Ethiopian NGO Sector Enhancement Initiative

August 1995 to September 2003

Pact has served as a catalytic agent in a number of critical areas and it is those interventions-sometimes subtle if not anonymous, frequently undertaken in partnership with others-that promise to accelerate improvements in the enabling environment. There is "a forward momentum in the NGO community that would be hard to reverse" in the words of one observer "and a share of the credit for that movement belongs to Pact."
Pact Ethiopia Report on the Enabling Environment for the Ethiopian NGO Sector.
Jeffrey Clark and Daniel Bekele

The NGO Sector Enhancement Initiative (ENSEI) focused on local NGO capacity building and improving the environment in which NGOs work. The ultimate goal of the project was to enable NGOs to become key participants in the country's development. At the start of the program, local NGO initiatives were often donor-driven and lacked community involvement. Moreover, the organizations faced acute capacity constraints such as trained human resources, office equipment and facilities and basic operating procedures.

The NGO Sector Enhancement Initiative is comprised of three distinct components:

• To improve the enabling environment in which NGOs work collaboratively with government on policy and development projects
• To enhance NGOs' capacity to carry out effective programs
• To strengthen NGO umbrella and networking groups to take proactive approaches in representing and supporting members

During the life of the project Pact worked with 85 local NGO partners, focusing on five sectors: health; disadvantaged youth; rural development and food security; education; and democratic practices.

Pact's approach

At the heart of Pact's approach is an NGO capacity building effort with three distinct elements:

• participatory organizational capacity assessments that allow NGOs to understand their organizational and programmatic strengths and weaknesses
• basic training and mentoring that concentrate on key organizational structures, systems and processes for effective organizational growth and service delivery
• advanced training and mentoring, increasingly in technical areas that deepen NGO impact and outreach.

NGOs completing the basic training were eligible for strategic action grants that allowed NGOs to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills in developing and/or providing services. Such grants come in three forms: commodity procurement, personnel secondment, and, most importantly, activity grants that encourage NGOs to engage in research and advocacy, develop new projects or replicate successful ones. More than 85 NGOs participated in one or more aspects of Pact's capacity building. Overall, organizational capacity of organizations measured by Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) increased by 31.8 percent. Pact also invested in human resource development by training local consultants (more than 200) in a variety of areas of organizational development. This built a large and diverse pool of local consultants to address the training needs of NGOs in the future.

In tandem with NGO capacity building, Pact sought to support the development of an enhanced operating environment for NGOs, in which NGOs increasingly engage in collaborative relationships with government ministries and departments, with other NGOs and various civil society players such as donors and the private sector. Early efforts focused on supporting NGOs in streamlining the NGO registration process, passing a NGO code of conduct, and working for a more accurate portrayal of NGO activities by the media. The program produced a guidebook on media relations for NGOs, a press kit on the contribution of NGOs to development, and videos for airing the work of local NGOs on television and at special events. Efforts also supported NGOs in passage of a new law that would allow NGOs to charge fees for services and begin to shift away from a total dependency on private contributions and donor funding.

To further leverage the work of the NGO sector, the program fostered the creation of NGO umbrella organizations and networks. Direct financial support for these nascent organizations, as well as exposure to best practices through study tours and site visits, provided a growing sense of how NGO networks can best support their membership.

Communications and information flows across NGOs and between government and NGOs are important for facilitating progress in NGO enhancement and NGO programming. Communication activities can take the form of workshops/forums, networking, liaising with media and newsletters. Since 1997 Pact has been producing a quarterly newsletter on the NGO sector that includes articles contributed by NGOs themselves. Distribution of the newsletter-called IMPact-goes to NGOs, government officials, international PVOs, donor organizations, and, increasingly, the private sector. The newsletter serves as an important source of information about NGO activities and as a forum for advocacy on issues important to the NGO community.

Broad-based support is also important for NGO growth. Since 1998 Pact has operated a multisectoral Development Resource Center (DRC) that offers a variety of services to nearly 2500 individual and NGO members. It is the only center of its kind in the country offering access to computers, printing and duplicating machines to support communication activities, as well as access to printed publications and electronic information (through the Internet) to support research and analysis. The resource center also serves as a training center, offering a variety of courses on the evenings and weekends. Course offerings cover a broad range of subjects, including financial management for non financial managers, participatory performance appraisal for managers, newsletter development, budgeting practices, fund raising skills, media and communication skills, and software training (particularly on how to use the Internet, e-mail and Microsoft publisher). The center also serves as a forum for the discussion of topical issues of interest to the NGO community.

Results

Democracy and governance

The concept of democracy and governance is growing stronger in Ethiopia. NGOs have gained a better perspective on their potential role and contribution in civil society and are willing to engage in activities that attain these ends.

ENSEI supported 15 local NGOs working in human rights, constitutional rights, voters' education, civic education, and community participation and empowerment. The D&G NGO sector has traditionally been the weakest because of government mistrust and fear of individuals to establish such organizations. This began to change in 1999-2000 as the enabling environment became more positive. An important activity supported by Pact was a national voter education project whereby six NGOs consolidated their efforts to form ENCONEL 2000. The support provided was used to develop standard materials on voter education training. Accessing all regions of the country, this program reached over 3.6 million people in voters' education.

