21 December 2007
Addis Abeba — The European Commission said on Thursday it awarded 9.5 Million Ethiopian Birr for capacity building of Civil Society Organisations in Ethiopia.
In a statement e-mailed to The Daily Monitor on Thursday, the commission said the grants have been awarded to the Ethiopian Initiative for Development (EID), Poverty Action Network of Civil Society in Ethiopia (PANE), Somali Pastoralist Development Forum (SPDF), Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia (PFE) and the Guraghe People's Self-Help Development Organisation (GPSDO).
The Civil Society Fund (CSF) is a 10 Million Euro Programme of support to Non-State Actors (NSA) to be implemented over a 5 year period (2006-2010) and is financed by the EC through the European Development Fund (EDF) in cooperation with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
The programme aims to increase engagement of NSA to dialogue with their constituency, among the NSA sector itself and between NSA and government while also building the capacity of local NSA to enable them to be stronger development partners.
The commission said in order to ensure an equitable distribution of resources across all regions and administrations, the 2007 Call for Proposals had earmarked some of the funds specifically for emerging regions of Ethiopia.
Accordingly, it said in the statement, the SPDF project will be based in Somali region and the PFE project in Afar region. One project will be carried out in SNNPR, while the other two will have a nationwide focus.
All projects aim at building the capacity of Ethiopian Civil Society Organisations as well as encouraging the formation of new networks and partnerships.
The award of the five new projects brings the total number of projects supported so far under the Civil Society Fund to 23.
A total of around 400 Ethiopian Civil Society Organisations are benefiting from capacity development activities in the framework of this joint Government of Ethiopia - European Union Programme.
A tripartite evaluation committee comprised of representatives of the Government of Ethiopia, Ethiopian CSOs and the European Commission had selected the five projects based on the quality of their applications.
"The European Commission is pleased to support these five ambitious projects," the Head of the Good Governance and Civil Society Section of the European Commission Delegation to Ethiopia, Irène Mingasson was quoted as saying upon the signing of the five new grant contracts: "We are furthermore hopeful that a new agreement will soon be finalised between the Government of Ethiopia and the European Commission, which would provide continued, substantial funding for a second phase of the Civil Society Fund,"she added.
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