AUGUST 2021

PROJECT PROPOSAL
“CIVIL SOCIETY INNOVATION FUND”

SUBMITTED BY
Nia Foundation
IN A CONSORTIUM WITH
Noble Action Holistic Development (NAHD), Exodus Nations Charity
Organisation (ENCO), and Bright vision for Community (BVC)
Name of applicant:

1. Information about the lead PLI sponsoring the project

Title of call for projects

Applicant Nia Foundation

Acronym N/A

Legal status Re-registered, with registration number-0854

P.O. Box 1695 Code 1110 Addis Ababa,

Address
Ethiopia
Tel: 0113206160 /+251911244073/ +251 920
Telephone no. 88 9347

ellenid@nia-foundation.org
E-mail address of the applicant
/kibreabp@gmail.com
Website of the applicant (if relevant) www.nia-foundation.org

Project contact name Mr. Kibreab Petros

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

Enhanced CSOs Capacity for Advocating,

Project title
Influencing, and Service Provision
Year of establishment in Ethiopia 12th January 2006

Noble Action Holistic Development

Partners for project implementation
Locations of activities
Total cost of the action
(NAHD), Exodus Nations Charity
Organisation (ENCO), and Bright vision for
Community (BVC)
Oromia Region (East Harerghe, West
Harerghe, East Shewa Zones), South Nations,
Nationalities and Peoples (Hadiya Zone,
Wolayita Zone, Bench-Maji Zone, Kafa
Zone), Amhara region (East Gojam Zone,
West Gojam Zone, Hawi Zone)
997, 900 euro

Contribution requested from AFD 997, 900 euro

Contributions from any other partners 0.00

Duration of the action 36 months/3 years

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 2. Project proposal

2.1 Overview over proposed project

a) Project Summary
The overall objective of the project is to strengthen civil society actors’ capacity to address and
effectively influence policies, and associated two specific objectives: To strengthen the
organizational capacity of gender based CSOs across ---zones in Ethiopia and support them to
implement programs on issues that affect their communities; and to contribute to an enabling policy
framework and environment for civil society in Ethiopia and strengthen their capacity to engage
with different power holders. The project has three expected results: Strengthened capacity of 15
gender based CSOs in Ethiopia, particularly those representing marginalized and vulnerable groups,
to engage in gender programs on issues affecting them; Increased engagement of Ethiopian gender
based CSOs in policy and advocacy processes at different levels to influence power holders and
hold them to account; and Strengthened linkages and networking between
Ethiopian gender based CSOs to address gender issues and promote an enabling environment for
civil society to thrive.
The project has expected impacts in terms of the following.
Technical level impact:
 Strengthened capacities of 15 gender-based CSOs annually in their horizontal foundations,
including their management capacity, technical capacity in sectoral expertise, and operational
capacity.
 Strengthened capacities of 15 gender-based CSOs annually in their vertical influence, including
linkages with power holders and other stakeholders as well as with their communities.
 Increased and stronger networks and coalitions within Ethiopia that take collective action and
advocacy initiatives, with each gender based CSO having an average of 10 linkages with other
CSOs, government actors, private sector, media, totaling 150 linkages per year.
 Strengthened solidarity between Ethiopian gender based CSOs within Ethiopia, and with
regional and international gender based CSOs and networks.
Economic impact:
 Improved livelihoods and economic situation of women, as a result of CSO action.
 Increased access to resources and safety nets by women.
 Increased budgetary allocations by national and regional/state government to address the
development needs and rights of women in Ethiopia.
Social impact:
 A reduction of social exclusion and greater equality between social groups as a result of CSO
action.
 Greater gender equality as a result of CSO action and within CSOs themselves.
 Greater inter- and intra-community social cohesion and a mitigation of the possibility of ethnic
and communal conflicts as a result of CSO action.
Policy level impact:
 Communities, including those that are most marginalized, are able to participate in planning
processes at the community level.
 Policy makers have access to community voice in the policy making process and take
cognizance of the issues raised by civil society up to the Parliament level.
 The policy framework and operational environment for civil society to function and thrive in
Ethiopia is strengthened.
Currently, there are promising emerging strong women led organizations who want to take the
women rights/equality issues along the feminist lines partly pushed by the recurrent gender based

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and sexual violence becoming highly prevalent in the country, and there are sprouting small CSOs
advocating feminism in addition to the already existing gender based CSOs on empowerment,
protection, etc. However, these should be supported to flourish and bring impact.
The project will benefit directly 15 (approximately 600 staff members) new and emerging CSOs,
and indirectly benefit more than 70,000 marginalized and disadvantaged people supported by these
CSOs through ripple effects.
The project also benefits pertinent government sector offices through trainings and multi-
stakeholder dialogues.
b) In depth initial analysis / problem statement in the proposed area/sector
The adoption of three draconian laws, the 2008 Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to
Information Proclamation, the 2009 Proclamation to Provide for the Registration and Regulation of
Charities and Societies and the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, was particularly responsible for
the rapid shrinking of the civic space in the country, leaving scars still visible in the current process
of reform.
The 2009 CSO Proclamation on Charities and Societies was the first text comprehensively
regulating CSOs in the country, and amended the Civil Code provisions on the matter.
The 2009 law imposed serious restrictions on the principle of freedom of association in the country,
by extending the definition of “foreign NGOs” and imposing further limitations on this category; as
well as by giving extensive and abusive powers to the Charities and Societies Agency in charge of
the registration, functioning and dissolution of NGOs.
Following the regulation, 158 CSOs were shut down, 17 changed their mandate switching their
focus away from human rights, and several others drastically reduced the scope of their operations.
Some CSOs become well-established seeking the comfort zones and choose adaptation and
resilience to the stringent government rules and regulations rather than engaging in advocacy, and
even re-branded their areas of engagement from critical areas like human rights, gender and conflict
resolution to only malleable developmental aspects. Some CSOs become pro-government in that
they are sycophantic surrogates masquerading as civil society groups, praise senior government and
military officials and to attack their critics.
February 5, 2019 marked a very important and historical day for civil society organizations in
Ethiopia, which cheered the adoption of the revised Civil Society Proclamation 1113/2019,
repealing the repressive 2009 legislation. The CSO Proclamation lifts the funding restriction that
was imposed on any CSO working on the better-promotion of human rights, good governance,
anticorruption and conflict resolution. This will allow local organization to scale up again their
work on human rights, and raises hope for NGOs in exile to return to Ethiopia.
Furthermore, the new text removes most of the limitations to the scope of operations of foreign
organizations. Article 62 of the new text establishes the right of CSOs to engage in any lawful
activity. Nonetheless, Article 62(5) also establishes that foreign organizations may not engage in
lobbying political parties, unless they receive an explicit permission.
However, many CSOs registered after the new regulation but has not accessed funds, their capacity
is very weak in terms of staffs, governance, resource mobilization, and project cycle management.
They have no skills in program and proposal writing, they have no organizational structure, by-
laws, job descriptions, etc. Many CSOs are occupied with their day-to-day activities: fundraising,
project implementation, advocacy campaigns, etc., which leaves little time to step aside, for a
moment, from the routine of program implementation; take time to revisit the status of the
organizational systems; identify the source of hidden problems, and develop effective strategies for
tackling them. Therefore, CSOs need to improve their fundraising strategies, coalition-building and
financial management capacities
c) Positioning of the Consortium in Ethiopia
NIA foundation has mastered experience in the social inclusion and rights of women, children, and
disabilities for too many years. It had implemented some exciting projects like Akatun (meaning
include us) with direct beneficiaries of sex workers, returns, autistics, disabilities. Many of the

