Mwananchi Ethiopia - Lem Limat

The strategy used by the Lem Limat programme (LLP) involves building partnerships with potential interlocutors – civil society organisations, media, elected representatives, and traditional leaders. During the first year of the programme, the following activities were undertaken:

• Capacity assessment - GDA undertook a baseline assessment on organisational capacity of the existing interlocutors and based on this assessment, capacity enhancement training was offered on public policy development, implementation, and review, intended for government officials at local levels.
• Two national workshops were conducted which were attended by CSOs, media, elected representatives, traditional leaders, government organisations, and ODI representatives. Two consultative and experience-sharing meetings were held among the local partners while a midyear LLP review meeting was organised for partners and other CSOs, councillors, traditional leaders, government actors, and a governance expert from Mwananchi-Ethiopia. GDA also offered a capacity building training to the local partners on Outcome Mapping, Action Research, and grant fund management.
• Monitoring of the programme implementation was a continuous exercise that involved close follow-up of the execution of each and every planned activity at the regional, national, programme area, and partner levels. The task of tracking the progress at all those levels was done with reference to both the process and financial status of programme implementation.

Among the various categories of interlocutors between citizens and government in the process of governance, GDA created partnerships with implementing organisations through grant funding. The following is a selection of recipients and their activities: Coalition of Parents–Teachers–Students Associations (CoPSTA)
The objective of the partnership with CoPTSA was to explore and influence policy issues in the education sector in general and school governance in particular. The grant project focused on influencing the quality of education in secondary schooling by encouraging the school community – students, parents and teachers – to talk about, advocate for, and engage with local government actors.

Guraghe Mihuran Forum
GDA is working with the Guaraghe Mihuran Forum (GMF), an organisation that recruits skilled volunteers to input into local planning and governance. GMF wanted to expand its membership and the diversity of skills and knowledge that they provide on a voluntary basis, regardless of the field of education, level of qualification, current occupation, and place of residence of the individual. GDA assisted GMF with information management systems to enhance the role of intellectuals in community empowerment, and enhancing and scaling up the role of volunteer intellectuals in community empowerment.

Farmers’ Cooperatives Unions (FCUs)
The overall objectives of the projects were to enhance the active engagement of the agrarian community in general and the members of the FCUs in particular in evidence-based negotiation with government actors for the successful implementation of the GTP of the agricultural sector in Guraghe Zone. The major components of the project include training for the leaders on qualities of leadership and meaning of responsibility, a workshop for members and leaders of cooperatives on regional and federal government policies on cooperatives societies, and consultative meetings for elected representatives, members and leaders of Primary Farmers’ Cooperatives Association (PFCAs), and management of the FCUs on the concerns of members based on the evidences gathered through studies.

Guraghe Zone Women’s Association (GZWA)
GDA assisted the GZWA to conduct a study on rural women’s socio-economic roles in the family and their participation in the rural cooperative societies. They also organised workshops for women in Guraghe Zone on gender policies and programmes of the local and federal governments, and disseminated macro (policy) and micro (socio-economic opportunities and challenges) level information on gender via a local radio channel (Wolkite FM 89.2 Radio).

Wolkite 89.2 FM Radio
The partnership with Wolkite 89.2 FM Radio was principally meant to enhance two-way information communication between the citizens and government actors, enabling the voices of the former to be heard while paving the way for accountability and responsiveness in the latter.

Governance

The Mwananchi programme's theory of change centres on citizens effectively expressing their views and interests and holding governments accountable for their actions at different levels in the governmental system. This includes three key participants - citizens (the “wananchi”) or ordinary people, interlocutors, such as journalists, civil society organisations, and elected representatives, and the state. To increase the ability of citizens to effectively express their views and hold governments accountable, the overall programme seeks to sharpen the roles of civil society, media, elected representatives (members of parliament and councilors), and traditional leaders; strengthen partnerships between interlocutors for comparative advantage synergies; and increase the use of research-based evidence to influence government policies and engage citizens.