to
work on and address their own causes. They need to be willing to come to meetings and contribute
actively on what they know, take part in trainings and stay throughout the training program, and be
part of committees/groups to plan, implement, and monitor the project interventions regularly.
Timelines and venues for active CSOs and community participation will be decided amicably
through a consultation process not to affect their quality time and production engagements in any
way.

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2.3 Resources Employed (4 pages maximum)
a) Organisational framework & Operating procedures (14 points)
Joint Management - In order to gear the partnership and ensure effective coordination of activities
and collaborations among the partners, a project management team (PMT) will be formed by the
membership of the heads of the partner organizations, and the project coordinator. The PMT will
meet regularly every quarter and holds other meetings as required by the situations. AID will be the
convener of the PMT and the agenda of discussion will be prepared by the Project Coordinator who
serves as a secretary of the team. PMT will be supreme body of the project which steers the project
operation toward the attainment of the objective and results.
Formation of Technical Team – to ensure effective and smooth cooperation in the process of
project implementation, a technical team will be formed constituted by relevant staff of the project
partners. The Project Technical Team (PTT) is comprised by the project coordinator, the SA
Experts of all partners, and the M&E Officer of AID. PTT is responsible to review project progress
at of each partner, develops project quarterly action plans, checks that project is progressing well
towards its ends, ensures that the implementation at partners level is harmonized and in line with
the overall project action plan, facilitates mutual learning and exchange of experts and logistics
when required. The PTT is also responsible to develop TORs for consultants and the selection of
the winners. The project Coordinator at AID will Cooperation presides over the PTT.
Open Information sharing–The project follows open and transparent project management
whereby each partner has equal access to all information about the project. AID will take the
responsibility to share with partners all information regarding the project that comes from the AFD.
Accordingly, the Grant agreement, the project agreement, project budget, share of partners in the
budget, all reporting formats, SA, relationship and trust building etc related implementation
guidelines and manuals, etc. will be made available and shared with partners. Both partners will be
open to present information on achievements, best practices, lessons learnt, challenges faced and
budget utilization to the PMT and PTT consultations to put everyone on the same page. Given its
involvement in various social engagement activities, AID shares its experiences and skills in SA
project implementation. Both partners will use telephone, e-mail, meetings, and letters to exchange
information.
Capacity Building – Building capacity of partners will be among the first level priority activity of
the project. AID will facilitate timely internal capacity building of partner staff members on
relationship and trust building, SA principles, tools, approaches and their application in project
implementation. Further, AID will facilitate training on CSOs, government community meeting
facilitation and interface meeting moderation skills. As much as required for the project
implementation, budget will be allocated for office furniture and equipment acquisition. The type
of capacity building and the needs of each partner are agreed upon during the project development.
In capacity building, a partner that has more capacity limitation will be given priority.
Shared Responsibility– project activities are formally shared among the partners. The lead
organization AID will be responsible to lead the action at all levels and ensure achievement of
project results. As such, it assumes the responsibility to facilitate partners’ capacity building
trainings, project fund management and transfer, timely report compilation and submission to AFD
and the overall monitoring and evaluation activities of the project. Other partners will involve
actively in the activities that AID coordinates. Concerning project implementation, all partners will
take full responsibility to plan, coordinate, implement and monitor the activities of the project
assigned to them in the respective target Woreda.
Formal Cooperation Mechanism – All partners will sign a memorandum of understating (MoU)
with AID in which the rights, roles and responsibilities of each partner are spelt out in detail. The
MoU will be devised following the principle of partnership in which all partners play constructive
role for value added joint operation and synergy effect.

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 Project
Management
Team

Project
Project Technical Team
Manager (PTT)

AID THSO VAVCA

Project Team Project Team Project Team

Woreda Woreda Woreda

Contact Contact Contact
Officer Officer Officer

Project Coordinator (PC) – The Project Manager is answerable to the Management Committee,
who has the duties and responsibilities to plan, coordinate and monitors the project activities
assigned to each partner. The PM will be focal person of the project and will have close contact and
communication with the relevant government offices and the officers of the AFD. It will be the duty
of AID to assign or recruit a competent and knowledgeable person who will ensure the realization
of the project. The PC will be someone who has practical experience in management and
coordination of similar size project. The PM will have MA with at least 8 years of project
coordination experience in NGO environment. In addition to his/her project coordination role,
he/she will also work as a social accountability expert with respect to AID´s Social Accountability
project implementation.
Social Accountability Expert–The other two partners (THSO and VAVCA) assign one competent
and qualified social accountability expert each to coordinate the implementation of their respective
project activities. The qualification of the SA Expert will be university degree and 8 years of work
experience with a professional assignment, preferably in areas directly or indirectly related to trust
and rapport building, and SA programs. The main tasks to be accomplished by the SA Expert
include: coordinating and monitoring of partners project activities, mobilizing human, materials and
financial resources for the project, providing technical support to Woreda contact person,
monitoring project progress, facilitating the various CSOs, government and the community
meetings and moderating interface meeting, documentation of project achievements and reporting
to the lead organization. The SA Expert will also have the roles to devise weekly, monthly and
quarterly work plans, which he/she will immediately communicate to Woreda Contact Officer and
other concerned organs as required and relevant.
M&E Expert – AID M&E manager in collaboration with SA Experts and the Project Coordinator
will take the task to monitor the progress of the project at all partners level and at AID level. The
M&E result will be reported to PMT and PTT to review and reflect on the findings and draw
lessons and devise possible course of action. The M&E Expert/officer will be well qualified to
undertake the quality assurance task with required standard and format
Woreda Contact Officers (WCO) (one per Woreda)–Acts as an agent of implementing project
partners in their respective target Woreda. WCO facilitates close contacts and relationship with
project target groups at Woreda and Kebele levels formation of Woreda Advisory Committee,

23/47
Citizen change Groups and service providers Groups; organization of various training and
assessment works; implementation of SA tools and interface meetings. WCO will also follow up
and ensure that reform agenda and joint action plans are being realized as per the consensus during
the dialogue. In all matters, WCO will maintain close relation with respective SA expert to ensure
the necessary prearrangement form the partner organization and avoid overlapping of activities that
require the presence of other project staff and management members. The qualification of WCO
will be bachelor degree with preference for those with 5 year prior experience as well as good
human relation and Community facilitation skills.
Support staff– the project will be supported by accountants, human resources officer, drivers,
property related staff in all partner organizations.
b) Budget (11 points)
The project budget is euros 713,749.00. The operational expenditure is whatever cost that goes into
building the development capacities of the target beneficiaries. On the other hand, the
administrative expenditure is whatever cost that goes into the process of facilitation of building the
capacities of the target benficaries. The implication of 10/90 rule is co-financing the admin share
with other grants. Thus, euros 642,071.00 should go into building the capacities of the target
benficaries whereas euros 71,408.00 or less may go into facilitation of the capacities of the target
benficaries. The fund that goes into facilitation of the capacities of the target people (administrative
cost) will be divided among the lead organization and the sub-grantees, based on the activities
vested on each organization and the coordination mandates vested to lead organization. The
coordination cost should not exceed 9.7% of Admin cost and 2.85% of the total program cost. The
actual operational expenditure of the program is 642,071.00 including additional mandate vested to
support for monitoring and capacity development role of coordination and program management as
a lead CSO, while the administration spending is exactly 71,408.00 euros. This spending division
between operation and supporting cost interprets clearly the application of 20/80 rule of the
Ethiopian ACSO policy.

