Ethiopian to take steps to promote ties to strengthen people-to-people relationships and cultural exchange, increasing opportunities for people to maintain or sustain peace, and cultural exchange among the nation nationality of Ethiopia and other friendly countries. And create opportunities to promoting local tourism, and developing good practices that could facilitate more interpersonal interaction. These recommendations were endorsed by the Ethiopian People’s Friendship Association (EPFA). To achieve those goals the Association used the three principles, which is doing every activity based on efficiency, effectiveness, and economy.

1. Briefly Evaluation of Ethi-
opian People’s Friendship
Association (EPFA)
Prepared by
Belayneh Zelelew Negash
May 2021
Addis Abeba

2. Ethiopian People’s Friendship Association
2
Table of Contents
Background.....................................................2
EPFA as Not-For-Profit Organization.........4
The Role of EPFA...........................................4
EPFA Effectiveness and Efficiency...............5
Challenges faced by EPFA............................6
Impact of EPFA’s intervention....................8
Conclusion....................................................9
Reference......................................................10
Background
The remarkable growth in non-governmental or-
ganizations over the last several decades is the
result of interactions between secular trends, ideas,
and technology. Governments have been outsourc-
ing more of their development aid delivery to NGOs,
following a trend amongst all organizations to out-
source non-core functions (for example, Mullin,
1996), and also specifically due to a “perceived failure
of governmental development assistance” (Barr and
Fafchamps, 2006). The over-arching clustering of all
kinds of NGOs is divided into two main categories.
Those which serve others (and have large financial
resources) are called intermediaries, and those which
are served by intermediaries are called community-
based organizations (CBOs) or grassroots organiza-
tions (GROs). Intermediaries are large, usually well-
known and well-endowed international NGOs (e.g.
Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch, OXFAM, World
Relief, and CARE) that originate and usually head-
quartered in developed countries and carry out op-
erations in developing countries, including Ethiopia.
They have deep infrastructures and have the “lux-
ury” of setting both long- and short-term goals. In
contrast, community-based organizations are usu-
ally smaller in size, scope and financial resources,
and they have a large membership corps. These are
usually the recipients of goods and services from in-
termediaries. They usually can only offer short-term
goals as their needs are needed immediately by their
members (Barr and Fafchamps, 2006).
Ethiopian People’s Friendship Association (EPFA)
one of the local NGO’s believes that People-to-
people cooperation, social interaction, and civil so-
ciety net¬works can provide a way to help overcome
these hurdles. The association works to strengthen
democracy, enhance good governance and the rule
of law, and to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms, with due regard to the rights
and responsibilities of the regional states of Ethio-
pia. The association main purpose is to enhance the
understanding and friendship among the peoples of
Ethiopia, to promote exchanges and cooperation, so-
ciety, culture, tradition, share good practice and oth-
er aspects. And to promote mutual understanding,
trust, empathy, and resilient social ties. As the health
of the relationships among different groups improve,
the likelihood of violence in the country declines.

