Deepening Democratic Governance to Accelerate and Sustain Ethiopia’s Transformation
Proposal Submitted to Kingdom of Norway and Kingdom of Sweden for Funding
Consideration
1
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE GOVERNANCE LANDSCAPE
1. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has within its’ wider effort on poverty eradication,
elaborated and articulated a clear agenda on democracy building and consolidation. The
focus of the agenda as embodied in the GTP is on good governance, strengthening the
democratic system, capacity building and improving the justice system. The GoE has
adopted a multiparty parliamentary system and a federal structure devolving power to
nine regions and two city administrations. It has developed a National Human Rights
Action Plan and passed significant legislative reforms including on the right to
information and freedom of the media. It has also embarked on a process of
capacitating the governance architecture; reforming the civil service and the justice
sector, deepening decentralization and improving the delivery of basic services. These
gains have improved the human rights systems and broadened potential opportunities
for political participation. However, the reform process is work in progress and
concerted effort is still needed to translate the fletching capacity of democratic
institutions into strong political, legal and instructional restrain on the discretional
power of the executive and the blurring distinction between the ruling party and the
state.
a) Progress and Challenges on Democratic Governance
2. Human Right and the Rule of Law: The normative and institutional foundations for
human rights promotion and protection have been established. Through the National
Human Rights Commission (EHRC), concerted efforts have been deployed to promote
and monitor human rights by enhancing civic and human rights education,
investigations and monitoring and compliant handing and some progress has been
registered on socio-economic rights. Progress has been recorded in many areas such as
improvement of institutional capacity of the EHRC, increased outreach and awareness
creation of the public, encouraging efforts of EHRC to monitor human rights. In
demonstrating wider commitment to human and peoples’ rights, Ethiopia has been
reviewed by the African Peer Review Mechanism and it has undertaken the Universal
Periodic Review (UPR) and submitted most of its reports under international and
regional instruments. Most of the recommendations of the UPR and treaty bodies have
been considered in a positive light with the development of The National Human Right
Action Plan (NHRAP). The Plan serves as an opportunity for addressing the challenge of:
increased focus on socio-economic rights, strengthening the capacity of national human
rights institutions; monitoring and evaluation; adequate integration of human rights in
the work of public institution, increased harmonization of national laws to constitutional
bill of rights and international instruments as well as robust civic engagement. However,
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advancing the human rights agenda requires focus attention on enforcement and
protection. The EHRC has made some progress in this direction. Implementation and
monitoring of NHRAP and supporting the Ombudsman in overseeing the effective
implementation of the Freedom of Information (FoI) law provide opportunities to
sustain the positive trend.
3. Progress has also been made on improving the administration and operational systems
of judicial institutions, in particular the courts, through the implementation of the
National Court Reform Program. Improvements are evident in some areas such as
computerization of the judicial database, which has reduced the backlog of court cases.
Commendable progress has also been made in increasing access to justice particularly
for the vulnerable through the establishment of legal aid centers. However popular
perception of a fair, speedy, independent justice has yet to develop and there is need to
improve the quality of legal aid through development of proper policy and regulatory
framework; putting in place systems, procedures and processes; standardization of legal
aid services; establishing coordination, regulatory and accountability mechanisms; and
the establishment of legal aid providers’ forum to share experiences and exchange best
practices.
4. Transparency and accountability: The GoE promotes zero tolerance on corruption in the
public sector and has established the Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission
(FEACC) to undertake preventive, investigation and prosecution measures. While FEACC
has played an important role in combating corruption through implementation of
several measures, efforts are need to strengthen the capacity of FEACC and the
adoption of a systemic approach that is grounded on improving integrity by
mainstreaming of anticorruption measures in policies, institutionalization of
anticorruption measures in the civil service and public institutions, increase involvement
of civil society in anticorruption initiatives and the establishment of mechanisms for
systematic and sectoral monitoring of corruption trends in the country.
5. Elections: The conduct of genuine periodic elections has become a key feature of
democracy in Ethiopia. The FDRE Constitution establishes a framework for multi-party
parliamentary democracy and commensurate civil and political rights, guaranteeing
Ethiopians the right to express political choice under a federal system.1 Drawing from
the lessons of the previous elections, several measures have been taken to improve the
management and integrity of subsequent elections. For example, the amendment of the
Electoral Law, Amendment of the Political Parties Registration Proclamation, agreement
on an Electoral Code of Conduct for Political parties aimed at ensuring conduct of
peaceful elections, adoption of a formula for use of state media in campaign as well as
allocation of state fund for political parties for the first time in the country’s history. The
capacity of the National Election Board (NEBE) to competently and efficiently administer
free, fair and credible elections continued to increase. The conduct of regular elections,
1 Art 38, FDRE Constitution
2
measures taken to address concerns of political parties and effective administration by
the NEBE is considered to be a positive step in the country’s evolving democracy.
6. Despite these progress, there are evolving challenges and critical capacity gaps which
amongst others include: effective decentralization of NEBE to the sub national level,
political pluralism, the perception of independence of the Electoral Administration,
participation of civil society in the electoral process and the approach to election
boundary districting, which was due for review in 2010. Moreover is it imperative to
ensure that electoral management is closely linked with and informed by conflict
management including the handling of electoral complaints cognizance of the respective
mandates of the Judiciary, the Grievance Hearing Committees and the Joint Council for
Political Parties.