The budget will be distributed among the consortium partners annually as per the action plan. The
second trenche will be transferred based on the appropriate setlment of the first trenches. The leader
organization will be responsible to receive the fund from the donor AFD and transfer to the rest
members of the consortium as per the plan. Generally, 30% of the program will go to the innovative
approaches to civic activism while the other 30% of the fund will ddirectly go to the projects of new
and emerging CSOs outside of the consortium, including those under registration or non-registered
actors. The other 40% of the program budget will be allocated to piloting of the poverty reduction
innovative community priority project.
c) Partnership Building for Implementation (10 points)
Currently our partnership is more than a relationship. To achieve our vision of becoming a partner
of choice within a nationwide movement to end poverty and affirm human dignity, we considered
partnering as a philosophy, that is, a set of principles, rooted in our core values, which guide all
our behavior. This trend of partnership will be rolled out to the new and emerging CSOs in our
project catchment areas.

So long as partnership principles are rooted in our belief system, they have to do with our core
identity, state of being and who we are, any organization interested to be part of our consortium will
be bind by the partnering principles. Our partnering philosophy is based on core principles such as
weaving a fabric of sustainability, acknowledging interdependence, building trust, finding shared
vision, goals, values and interests, honoring the range of resources, generating a culture of mutual
support and respect for differences, finding opportunities for creative synergy, committing to
mutual accountability, addressing relationship difficulties as they occur and seeing partnering as
continuous learning process. The approach that we apply our principles, demonstrated by all of our
behaviors, which lead to a partnering approach, with a partnering approach use partnering
24/47
principles to some degree, in all relationships, even those that are not partnerships. Our
organizational structures and culture set up to facilitate acting on our principles, systems, attitudes,
norms and incentive structures

Lobbying will be the mechanisms envisaged to guarantee a regular and constructive dialogue with
relevant local government authorities. We provide opportunities and catalyze ongoing capacity
buiding processes that are sought hunted, required, wanted and sought after by the goverment. At its
core, partnering rests on the assumption of valuing other people's knowledge and dignity.
Ultimately it affirms the right and responsibility of the stakeholders themselves to lead (not just
participate in) their own development processes. Our role is to foster and support that leadership
and the relations among the key stakeholders who will advance development. This proposal builds
on the same principles that underlie good participatory development, and applies them to CBOs

2.3 Annexes to the proposal

Project proposal letter (see template in Appendix 1 of the CfP).
Memorandum of understanding between consortium members.
Provisional implementation timetable.
Logical framework (optional).
Detailed budget: a table showing the overall projected expenses broken down by project components that
clearly distinguish administrative and personnel expenses and audit, evaluation and supervision expenses.
See template in Appendix 2 of the CfP.
Administrative dossier to be submitted by the consortium (See Sections IV, V and VI).

25/47
Appendix 1 - PROJECT PROPOSAL LETTER template

SUBMISSION OF A PROJECT PROPOSAL

to

The Director of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)

Attached

Signed in ....................., on .........................

Signature

Attach the document which establishes the consortium partnership and names its leader and representative
(e.g. Memorandum of Understanding).

26/47
 Appendix 2 - Budget template (in euros)

See Excel template.

27/47
 IV. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD OF THE PLI SPONSORING THE PROJECT
Each of the documents in the administrative file must be named in accordance with the numbers
defined in the list below (for example, electronic documents to be named: “1. Information sheet….…”
or “5.a. Balance sheet and operating accounts 2020' and '5.b. Balance sheet and operating accounts
2019').
1. Applicant information sheet (section V)

2. A copy of the registration certificate;

3. Dated list of board members, offices and senior executives with their contact information and
date of the most recent elections;

4. Organisational chart dated and signed by the chief executive;

5. Certified and audited balance sheets and operating statements for the past three years5 or
since the creation of the CSOs if established after the Civil Society Proclamation in 2019 (with
appendices and explanatory notes) that have been approved by the general assembly and
show the origins (public or private) of financial resources. This information should then be
updated each year;

6. CV of financial administrator/manager of the PLI

7. Financial administration manuals and procedural guidelines of the PLI

8. Information sheets on project partners (section VI).

Proposals must be sent by e-mail to the following addresses: info@csinnovationfund.org no later

than Wednesday, August 4th, 2021, at 5 pm, Ethiopian time (time/date receipt at AFD, to be
confirmed by a formal acknowledgement of receipt).
All proposals received after the time and date indicated above will be rejected. 6
Agro-Pastoral Initiative for Development

Information sheet on the PLI sponsoring the project

TO BE COMPLETED BY THE LEAD ORGANISATION ONLY

Full name of organisation: Agro-Pastoral Initiative for development
Acronym: AID
Mailing address: agropastoralinitiative@gmail.com, contact@aid-agro-
(to which all correspondence regarding this pastoral.org
project should be sent)
Location of registered office: Addis Ababa, Bole Bulbula
(if different from mailing address)

5
For CSOs registered less than three years ago, all available audited balance sheets from the year of registration should be submitted. Internal
accounts will be accepted only where no audited accounts are available yet and a satisfying explanation for their absence can be provided.
6
If, however, applications could not be submitted before the deadline, AFD reserves the right to consider late applications in case of major events
preventing submission, such as general Internet outages. In such cases, the deadline for submission may be extended.

28/47
Telephone: 0926970072,0911066452
E-mail address: Abdulkadirm597@gmail.com
Website: www.aid-agro-pastoral.org

Purpose of the organisation: Purpose of AID is to help poor pastoral and -Agro
pastoralist communities of Ethiopia to enable them
help themselves in the betterment of their economic
and social live.

