The Civil Society Innovation Fund Ethiopia

The Civil Society Innovation Fund (CSIF) is a multi-year initiative to support civil society in Ethiopia. Funded by the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement – AFD), CSIF aims to support new and emerging CSOs dedicated to the development of a more democratic, pluralistic, and innovative civil society sector. Its overall objective is to contribute to a stronger role for civil society in support of a democratic, peaceful, and stable Ethiopia. CSIF takes the form of three consortia projects, which together involve a total of 15 local CSOs.

The fund aims to strengthen the diversification and innovation of Ethiopian civil society, to ensure a pluralistic and democratic organizational sphere, novel and creative civic activism and defend the civic and associational rights of Ethiopian citizens.

Objectives

Output 1: Provides innovative, flexible and context specific capacity strengthening support and funding for new and emerging CSOs working on media, gender and human rights to enable them to join the civil society sector and be able to identify pressing societal issues and design and effectively manage projects on these issues.
Output 2: Supports innovative advocacy and dialogue initiatives and learning and engagement platforms among CSOs and between CSOs and government actors on issues that matter to citizens and CSOs (such as civic space, human rights, inclusive governance, and the democratization process).
Output 3: Diverse new and emerging CSOs will be better able to deliver effective projects that respond to the concerns and priorities of the people and communities they represent, and will have a stronger representation and role in influencing state and other decision-makers at different levels (local, regional, national) for an improved civic space, inclusive democracies, good governance and protection of human rights.

Output 4: The learning and innovation generated through CSIF will be widely shared and contribute to a more ‘nurturing’ civic space where more, new, innovative actors and activists can emerge and grow and where there is a stronger culture of dialogue and debate on issues that matter most to citizens and CSOs.

CSIF vision

A more diverse and pluralistic civil society sector which is effectively protecting civic space, influencing policy and amplifying citizens’ voices and rights.

CSIF Theory of Change and Theory of Action

CSIF is underpinned by an overall Theory of Change speaking to change at fund level, as well as a more detailed Theory of Action supporting the programme-level activities. These were developed together with the participating CSOs.

Read ToC

Read ToA

The Fund Key Facts

The fund supports three consortia involving new and emerging actors in Ethiopian civil society who jointly implement three projects. The fund duration is 3 years, with an overall budget of up to 3 million Euros. The three individual project budgets range from 350,000 to 900,000 Euros.

CSIF provides funding to sub-sectors in civil society (media, gender and human rights) whose work used to be heavily restricted by the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation and who need time and resources to develop.

In addition to directly funding the three projects, a critical component of CSIF relates to capacity building of the new and emerging CSOs. The programme has been designed to technically support all partners and strengthen their capacities along the way, for which a tailored approach has been taken. Based on organizational capacity assessments the following areas for capacity building have been identified:

Rights based and gender transformative project cycle management
Results based monitoring, evaluation and learning
Strategic planning
Leadership and organisational culture
Communications and influencing
Financial and grants management

CSIF Ethiopia Management and Coordination

Funded by the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) and managed by the partners AGAR and INTRAC

INTRAC - Established in the UK in 1991, INTRAC is a values-driven consultancy, training, and research organisation. Its mission is to influence positive social change by strengthening civil society organisations, helping them develop, engage with others, and do what they do better.

AGAR Development Partners Consulting (AGAR) - Established as an international Business Development Service (BDS) provider, AGAR’s team of experienced professionals and development practitioners have extensive experience in managing and facilitating development initiatives in private, public and non-profit sectors. Among other areas, AGAR focuses on financial management and project management support to enable successful, competitive and sustainable development initiatives that ultimately support socio-economic transformation.

TripleLine - TripleLine consulting provide independent evaluation services to measure Fund progress and impact.

As part of the Civil Society Innovation Fund, AFD has also contracted an independent Evaluation Consultant (EC) to review the work that falls under the fund. These evaluation services are provided by Triple Line Consulting, who have been involved with the programme from inception stage with their specific engagement around baseline, midterm, and end of programme. AGAR-INTRAC has been working in close collaboration with Triple Line when it comes to streamlining MEL systems.