Education

Increasingly, NGOs have been supplementing government efforts to provide access to education in rural areas. With the support of local government officials, they are reaching rural populations through awareness programs, linking health, education and job creation. Equally important, they are developing models of community participation that encourage communities to build and eventually manage their own education centers. In the process, communities have become involved in defining academic calendars, recruiting and supporting teachers/facilitators, contributing to training materials development, and promoting active child enrollment. This alternative approach to education is needs based, community oriented, and cost effective and is proving to be a viable way to educate children, particularly girls, whose enrollment rates at education centers have been steadily rising. These alternative education methods demonstrate a solid foundation for formal education can be laid that facilitates the entrance of children into the formal school system. Once perceived as being a separate or parallel form of education, alternative education is now recognized by the government as a means of reaching its target of 100 percent enrollment rate by the year 2015. Today, all regions and Woredas in the country have been issued a directive by the Ministry of Education that permits the transfer of children from alternative to formal basic education schools.

Under ENSEI Pact:

• Supported 13 local NGOs to implement 165 alternative basic education centers in Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR regions that reached over 25,000 out-of- school children.
• Provided a scholarship assistance to 585 secondary school girls in conjunction with Unity College; an additional 44 young women enrolled in degree programs with four-year college scholarships.
• Assisted NGOs in developing the first local language curriculum in the Oromiya region for use by alternative basic education programs. The curriculum was endorsed by the regional government. In addition, the program developed similar materials in pastoralist areas of South Omo.
• Developed the first facilitators (teachers) training manual, a module of 10 training materials to enhance teacher skills and methodologies in the alternative education centers. These modules are intended for use nationwide by all organizations supporting alternative basic education and have already been utilized by the Amhara Regional Education Bureau to train over 500 facilitators.
• Assisted in building the capacities of 41 secondary schools in developing clubs, tutorial and counseling services. The school clubs supported have focused on social concerns such as HIV/AIDs awareness, reproductive health, girls clubs, and environmental issues.
• The Basic Education Network (BEN), which Pact helped to facilitate, played an extremely important role in advocating for the EFA 2015 campaign. BEN represented Ethiopia in the 8th Conference of Education of African Member States in 2002.

Enabling environment

According to the 2001 Report on the Enabling Environment for Ethiopian NGOs, which looked at the work of Pact in strengthening the NGO sector, three opportunities exist for advancement of civil society:

• Expanded political space
• NGOs' involvement in the poverty reduction strategy process (PRSP)
• NGO legislation

Since Pact began working to strengthen the NGO sector significant positive change has taken place in the enabling environment, including:

• Growing government/NGO collaboration at the federal, regional and local levels on delivering critical services, including HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and establishment of a National Disaster Preparedness Fund.
• Reversal of the suspension of registration for the Ethiopian Women Lawyer's Association, which provided a rare example of effective lobbying on the part of civil society actors in Ethiopia.
• Adoption of an NGO Code of Conduct.
• The growth and effectiveness of NGO networks.
• Establishment of annual NGO Day. The first in 2000 featured the accomplishments of over 200 Ethiopian and international NGOs and involved high-level government officials, including President Dr. Negasso Gidada, who presided over the opening. The second in 2001, which was held in the capital of the SNNPR region, Awassa, attracted over 40,000 visitors and 100 local and international NGOs. Ato Simon Machale, Commissioner of the DPPC stated in his address, "the government is convinced that the NGO sector has deservedly gained recognition through its work in the community as a development partner."
• Government officials and NGO staff traveled to eight developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America on exposure tours organized by Pact to learn about GO/NGO relations, NGO regulations/legislation and best practices, networking and sectoral concerns, including education, democracy and governance, knowledge management, gender, HIV/AIDs, and micro-finance.
• Placement of over 400 interns from various Ethiopian universities with NGOs.
• Development of a media guidebook for NGOs that facilitated dialogues and linkages between media and the NGO sector. Site visits allowed media to observe first hand and report on the work and role of local NGO development efforts.

Networks

Pact spearheaded an effort to develop demand-driven, coalition-based networking in Ethiopia by providing technical and financial support to organizations interested in establishing networks. Networking was an unfamiliar concept to most Ethiopian NGOs, who worked in isolation and did not recognize the value of working together on common issues. Pact held introductory workshops on networking and facilitated sector-based NGOs to mobilize and initiate networks targeting their areas of concern. Today networking has become a well-understood concept and part of the NGO sector in Ethiopia. Specifically, Pact has facilitated the development of 10 thematic networks.

These are:

• Education - Basic Education Network
• Orphans and vulnerable children - Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Network
• Street children - Forum on Street Children Network
• Microfinance - Association of Ethiopian Micro-finance Institutions
• Microenterprise - Micro Enterprise Development Forum
• Gender - Network of Ethiopian Women's Associations
• Rehabilitation - Community Based Rehabilitation Network
• Democracy and governance - ENCONEL 2000
• Regional/local adolescent reproductive health - (name under discussion)
• HIV/AIDS - Addis AIDS Action Network

HIV/AIDS

Through Pact Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS awareness raising activities:

• 52,232 people have information and greater awareness on the causes and prevention of HIV/AIDS
• 45 peer educators were trained, who reached 2,674 factory workers and distributed over 250,000 condoms to improved workplace awareness on HIV/AIDS.
• 21 educational presentations/dramas on HIV/AIDS reached 10,350 youth and other vulnerable populations. The activities included discussion on the rights of those infected with HIV.
• 16 clubs in secondary schools with 8,865 direct members were instituted that focused on critical social concerns such as HIV/AIDS, environment, reproductive health, and family life education. A total of 46,360 students benefited from club activities. Three teacher training institutes were also conducted.

Women and children

• Provided technical and financial support that enabled the launch of the first network of women-centered organizations, which is housed with the Ethiopian Women's Lawyers Association.
• Developed a Gender Mentoring Manual that translates theoretical aspects of gender training into practical approaches that reach women at the community level.
• Provided capacity building interventions and grants management services to NGOs involved with orphans, displaced and street children with funding from USAID's Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF). As a result NGO partners saw an increase in their funding base of over 120% and a 100 percent increase in the number of beneficiaries they were able to service.