Geographic area(s) of action: Oromia, Somali , Dire-Dawa

Field(s) of action: Dire-Dawa, Jijiga , Negelle, Dollo-Ado, Yabelle
Existence of a strategic document approved Yes
by the general assembly (Indicate Yes or No)
Main funding and partnerships established NO
between the PLI and AFD over the past 3
years (or since the creation of the CSO if
established after the Civil Society
Proclamation in 2019).
(specify the purpose, amount of funding and
AFD department involved) [if applicable]
Main funding and partnerships established NO
between the PLI and the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs or any foreign partner over
the past 3 years (or since the creation of the
CSO if established after the Civil Society
Proclamation in 2019).
(specify the purpose, amount of funding and
ministerial department involved) [if
applicable]
List of the funders (public or private) that National Electoral Board of Ethiopia , CCRDA, British
contribute more than 10% of the annual Council and
budget in 2020 CECOE ETHIOPIA
Contact details for a project reference Meseret CSSP2 +251911780254
implemented by the PLI from another donor
(if possible, for a project of comparable size)
Membership in collectives, networks,
platforms:

Contact person(s) for this project Name Telephone E-mail address

Technical contact: Hussein Mama +251982807846
Financial contact: Abdullahi Abdi +251924446314 abdullahiabdi1920
@gmail.com
Administrative contact: Mohammedamin +0911066452
Kemal
Given name and surname of the Abdulkadir Mohammed
Executive Director:
Surname, given name and position of Abdulkadir Mohammed, Executive Director
the person responsible for this

29/47
application7:

Date of creation: August 19,2015

Legal status: National CSO
References of registration with the ACSO:
No. Date Department
Date of publication in the Addis Zemen 7/9/2015

If appropriate, date of designation as "in

the public interest" (non for profit):
If applicable, the date of approval by a
ministry and which one:

Surname and given name of president: Samson Gosaye

Surname and given name of secretary Meryan Tayib
general:
Surname and given name of treasurer: Mansur Hussein
Number of members on the Board of 5
Directors:
Does the organisation have a member No
working for Agence Française de
Développement?
If yes, specify their name and position
Does the organisation have a politically No
exposed person8?
If yes, specify their name and position
Date of the General Assembly during April15,2015
which the current members of the Board
of Directors and executive committee
were elected:

Contact person(s) for this project Name Telephone E-mail address

Technical contact: Hussein Mama +251982807846 HUsien Mama
<osanemama@gm
ail.com>
Financial contact: Abdulfetah +251912432279 Abdifatah Jaziri
Mohammed <jaziri148@gmail.c
om>
Administrative contact: Mohammedamin +0911066452 mak aman
Kemal <makaman74@gm
ail.com>
Given name and surname of the Abdulkadir Mohammed
Executive Director:
Surname, given name and position of Abdulkadir Mohammed, Executive Director
the person responsible for this

7
Attach to the administrative record a list of persons authorised to sign agreements and any other official documents for the association.
8
A politically exposed person (PEP) is a person who exercises or has exercised important public functions; these include heads of state or
government, politicians of high rank, senior officials within the government, magistrates or high-ranking military personnel, executives of a
state-owned company or political party leaders. Business relations with the family members of a PEP or persons closely associated with them
can involve risks, in terms of reputation, similar to those associated with PEPs themselves. This expression does not cover persons of middle or
lower rank in the categories listed above.

30/47
application9:

Date of creation: August 19,2015

Legal status: National CSO
References of registration with the ACSO:
No. Date Department
Date of publication in the Addis Zemen 7/9/2015

If appropriate, date of designation as "in

the public interest" (non for profit):
If applicable, the date of approval by a
ministry and which one:
Surname and given name of president: Samson Gosaye

Surname and given name of secretary Meryan Tayib

general:
Surname and given name of treasurer: Mansur Hussein

Number of members on the Board of 5

Directors:
Does the organisation have a member No
working for Agence Française de
Développement?
If yes, specify their name and position
Does the organisation have a politically No
exposed person10?
If yes, specify their name and position
Date of the General Assembly during February 15,2020
which the current members of the Board
of Directors and executive committee
were elected:
Expiration dates of the terms of these February 14,2023
members:
Expected date of the next General January to March 2022
Assembly:

31/12/2018 31/12/2019 31/12/2020

Number of members 34 44 44
Amount of membership contributions 51000 Birr 66000 66000
Number of private donors 8 10
Amount of private donations 44000 70,0000

Staff of the PLI: Total (FTE11) Full-time Part-time

9
Attach to the administrative record a list of persons authorised to sign agreements and any other official documents for the association.
10
A politically exposed person (PEP) is a person who exercises or has exercised important public functions; these include heads of state or
government, politicians of high rank, senior officials within the government, magistrates or high-ranking military personnel, executives of a
state-owned company or political party leaders. Business relations with the family members of a PEP or persons closely associated with them
can involve risks, in terms of reputation, similar to those associated with PEPs themselves. This expression does not cover persons of middle or
lower rank in the categories listed above.

31/47
Employee(s) 12 10 2
Volunteer(s) 21 15 6
Total 33 25 8

11
Full time equivalent.

32/47
Amount of total financial resources for past three years or since the creation of the CSOs if established
after the Civil Society Proclamation in 2019 (in euros)
Turnover % of total % of total
Year Of which public funds12 Of which private funds
of the PLI turnover turnover
17,555.15 Total 15,752.16 89 Total amount: 1,802.99 11
EURO amount: Euro EURO

Of which Of which
AFD: private
2018
Of which 15,752.16 89 donor(s) giving
other Euro more than 10%
public of the total
donors: budget of the
PLI13:
116,642.4 Total Total amount: 2,581.10 2
EURO amount: Euro

2019 Of which 114,061.32 98

other Euro
public
donors:
63,758.89 Total 62,506.29 98.1 Total amount: 1,252.60 1.9
amount:
Euro Of which Of which
AFD: private donor
2020 Of which 62,506.29 98.1 (s) giving more
other than 10% of
public the total
donors: budget of the
PLI:
350,000.00 Total 315,000.00 90 Total amount: 35,000.00 10
EURO amount:
Of which Of which
AFD: private donor
2021
Of which 315,000.00 90 (s) giving more
(Forecast)
other than 10% of
public the total
donors: budget of the
PLI:

12
Record here all funds of public origin: grants and subsidies; public funds of local, national, international origin.
13
Please list here all the private contributors who have made a contribution greater than or equal to 10% of the total budget of the CSO (relative to the
most recent annual accounts approved by the General Assembly). If it is a legal person, provide the list of the members of this organisation's
Board of Directors (surname, given name, position and address). If it is a moral person, provide their identity (surname, first name, position
and address).

