Assessment of the contribution of Civil Society Proclamation to Democratic Development in Ethiopia: A comparative Analysis with Charities and Societies Proclamation on selected Civil Society Organizations in Addis Ababa
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Date
2020-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
After the coming into force of the Ethiopian charity and society proclamation in 2009, the role of
civil society organizations to the contribution of development has significantly diminished.
Hence, it has become one of the core agendas of the government during the recent reform
program undergone. To alleviate the problem government has repealed the law and replaces it
with a civil society proclamation. The purpose of this study is to assess comparatively how the
current civil society law addresses the drawback of the charity and society proclamation
particularly to the root cause of financial sustainability and democratization taking a case of
selected civil society organizations found in Addis Ababa. Even though there are a lot of
researches conducted on the topic, none or few have been conducted a study identifying the
detrimental provisions in the charity and society proclamations how the civil society
proclamation deals with the problem. To this end, the researcher employed a mixed descriptive
method of research design by collecting primary data from forty-two leaders and founders of
selected civil society organizations in Addis Ababa using a close-ended questionnaire by
applying the snowball non-probability sampling technique. Moreover, the researcher also
interviewed officials in charge of enacting the new law and officials from implementing bureaus
using semi-structured interview questions by applying a quota sampling method. The collected
data has been analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using statements, tables, figures, and
percentages. The result shows that the charity and society proclamation threaten the financial
sustainability of civil society organization by putting restrictions on raising not more than 90%
of fund from a foreign source and accepting funds from an anonymous source, the administrative
hurdle to engage in income-generating activities from a local source, and enlisting project based
activities in administrative costs. However, the civil society proclamation resolved the problem
by lifting the restriction, allowing without condition to engage in income generation activities,
and emplace project related cost in program cost from administrative cost. Moreover, the
charity and civil society proclamation limit the freedom of association of these organizations and
restrict their contribution to good government, democracy, and human rights by draining their
financial means and by limiting foreign organizations to engage in advocacy and policy issues.
However, the current law resolved the problem by lifting the restriction of financial sources and
allowing free entry. For the success of the civil society law the civil society organization are duty
bound to implement the fund they get for the intended purpose while donors to ensure the
sustainability of the project and government to emplace proper regulatory mechanism.
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Keywords
CSOs/NGOs, development, financial sustainability, democratization