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 projects of NIA were and are implemented through strong collaboration with media (radio &TV).
To outreach and conduct mobilization, NIA hosted which invited government policy dialogues,
lobbying and multi-stakeholder events led by informers, public honorary speakers, and top policy
analysts on gender disability and right issues.
The foundation is known for its long public presence in organizing and leading multi-level
government stakeholders and CSOs of diverse nature to bring change in the aforementioned areas.
Fighting gender based violence and unequal power relations aligned to the feminist principles is the
stand of the NIA foundation.
Through its Yagebagnal project (meaning-it concerns me), Nia foundation amplified advocacy on
gender, human rights and disability by strongly collaborating with national regional media radio and
television spots. Exodus Nations Charity Organisation (ENCO) is strongly poised to gender
empowerment and support of marginalized children and youth through school sponsorship,
mobilization through school and girls club, and broadening their livelihood opportunities. Hence,
ENCO has developed youth volunteers’ engagement toolkit, and social inclusion mapping in its
targeted intervention areas. ENCO has strong gender based violence prevention strategies
particularly focused to male engagement and legal enforcement strategies.
ENCO also distributes school girls’ menstrual pads and other sanitary toolkits to school girls. The
organization has a radio-listening program which is attended by thousands of people on children
participation and gender based violence. Hence, it established and institutionalized hundreds of
village saving and lending associations, self-help groups, and women cooperatives to create
collective action for change.
Noble Action Holistic Development (NAHD) provided quality education and service delivery for
destitute children, orphans and their families by educational and livelihood support including
education materials. The organization is committed to bring gender equality through education to
girls. It has many donor base supporting its mission and currently established childcare centre in
Adama town of Oromia Region. The organization has anti-harassment and sexual violence
interventions in schools like child molestation, and school bullying through sexual violence index
assessment.
Bright vision for Community (BVC) has experience on marginalized women, children, and
disabilities particularly focused on food security, nutrition and education services provision
particularly through its women’s rights project implemented from 2017-2021. It has
established women empowerment centres in the localities that facilitate to advance their
participation and engagement for common interests.
2.2 The Project: relevance, objectives, mechanism, methodology, actions, risks

a) Operational scope and relevance

The project is designed to address internal capacity as well as the external (enabling environment)
using capacity assessment to capacity development as well as strengthening CSOs for influencing,
being engaged, and innovative service delivery through clearly defined outcomes and activities with
measurable indicators by the following intervention logic.
Intervention Logic Indicators Sources and Assumptions
means of
verification
Specifi ObjectiveOverall

Strengthen civil society Number of CSOs positioned CSOs strategy Some degree of political
actors’ capacity to for policy influence and documents, stability in the region
address and effectively advocacy advocacy and
influence policies communication Basic elements of an
plans enabling environment must
exist in the
Strengthened capacity of CSOs with strong Performance CSOs must have some
15 gender based CSOs in horizontal foundation and reports, CAT basic capacities allowing

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c Objective/Outcome
Ethiopia, particularly vertical influence assessment, iCAT them to interact with the
those representing pCAT, and MIT government
marginalized and
vulnerable groups, to
engage in gender
programs on issues
affecting them;
Increased engagement of Updated advocacy strategy, Agendas, The government must
Ethiopian gender based agendas and well- messages allow some 'space' for the
CSOs in policy and articulated messages like involvement and
advocacy processes at elevator pitches, policy State intervention of
different levels to reforms accepted by the regulations/policy civil society
influence power holders government draft given to the
and hold them to Innovative tools for service CSO for
account; delivery installed and comment
institutionalized
Strengthened linkages Active learning and Event reports
and networking between knowledge exchange
Ethiopian gender based platforms including
CSOs to address gender online/off-line community
issues and promote an of practices on specific
enabling environment for agenda
civil society to thrive.
Activities

Conduct mapping and Number of assessments

assessments /mappings done, and list of
capacity development
recommendations
Provision of small grants New and emerging CSOs CSOs project
who accessed 60,000- application
90,000 Euros document
declared as
successful by the
grant committee
Prepare/amend tailored Number and types of Organizational
organizational internal organizational assessment
documents for 15 CSOs standards/manuals documents like
developed/updated CAT, iCAT,
pCAT, MIT, and
ARVIN

Provide tailored training Number of sessions Training reports

for 15 CSO staffs and conducted, number of
board members attendees from CSOs

Promote advocacy and Number of multi- Advocacy and

innovative service stakeholder platforms policy reform
provision conducted agendas,
Number and name of comments
service provision tools
adopted by the CSO
Organizational learning Number of South-South Event reports
cooperation learnings and

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 domestic learning
exchanges conducted

b) Methodology
The project adopts rights based approach which involves mapping of rights-holders, their main
claims and the corresponding duty bearers and their specific obligations to respect protect and fulfill
those claim, map out the legal framework and formal mandates as well as the relationship between
rights holders and duty bearers, maps out the gaps in their ability to claim and fulfill rights so that
they can be addressed with capacity building exercises during the implementation phase of the
project. it seeks to realize development as well as the call thematic priorities (human rights, gender)
guided by human rights principles and standards focusing on rights-holders and duty-bearers and
their capacities to claim and fulfil obligations related to human rights. The aspiration is to
strengthen both the capacities of rights-holders to make their claims and of duty-bearers to meet
their obligations. The human rights principles of nondiscrimination, participation & inclusion,
transparency, and accountability will provide the framework for the design and implementation of
this project.
For the duty-bearers, the human rights based approach is further modified to “Making Rights Real
Approach” to fine-tune the supply side actors’ social accountability to improved service delivery for
citizens. This has been emerged from the design-thinking framework of systems models passing
through all the steps of the design thinking innovation
Putting women’s rights actors at the centre, the project seeks transformative change and
intersectionality analysis to redresses historical power imbalances between women and men, the
project will undertake a Capacity Needs Assessment and Benchmarking Tool (CAT) which
provides assessment of existing capacity provides the basis for planning and implementation as well
as monitoring progress. It is designed to support a participatory needs assessment of an
organization’s capacity for gender justice work, based on the capacity domains defined in Oxfam
Canada’s capacity building model. The CAT uses a self-assessment methodology combined with
external facilitators acting as ‘critical friends’. The assessment methodology builds on Oxfam
Canada’s feminist principles of assessment described below. The role of the facilitators — who
ideally have a good knowledge of and relationship with the partner organization — is to probe and
challenge participants to think more deeply about their organization. Together, participants in the
exercise build consensus around the specific capacities they have currently and those they need in
the future in order to strengthen their work on gender equality and women’s rights. Thus the CAT
draws on the unique knowledge, experience and perspectives of the partners in order to identify and
then assess their own organizational capacities. The CAT is a guided self-assessment tool to
structure a dialogue on existing organizational capacity strengths, weaknesses and gaps, and