7. Political Parties and Representation: Political parties have a key role to play in ensuring
peaceful elections and the development of a peaceful democratic culture in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has opened up its political space to competing political parties since the
adoption of the 1995 Constitution which provides for the right to freedom of
association2. Increasing numbers of political parties have been established and continue
to compete for power. Commendable efforts have also been made by the government
in provision of state funding to political parties in 2010 and access to media for
campaign. More work is needed to further consolidate ongoing efforts of strengthening
the capacities of political parties consistent with a democratic culture as envisaged in
the Constitution through emphasis on organizational structures, internal governance
and processes, political party dialogue and engagement, articulation and analysis of
programs and policies, constituency building and engagement, resource mobilization
among others.
8. Press and Media Freedom: The Growth and Transformation Plan (Policy Matrix)
addresses the important role of the media in a democratic society and has specific
outputs and targets for improving and strengthening laws for the media’s expansion and
regulation and the professional competences of the media. The Ethiopian Constitution
guarantees freedom of press and the operational environment to entrench this right is
work in progress. For example, whilst the Proclamation upholds constitutional
protection against censorship, it also facilitates self-censorship by criminalizing false
reporting. There is need to strengthen the media’s role in providing information to
citizens through institutional support to the media regulatory bodies and associations;
training in international law and standards to which countries’ media laws must comply;
strengthening media professionalism through the development of effective mechanisms
of self-regulation; and supporting the media’s capabilities to reflect and represent the
diversity of views and interests in society, including those of marginalized groups.
2
Art 31 , FDRE Constitution , Proc 1/1995
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9. Civic engagement: Whilst GoE has committed to civic engagement, civic space has
reduced since the enactment of the Charities and Society Proclamation; especially for
CSOs working on issues on governance and human rights. Concerted effort is need both
to improve the operating environment (adaptation of the law) and strengthening the
capacity of CSOS. Possible areas of engagement to address these concerns could include
support for ongoing integrated civic education programs covering human rights, ethics
and voter education (civic educational manuals targeting marginalizes and vulnerable);
capacity for human rights education monitoring and reporting; and supporting civic
education programs implemented by CSOs. Another important area to focus attention is
the ability of CSOs and CBOs to effectively participate in engaging and monitoring
governance; their abilities to advocate and the mechanisms for them to be held
accountable to the people whose interests they represent.
10. Gender: A number of legal instruments (Family Law and the Criminal Code, the Ethiopia
National Policy for Women and the National Action Plan for Gender Equality) have been
adopted in response to the GoE strong commitment to gender equality and women’s
human rights. However challenges of effective mechanism for mainstreaming and
accountability of Gender equality, low levels of literacy, lack of awareness and limited
capacity of law enforcement organs persist.
11. Managing Diversity: While the Constitution provides a sufficient framework for a federal
system, the successful management of this federalism requires systems at the national
and local level to mediate competing authorities and concurrent responsibilities. As
Ethiopian African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Country Report (p269) notes,
managing diversity and ensuring all-inclusive governance has to also be achieved
through establishing and strengthening symmetrical relationships between federal
government and the regional states and between regional states themselves so that
regional inequalities and historical imbalances among national groups can be effectively
addressed. There is strengthening the capacities of regional states on constitutional
issues (within their mandate) with regards to areas of competence between federal and
regional states; supporting the parliament to establish and strengthen existing dialogue
mechanisms on federalism, for example the “speaker’s forum”;3 and supporting
initiatives focused on diversity management including religious tolerance and enhancing
national capacities for conflict prevention and peace-building.
Past and Current/Complementary Initiatives
12. Development partners have supported democratic governance through multi-donor
programs such as the Democratic Institutions Program (DIP), the Public Sector Capacity
Building Support Program (PSCAP SP) and the Ethiopian Social Accountability Project
(ESAP). The DIP and the PSCAP SP have ended. These programmes were capacity
The Speakers’ Forums emerged from the DIP as a mechanism to expedite program implementation, but evolved
into a legitimate informal institution enabling the RCs to meet and discuss common issues in the context of federal
politics.
3
4
interventions aimed at enhancing the policy and institutional architecture for
democratic governance4and providing the hardware for civil service reform and
territorial administration.5 The ESAP is at strengthening the capacities of citizen groups
and government to work together in order to enhance the quality of basic public
services delivered to citizen.
13. The DIP and PSCAP PS were mostly supply-side driven focusing on strengthening vertical
accountability through governmental democratic institutions, federal structure and
processes while not focusing sufficiently on the demand-side - empowering citizens.
