Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in Ethiopia consists of local or international organizations engaged in relief, development or both. Their organizational basis is largely non-membership, that is, the organisations have users or clients. Between 1994 and 2003, the total number of NGOs operating in Ethiopia increased by 498.57% (from 70 in 1994 to 419 in 2003). Currently there are 1,119 NGOs in Ethiopia. Among these, 141 are international NGOs while the rest, 978 are local NGOs. (MOFA 2007) NGOs as we conceive of them today are a recent phenomena in Ethiopia. In earlier years, particularly prior to the 1960s organized forms of humanitarian or development-related interventions have started by church-based welfare, relief and/or development initiatives. Humanitarian aid, human rights, good governance, health, reintegration, income generation, conflict resolution, gender, disability, street children and environment are the major areas around which international and national NGOs are organized in Ethiopia (Taye 2005:4). Ethiopian NGOs provide services, channel funds, carry out development projects, but rarely engage in advocacy work.

In 1935, the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), the first secular non-governmental organization was established. ERCS started its intervention responding to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Italian invasion. During this time ERCS had trained and deployed 300 first aiders to the war fronts to provide urgently needed emergency medical service and also mobilized resources and

medical personnel from within Ethiopia and deployed five ambulance brigades to the Northern, Southern and Eastern war fronts. Following its membership to the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, the International Red Cross has been supporting and working closely with the Ethiopian Red Cross Society(Sahleyesus 2004: 79-80).

During the 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the years that followed, non-religions affiliated philanthropic organizations and voluntary aid agencies continued to be involved in charitable, welfare, and rudimentary development works. The Ethiopian Women's Voluntary Organization was established in the 1930s. Aside from assisting the resistance movement through supplying food and other materials to the fighters, the organization was helping people affected by the war using resources secured from the International Red Cross Society. After the war, the Ethiopian Women's Voluntary Organization shifted its activities towards provision of training for young women in order to enable them to assume meaningful jobs.

The Ethiopian Women's Voluntary Organization was the pioneer organization in practicing different fund raising strategies to support its activities. The National Lottery Organization is the brain child of the Ethiopian Women's Voluntary Organization. It was later nationalize by the imperial government due to its profitability and potential as a source of revenue (Sahleyesus 2004: 80). The Haile-Sellassie I Foundation also came into being in1952/53 by imperial charter.

(Berehaneselassie 2004: 383)

Since the 1960s secular organizations like The Medhanialem Association for the Disabled, the Ethiopian Association for the Blind, Association of Officers' Spouses, an association formed by the wives of members of the armed forces, which used to run orphanages among other activities and The Ethiopian Young Women's Christian Association were established. In the same year, individuals like his Excellency Haddis Alemayehu and Asfaw Yimeru took initiatives in establishing orphanages, schools and clinic organizations (Tadele1998: 8 cited in Sahleyesus 2004: 81). The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa have been active since the 1960s and The International Christian Fellowship was formed with the aim of translating Christian principles into social action. (Levine 1970: 281)

Local NGOs focusing on single issues like the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) were established by groups of professionals in the 1960s. FGAE has been engaged in family planning and reproductive health services provision using government facilities, and a clinic of its own in Addis Ababa. FGAE later become affiliated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and at present it operates in all regions of the country. Agri-Service Ethiopia is the other local NGO, which was established in 1969 with the objective of attaining food security and access to basic social services to the rural part with sustained management of the environment (CRDA 2000:34). Notable among the international secular NGOs to become operational in Ethiopia during the 1960s were Save the Children Sweden (1965) and Save the Children Norway (1969) (Sahleyesus 2004:

82). Under the theme of "Conservation for Survival," the first Ethiopian NGO working in the area of environment protection , the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS) was established in 1966.

In the 1970s, rains failed in most parts of former Wollo and Tigray provinces of Ethiopia. This caused famine and drought, claiming millions of lives. This disaster fuelled the popular revolution that led to the overthrow of the monarchy. The military regime which took power overthrowing the last monarch, acknowledged the existence of famine and government officials approached church agencies to assist relief efforts. A meeting of churches which was summoned to discuss the matter, resulted in the establishment of the umbrella local NGO, Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA), in May 1973 (CRDA 2007).

The drought and famine of 1973/74 caught the world's attention and especially the attention of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs). Among a number of international NGOs arriving in Ethiopia during this period were Save the Childre (SC) (1973), Concern Ethiopia and OXFAM GB/Ethiopia (1973), SOS Children Village (1974), World Vision Ethiopia and Terre des Homes, Lausanne Ethiopia (TDH-L) (1975) (Sahleyesus 2004: 82). Despite this fact, most of these international NGOs had their initial intervention prior to the years indicated. For example, Save the Children UK assisted Ethiopians displaced by the invasion of the Italians in 1936 but it was in 1973 that SC was established in Ethiopia and become committed to long-term development activities (Graham 2003). Lutheran World Federation Ethiopia started its intervention 1947, but it was established in 1972.