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designed to support an organizational conversation for reflection, analysis and planning (it assumes
broad participation).
It is not designed as an external ‘evaluation’ of capacity or performance measurement (not for
decision-making about entering into or continuing partnerships, and It is not a full institutional
assessment or a gender audit; instead, focuses on a few key capacity areas that we believe
contribute to building strong, effective organizations with the capacity to advance gender equality
and women’s rights.
The CAT is to consolidate a picture of an organization’s current capacities around five capacity
domains critical in building strong, gender-just organizations, create a baseline on organizational
capacity for (self) monitoring purposes over a given timeframe, generate information to identify
capacity needs and support the identification of capacity building priorities.
As a preparatory action, it is essential to conduct a document scan (review any documentation that
already exists regarding the partner organization’s capacity on gender equality and women’s rights
and to encourage participants to reflect on this information as well. Useful background information
might include the following: strategic plans, institutional assessments, monitoring reports, and
evaluations as well as institutional and programmatic policies. Reviewing recommendations of
gender audits is advisable), and document the workshop. Facilitation of CAT involves a minimum
of six and a maximum of fifteen participants from the partner organization as a guide for enabling a
rich, participative process. Participants should come from different functions and levels of the
organization (including Board and volunteers) to ensure that different experiences and perspectives
are present in the room. Participants should also represent the diversity of the organization’s staff
composition.
CAT makes capacity assessment within five capacity dimensions/domains and associated areas that
includes Women’s Transformative Leadership (reflective leadership on gender and diversity,
women’s confidence and leadership capacity), Gender-Just Structures and Processes (‘living the
values’, Gender-sensitive HR policies and practices), Organizational Resilience and Sustainability
(strategic planning, mobilizing resources and financial management, gender-sensitive monitoring,
evaluation, learning and accountability), Strategic Gender Justice Relationships and Linkages
(relating and networking, communicating and sharing learning and knowledge), Transformative
Gender Justice Programming and Advocacy, and allied capacity areas (design and implementation
of programs with strong gender mainstreaming, design and implementation of stand-alone, women-
focused programs, gender equality and women’s rights-focused advocacy and campaigning):
Women’s Transformative Leadership-: Fostering women’s leadership capacities is an important
dimension of building gender-just organizations, as is their confidence to work toward transforming
existing power relations-within institutions and in society. Within mixed organizations, actions may
be needed to ensure that women hold decision-making positions and/or have the confidence,
capacity and opportunity to influence the organization’s agenda. Within women’s and feminist
organizations fostering Women’s Transformative Leadership may mean supporting processes that
explore the characteristics of feminist leadership, particularly in relation to core values and
respecting differences
At this step we explore the capacity area called capacity for leadership on gender and diversity
(Vision, mission and core principles compatible with gender equality and women’s rights, board
and senior management champion gender equality and women’s rights, specific staff positions and
spaces devoted to promoting gender equality and women’s rights (specialist staff, gender and
diversity working groups, etc.), reflective processes to support positive organizational change on
gender and diversity), capacity to nurture women’s confidence and leadership capacity (women’s
leadership development strategy exists (training and mentoring), positive recruitment/promotion
policies to achieve gender equality/diversity in staffing, especially in decision-making positions,
management actively seeks the opinions of women in organizational policy development)
Gender-Just Structures and Processes -The focus of capacity building in this domain is to support
the alignment of key organizational structures and processes with organizational commitments to
gender justice. This includes identifying and implementing specific changes to organizational

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structures, policies and practices, particularly human resources policies, to ensure that an enabling
environment is created for gender equality, diversity and inclusiveness. This will be assessed in
terms of capacity to ‘live the values’ of gender equality and women’s rights (individual and
organizational) (gender equality (and diversity) policy, action plan and/or strategy, including
accountability mechanisms, gender and diversity awareness and sensitization at all levels, flexible
working and/or work-life balance policies exist, and are widely used by staff,
childcare/nursing/toilet facilities and/ or arrangements for travelling staff exist and are widely used
by staff, anti-harassment, HIV/AIDs, sexual orientation policies exist and are used by staff, HR
systems and procedures documented and available to staff, Investment in professional development
and training of staff capacity for collaborative management and decision-making (collaborative
management approaches and decision-making styles, processes and approaches in place for conflict
management, accountability systems exist and are used (e.g. staff attitudes surveys, complaints
mechanisms).
Organizational Resilience and Sustainability- Organizations may need to strengthen capacities in a
range of areas, beyond those specifically related to gender equality and women’s rights, as part of
their pathway to becoming strong, effective, gender-just organizations. The functions, competencies
and skills emphasized in this domain include strategic planning, resource mobilization and financial
management, and organizational level monitoring and evaluation, including accountability and
performance related issues. This dimension makes an assessment of capacity to undertake strategic
planning (strategic plans developed, implemented and reported on, leaders/managers take action to
make changes in line with strategic decisions/ direction, strategic plans developed with input of
participatory consultations with stakeholders, particularly women, capacity to mobilize and manage
resources (systems and documented guidelines in place for financial management and budget
preparation and monitoring, including spend on gender equality, clearly defined fundraising
strategy and staff expertise allocated to raising funds, diversified funding base, knowledge of
donors), capacity for gender-sensitive (organizational) monitoring, evaluation, learning and
accountability systems (use of sex-disaggregated data9 and gender objectives and indicators in
progress reports and evaluations, gender-sensitive/feminist organizational level monitoring and
evaluation systems, methods and approaches, organizational monitoring, evaluation and learning
systems explicitly explore gender power transformation, clear, systematic processes to document
results and lessons learned and to feed them into program improvement, complaints mechanisms
that women program participants can access).
Strategic Gender Justice Relations and Linkage- This domain focuses on building or supporting
organizational capacities to foster alliances, networks, and movement building. The kind of
structural and institutional change we believe needs to happen to realize gender justice requires
collective efforts and mobilization of citizens through CSOs to bring about and sustain societal
change. Related to this, CSOs need strong communication skills and abilities to exchange and share
learning about what works in making change happen. This domain also focuses on building
capacities related to communicating and sharing experiences, strategies and results. It makes an
assessment of capacity to relate and network (strong networking and collaborative skills,
established relations with range of stakeholders (including government and private sector where
appropriate), active member of gender equality/ women’s right-related networks and coalitions,
clarity on role/space within the gender justice sector, capacity to communicate and share learning
and knowledge (participation in external learning events/activities on gender equality and women’s
rights, dissemination of information on program strategies and success to wide range of audiences,
seeking out relationships to learn and share experiences, generating knowledge and information on
gender equality and women’s rights.
Transformative gender-just programming and advocacy- This domain focuses on building capacity
to design, implement and evaluate transformative gender justice programming and advocacy. We
use this term to describe programming and advocacy that seeks to challenge and change the
systemic causes of injustice and gender equality. It means developing programs and advocacy work
through a lens of gender and power analysis, and building capacity related to monitoring, evaluation

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and learning about what gender justice change looks like and how it happens. It assesses in terms of
capacity to design and implement gender-sensitive programs or projects (program/project cycle
informed by gender and power analysis , including different roles and needs, problems and
opportunities of (different groups) of women relative to those of men, Women and men
(community-level) participate in program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation,
program objectives and results statements explicitly include gender equality and women’s rights
outcomes, gender equality and women’s rights mainstreamed into all thematic programs), capacity
to design and implement women-specific programs or projects (program/project cycle informed by
gender and power analysis, including different roles and needs, problems and opportunities of
(different groups) of women relative to those of men, and women’s specific programs developed as
appropriate, women and men (community-level) participate in program development,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation), capacity to undertake gender equality and women’s
rights focused advocacy and campaigning work (clearly articulated advocacy agenda and priorities
on gender equality and women’s rights, investment in gender-sensitive policy research and analysis,
advocacy and negotiation skills, participation in informal/formal coalitions with gender justice
advocacy objectives, facilitating local women’s influence in regional/national/international
advocacy/campaigns and fora).
Finally, participants rate their current capacities across the five Capacity Domains/twelve Capacity
areas on a scale from 0-4. The process generates rich discussion on perceptions of current levels of
capacity in relation to desired or aspirational capacity.
Besides, the project promotes cyclical action-reflection process of capacity strengthening in
addition to the formal training or workshop. This is particularly applied for the small-sub grant
provision in which continuous/iterative mentoring and accompaniment is delivered to the new and
emerging CSOs both pre-access and post grant of this small grant program. As part of the
mentoring process, the project will use third-generation tools called Independent Capacity
Assessment Tool (iCAT) and Participatory Capacity Assessment Tool (pCAT) to document
capacity baselines for CSOs, changing capacity, and identify specific areas for follow up. A
Mentoring Intensity Tool will be used to track and quantify the mentoring investments made by the
action, supported by documentation of inputs made. This is based upon the premise that training
alone or resources alone do not result in strengthened capacity. Training can support the
development of technical skills, but these must be embedded through practice. Practice, meanwhile,
presents opportunities for new learning – if time is taken for reflection, to identify lessons and plans
for future action. The action-reflection cycle therefore comprises four inputs that are interrelated
and tailored to each CSO based on an ongoing mentoring relationship: mentoring, to facilitate
reflection, resourcing, to facilitate action, learning through training and exposure and linkage
building. In practice, the mentoring process establishes trust and familiarity between the consortium
and CSOs and enables the consortium to assist partners in reflecting on strategic aims, identify
needs for capacity strengthening, and provide hands-on advice and accompaniment in the
implementation of initiatives that reinforce the skills and knowledge acquired. Specific technical
skills and knowledge are strengthened through formal workshops or exposure visits in areas
identified as relevant through the mentoring process. Exposure visits also generate new ideas and
innovative ways of addressing development challenges. Resources enable partners to put knowledge
into action and learn by doing. As partners implement initiatives, the action will facilitate
opportunities to reflect on what is working and what is not, the differing impact of these initiatives
on men and women, what can be learned and what can be done differently in the future. All these
activities occur against a background of facilitating linkages to other actors in Ethiopia -building
connections between CSOs and other actors as trainers or peers, as allies or advocacy targets, or to
provide additional resources. This approach can be looked in four components that encourages
innovation as CSOs go through the cycles of learning, doing, and reflecting, which again leads to
learning and doing better. Participatory approaches will be used throughout, from the capacity
assessments through to reflection and learning from initiatives, which ensures ownership of the
capacity strengthening process. This also ensures that capacity strengthening is an empowering

