Enhancing the Functional Protection of Human Rights in Ethiopia

Project design should build as much on other relevant programmes within the same sector. In this case the UNDP Democratic Institutions Programme in Ethiopia. Future project design should be based on an integrated programmr of activities to ensure that lessons learned from implementation are taken into account by other actors, including Ethiopian civil society and other national human rights institutions with linkages to relevant UN and other development agencies.

Although the international grantee was not permitted to set up office in country, the capacity building activities were effectively implemented. However, some project activities such as the training of trainers were not adequately followed up, and others such as the study visits were reported to have been insufficiently planned. The grantee’s project management could have helped by integrating the views of consultant trainers, and partners/beneficiaries. Regular project management review meetings with partners’ senior representatives could have served to take stock of activities and ensure follow-up.

The project suffered from insufficient risk analysis and mitigation. The original design failed to identify the challenging political environment in which the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was operating. Solid project design should plan for scenarios related to each identified risk, and develop mitigation approaches to ensure that core objectives can be met.

The training in Ethiopia covered issues such as identification of human rights violations and of applicable legislation and international standards. The training sessions fully met participants’ expectations and requirements of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. Trainers took a very practical approach and followed up with a hands-on coaching session on the preparation of the first National Status Report on the implementation of international standards ratified by Ethiopia. The report drafting task was directly within the scope of work of training participants.