The Cotonu Africa-Caribbean-Pacific Partnership Agreement of 2002 makes specific provision for the involvement of civil society in the development and implementation of European Union strategies and programmes. British Council has undertook a Non-State Actors Mapping Study commissioned by the European Union and the Ministry of Capacity Building. This study is considered the first step in signposting a major EU-funded civil society capacity building programme in Ethiopia of 10 million euros over the next five years.

What were the aims of the research?
The main aims of the research were to:

			Understand the context and current issues facing Non-State Actors (NSAs) in Ethiopia
			Map key groups of registered NSAs
			Gather detailed information about NSAs working in specific areas of governance, namely: conflict resolution and prevention, women’s empowerment, human rights, democracy and those NSAs that use lobbying and advocacy to further their aims.

Chapter 2 sets out the terms of reference and the methodology used during the study.

The key research questions were defined as:

			What are the social and legal/political contexts in which NSAs work in Ethiopia?
			What relationship do NSAs have with the levels of government with which they operate (national, regional and local)?
			What are the key features of the ways in which NSAs operate in Ethiopia (types of activities, geographical spread, relationship to government, opportunities for advocacy and policy involvement)?
			What are the strengths and weaknesses of the registered NGOs that work in the fields of human rights, democracy, women’s empowerment, conflict prevention and advocacy and lobbying? (In particular in which areas do they need to build capacity: administration, service delivery, training, management, advocacy and policy analysis?)
			What policies do the key donors working in Ethiopia have towards building capacity in civil society?

The methods used comprised the following:

• A literature review and historical essay to set out the political and social context of civil society in Ethiopia.
• A bibliography accompanies the literature review and can be found in appendix 1.
• An annotated bibliography (appendix 2) comments on the useful published and unpublished texts concerning civil society. In order to map the key groups of NSAs a typology was developed which is accompanied by explanatory notes and a regional profile.

During two field visits, a series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with Government officials, representatives of civil society organisations and donors to investigate capacity building needs and the relationship between Government and NSAs.  One field visit took place in Addis Ababa and, during the second each of the regional capitals was visited, with the exception of Gambella. In addition, questionnaires were issued to donors and to NSAs working in the field of governance to establish two databases and to furnish further information on capacity building needs.  Finally, a seminar was held with representatives of NSAs, Government and donors to present the main findings of the research and their views are incorporated in the conclusions.

Chapter 3 contains the literature review and essay on the historical context of Ethiopian civil society. The review sets out the theoretical background to understanding civil society, examines definitions and concepts and considers debate and opinion on the usefulness of the concept of civil society in the African context. The essay on the historical context considers how Ethiopian civil society has developed, detailing the role of the church and relations with the state and the early presence of local self-help organisations. Civil society/state relations during the Haile-Selassie era are discussed and the growth of specific groups of associations such as the trade unions, development associations and faith-based organisations. The civil war and the subsequent Derg regime, the essay concludes, was a particularly unpropitious time for the development of civil society, characterised by repression and abuses of human rights. The final section examines the current political context and acknowledges a more enlightened attitude and growth in both civil society organisations and a more open political context, for instance the development of the free press. It concludes, however, that there are still significant obstacles to a fully functioning pluralistic civil society.

Chapter 4 contains the national typology of NSAs accompanied by explanatory notes to indicate sources and the rationale for the typology. The regional profile was compiled from various sources of data and makes an attempt to show a regional comparison of activity. The regional profile is accompanied by a broad assessment drawn from the regional field visits. It should be noted that the registration for NSAs in Ethiopia is extremely complex and incomplete and, therefore, the typology and profiles are incomplete mainly because of the unavailability of data. The two final sections of this chapter give an overview of the situation of the media and political parties in Ethiopia because, although not normally counted as NSAs, they are crucial to the full functioning of civil society in a democratic state.

Chapter 5 contains the main findings of the research with respect to the different understandings of the three groups of respondents of the nature and role of civil society; the relationship between Government and civil society and the capacity building needs of NSAs. The findings show significant differences in understanding of the nature and role of civil society, reflecting the changing climate within Ethiopia. Whilst some Government representatives, donors and NSA spokespersons recognise a wider role for civil society in terms of the empowerment of citizens and the creation of a more democratic, accountable and transparent Government, this understanding is not shared by all. The view that civil society, and, in particular, NGOs are there to carry out service delivery and ‘fill the gap’ in services that Government cannot provide was widespread in the most marginalized regions. In terms of the relationship between Government and civil society, the study shows that although there is an improvement, NSAs are beginning to develop policy dialogue, advocacy and lobbying skills, an effective working relationship is marred by mistrust and misunderstanding of the role of civil society. If civil society is to play a more productive role, both NSAs and Government have to work to promote better understanding and effective collaborative partnerships. The analysis of opinion on the key areas for capacity building in terms of external relations highlights issues of constituency building, networking, advocacy, lobbying and policy dialogue skills. In addition there are key issues of internal management, such as, project design and management, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation as well as capital resource needs and human resources development.

Chapter 6 analyses the information gathered for the databases on donors and NGOs working in the field of governance. From the responses from the NGOs it can be concluded that there are a number of large and small organisations working in the area of governance, human rights, democracy and women’s empowerment were the key areas with fewer organisations involved in conflict prevention and resolution. The capacity building needs show that most require training work with the priority areas named as: advocacy and lobbying, strategic planning, human resource development, external communication and project design. The donor responses from 9 organisations suggest that 70 per cent of the funds allocated for civil society work focus on areas of governance although the range of grants available suggests that actual grants per organization may be quite small. However, the small number of responses collated in this database means that there is an incomplete picture.

Chapter 7 collates some of the key issues arising from the study, which are perhaps best summarised as a series of questions for consideration:

			What needs to be done to create a coherent shared understanding of the role of civil society which can encourage greater plurality of views and an improved working relationship between Government and NSAs?
			What are the strengths and weaknesses of membership organisations in Ethiopia in terms of building civil society and is their independence from Government an issue which should be addressed?
			Development associations, key members of Ethiopian civil society, play an important role in development but is the ethnic base of some (but not all) of these organisations an issue for the future?
			Advocacy, lobbying and policy dialogue activities are features of some of the more successful NSAs and symptomatic of a developing civil society. What procedures need to be established and capacity building undertaken to create a more enabling environment for policy dialogue?
			Freedom of information is crucial to the effective functioning of civil society. How can this be encouraged by legislative attitudinal change?
			What role should Government play in helping to build civil society. Should this be in terms of improving the legislative and administrative framework?

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