Civil Society in Ethiopia held discussions with NGO Delegation of the Global Fund Board Members
Upon the invitation of the NGO Delegation of The Global Fund(GF) Board Members, civil society (CS) in Ethiopia including coalitions and networks of NGOs and community based organizations in the country participated in a half day joint meeting held in Addis Ababa on 6 November 2009. The meeting focused on four major agenda items: identifying major barriers to effective civil society participation in GF proposal development, grant implementation and oversight; identifying major problems associated with the performance of GF funded grants in Ethiopia, identifying main needs from the GF and identifying ways for the CS delegations to better support CS in Ethiopia. This is in preparation for the upcoming GF Board meeting that will be held from 9 – 11 November, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting was attended by the Developing Country NGOs’ Delegation, the Developed Country NGOs Delegation, and the Communities Delegation. Ethiopian civil society mostly represented by the biggest NGO coalition in Ethiopia, the Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA), the biggest coalition of NGOs, private organizations and associations working against malaria – Coalition Against Malaria in Ethiopia (CAME), other NGOs, CBOs and networks were among the participants of the meeting. In the discussions that followed, the proposal, implementation as well as monitoring phases were raised and CS were invited to share their experiences and challenges. One of the major barriers indicated by most of the participating CSOs is the lack of needed capacity to develop a sophisticated, but fundable grant proposal. It was pointed out that the lack of advisory and consultative services for CSOs within the GF has made it hard for CSOs to effectively participate in the planning and monitoring phases of the programs. Most of CSOs in Ethiopia were forced to depend on the technical support received from multilateral organizations in the country. Some also indicated that there is lack of information about the grant and most at the grassroots are unaware of the Fund and what it entails. This was mentioned as a cause for the misunderstanding of the GF as inaccessible for all. Some, though they are already aware of the GF, do not have clarity on the elements and requirements thus causing them delays in the implementation time. Delay in releasing funds was also mentioned by the CSOs as one of the drawbacks. Even after receipt of funds, the un-realistic time demands such as the immediate start of implementation time has left recipients with less time to do needed preparatory works. One such task mentioned was selection of sub recipients for which there is no time consideration in the time breakdown. Another similar element was the liquidation process in the system does not consider the infrastructure of the beneficiary country which may delay the implementation process. This is especially true in least developed countries such as Ethiopia. It was proposed to make special considerations for the least developed countries when setting implementation time frame. Civil Society should engage more in the selection and identification of CCM members. They should encourage CCM members to better support CS. The issue of accountability should also be stressed. All are accountable to the constituency that put us in the CCM as CS at the global level to those who put their funds in our hands. As one thing that the GF can change, the following were identified
- Pay a bit more attention to Ethiopia and take the case of Ethiopia as a case study – this is because there is significant improvement and success stories coming out of the country that need to be encouraged and put into perspective,
- Special attention should be given to CS working in developing countries in he form of preferential treatments in proposal development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation work
- All proposal should have capacity building segments by default not only for proposal writing but also for implementations