Proposed Project and Government Ownership/UNDAF
14. The proposed project is a bridging project to consolidate critical results that emanated
from the implementation of the DIP, whilst allowing for further reflections between GoE
and development partners to firm-up a robust partnership in support of democratic
governance. The proposed project is aligned to the GoE governance priorities as
embodied in the United National Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 20122015):
a. UNDAF Outcome 9: By 2015, national actors have enhanced capacity to
promote, protect and enjoy human rights and constitutional rights and
accessibility to efficient and accountable justice systems, as enshrined in the
Constitution and in line with international and regional instruments, standards
and norms;
b. UNDAF Outcome 10 By 2015, national and sub-national actors utilize improved
mechanisms that promote inclusiveness, participation, transparency,
accountability and responsiveness in national development processes (Outcome
10 of UNDAF).
RATIONAL
15. The reform process in Ethiopia is work in progress and critical challenges persist.
Cognizance of emerging opportunities, the project seeks to build upon and sustained
some of the salient results that have been secured through the DIP, especially within the
realm of human rights, government responsiveness and accountability.
4
DIP supported seven democratic institutions. Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Ethiopian Institute of
Ombudsman, Office of the Auditor General, Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption commission, House of Peoples’
Representative, House of Federation, National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.
5
PSCAP supported Civil Service Reform, Justice System Reform, Tax System Reform, District/Woreda Level
Decentralization Program, Urban Management Capacity Building Program and Information and Communication
Technology Development and financial transparency and accountability.
5
16. In this regards, unlike previous multilateral projects that adopted an institutional
approach, this projects is grounded in a holistic and integrated approach to democracy
building and consolidation. The DIP and PSCAP PS were supply-side driven, focusing on
strengthening democratic institutions vis-a-vis demand-side interventions that
empowering citizens. This project however adopts a mixed approach to addressing both
capacity development and core governance challenges. Institutional capacity building
support will focus on focus horizontal accountability through the strengthening of
integrity systems and feedback mechanisms through which citizens could engage
government on policy matters. Thus the identification and prioritisation of the proposed
project activities is informed by the need for this shift taking advantage of emerging
opportunities.
17. The drivers for this shift reside in some of the established gains and emerging
opportunities. For example, the government has just developed the NHRAP which
demonstrates strong government ownership and provides opportunity for donor
alignment and support to Ethiopia’s wider commitment to shared and universal values
on human rights. The NHRAP is an opportunity for a holistic and integrated support to
Ethiopia’s human right agenda. Moreover, Ethiopia will undergo its second UPR in 2014.
The 2014 review process is an opportunity to initiate and sustain dialogue (national and
internationally) on Ethiopia’s commitment and implementation of the recommendation
it consented to. There is also considerable potential for improving multi- party dialogue
and engagement on issues such as electoral reforms and on the national development
agenda. This area could potentially build on existing political party consultation
mechanisms, associations and dialogue structures such as the Political Parties
Consultation Forum and the Inter-Party Dialogue Platform. Other potential areas could
include providing support to exploring the establishment of a political party resource
center and support to developing an electoral training center/building on the existing
training facility.
18. The integrated approach will sustain some of the established results by ensuring that
the project outputs and activities are self-reinforcing. For example (e.g. increase access
to information would lead to decrease in corruption and improve human rights could
lead to increase wider participation). This synergetic approach is facilitated by close
collaboration and coordination amongst the participating organizations. Full detailed
information with more measurable and tangible outputs with its associated activities is
described in the attached logframe and budget.
19. For the time being, there is no other funding mechanism available to support such a
holistic and integrated approach to human rights protection and promotion in Ethiopia.
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SUSTAINABILITY/EXIT STRATEGY
20. The GoE has demonstrated strong commitment to consolidate and build on the
established gains on democratic governance as indicated by the increase budgetary
allocation to democratic institution. EHRC, NEBE and EIO have received significant
increases.
Budget for Democratic Institutions (In Birr)
Institution
2005 EFY
2006 EFY
%
Change
HoPR
101730000
103878170
2.11
HoF
14044880
15736000
12.04
EHRC
15564350
27415600
76.14
EIO
19949740
30146931
51.11
OFAG
18687730
21433850
14.69
FEACC
37891290
39994790
5.55
NEBE
19832210
33515100
68.99
21. It is thus anticipated that if the GoE could maintain the current budgetary allocation or
sustain the increase trend, institutions like the EHRC EIO and NEBE would on their own
sustain the expected outcomes of these project without requiring future enormous
donor support.
PROJECT RISK LOG
Category
Financial
Risks
Description
Release of funds could
take more time than
expected
Impact
This could delay
implementation
of activities
Probability
Unlikely if
funds are
committed
Mitigation Strategies
Facilitate timely release
of the funds
Operational
Risks
Coordination and
cooperation among the
key partners might not
be as strong as one
would expect which
would affect
achievement of the
results and synergy. .
Some of the IPs may not
have the necessary
capacity for timely
delivery of the activities
and absorption the fund
This might
impact on
securing cross
results
Unlikely
Establish and strengthen
technical committee to
support the
coordination of project
implementation and to
enhance collaboration
of the IPs
Reduce project
delivery
Unlikely
Provide technical
support to the IPs;
Intensive monitoring
throughout the
implementation process
Organizatio
nal Risks
7
Political risk
on time.
Evolving political
context might affect
perception and
commitment to project
expectations
This might
impede
optimization of
result/outcome
8
unlikely
Establish close
partnership with the
implementing partners,
government and other
relevant actors.