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and enabling process for CSOs. The criteria for selecting CSOs and projects for small grants
includes community participation, thus strengthening the vertical and horizontal linkages between
the CSOs and their members and the communities they work with. CSOs ownership of the action
and of the capacity strengthening process, particularly of allocating resources, will be piloted and
strengthened by this action through formation of the grant committee, who will make decisions
about how to allocate small grants and convene an annual meeting to share lessons and learning
between groups receiving sub-grants. Partnership means collaboration around shared values and
objectives, to create added value.
The cyclical action-reflection process will strengthen the two core areas called horizontal
foundation explained by horizontal foundations/areas (accountability and transparency –
strengthened organizational governance, self-regulatory mechanisms, strong financial management
systems, sharing of information and downward accountability); diversity and inclusiveness (gender
mainstreaming, representation of vulnerable and socially excluded groups); community ownership
(participation of the community; engaged, capable and motivated members; promoting leadership to
address their own challenges); innovation, learning and adaptation (undertaking action to test
actions to learn from them, and adapting approaches based on this learning); strong linkages with
other CSOs (for increased cooperation, access to resources, and learning from each other; and
vision and leadership (for an equitable society that is inclusive and representative), and
vertical influence/foundation includes access to power holders (including state actors and non-state
agencies involved in governance processes); confident, skilled and capable members (engaged in
development and rights initiatives); credibility (through evidence based approaches); mobilized
citizens (access to information, capable citizens motivated to take action); strong linkages with
other actors (includes other CSOs, donors, private sector, to strengthen collective action and
influence; and voice (to advocate and to hold the state accountable).
The project also undertakes assessment of the Enabling Environment for Civic Engagement using
ARVIN Framework. To start with it demystifies the enabling environment for civic engagement as
a set of interrelated conditions that impact on the capacity of CSOs and other development actors to
engage in development policies, strategies and projects at the national and local level in a sustained
and effective manner. Enabling elements of civil society (association; resources-human, financial
and physical capital; voice-voting, lobbying, demonstrating, talk-radio; information-right and access
to low or no cost information; negotiation-frequency and influence of forums. Then follows gamut
of institutional and organizational dynamics within civil society itself that influence the ARVIN
“enabling elements”, along with the external factors. These dynamics include such factors as
accountability, representation, legitimacy, institutional and organizational capacities, self-
regulation, and institutional relationships among civil society groups and between civil society
groups and the state and private sector. During this process, exhaustive effort will be done to engage
stakeholders (government, civil society representatives, lawyers, banks, etc.) to identify constraints
or limitations in the environment for civic engagement, on the basis of which they can articulate
focus areas for improving the environment for civic engagement through specific legal and policy
reforms.
The ARVIN process involves preparation of concept note and terms of reference, define the scope
of the work, institutional mapping of stakeholders that is used for identifying informants, literature
reviews and background paper, identify sources of data and information, elaboration of priority
themes and key questions, and articulate expected inputs and resources, outputs and outcomes.
Stakeholder analysis will be conducted to identify the institutions and individuals associated with
legal reform for civil society, or otherwise with an interest in the process and outcomes of analyzing
the environment for civic engagement. The stakeholder analysis will be used as a basis for selecting
participants to the first orientation workshop preceding the assessment process, and to identify
interviewees and participants in the assessment process. Applying participatory, qualitative and
quantitative research methods, stakeholders will be engaged in assessing the legal environment for
civic engagement based on the ARVIN framework and its comprehensive checklist of key
questions. The process will employ a combination of individual interviews, focus group

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discussions, workshops and questionnaires (with open ended and closed questions). And
complementing this will be detailed literature reviews and analysis which will include legislation,
policy documents, parliamentary proceedings, academic papers and other relevant materials. An
introductory workshop will be organized for selected participants at the beginning of the assessment
which conduct a facilitated review of the scope, approach and methodology of the project.
Participants will comment on the assessment process and make recommendations. The main output
of the complete assessment process will be a stakeholder generated analysis of constraints in the
legal framework, and a set of recommendations for legal and policy reforms.
Therefore, findings of this ARVIN assessment will inform the project promoter (consortium) to
design innovative and new tools for service.
Activities under each of the results is detailed below.
Result 1-Strengthened capacity of 15 gender based CSOs in Ethiopia, particularly those
representing marginalized and vulnerable groups, to engage in gender programs on issues affecting
them; Increased engagement of Ethiopian gender based CSOs in policy and advocacy processes at
different levels to influence power holders and hold them to account. Activities under the result 1
include:
1.1. Conduct mapping and assessments
1.1.1. Conduct gender based CSO mapping in the project target regions
1.1.2. Conduct ARVIN/CSOs enabling environment assessment
1.1.3. Conduct assessment of gender-based CSOs enabling environment using CSI (Civil Society
Index)
1.1.4. Conduct Capacity Needs Assessment and Benchmarking Tool (CAT)
1.1.5. Conduct conflict sensitivity survey
1.1.6. Develop Mentoring Intensity Tool (MIT)
1.1.7. Conduct Independent Capacity Assessment Tool (iCAT) and Participatory Capacity
Assessment Tool (pCAT) to document capacity baselines for CSOs
1.1.8. Conduct Mentoring for 15 CSOs:
1.2. Provision of small grants: Having completed the assessments of capacity and enabling
environment, and delivery of moderate tailored mentoring processes to the target 15 CSOs, it is
now a time to provide small-grants (seed money) for selected six CSOs who become
successful based upon the evaluation by the project’s grant committee. This will enable CSOs
to ‘do’ or to undertake actions/initiatives through which they can put their learning, skills and
knowledge into practice and through this practice refine them. Reflecting on these
actions/initiatives then enables them to learn and identify new areas for strengthening their
capacities. This is referred to as the ‘action-reflection cycle. Small sub-grant of 60,000.00
-90,000.00 Euro will be directly awarded for successful CSOs, the size of fund for each
successful CSO will be determined by the criteria set by the grant committee. The call will
develop criteria for selecting these entities and giving financial support, types of entities
eligible to receive financial support, different types of activities eligible for financial support,
and objectives and results to be obtained with the financial support, criteria for selecting these
entities and giving financial support, criteria for determining the exact amount of financial
support for each entity, maximum amount which may be given, process for deciding upon
entities to support
1.3. Prepare/amend tailored organizational internal documents for 15 CSOs
1.3.1. update/develop strategic plan
1.3.2. update/develop human resources manual
1.3.3. update/develop financial procedures and policy manual
1.3.4. update/develop gender, culture and diversity policy guideline
1.3.5. update/develop donor fiduciary/fidelity guideline
1.3.6. develop managing conflict of interest policy
1.3.7. develop due diligence policy
1.3.8. develop cyclical action-reflection mentoring manual