33/47
Amount of total financial resources for past three years or since the creation of the CSOs if established
after the Civil Society Proclamation in 2019 (in euros)
Turnover % of total % of total
Year Of which public funds14 Of which private funds
of the PLI turnover turnover
17,555.15 Total 15,752.16 89 Total amount: 1,802.99 11
EURO amount: Euro EURO
2018
Of which Of which
AFD: private

14
Record here all funds of public origin: grants and subsidies; public funds of local, national, international origin.

34/47
 Of which 15,752.16 89 donor(s) giving
other Euro more than 10%
public of the total
donors: budget of the
PLI15:
116,642.4 Total Total amount: 2,581.10 2
EURO amount: Euro

2019 Of which 114,061.32 98

other Euro
public
donors:
63,758.89 Total 62,506.29 98.1 Total amount: 1,252.60 1.9
amount:
Euro Of which Of which
AFD: private donor
2020 Of which 62,506.29 98.1 (s) giving more
other than 10% of
public the total
donors: budget of the
PLI:
350,000.00 Total 315,000.00 90 Total amount: 35,000.00 10
EURO amount:
Of which Of which
AFD: private donor
2021
Of which 315,000.00 90 (s) giving more
(Forecast)
other than 10% of
public the total
donors: budget of the
PLI:

15
Please list here all the private contributors who have made a contribution greater than or equal to 10% of the total budget of the CSO (relative to the
most recent annual accounts approved by the General Assembly). If it is a legal person, provide the list of the members of this organisation's
Board of Directors (surname, given name, position and address). If it is a moral person, provide their identity (surname, first name, position
and address).

35/47
INFORMATION SHEET ON PROJECT PARTNERS
TO BE COMPLETED FOR EACH PARTNER INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT
Specify the total number of partners involved in the project:

Full name of organisation: Agro_pastoral Initiative for Development(AID)

Acronym: AID
Mailing address: Addis Ababa P.O>Box 153
Location of registered office: Bole Bulbula
(if different from mailing address)
Telephone: +251-118519851, +251982807846
Fax:
E-mail address: contact@aid-agro-pastoral.org
Website: www.aid-agro-pastoral.org
Contact person(s) for this project: Hussein Mama
Given name and surname of the Executive
Abdulkadir Mohammed
Director:
Date created: Date of reregistration February 06,2019
Legal status:
(Attach to the technical file the certificate of Local NGO
registration or its equivalent)
Surname and given name of president: Samson Gosaye
Number of members on the Board of Directors: 7
Ahmed Kemal , Hussein Abdi, Meryan Tayib,
List of members of the Board of Directors: Ibrahim Hassen, Getinet Gizachew , Dires
Getachew and Kebede Gudisa
Does the organisation have a member working for
Agence Française de Développement? No
If yes, specify their name and position
Does the organisation have a politically exposed
person? 16 No
If yes, specify their name and position
Purpose of the Purpose of AID is to help poor pastoral and -Agro pastoralist communities of Ethiopia to

16
A politically exposed person (PEP) is a person who exercises or has exercised important public functions; these include heads of state or
government, politicians of high rank, senior officials within the government, magistrates or high-ranking military personnel, executives of a
state-owned company or political party leaders. Business relations with the family members of a PEP or persons closely associated with them
can involve risks, in terms of reputation, similar to those associated with PEPs themselves. This expression does not cover persons of middle or
lower rank in the categories listed above.

36/47
organisation: enable them help themselves in the betterment of their economic and social live.

Agriculture/Livelihood
Animal Health
WASH
Advocay,Peace building and Democracy
Primary areas of Youth and Women Empowerment
involvement:
Peace Building and Conflict Management and CVE
Emergency Response
Climate Change and Environmental Conservation

AID AID has long and big experiences on similar strategic themes by working in inclusive
ways with different thematic areas under the implementation of different projects . Since
its establishment, AID has carried out different project incorporated vulnerable groups.
Some among many achievement and similar experiences under AID are; AID has
contributed significantly to improving food security status of the people, enhancing natural
Main activities of the resource management, the health, education, availing potable water, Youth and women
organisation: empowerment, environmental enhancement, Agriculture and other developmental areas in
the country. It has played great role particularly in reaching less served and marginal
Pastoral and Agro-pastoral areas with integrated development activities and humanitarian
interventions. AID is currently Implementing CSSP2 project at Dire –Dawa and Civic and
Voter Education at Guji and Borena Zones of Oromia Regional States

Number of paid staff: 12

Number of volunteers: 21
Total annual budget in
Euros:
(Attach to the technical
file the certified and
audited balance sheets
and operating 197956.5 EURO
statements (with
appendices and
explanatory notes) for
the past three year (or
from the year of
registration).17)
Main donors: CSSP2, ETHIOPIAID UK, FAO, UNHCR,WORLD BANK, DIASPORAS ,CCRDA, PDN
Membership in
networks, federations, CCRDA AND PDN
collectives, etc.
History and nature of
cooperation with the
CONTRACTULA
partner(s): institutional
and contractual ties
Role and involvement
AID has Prepared the proposed project together with other 2 consortuim members
in preparing the

17
Internal accounts will be accepted only where no audited accounts are available yet and a satisfying explanation for their absence can be provided.

37/47
proposed project:

Role and involvement

in implementing the AID wiil have a big role in implemantaion of the proposed project
proposed project:
Experience with similar
actions with regard to
its role in AID has experiences working in consortium and coalitions
implementing the
proposed action:

38/47
Amount of total financial resources for past three years or since the creation of the CSOs if established
after the Civil Society Proclamation in 2019 (in euros)

Turnover of Of which public % of total Of which

Year % of total turnover
the PLI funds18 turnover private funds
17,555.15 Total 15,752.16 89 Total amount: 1,802.99 11
EURO amoun Euro EURO
t:
Of Of which 1,802.99 Abdunasir
which private EURO Issack, and
AFD: donor(s) giving general
2018
Of 15,752.16 89 more than assembly
which Euro 10% of the members
other total budget of and
19
public the partner : volunteer
donors members
:
116,642.4 Total 114,061.3 98 Total amount: 2,581.10 2
EURO amoun 2 Euro Euro
t:
Of Of which
which private donor
AFD: (s) giving more
2019
Of 114,061.3 98 than 10% of
which 2 Euro the total
other budget of the
public partner:
donors
:
63,758.89 Total 62,506.29 98.1 Total amount: 1,252.60 1.9
amoun
Euro t:
Of Of which
which private donor
AFD: (s) giving more
2020
Of 62,506.29 98.1 than 10% of
which the total
other budget of the
public partner:
1
5 Internal accounts will be accepteddonors
only where no audited accounts are available yet and a satisfying explanation for their absence can be provided.
18 :
Record here all funds of public origin: grants and subsidies; public funds of local, national, international origin.
19
350,000.00 Total 315,000.0 90 Total amount: 35,000.00 10
Please list here all the private contributors who have made a contribution greater than or equal to 10% of the total budget of the CSO (relative to the
EURO annual accountsamoun
approved by0the General Assembly). If it is a legal person, provide the list of the members of this organisation's
2021most recent
Board of Directors (surname, t: given name, position and address). If it is a moral person, provide their identity (surname, first name, position
(Foreca and address).
Of Of which
st)
which private donor 39/47
AFD: (s) giving more
 Of 315,000.0 90 than 10% of
which 0 the total
other budget of the
public partner:
donors
:

INFORMATION SHEET ON PROJECT PARTNERS Attached

V. TERMS OF REFERENCE

INTRODUCTION
Under the rule of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) (1991 – 2018), civil
society activism in Ethiopia became increasingly securitised. In 2009, the EPRDF government passed the
Charities and Societies Proclamation (ChSP), restructuring large parts of organised civil society in Ethiopia
and prohibiting the use of international donor funding for activities related to rights-based activities,
including for example democracy promotion, election monitoring, human rights and women’s rights
advocacy and the promotion of freedom of speech and information. The ChSP redirected the operations of
civil society organisations (CSOs) towards development and relief activities and in the following years,
formally registered civil society organisations increasingly shifted their work towards service provision and
away from rights advocacy. However, despite the shift in the work of CSOs, the Ethiopian government
remained suspicious of their work, always anticipating potential challenges to its rule. As a result, the
relationship between the Ethiopian government under the EPRDF rule and CSOs remained antagonistic and
the ability of CSOs to operate became further and further curtailed, leading to grievances among CSOs and
harsh criticism from international actors denouncing the backlash against civic activism in Ethiopia.
The authoritarian rule of the EPRDF eventually provoked the countrywide emergence of anti-government
protests in 2014/15, calling for the respect for democratic and civic rights. Due to the unceasing nature of
the protests, the EPRDF was forced to engage in political reforms in spring 2018. The 5th of February 2019
marked an important shift in the relationship between the EPRDF government and civil society
organisations in Ethiopia, as the parliament passed the Organisations of Civil Societies Proclamation
(Proclamation 1119/2019). The contents of the proclamation reflect liberal political ideas about the role of
civil society and guarantees extensive rights to CSOs. Ethiopian citizens and external observers of Ethiopia
interpreted the swift legal reform as a proof for the new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed’s, willingness to lead
the country towards democracy. Two years later, slow implementation of the new civil society law,
increasing political instability and general signs of backpedalling on the transition process have called into
doubt hopes regarding the country’s political transition process and raised questions as to why the reform
process hindered.

EXISTING BARRIERS TO CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT

Despite the adoption of an enabling legal framework for civil society development in early 2019, its
implementation has been lagging behind because of several reasons: (1) Poor capacity and resources and
governance issues in the government agency in charge of implementing the new civil society proclamation
have posed obstacles. (2) The Covid 19 pandemic and the state of emergency law passed in Ethiopia to
manage the health emergency have further slowed down the process of the implementation of the law. (3)
It takes time for civil society organisations to regrow in the civic space that has just started opening up.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ORGANISATIONS OF CIVIL SOCIETY PROCLAMATION

The Federal Agency for Civil Society Organisations (ACSO) is in charge of implementing the new civil society
law. The ACSO is the successor of the Charities and Societies Agency (CSA), that was in charge of

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implementing the 2009 ChSP. The ACSO has inherited a lot of problems from the CSA such as low human
resource capacity, weak internal governance mechanisms and low quality of services provided, reducing
its ability to implement the new civil society law. Moreover, high degrees of politicisation at the CSA prior
to the reform process coupled with low levels of turnover during the reform period have posed problems
for reform implementation, both affecting bureaucrats’ willingness and capacity to implement the new law.
Although the process has been started, the ACSO has not drafted and approved all directives necessary to
guarantee the correct implementation of the new civil society proclamation. Moreover, the regulation
necessary to ensure its implementation has been pending at the Council of Ministers for months.
Consequently, the ACSO lacks the necessary regulations and directives to ensure the implementation of
the new civil society proclamation. Between 2019 and 2021, the ACSO did not have an operational
Board. This has limited the oversight over its operations, as well as its ability to guarantee all necessary
services, such as the approval/adoption of directives and correct complaint handling procedures,
requiring the recourse of CSOs to the board.
CSOs and citizens going to the ACSO to register CSOs or manage their cases have reported persisting
problems regarding their ability to obtain services. Despite existing problems, CSOs and citizens have
reported that their relationship to the ACSO has much improved, compared to when the CSA was in charge
of regulating the sphere of civil society. The time for registration has shortened and the ACSO’s new
directors have addressed many cases of CSOs’ complaints, personally making sure that cases have been
handled according to required standards and the law.
THE ORGANISATIONAL SPHERE OF CIVIL SOCIETY

The ACSO finished the process of re-registration of CSOs that were previously registered under the ChSP in
March 2020. However, only half of the previously existing organisations re-registered, leading to 1700 CSOs
losing their legal personality and being declared closed by the ACSO. It remains unclear whether the CSOs
that did not re-register are de-facto organisations that are no longer operational and only exist on paper, or
whether some of the CSOs that weren’t reregistered tried but failed due to administrative or other
problems.
As the new civil society proclamation opened up the space for civil society, new CSOs have been founded
and registered since 2019. This is particularly true for CSOs working in previously restricted sectors, such as
human rights, media, women’s rights and other democracy and rights related topics. Although the
emergence of new actors has led to an increased diversification of Ethiopian civil society the majority of
donor funds continue to be channelled towards older, more established CSOs. In turn, many new CSOs
have reported that they have not been able to participate in the ongoing political reform process to the
extent they wanted to, due to a lack of resources and the fact that they have not been invited to the table.
Tensions between established CSOs and new and emerging actors in Ethiopian civil society have become
visible. Many new and emerging actors have expressed their concern that established actors are not
sufficiently independent from the government, collaborating with the latter, rather than ensuring the
establishment of checks and balances on the state. Moreover, new and emerging actors have reported
that established CSOs primarily work with each other, rather than establishing new partnerships, and
that they have monopolised the dialogue with the government and donors.
Established CSOs have themselves reported problems regarding their ability to reform their own activism.
For one decade, CSOs operated under the restrictive ChSP and developed survival strategies to ensure their
continued work. Many established close working relationships with government counterparts, to prevent
backlash against their work. Several established actors remain afrAID of potential new backlashes against
civil society and do not dare to assume more independence and a clearer mandate as the watchdogs of the
government. Others report that they have to learn how to operate in the new CSO environment and lack
the capacity and technical knowledge to work on rights related issues.
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant hardship for CSOs in Ethiopia and rendered their work more
difficult. Most CSOs have not been able to pursue their activities as planned and have encountered
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difficulties in raising funds for their daily operations. Unable to implement project activities as scheduled,
many CSOs have reported that externally financed projects have been discontinued. At the same time, CSO
activism to monitor the health crisis and government’s responses to it, provide services to citizens and pilot
initiatives to mitigate the impact of and fight the pandemic are crucial.
In April 2020, the Ethiopian government declared a sanitary state of emergency to fight the spread of the
Coronavirus Pandemic. As a result, CSOs had to adjust their operations, reduce the number and size of in-
person events, switch to online activities where possible and reduce their travel. In a context where
internet access is often unreliable and many CSOs work with marginalised communities particularly
vulnerable to the pandemic and its impact, CSOs have struggled to adapt their work. Since April 2020, the
rules have been loosened in many regards. However, given the rapidly rising number of Covid-19 cases in
Ethiopia and the limited resources available to fight its spread through vaccination, as well as infection
control measures, the pandemic will likely impact on CSOs’ work for the months to come.
THE NEEDS IN THE CIVIL SOCIETY SECTOR

