BEYOND PASSION:SUPPORTING VIABILITY OF INFORMAL YOUTH INITIATIVES AND EMERGING CSOs THROUGH LEGALIZATION

Both Ethiopia's 2004 youth policy and the African Youth Charter, to which the nation is a signatory, emphasize how critical it is to give young people access to information so they can utilize it to learn about their rights and take advantage of opportunities to participate in civic life and decision-making. However, contrary to these ideals, sizable portions of Ethiopia’s youth are still deprived of the chance to influence decisions that have an impact on their life.

Initiative for Peace and Development (IPD) is a Civil Society Organization operating in Ethiopia with a mission to ensure sustainable peace, democracy, social justice, and promote the rule of law. One of its prime strategies is the promotion of active youth engagement in decision making processes at all levels of society. With funding from the French Development Agency, and as part of the Civil Society Innovation Fund (CSIF), IPD is currently supporting informal youth groups and emerging CSOs in Sidama.

A main area of the work with these groups is educating young people about their rights and helping them take advantage of opportunities to participate more actively in community peace building and decision-making. Among the things that make youth distinctive is their passion. However, IPD believes that in addition to working with passion, these youth-led organizations need to become legally recognized in order to operate more easily, develop into strong institutions that can make use of the resources at their disposal, and leave a lasting beneficial legacy. Therefore, through the CSIF funded project, IPD is facilitating nascent, informal youth-led initiatives to transition into formal CSOs,  in accordance with the standards governing the registration of civil society groups and the CSO proclamation.

Through the project, IPD has identified a number of such informal groups and is offering them capacity support in the form of trainings and continuing technical support. Two different training programs have been provided so far - the first focuses on familiarizing participants with the CSO proclamation and related registration regulations, while the second enhances the new organizations' technical ability to address peace and conflict prevention concerns in their local areas.

So far, IPD has supported twenty-six informal youth organizations and ten more newly formed CSOs. Already, three of the unofficial groups have been granted legal status: Melkam Eregna Charitable Organization, Rehoboth Charitable Organization, and Good Seed Charitable Organization. Two more organizations, Temsalet Charitable and Youth Art Club and Ha Geez Charitable and Youth Art Club, are at the final stage of receiving their legalization certificate:

 "IPD's trainings and the various technical supports they have provided us with were useful," says Tatek Bashir, chairman of Temsalet Charitable and Youth Art Club based in Hawassa. “We were able to gather and submit our (registration) applications with their help in connecting us with the justice office and giving us the information we needed on registration procedures. We are awaiting the registration certificate at this time. Motivated as we are, we are equally excited to plan our own projects and raise the necessary funds to carry them out,” he added.

Abraham Dawit, the Director of the Ha Geez Charitable and Youth Art Club, likewise felt that the capacity development trainings were very beneficial and that IPD's assistance had shown them the way to legalization and the work afterwards.

 In a context where Ethiopian civic space is gradually shrinking, it is heartening to see that, through CSIF, unofficial youth organizations are now officially recognized as CSOs, and many more are on the horizon.