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1.4. Provide tailored training for 15 CSO staffs and board members
1,4.1. Provide training on human rights based approaches
1.4.2, Provide training on ARVIN framework
1.4.3. Provide training on feminist and women transformational leadership
1.4.4. Provide training on intersectionality approach to programming
1.4.5. Provide training on gender transformation approach
1.4.6. Training on gender frameworks (Harvard, moser, GAM, etc.)
1.4.7. Training on participatory sex-disaggregated monitoring and evaluation
1.4.8. Training on gender and social mapping
1.4.9. Training on gender responsive budgeting
1.4.10. Training on gender responsive evaluation
1.4.11. Training on conflict sensitive programming for CSOs
1.4.12. Host local conflict resolution workshops
Result 2- Increased engagement of Ethiopian gender based CSOs in policy and advocacy processes
at different levels to influence power holders and hold them to account. Activities under this result 2
include the following.
2.1. Promote advocacy and innovative service provision
2.1.1. update/develop advocacy strategy for 15 CSOs
2.1.2. Support evidence based (collected through research, documentation and studies) advocacy
2.1.3. Host bi-annual multi-stakeholder platforms
2.1.4. Hold seminars with anchor institutions like universities, research and policy studies for
gender issue debates and presentations
2.1.5. Conduct action dialogues and policy dialogues based upon issues identified by activity 2.1.4.
2.1.6. Organize feminist press conference
2.1.7. Conduct research for feminist advocacy
2.1.8. Conduct service mapping/assessment of 15 CSOs
2.1.9. Conduct CSO social accountability workshops based upon findings of activity 2.1.8.
2.1.10. Promote special tools of CSO accountability (performance assessment and evaluation, self-
regulation, social audit, exit interviews, life events, client journey mapping, citizen charter, common
assessment framework, etc.)
Result 3- Strengthened linkages and networking between Ethiopian genders based CSOs to address
gender issues and promote an enabling environment for civil society to thrive. Activities for result 3
include the following.
3.1. Organizational learning
3.1.1. Conduct learning visits to Uganda and Kenya (south-south learning cooperation)
3.1.2. Conduct peer learning/knowledge exchange with similar CSOs
3.1.3. Host outcome harvest and most significant change workshops
3.1.4. Workshop events for organizational capacity building monitoring (Capacity assessment
monitoring chart, Focus capacity building areas monitoring chart, and significant organizational
change stories)
3.1.4. outcome mapping training
4. Cross-cutting activities
4.1 baseline assessment (using the iCAT tool)
4.2. Mid-term evaluation (iCAT &pCAT tools)
4.3. Quarterly Reflection Meetings
4.4. Mid-term Learning Review (MTLR)
4.5. Joint Monitoring Visit
4.6. Audit and Expenditure Verification

c) Identification and selection of the beneficiaries

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The consortium member organizations have been selected by rapid review of organizations
catalogue available at the charities and societies organization database and evaluated their
competency areas, their experiences and presence within the community. After that, the member
organizations made consultations, the way to respond to the call, role of each for proposal
preparation, signing operation and partnership agreements, etc.
The project will select new and emerging CSOs based upon criteria of aligned with vision of the
Ethiopian CSO strategy, committed to non-violent positive social change, engagement and
mobilization, trusted and respected by their communities, able to maintain and develop upward and
downward accountability, committed to reflection and learning, have potential to sustain themselves
and grow in capacity, linkages, scope of vision and ability to make positive social change.
As an outset, we approached the Federal Charities and societies Agency and confirmed that there
are about 57 CSOs who focused their thematic priority on gender. We analyzed their engagement
areas/zones, year of establishment, grant history, and outreach/beneficiary. Then, the consortium
members sat down and made discussion how many to include in this project and justify the reason.
The consortium limited the number only to 15 based upon the available budget and the number of
years the investment will exist. Hence, the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all the 15 CSOs
receiving support annually through the action will be final beneficiaries of this action. They will
benefit through improved gender equality, and an ability to engage with and influence power
holders on issues that affect them, leading to empowered and active citizens. The 15 CSOs will gain
strengthened capacities in terms of their horizontal foundations and vertical influence.
The consortium will develop partnerships with these 15 CSOs, through an iterative process which
begins with low investments by providing mentoring and advice and regularly assess the potential
of this partnership leading to positive change. If this shows a positive change the consortium will
conduct iCAT followed by further decisions of increased support. This will enable the consortium
to innovate and test relationships and potential partnerships before making decisions about further
investments of time or resources. Furthermore, if higher-intensity investments are desired, such as
small sub-grants, an iCAT assessment will be conducted as part of deepening the relationship.
Therefore, the consortium will manage both a set of established relationships along with additional
nascent ones. After completion of iCAT, the 15 CSOs will be provided an extended
mentoring/accompaniment on proposal writing, and then a call ranging from 60,000-90,000 will be
aired for the 15 CSOs to compete and access the small sub-grant scheme. Among the 15 CSOs, only
six nascent/new and emerging CSOs will access the sub-grant after their proposal evaluation by the
grant committee to be established within the consortium.et criteria for application. This will
enhance their managerial, operational and technical capacities through the action-reflection process.
This will consist of planning and implementing small grant funded projects that seek to promote
positive social change, paired with mentoring, learning platforms, and linking and network building
(explained in detail in the methodology section above). Since these CSOs are not preselected but
will be selected based on demand and on the criteria defined a conservative estimate based upon the
target populations of current partners indicates at least 50,000 people will benefit.
The project will also result in interventions that seek to influence power holders and hold them to
account, in particular the governments from the local to the national levels, through strengthening
the voice of communities, including those from marginalised groups, e.g. women, and engagement
by civil society. This will enable them to gain insight into the demands from the communities and
civil society in order to craft legislation and policies that are pro-people and gender sensitive
&gender responsive, as well as implement policies and programmes in a manner that strengthens
gender equality.
d) Gender
As explained in the methodology section, the project fosters gender transformative approaches
(empowerment plus mainstreaming) with structural method (understanding and unveiling all actors
with their roles), an inclusive and target modalities of gender programming.