The Ethiopian civil society sector is in need of diversification and innovation, as it currently remains
dominated by established actors. This is important to ensure that the sphere becomes pluralistic and
democratic, representing the diversity of Ethiopian society, as well as the variety of concerns and
interests of Ethiopian citizens. Due to the long history of authoritarian rule in Ethiopia and the fact that
the space for civil society has only recently opened up, civil society in Ethiopia continues to lack
independence from the government, which crucially limits its ability to check and balance state power.
Given previous restrictions to civic activism imposed by the ChSP, civic activism in Ethiopia is in need of
rejuvenation to become both more novel and creative. While the new civil society proclamation provides
an enabling legal framework for all these developments to happen, civil society has to defend the civic and
associational rights granted and ensure the application of the new civil society law.
While registration data shows that new CSOs are forming in previously restricted sectors, e.g. civic activism
related to rights and democracy, these actors are in particular need of financial, technical and capacity
building support. CSOs working on rights and democracy related topics remain in the minority and their
capacity remains low due to previous restrictions on rights activism. Many newly registered
organisations rely on their volunteers and members’ contributions for their operations. Many newly
registered CSOs struggle to formalise their operational procedures in administration and finance, as well
as to launch and then scale up their initial activities.
According to survey responses from 21 CSOs registered since 2019, CSOs are in need of organisational,
technical and financial capacity building. Policy advocacy, international best practices in human rights,
media and gender and networking were identified as key areas in which capacity is lacking. The same
goes for human resource and financial management, as well as project cycle management and
fundraising. CSOs also indicated the need for core institutional funding, as not even 30% or the surveyed
CSOs had 6 or more professional staff, whereas 29% indicated not to have a single pAID staff member and
instead operate on the basis of voluntary work. In 2020, only around 14% of the CSOs surveyed had annual
average turnovers over 140,000 euros, whereas the majority indicated that their turnover was between 0
and 15,000 euros per year and 29% indicated not to have an income at all. While the annual turnovers in
2020 were relatively small compared to those of established CSOs, the turnovers of newly registered CSOs
had increased a lot from 2019, where 62% of the surveyed organisations indicated not to have had any
income, with only 5% indicating an income over 140,000 euros. None of the surveyed CSOs had had
received funding from the three biggest civil society funds operating in Ethiopia, the CSSP, the EU CSF and
the ESAP. However, many had received funding from international foundations and NGOs, and a few had
secured funding from embassies and multilateral donors. While 67% of surveyed CSOs indicated that
international donor funding constituted one of their main sources of funding, 42.85% indicated that a
significant amount of their funding came from members.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVISM IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

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For six years, Ethiopia’s political landscape has been marked by large-scale public protests, increasing
levels of inter- and intra-communal violence, political instability and armed conflicts. This has affected
CSOs ability to work and is likely to do so for the years to come.
POLITICAL INSTABILITY

Since 2014, Ethiopia has experienced persisting anti-government protests. Despite political reforms
initiated since 2018 and a change at the helm of Ethiopian politics, state fragility has increased steadily,
turning the country into one of the least stable countries world-wide. Rising ethnic and religious conflicts
have led to largescale communal violence and have triggered growing levels of internally displaced
persons. Armed resistance against the government has been on the rise in several of the country’s regions,
resulting in high levels of armed conflict. A government declared ‘law enforcement operation’ in Tigray
regional state has turned the region into a de-facto warzone since November 2020. With rising levels of
politicisation in Ethiopia, activists and civil society organisations have at times been associated to specific
conflict parties. Moreover, conflict insensitive activism and communication have meant that civil society
has sometimes contributed to rather than countered mounting levels of conflict in the country.
Due to past backlashes against CSOs that have worked on human rights and democracy promotion,
several CSOs have been cautious not to be seen working on the ongoing political crisis and its
consequences. Those who have tried to engage in reporting of human rights abuses, to monitor the
government’s use of power and force and to promote conflict mitigation have expressed fear of possible
negative repercussions from their work. Some CSOs have also reported intimidation by the government
and forced temporary closure of offices as a result of their reporting of human rights abuses or of sharing
information about conflict and conflict parties. Due to rising levels of instability, CSOs have also
encountered problems to access conflict and post conflict areas.
THE 2021 NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Ethiopia’s national elections have been postponed repeatedly, first because of the Covid-19 pandemic and
most recently because of logistical challenges. The election should take place on June 21thcitizens, CSOs and
external observers anticipate violence, internet shutdowns and election fraud. Several opposition parties
have announced that they will not participate in the elections, among others because of obstacles allegedly
being posed to their campaigning, reports of voter intimidation, and indication of the existence of
fraudulent procedures during voter registration. The EU has retracted its election observation mission.
It is impossible to predict how the political situation in the country will develop after the elections.
Hence, CSOs might need to adjust their work to changes in the political situation that are impossible to
predict.

