The project was conceived in the aftermath of the 2000 election. During that election the British Council and the Active Learning Centre worked with women members of the political parties to enhance the chances of women candidates. In a post-election meeting one of the women commented :If it had been a fair and free election we would have won. We put up the best campaigns.

However, as history showed, despite considerable effort, women made little impact in terms of gaining representation in the national parliament (8 per cent) although they fared slightly better at the regional level.

In the post-election meeting many of those who had been involved in the election came together and argued that they should ‘start now’ for the next election, scheduled for 2005, and that a key aim of the new project should be to build grass roots support for women candidates within the parties and in the communities. Funding was sought from the British Embassy and the project officially began in January 2003.

For more information, download the booklet.

This booklet tells the story of the project: collaboration between the British Council, Ethiopia, the Active Learning Centre, an NGO based in the UK and the women members of key political parties and NGOs in Ethiopia.
In this booklet we describe the project, the model used, attempt to assess its impact and identify lessons for future activities.

For more details, please contact:
PO Box 1043
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Telephone: +251 (0)11 155 0022
Fax: +251 (0)11 155 2544
E-mail: information@et.britishcouncil.org