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Accordingly, the project will provide training on tools for gender analysis like activity profile, tools
to collect gender related information (timeline, calendar, access and control profile), Gender
analysis frameworks (Harvard analytical framework, Moser framework, Gender analysis matrix
(GAM), Women’s empowerment (Longwe) framework, Capacities and vulnerabilities analysis
framework, and Social relations approach).
The project also promotes gender-just organizations structures and processes, women
transformative leadership.
The project also develops gender policy guideline, tools related to gender mainstreaming
(awareness raising, technical training, action learning, and audits), and intersectionality analysis
(convergence of different types of discrimination – as points of intersection or overlap). The project
conducts a participatory sex-disaggregated monitoring and evaluation, gender analysis and gender
responsive evaluation, gender responsive budgeting, conducts assessments of gender inclusion
mapping within zonal social structures and sector offices.
e) Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring, evaluation and learning includes baseline setting by the iCAT assessment which
provides an assessment of the status and role of civil society at large in Ethiopia at the beginning of
the action, and the final evaluation will take this into account whilst assessing the outcomes of the
action. In this way, the project will assess CSO partner capacity by undertaking additional iCAT or
pCAT reviews and comparing them to results documented in the baseline iCATs. These iCAT
Review and pCAT Review results will then be presented at team Quarterly Reflection Meetings for
validation. The result of Validated iCAT and pCAT reviews will be collated by the consortium
quarterly and shared with AFD. The consortium will also conduct regular monitoring visits to the
new and emerging CSOs, as well as document notes during mentoring interactions. To develop a
data set to inform the above assessments, on a monthly basis each consortium member CSO team
collects these monitoring and mentoring notes into a monthly report that details snapshots of
changing partner capacity, achievements, and consortium inputs including sub-grants provided,
learning platforms accessed, and the intensity of mentoring provided to each new and emerging via
Mentoring Intensity Tool.
The consortium also establishes and manages a database (MIS) as a part of the M&E Framework, at
a central level (consortium) maintains a database that tracks and collates reports by programme
teams covering sub-grants given - with related information, learning platforms, mentoring intensity,
and achievement stories. These databases will be populated with information extracted from the
monthly and quarterly reports submitted by programme teams, as well as independent data
collection by the consortium M&E team. The action will also strengthen the collection of
quantitative and qualitative gender disaggregated data.
The consortium will also undertake joint monitoring visits to selected CSOs along with three times
a year and share documentation of observations, lessons and recommendations arising from these.
An internal mid-term review will be done in Year 2 using participatory approaches that will enable
the consortium to look at progress and undertake any course correction measures if needed to
strengthen the action and overall programme. An external evaluation will be conducted at the end of
the action to look at progress towards the overall and specific objectives, the impact, effectiveness,
and sustainability of the action, and make recommendations for future actions

At the consortium level, the project uses three tools for organizational capacity building monitoring
and learning namely: Capacity assessment monitoring chart, Focus capacity building areas
monitoring chart, and Significant organizational change story.
Capacity assessment monitoring chart-helps partners to monitor their progress over the twelve
capacity areas through an annual self-assessment process that is essentially a scaled down version of
the CAT.
Focus capacity building areas monitoring chart focuses on monitoring and reporting on specific
activities that have been implemented in relation to the focus areas in the Capacity Building

14
Strategy, either in a workshop setting or a face-to-face meeting. This qualitative tool allows partners
to reflect on progress in the focus areas of the Capacity Building Strategy. The tool is designed to
generate more depth in data and analysis of capacity changes that have potentially resulted from
activities completed and to highlight areas for program adjustment. This analysis can be undertaken
at the partner level as well as at the program level through an aggregation of data in the completed
templates from partners.
It involves analysis of priority focus areas (reference capacity area/domain), summary of actions
needed to achieve desired capacity level (and timeframe), proposed capacity building activities to
improve capacity level (reference capacity building menu), accomplishments: make a note of
progress towards improving the capacity levels in each focus area.
Significant organizational change story tool is designed to elicit reflection and learning on
organizational (or individual) change processes linked to capacity building initiatives related to the
program. It borrows from the process of ‘storytelling’ in the Most Significant Change (MSC)
technique. The stories are used to dig deeper and understand the critical events and enablers of
organizational change with partners. Borrowing from Most Significant Change (MSC) technique15,
this qualitative tool is designed to elicit reflection and learning on organizational (or individual)
change processes linked to capacity building initiatives related to the program. Through a process of
storytelling, the technique is used to encourage partners to dig deeper and to understand the critical
events and enablers of organizational changes they have experienced. The stories provide rich data
for program-level learning and improvement as well as evidence of organizational change (results).
Information from other sources (Monitoring reports from CSOs visits by field staff, CSO financial
reports, CSO learning events, CSO case studies, capacity building program evaluations, self-
assessment, peer reviews, evaluations of training programs (to track changes at individual level),
gender audits of CSOs, CSO annual review and reflection processes, constituency feedback
mechanisms that provide information on CSO satisfaction level, where they exist, can be used to
triangulate findings from the monitoring data
In a workshop setting, facilitators support participants to identify stories and work through the key
factors and actors in groups, to create a set of two to four change stories from the partner
organization. Photographs or video clips may also be useful as supporting documentation for these
stories.
Participants are encouraged to identify significant change stories that best represent their
organization’s transformation or journey in becoming a more effective, gender-just organization.
Facilitators’ role is to encourage partners to undertake analysis and reflection of their change stories
to build evaluative thinking skills they can apply in different contexts. Hence, the project will
undertake analysis of factors and actors in terms of Why was this change (‘issue’ or ‘problem’)
perceived as important one in your context? (In other words, what was the issue the capacity
building intervention sought to address?), What happened? Who was involved? Where did it
happen? When did it happen? Why did it happen? What enabled the change to occur? What did
your organization do with or as a result of this change? Why do you consider this change
significant?
The new and emerging CSOs are beneficiary of this specific project who directly implement
different project operations at the community and society level. Therefore, this project will promote
monitoring, evaluation and learning systems that are expected to be conducted on the community.
Hence, the project uses participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) which recognizes that
development results are subjective and vary between different interest groups (such as women and
men) emphasis on the inclusion of a wider sphere of stakeholders in the M&E process believing that
the stakeholders who are involved in development planning and implementation should also be
involved in monitoring changes and determining the indicators for success’ in this case the project
applies the four categories of PM&E methods to the varying considerably operating context:
participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and related tools, audio-visual tools, quantitative tools, and
tools from the anthropological tradition. PRA tools vary from transect and group walks to matrix
scoring and community mapping, audio-visual techniques include storytelling, songs and the use of

15
videos, quantitative tools like community surveys, and oral testimonies and participant observation
techniques.
The project also employs feedback systems to generate customer-orientated data about intended
beneficiaries’ perceptions of how well an intervention is working during its life cycle, either the
process of an intervention (such as the quantity and quality of services provided by staff) and/or the
results achieved. This project will promote adoption of feedback systems from the non-consortium
CSOs, donor, consortium member partners, and government sectors using a variety of different
feedback-based tools such as citizen report cards and community scorecards, customer satisfaction
survey to improve the customer-orientation of their services.
The project promotes organizational learning using peer learning (learning from and exchanging
experiences with other projects with similar activities), Mentoring (support of a less experienced
actor by a more experienced one), learning by doing (developing skills and competencies through
new ways of working), learning visits (south-south exchanges with east African countries, Uganda
and Kenya), learning networks (annual learning workshops/summits among the project partners).
This project has a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation process at project level which included
annual reporting (financial, log-frame, risk matrices and narrative), quality assurance visits, end of
project evaluations and project completion reports.
The Project will use different strategies for monitoring.
First, having the flexibility to revise outputs, indicators and milestones to accommodate changing
circumstances, log-frame is very useful to break down targets into achievable milestones; actively
monitor the progress of the project against outcomes and output indicators;
The project also establishes a strong functioning system serving as interlocutor of
compliance/conformity to ensure that mandatory donor processes and standards
are adhered to by, for example, quality assuring financial and narrative reporting, financial
management and reporting, M&E and value for money to enable them to fulfil their fiduciary
responsibility.
As mechanisms for evaluation, the project applies a combination of the following techniques.
Mid-term learning review (MTLR)/workshops- The mechanism will engage participants in a
dynamic, reflective exercise to more systematically capture the strategic learning and results
generated by the project using adaptations of three evaluative methodologies: Outcome Mapping,
Outcome Harvesting and Most Significant Change. The workshops are expected to constitute the
principal data gathering avenue and facilitate the CSOs to tell stories of the change their
organization had experienced during involvement with the project as they moved towards becoming
a stronger gender-just organization, to collectively articulate what a strong gender equality and
women’s rights organization looks like; and, to foster commitment, creativity and initiative in
monitoring and evaluating their programs and projects.
Outcome Mapping (OM) is a methodology for planning, monitoring and evaluating development
initiatives that aims to bring about social change. Outcome Mapping as a process helps teams to be
specific about the changes they expect their program to contribute to and the actors their program
will involve as well as key considerations in strategy development.
Outcomes are measured in terms of the changes in behavior, actions or relationships that can be
influenced by the program. For the MTLR, the evaluation team drew on these principles of the OM
approach — including OM concepts around attribution and contribution, spheres of influence, and
boundary partners. As well, the methodology will incorporate OM’s seven-step Intentional Design
process — primarily a design and planning tool, nevertheless the steps can be used to
retrospectively analyze a program, making it useful for the purposes of a learning review. In this
learning exercise, participant CSOs will develop pathways of change/pathways that could be
generalized to represent the large body of different organizations involved, and owning to the
highly contextualized differences among the CSO organizations, participants can further present
‘critical enablers’ as a menu of options for organizational transformation.
In order to dig deeper and understand the critical events and enablers of change for each
participating CSO organization, the evaluation will apply the Most Significant Change (MSC)