THE CIVIL SOCIETY INNOVATION FUND

GENERAL INFORMATION

This call is directed towards civil society organisations20 that are formally registered with the Agency of Civil
Society Organisations in Ethiopia. CSOs registered by other Ethiopian government entities, e.g. regional
government bureaus or federal Ministries are also eligible to apply. The call particularly targets new and
emerging CSOs, meaning organisations that have been founded and registered since the passing of the
2019 civil society organisations proclamation (Proclamation No 1113/2019). Informal civil society actors
and CSOs under registration cannot be formal consortium members given that they are not formal legal
entities. However, consortia should collaborate with and reserve funding for these actors.
The grant application is open for CSOs applying jointly as a consortium. Each consortium should consist of a
minimum of three members and have one designated lead among those. Consortia consisting of more

20
As per the Civil Society Proclamation No 1113/2019, a civil society organisation is defined as "Non-Governmental, Nonpartisan, Not for profit
entity established at least by two or more persons on voluntary basis and registered to carry out any lawful purpose, and includes Non-Government
Organizations,
Professional Associations, Mass based Societies and Consortiums".
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than six members must demonstrate that coordination among the different actors as well as active
participation of all will be guaranteed. The consortia applying do not have to be registered as legal entities
with the ACSO. Instead, consortia are asked to present a memorandum of understanding together with
their application, and will have to develop a comprehensive consortium agreement at the contracting stage
if selected. Existing consortia of CSOs that are registered as legal entities with the ACSO can apply as
members of a consortium for this call. However, a legally registered consortium cannot apply as a single
applicant without other co-applicants.
Consortia can apply with projects covering either one or more of the thematic sectors in the call. Consortia
need to explain whether their projects are focussed on one thematic area or cross cutting, covering two or
more thematic areas.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE

The call aims to strengthen the diversification and innovation of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a
pluralistic and democratic organizational sphere, novel and creative civic activism and the defence of civic
and associational rights of Ethiopian citizens.
While the 2019 civil society proclamation provides an enabling legal framework for civil society activism, its
success critically hinges on its application. CSOs need to monitor the application of the proclamation as well
as make use of the newly gained rights granted by the law. So far, the sphere of civil society in Ethiopia
remains dominated by established actors. Moreover, the majority of registered CSOs in Ethiopia are so
called development NGOs and CSOs working on rights related and democracy advancing topics remain in
the minority. The CSIF(CSIF) provides funding to support the diversification of civil society, to ensure that
CSOs represent Ethiopian society as a whole, as well as cover a wide array of different topics. Therefore,
the fund particularly targets new and emerging CSOs in the sectors of human rights, gender and media,
which were strictly regulated and repressed by the 2009 ChSP. This is believed necessary, to guarantee a
more pluralistic, as well as democratic organisational sphere. The fund also aims at providing support to
CSOs to allow them to defend the civic and associational rights enshrined in the new CSO proclamation and
to ensure that civic activism takes more innovative and creative forms.
OUTPUTS

Below you will find a description of outputs that the programme aims to achieve. Projects proposed by
consortia should contribute towards reaching these goals. Please note that while projects have to
correspond to the objectives of the fund, consortia are invited to design their own projects with
respective goal, objectives, outputs and activities. While the programme does not require CSOs to
implement specific activities, you will find examples and suggestions for the type of activities that consortia
might want to engage in. The activities listed below are not mandatory, but are meant to provide some
general ideas to consortia regarding possible activities for their projects. Consortia are encouraged to
propose other relevant activities that are not listed below.

Output 1: New and emerging civil society actors working in the field of gender, media and human rights
have received support allowing them to join the formal sphere of civil society and contribute to its
diversification

The programme provides support to emerging and new civil society actors working in the fields of media,
human rights and gender to join the formal sphere of civil society and contribute to its diversification. It
provides funding to allow these actors to establish themselves, launch and upscale their activities and
become active members in the civil society community. Support to new and emerging civil society actors in
these matters should not simply be achieved through building their theoretical and technical capacity via
trainings and other forms of capacity building, but through supporting their activities, building joint
activities and ensuring their active participation as members of civil society. Projects should demonstrate
tangible outputs with respect to increased civil society activism among new and emerging actors.
Given that new and emerging actors have struggled to secure funding and that this has reduced the ability
of new actors to move into previously restricted sectors such as human rights, gender and media, the CSIF
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will provide support in this area. Consortia should reflect on how they can promote new CSOs to join the
formal sphere of civil society, support them to initiate and scale up their activities and help them to
establish collaborations among each other to assert themselves as important actors in civil society. To
achieve this output, consortia will need to reflect how they will build the capacity of new and emerging
actors within as well as outside of the consortium and the methodological approach taken to accomplish
this task. While consortia are invited to analyse the needs of new and emerging actors and propose their
own projects, the following example activities can provide inspiration for project proposals:
- Support new and emerging civil society actors to start up or scale up activities in the fields of
gender gender analysis training, media and human rights, advocacy and lobbying training etc.
New and emerging civil society actors often lack funding as well as the capacity to launch their work and
later to scale up existing activities. Such actors could be provided with the necessary technical, logistical
and financial support to accomplish this task. This could for example take the form of co-funding or co-
implementation of activities. Support to the implementation of activities by new and emerging CSOs
through mentoring/backstopping, coaching etc is another possible approach. Consortia are encouraged to
identify new and emerging civil society actors in their field that need the mentioned support and whose
work is promising and fits with the overall programme objective. Technical, logistical and financial support
facilitating the implementation of concrete activities by new and emerging actors, e.g. advocacy
campaigns, human rights monitoring or media reporting, should be prioritised over more generic forms of
capacity building.
- Promote civil society collaboration among new and emerging actors
Many new and emerging civil society organisations have reported that the existing CSO consortia mostly
foster collaboration among long-term members, somewhat marginalising those who have recently joined.
Moreover, most existing consortia are dominated by established actors. As such, collaboration between
new and emerging CSOs and relevant informal actors and activists in the field remains under-developed.
Hence the consortiums’ projects could foster coalition building among new and emerging actors. This
would allow new and emerging actors to work with peers, build partnerships with like-minded
organisations and individuals and provide mutual support. Collaboration among new and emerging actors
could take the form of set-up of working groups or regular meetings among actors working in the same
field, planning and implementation of joint activities, the set-up of an online database or forum to allow
new and emerging actors to get to know and contact each other.

- Support new and emerging civil society actors to obtain registration.

New and emerging actors that are not registered yet, but who are in the process of registering or wish to
commence the process, could be provided with the necessary technical, logistical and financial support to
accomplish the process. This could for example take the form of seed-funding for setting up organisations,
legal and administrative counselling and advice, support in gathering required documentation for
registration and others.
- Provide capacity building for new and emerging civil society actors
Many new and emerging civil society actors lack the technical, organisational and financial capacity to
develop their operations. The need for capacity building includes areas as broad as advocacy and policy
influence, international best-practices in media, gender and human rights, networking and collaboration
with other CSOs, resource mobilisation, strategic planning, project cycle management and organisational
management. Capacity building should not simply take the form of classroom trainings, but should consist
of a dynamic and possibly innovative approaches. It should also focus on supporting the implementation of
concrete activities, adopting an action oriented approach, rather than simply target general amelioration of
capacities. Ideally, capacity building will be directly linked to the development and implementation of
activities by participants. Capacity building could include, but is not limited to, internships for staff of new
and emerging CSOs, skill transfer through sharing of knowledge and resources, on-the-job support,
mentoring programmes etc. Consortia are encouraged to reflect on the methodological and pedagogical
approach taken to capacity building, both inside and outside of the consortium.