The 1984/85 droughts and famine had tremendously increased the activities of NGOs in Ethiopia. International NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), CARE, and AICF started operating in Ethiopia during this time. During this crisis, the northern NGOs with a few indigenous NGOs accomplished the praiseworthy work of saving millions of lives. Other than drought and famine between the early 80s and the early 90s, the intensified civil war resulted in the dislocation of millions of people. Therefore these natural and manmade disaster which the country was experiencing at that time has contributed to the growth in the number of NGOs in Ethiopia (Sahleyesus 2004: 83) .

During this time, since the country was under a socialist-oriented military administration, most Western countries were disinclined to provide development aid to the government. Whatever little they might have considered giving, they preferred to channel it through International NGOs working in the country. This heightened donor interest in NGOs and the repeated humanitarian crises that the country experienced contributed to the blossoming of these institutions.

Although the military socialist government of 1974-1991 allowed for the existence of NGOs as key alleviators of emergency and as a source of scarce foreign currency, it provided less space for NGOs to operate freely. As a result, the role of NGOs in long-term development programs was severely limited. Only a few international and local NGOs managed to begin long-term development programs in selected remote parts of the country where government services were less accessible. The common form of intervention was the implementation of an integrated rural development program that included the various sectors (health, education, agriculture, income generation etc). other than relief and rehabilitation in times of disaster.

Post 1991 Ethiopia saw a tremendous increase in the number of NGOs. Some of the reasons for this was the growing awareness by the northern public and NGOs upon transferring the task and ownership of development to the southerners and the government's continual push in this direction, the wide-scale social and economic challenges that continued to force the population to lead a precarious life, the new trend in the formation of NGOs that came with the decentralization policy of the new government (CRDA& DPPC 2004:2), the end of the Cold War and the promotion of liberalization in relation to good governance, and donor preference to support NGOs working in this respect. All these developments helped the

proliferation of local NGOs within a short period of time.

An explicit policy regarding the urgent need to shift from relief to development activities has been officially introduced. Free provision of food aid to able-bodied people was abandoned and emergency assistance was designed to target the most vulnerable segment of society. Due to this change in government policy, NGOs started to scale down their intervention in relief activities. The NGO sector was also forced to move out of relief transportation activities and also were required to liquidate assets essential for managing relief operations. These included for example transferring large-scale transportation fleets to private bands by auction. Thus, today the focus of NGO operation in Ethiopia is mainly the advancement of the quality of life of the disadvantaged and the promotion of social justice (CRDA 1999:3).

In Ethiopia, most of the local NGOs are young and less experienced. However there are some strong local NGOs like Hope enterprise and FGAE who have over three decades of experience, have developed credibility and have mastered the area in which they are involved. Most single issue local NGOs are relatively strong; these include NGOs working in the area of family planning like FGAE, NGOs working on the issue of street children like FSCE, NGO working in the area of water like Water Action and NGOs working in the area of human rights like Action Professionals Association for the People (APAP) and The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA). There are also multipurpose NGOs with promising potential and capacity such as Nazareth Children's Center for Integrated Development (NACID), Rift Valley, Mary Joy, Propride and Professional Alliance for Development in Ethiopia (PADET). The other strong NGO that evolved from the armed struggle of the late 1970s and early 1980s is Relief Society of Tigray (REST). REST is well known as one of the largest and best-funded of Africa’s "indigenous NGOs." Established in 1978 as the de jure independent NGO, and de facto humanitarian wing of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), it set out to provide financial and material support to farmers in non-government held areas of Tigray through a cross-border operation, and to Tigrayan refugees in Sudan. After the change of government it formally got registered as an NGOs in Addis Ababa (Vaughan

&Tronvoll 2003:60). It is argued by some groups that REST is a government party affiliated organization, and enjoys strengths and advantages over other NGOs due to its link with the ruling party. Managing diverse development programs in practically every Woreda (the smallest administrative organ) of the Tigray region (Saheleyesus

2004:88), it is considered the largest NGO in Africa employing more than 1000 people. (Clark 2000:9)

Despite the fact that the NGO sector has grown in post-1991 Ethiopia, the sector remains very small compared to countries in Africa like neighboring Kenya and some countries in west and south Africa. Excessive regulation and bureaucratic requirements that consume large amounts of NGO resources seem to characterize the environment in which the sector operates. Two factors, among others, seem to account for the lack of public and government appreciation for the contributions of the NGO sector to the development process in the country. The first is the unyielding poverty in the country. It is a common understanding that poverty in Ethiopia is increasing both in absolute and relative terms. There is considerable tendency, especially in the public sector, for giving the NGO sector more than its share of accountability to the increasing poverty. The second is the shortage of quantitative data on NGO contributions including the impacts of these on the lives of the people, especially the target groups (CRDA& DPPC 2004:2).