16
technique, participants will document detailed stories supporting what they feel are the ‘most
significant changes’ their organization had experienced in a number of defined areas (While
recognizing that many important events and outcomes happen within an organization’s day-to-day
operations and that any of these ‘stories’ hold interesting and significant information about the
workings of the organizations in question, the project evaluation requires the MTLR participant
CSOs to identify those significant change stories that best represents their organization’s
transformation/ journey in becoming a more effective, gender-just organization). Collectively, these
significant change stories will be examined for patterns of change within and across CSOs, as well
as for identifying interesting ‘outlier’ stories describing organizational change. This process can be
described as ‘Outcome Harvesting’. Outcome Harvesting is a utilization-focused, participatory tool
which allows the MTLR to identify, formulate, verify, and make sense of outcomes that the project
influenced. Outcome Harvesting does not measure progress towards predetermined outcomes or
objectives, but rather collects evidence of what has been achieved, and works backward to
determine whether and how the project or intervention contributed to the change.
In the case of the MTLR, the stories will be aggregated, synthesized, and analyzed to look for
patterns. Story, or change, that is significant for one organization (at a particular time and place in
its organizational development journey), may not hold the same meaning or significance for another
organization due to differences in context, thematic focus, and its relationship with its own local
partners.
The project will share quarterly financial utilization statements with AFD as part of financial
monitoring that explains burn rate, remaining balance by each budget category/master budget
components and activity based financial performance. The project also conducts annual
organizational audits and expenditure verification. The project prepares interim technical and
financial reports for submission to the AFD through the Lead Agency (NIA Foundation).
f) Sustainability
 The project aims to build the institutional capacity of CSOs so they can be self-sustaining within
their communities. The action will facilitate these organisations to come together through
linkages and networking to enahance their influence and access to financial resources through
joined up planning and coordination, and linkages with funding partners.
 The project will also provide financial assistance to CSOs to conduct community owned
sustainable development projects. Through the introduction of creative ideas such as community
contributions, these initiatives will be able to continue beyond the project life
 The action will strengthen the confidence and skills of communities, especially those from
marginalized groups, and CSOs to engage in social action. Such behavior changes through
increased knowledge power, commitment and participation will remain beyond the end of the
action.
 Mentoring and technical support for CSOs to increase their engagement and relationships with
their constituent communities will increase CSOs’ legitimacy and community ownership over
the outcomes.
 Successful advocacy will contribute to community self-esteem and long-term confidence
building. This will be a transferable skill and help other stakeholders and non-state actors with
similar interests through linking them in the action directly or indirectly (participating in
networking events, information dissemination through publication of research, advocacy, etc.).
 Successful advocacy will also ensure provision of and access to equitable basic services for
marginalized communities. Infrastructure and services will be developed through the action
depending on community vulnerabilities and prioritization, which will remain in place beyond
its duration.
 The action will have a strong advocacy, lobbying and campaign agenda from community/local
to national level for possible policy reform and strategy development related to a legal and
policy framework for the growth of civil society but also in relation to local level issues

17
 identified as priority areas by the communities. The impact of this on the legal and policy
framework as well as operational practices will continue beyond the duration of the action.
 The activities include technical support relating to development of advocacy strategies, both
individual and collective, which will enable the CSOs to continue advocacy, thus continuing to
influence the legal and policy framework.
 The facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogue between CSOs, government and other
stakeholders will build trust, relationships and create strong partnerships and alliances among
diverse actors, thus contributing to the institutionalization of dialogue, accountability and
responsiveness between civil society and other development actors.
 By building gender into the action, the action will ensure the development of a common
framework for joint action with gender equality at its heart.
g) Analysis of risks
The project anticipated some potential risks which might jeopardize the implementation of the
project. The first and foremost is the tumultuous nature of the Ethiopia at this moment with
escalated ethnic and political violence. The project will mitigate this using traditional conflict
resolution mechanisms involving mediation and peace ritual ceremonies.
The other risk is the weak nature of capacity and commitment caused by past stringent CSO
regulations in Ethiopia that caused fear and non-confident CSOs. The project will minimize this risk
through its strengthened mentoring and capacity development plans.
The conservative and change resistant nature of the community towards feminism. The project will
break this attitude through evidence based dialogues and showcasing of changes in other countries.
Using risk matrix, we can analyse the risks and mitigation measures as shown.
Risk Likelihood of Likelihood of impact Mitigation measures
occurrence
Instability, conflict and High High Traditional conflict
violence resolution methods,
local peace ritual
events
Weak and low Low Medium Intensive capacity
commitment development through
mentoring and training
Feminism resistance Medium Low Showcasing and
justification through
alternative discourses
and evidences.

2.3 Resources Employed

a) Organisational framework & Operating procedures

Four CSOs with diverse experience made a consortium partnership to implement the project.
Member of the consortium are: Noble Action Holistic Development (NAHD), Exodus Nations
Charity Organisation (ENCO), and Bright vision for Community (BVC).
Implementing partners came into an agreement to form a strong partnership – a Consortium that
works in cooperative and complimentary manner while implementing the program. The Consortium
will be governed based on several key principles: while NIA Foundation, as a lead partner, is in
charge of the financial and programmatic administration of the project, each member of the
Consortium has its clearly defined area of work; however; all members of the Consortium work on
the implementation of the overall program jointly, and mutual enrichment of different parts of the
project takes place as planned. The Consortium agreed that joint planning, strategizing, internal