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Output 2: The capacity of civil society to check and balance state power and ensure the full implementation
of the new civil society proclamation has been strengthened.

The CSIF also aims to support CSOs and other civil society actors, in particular new and emerging ones, to
check and balance state power and ensure the full implementation of the new civil society proclamation.
This may involve both building the capacities of CSOs and informal civil society actors in these matters, as
well as designing and implementing activities for checking and balancing state power and for advocating for
citizen’s associational rights. While consortia are invited to analyse the needs of new and emerging actors
and propose their own projects, the following example activities can provide inspiration for project
proposals:
- Design and implement CSO monitoring mechanisms of government actors (including monitoring of
the ACSO.)
While many government agencies in Ethiopia collaborate with CSOs in their respective sectors when it
comes to validating and presenting their annual plans and achievements, independent CSO monitoring
mechanisms remain underdeveloped. Moreover, new and emerging CSOs remain underrepresented in such
government CSO platforms and the platforms have been found to be dominated by government actors,
instead of providing meaningful ways for CSOs to provide feedback to the government. Consortia could
develop and pilot monitoring frameworks, that allow CSOs and informal civil society actors, and particularly
new and emerging ones, to monitor government actions. The design of monitoring toolkits, as well as apps
and websites, where CSOs can report their findings and make them available to the public are possible
activities promoting CSO monitoring of the government. Moreover, the organisation of dialogue events
with government actors can ensure that the results of the monitoring are communicated back to state
actors. Establishing coalitions between CSOs and other civil society actors, will be crucial to promote
monitoring of government actors country-wide and at different administrative levels.
- Support new and emerging actors to carry out civic space monitoring and civic monitoring
(supervision of government power, reporting on abuse of government power, expansion of voices
beyond mainstream media for political agenda settings)
Many new and emerging CSOs and informal civil society actors lack experience in and capacity to carry out
civic space monitoring, tracking trends and identifying priority areas that need addressing. This includes but
is not limited to monitoring of the implementation of the regulatory framework, civil society legitimacy and
accountability, access to information and public voice, access to funding and safety and wellbeing of
people. Furthermore, many new and emerging civil society actors also lack experience in and capacity to
carry out civic monitoring, including the supervision and monitoring of government power and the
reporting of its abuse, the extraction and diffusion of information to promote transparency, the expansion
of voices beyond mainstream media to guarantee inclusive political agenda setting and finally, the
representation of members and constituents through civil society. Hence consortia could focus on
providing capacity building in the relevant areas using innovative and interactive learning approaches.
Capacity building should aim at promoting civic space and civic monitoring, supporting the development
and implementation of such activities among participants, instead of simply generating theoretical
knowledge.
- Facilitate CSO participation in democratic political reforms, including legal reform and its
implementation.
Ethiopia has recently embarked on an ambitious political and legal reform process. While civil society
organisations have been crucially involved in the reform process and have in many cases participated in
consultations to inform and validate reforms, new and emerging actors have been relatively under-
represented. Consequently, consortia could support the ability of new and emerging civil society actors to
participate in the reform process. This will require making new and emerging actors more visible to
external actors (e.g. the government, donors and more established CSOs), for example through joint social
media campaigns, negotiating access to the reform process, as well as to ensure they have the capacity to

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participate in such processes. Organising consultations on draft bills and workshops to discuss existing laws
and reform needs are other possible activities consortia can pursue.

Output 3: Civil society advocacy, in particular of new and emerging actors, for a democratic, peaceful and
stable Ethiopia has been promoted.

Since 2014, Ethiopia’s political landscape has been marked by large-scale public protests, increasing levels
of inter- and intra-communal violence, political instability and armed conflicts. The political situation has
directly affected CSOs ability to work, as many fear negative repercussions from the government if they
work on these political issues. Access to certain areas in the country has been restraint and CSOs have
encountered difficulties in their work due to an ever-increasing politicisation of society. Consequently, it is
important to strengthen the capacity of civil society, especially new and emerging actors, to contribute
towards addressing political challenges faced in Ethiopia and to actively promote and take actions for a
more democratic, peaceful and stable country. The programme provides funding to allow CSOs to
participate in addressing these challenges. Some of the following activities might provide inspiration during
the development of the project proposals.

- Promote CSO advocacy and action for the prevention and fight against intra- and intercommunal
violence in Ethiopia

Hate speech in Ethiopia has been on the rise, particularly on social media platforms. While attempts exist
among CSOs to fight hate speech, as well as intra- and intercommunal violence, largescale advocacy
campaigns remain to be developed. Consortia could focus on developing advocacy campaigns, as well as
other forms of advocacy to address the issue and to develop and provide tools to fight intra- and
intercommunal violence. Consortia could reflect on what types actions can concretely help to solve political
challenges encountered.

- Provide capacity building in relevant areas, e.g. identification and fight of hate speech, human
rights, gender and media monitoring and reporting and conflict analysis, communal dialogue,
conflict resolution.
Many new and emerging actors lack the technical capacity to help addressing Ethiopia’s political and socio-
communal challenges. Moreover, some activists and organisations are part of the problem, communicating
in conflict insensitive or even conflict promoting manners. Consortia could deliver capacity building in the
areas described above, using such events not simply for training and knowledge transfer, but also to bring
together individuals and organisations from different parts of the country and from different ideological
and political backgrounds. Consortia should reflect on how capacity building can at the same time
contribute to addressing political challenges in Ethiopia in a proactive manner. Capacity building should
promote the development and implementation of activities among participants to address current
challenges faced by the country, not simply delivering theoretical knowledge

Output 4: New approaches to advocacy, service provision and capacity building to innovate in the area of
civic activism have been piloted and upscaled.

Given that the civil society environment in Ethiopia used to be heavily restricted between 2009 and 2019,
CSOs and informal civil society actors developed best practices to operate within the given framework.
However, the new civil society law has opened up the possibility to develop new approaches to civic
activism and bring innovation in the fields of advocacy, capacity building but also service provision to
members and constituents. Therefore, consortia are invited to pilot new approaches, as well as work on
topics and areas that so far have not been covered. This is important, as civil society activism in Ethiopia in
many cases continues to adopt traditional approaches to advocacy, capacity building and service
provision, rather than pursuing innovative actions.

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