Strengthening the CSOs in Ethiopia through Continuous Capacity Development Support: CSIF Ethiopia held successful training sessions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In March and in June 2023, CSIF Ethiopia held successful training sessions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 15 CSOs, CSIF implementing partners.
The four-day Effective, Innovative and Evidence-based Advocacy training held from the 28th to 31st of March, was packed with insights, practical tips and tools about the Human Rights (HR) based approach to advocacy, how to develop & communicate an advocacy message, use of traditional, digital and social media channels in the context of Ethiopia. As CSOs mastering these skills is crucial to increase the reach, impact, and support of advocacy strategies.
During the training, the consortium provided a chance to Identify top advocacy issues for each consortium work through the problem and solution by analyzing the context and formulating a strategy, in which they able to carry out an internal, external and stakeholder analysis to identify who to influence, who to work with to secure the advocacy goal(s) and develop to identify who to influence, who to work with to secure the advocacy goal(s) and develop advocacy roadmaps. In addition, get hands-on practice on how to tailor the message to the targeted audience and test it.
“The training gave me detailed information and informs me how to run our rights-based advocacy programs. It has significantly contributed to our organisation because it is mostly work on advocacy and this training has provided me with useful tools to make the campaign effective. I will definitely apply it to the project, we have a campaign in this project.”
The Rights-based and Gender-transformative Project Coordination and Management (PCM) and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) training was held between the 12th and 16th of June 2023 in Addis Ababa.
The five-day training session aimed at enhancing the participants’ understanding of how to mainstream rights-based and gender-transformative approaches in PCM and enhance participants’ understanding of results-based project management, MEL, and reporting. In addition, the training equipped them with the knowledge and skills on project design tools and techniques to enable them to design sound and competitive proposals and concept notes as well as apply R-MEL and results-oriented reporting.
“I got very insightful input from the five-day training, especially about the project design and programme management cycle. I also realise there are many gaps in our current project design, and I could immediately implement the learnings by revising the project plan. Now, thanks to this training, I got quite an interesting insight into the human right and gender-sensitive based approaches, which is very useful for our organization as well as personally.
I also learn a lot about the project design models and how to follow them in design projects which is very useful for future engagements.
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The hot topic of discussion was how to apply human rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches in their respective organizations and projects in Ethiopia. The training sessions aimed at building on the different models to enhance the capacity of the CSOs’ project impact through the power of storytelling and change stories. CSIF Ethiopia, through the series of training sessions, is committed to empowering CSOs with up-to-date models and hands-on capacity building to unlock their capacity and potential, positively answering the challenges brought forward by local projects.
“Overall, the training was constructive for the civil society organisations but also for new young and emerging groups in the sector. The MEL training will help us to run the project very smoothly and to implement the project remaining activities in a measurable manner.”
We're thrilled that the training sessions for the CSOs rolled out smoothly and now come into the practical execution in their respective projects.
The CSIF Ethiopia will continue providing necessary support to the CSOs to build a strong, diverse, and innovative civil society landscape in Ethiopia to strengthen human rights advocacy and civic engagement. The CSIF was formally launched in July 2022 and will run into 2025. The programme is funded by the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) and the programme is managed by the partners AGAR in Ethiopia and INTRAC from UK. Together, INTRAC and AGAR have been providing technical support in project management, coordination, and capacity development of CSIF Ethiopia implementing partners.