18
learning and knowledge sharing is an important principle to maintain throughout the program’s
lifespan. The dynamics of working with partners is important to consider on a continuous basis as
partners are expected to bring different capacities, strengths, weaknesses, leadership styles, ways of
managing projects or managing staff and budgets. The consortium members have varying
experiences of management and monitoring processes, communication strategy for the Program,
data collection, training and evaluation methodologies, publication, financial and programmatic
reporting and monitoring processes, procurement and financial management of individual projects,
which requires synchronization. Dedication of time and resources to the Consortium management is
among key prerequisites for successful accomplishment of such a large-scale, multi-partner project.
NIA Foundation has been selected as a lead applicant based upon organization’s willingness,
operational capacity and ability to ensure quality program development, financial management and
reporting. The lead agency is well-branded for its gender and social inclusion mobilization and
value clarification convocation events with state authorities and other core stakeholders. The
foundation pushes the boundaries of mobilization along the feminist principles of organizing and
mobilizing gender equality. Hence, it comes with an added value of feminist analytic like
intersectionality and capacity tools like CAT, which is broadly explained in the methodology
section. The foundation has extended relationship and established network with media engagement
for advocacy awareness raising, community mobilization, confronting violation of right of people
with disability, various types of abuses girls and women are facing, children who are dehumanized
and trafficked across regions and borders.
As the consortium has been formed by organizations with diverse specialization for the CALL
Priorities, the action has an added value of complementarity, demonstrated added impact from their
high performance and catalytic practices, increased trust from the organizations long presence and
good image within the grassroots communities. Besides some organizations completed their
organizational capacity assessment (OCA) by other donors including the Lead Agency (Nia
Foundation),. This is a novel complement to the capacity building component of the project. The
consortium creates on stream of accountability, one contract incorporating all performance
measures, and streamlined reporting.
The consortium has limited its members only to four organizations due to small budget volumes
available to individual partners.
For this particular call, project management will follow consortium hub and spoke model that
collectively accommodates both applicant and non-applicant new & emerging CSOs. The
coordination follows 3W maps (what, when, and who) for effective implementation of this project.
The consortium hub will be NIA Foundation, and main spokes are co-applicants, sub spokes will be
populated by new & emerging CSOs of four geographic gender clusters The consortium will
operational terms of reference, annual operational plans, instituted monthly coordination meetings
and jointly produced 3w maps that show the various interventions implemented by each
organization.
NIA Foundation is specialized in advocacy and policy dialogue. Moreover, the foundation has
completed organizational capacity assessment.
NAHD and ENCO are specialized in awareness raising, mobilization
BVC is specialized in social inclusion and women empowerment

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Under the leadership of the project governance, project technical team will be established which
spearhead for the capacity building. The technical team is comprised of three teams with each team
comprising three persons making total of the technical team nine. The first sub team is the
assessment and capacity development tea, the second team is the advocacy and communication
team, and the last is the service innovation team. The technical team is composed of selected staff
members from the three co-applicants and lead organization. The main tasks of this technical team
are to conduct assessments and cyclical action-reflection based mentoring. The strategy is that
external consultants will give capacity building training/coaching to the technical team, and the
teams will then step-down to the staffs of CSOs.
Project monitoring and evaluation will be performed through joint monitoring like joint field visits
and monitoring missions covering the field/main offices of the consortium, and the consortium also
develops and implements joint quality assurance system.
In order to effectively coordinate and manage the implementation of the proposed action, NIA
Foundation has a strong and highly experienced full-time project manager at its head office, Addis
Ababa, to oversee the overall action implementation process, facilitate agreements and reporting to
regional bureaus, liaise with AFD (Donor) office and coordinate with other regional and national
level initiatives. In addition, at Addis level there will be an Action Governance Team which will be
formed from all consortium member organizations to act as the supreme decision making body on
strategic, operational and implementation issues. The lead applicant (NIA Foundation)’s head of
programmes will chair the team and the action manager will serve as secretariat for this team. The
team will comprise senior staffs from the three co-applicants (NAHD, ENCO, and BVC).
At targeted intervention zonal levels, the lead applicant (NIA foundation) and the co-applicants
have coordination offices in most of these zones to manage the action implementation processes.
This will enable the consortium to closely and smoothly communicate with the direct beneficiary
new & emergent CSOs and pertinent government line offices.
Through the existing arrangement, the lead agency will closely track budget utilization and trend of
expenditure of consortium member organizations and will give advice and direction to properly
manage project resources. To do this, the consortium will establish joint financial and activity
planning, monitoring and evaluation practice. Apart from this, the lead agency, from its Addis
office will undertake bi-annual financial management and budget utilization tracking at partners’
offices including at field office levels. There will also be internal financial review platform to be
organized by the lead agency on annual bases which will help to identify best practices, challenges
and seeking joint solutions with consortium member organizations. During the implementation of
the proposed action, the consortium will further strengthen the existing coordination arrangement,
collaboration and communication system with other development partners as well to promote
synergy and avoid duplication of efforts and facilitate joint learning across the different
organizations.

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Moreover, the consortium has already conducted rapid assessment of existing CSOs and pertinent
functional state and non-state stakeholders as well as existing NGOs during the needs assessment
and identified potential areas of collaboration and synergy. During this assessment, we conducted
key informant interviews and focus group discussions with the mentioned stakeholders. Besides
this, the consortium has taken into account other interventions by various donors’ external
evaluation recommendations. Once the proposed action is approved, the consortium will facilitate
multi-level workshops (regional, zonal) to create sufficient awareness and ensure joint action
planning and scheduling of different activities over the action duration period.
The project has been designed bearing in mind the principles of aid effectiveness (Ownership,
Alignment, Harmonization, Managing for Results, Mutual Accountability).
Lead Agency and all co-applicants commit to contribute to the proposal development with
experienced, expert staff, with the necessary seniority to ensure best possible proposal texts and
adequate budgets.
The Consortium Lead Agency managed the development of a joint proposal, provided a proposal
development plan with clear interim deadlines, feedback rounds and clear definition of roles.
The lead also facilitates rapid processing and full transparency regarding transfers of funds from
donor to its organization and from lead agency co-applicants.
NIA Foundation coordinates regular meetings and proper documentation of the project governance
team and of any specific technical committees set up for the purpose of the project implementation.
Supporting joint and concerted external (donor /government partners) communication, where
possible, ensuring a joint and concerted communication to local partners and beneficiaries on the
aims and progress of the project
Co-applicants ensured adherence to the work plan in order not to jeopardize the timely development
of the joint proposal.
b) Budget
For effective implementation of this project, the total amount is 997, 900 euro out of which
administration budget represents 5.83% and operational cost 8.52%. This is in line with the call and
the administration and operation costs are to fulfil the project resources inputs like the human
resource, equipment and furniture. Executive directors will be paid on prorate basis. There are staffs
to be hired in full time within the lead agency like human rights specialist, finance officer, etc.
All of the staff members at the co-applicant offices are paid on a prorate/time allotment.
Regarding the activity/program budget, it is a component basis a required by the template of the call
as: NIA Foundation-129,000.00 euro, NAHD-103,600.00 euro, ENCO-89,600.00 euro, and BVC-
83,900.00 euro based upon the applicants’ areas of excellence, experience and available team of
expertise at their disposal.
The new and emerging CSOs will be awarded a total of 400,000.00 Euro in the form of seed money
for two consecutive years. This includes the seed money for fundraising support.
The award will be in phases since the cyclical mentoring and successful accomplishments of the
organizational assessment processes are pre-conditions for these CSOs to get the award.
The money transfer is a performance based funding in that any transfer of funds will require pre-
performance and submission of financial reports and verification of expenditures. This is in one
way to strengthen their fidelity level.

c) Partnership Building for Implementation

The project will capitalize interactions created with social structures and multi-actors at the
grassroots customary institutions and formal state actors. As instance, the gender inclusion and
social mapping will pave the way for institutionalized interface workshops that can continue beyond
the project period.

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The conflict sensitivity survey and conflict resolution convocations will stimulate multi-level and
multi-sector interactions and aligned discussions which gathers around shared values and fosters
sustainable platforms.
The project also develops case management and complaint handling mechanisms to resolve issues
arising from the beneficiary CSOs through exacted feedback ways that in turn facilitates supportive
supervision, and extended coaching from the consortium office. To make more participatory, and
foster learning, the new and emerging CSOs will participate on the Mid-term learning reviews of
the consortium to ignite failures and seek corrective measures which again exacts their engagement
and participation.
The project consortium will make sustained multi-stakeholder dialogues with government
counterparts that again extend link appendages with local structures through its formal institutions.
Pertinent government sectors are also to make memorandum of understanding with the consortium,
and also participate on the joint supervision of the CSOs, collaborating the consortium.

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