3. 3
Ethiopiantotakestepstopromotetiestostrength-
en people to people relationship and cultural
exchange, increasing opportunities for the people to
maintain or sustain peace, cultural exchange among
the nation nationality of Ethiopia and other friendly
countries . And create opportunities to promoting
local tourism, and developing good practices that
could facilitate more interpersonal interaction.
These recommendations were endorsed by the Ethi-
opian People’s Friendship Association (EPFA).To
achieve those goals the Association used the three
principles, which is doing every activities based on
efficiency, effectiveness and economically.
EPFA as Not-For-Profit Organization
The number of nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) is growing at a tremendous rate around
the world, especially in developing and emerg-
ing nations. Non-governmental organizations like
EPFA are largely staffed by altruistic employees and
volunteers working towards ideological, rather than
financial, ends. Their founders are often intense,
creative individuals who sometimes come up with
a new product to deliver or a better way to deliver
existing goods and services.
Hansmann’s (1980) seminal work on the non-
profit sector argues that the key characteristic
separating nonprofits from for-profits is the “non-
distribution constraint” that prevents or limits of-
ficers or directors from distributing the net earnings
amongst themselves. Of course, nonprofits do have
the ability to distribute their “profits” to employ-
ees in the form of perquisites such as higher wages,
shorter hours, or better offices. Nonetheless, be-
cause not-for-profit entrepreneurs have weaker in-
centives to maximize their profits, they may be able
to obtain a competitive advantage in a number of
areas (Glaeser and Shleifer, 2001).
The Role of EPFA
In general, NGOs are perceived to play valuable
roles in both the developmental and democratiza-
tion process of a country. The international network
of civil society groups, lists five “essential roles” for
civil societies (Eman, 2012:29):
1. Influencing public policy: this dimension con-
sists of three sub-areas, namely roles in influenc-
ing the national budget process, human rights is-
sues and social policy issues.
2. Holding state and private corporations account-
able for their decisions and actions. Here NGO’s
sole in “monitoring, making transparent and if ap-
propriate, speaking out against actions undertaken
by government and the private sector in violations
of their stated goals, objectives and tasks” has been
significant.
3. Responding to social interests: this relates to the
role of NGOs in taking up and voicing societal
concerns, and their ability to function as “represen-
tatives” and “particulars” of their interests of com-
munities.
4. Empowering citizens: enabling citizens, partic-
ularly the poor and the disadvantaged, to have
more choice and to take more control over deci-
sions that affect their lives through information and
education, developing capacity for collective action,
and building social capital.
5. Meeting societal needs: this concerns service
delivery, promoting self-help initiatives, helping
people to meet their pressing societal needs.
EPFA have played four important roles in the
community. These roles are (1) social develop-
ment, (2) sustainable community development, (3)
sustain¬able development, and (4) sustainable con-
sumption.
Social development: NGOs play an important
role in global social development-work that has
helped facilitates achievements in human develop-
ment as measured by the UN Human Development
Index (HDI). One of the major strengths of EPFA is
its ability to maintain institu-tional independence
and political neutrality.
Sustainable Community Development: the or-
ganization has shown leadership in promoting
sustainable community devel¬opment. Due to their
particular ideology and nature, EPFA are good at
reaching out to the poor and remote communities
and mobilizing these populations. They can also
empower these populations to regain control of
their lives and can work with and strengthen local

4. Ethiopian People’s Friendship Association
4
organizations.
Sustainable Development: EPFA have played
a significant role in promoting sustainable
develop¬ment at the national level. Nowadays,
NGOs are going beyond their primary focus on gov-
ernments and starting to address large corporations.
Sustainable Consumption: EPFA play an impor-
tant role as partners to business/industry in pro-
moting sustainable consumption.
As we can see from the above roles of EPFA have
played a significant role in social development,
sustainable community develop¬ment, and promot-
ing sustainable consumption.
EPFA Effectiveness and Efficiency
EPFA’s effectiveness was strong, as the end of the
specific project targets was met. There was high
awareness of government standards; strong citizen
led monitoring and strengthened capacity of stake-
holders.
To further measure the effectiveness of EPFA’s im-
plementation of its intervention model through
its 10 partner INGOs and LNGOs, my evaluation
looked at the achievement in relation to the relevant
expected results (and their indicators) for each com-
ponent. The EPFA’s intervention model of building
the capacity of Local NGOs was found to be a good
approach. The Association intervention model was
built on maximizing learning potential for LNGOs,
who were the key change agents for each project and
benefited from the extensive capacity building and
financial support. The model of utilizing capacity
building at various levels and from various stake-
holders within the project (i.e. from MoWCYA,MoP,
MoFA, horizontal partner LNGOs and specialized
training partners) was unique and very effective. The
EPFA’s model provided LNGOs with direct learning
opportunities (through training modules) and also
on-going support (through coaching and backstop-
ping). Capacity building focused on both improving
LNGOs technical skills for implementing the actual
project activities (enhancing citizen access to in-
formation and citizen monitoring) and also project
management and implementation skills (monitoring
and evaluation and financial management capacity).
The EPFA’s intervention model was ambitious
in its design to implement the project activities
through 10 LNGOs, 10 Regional states and 2 city ad-
ministrations. The complex model required a long
lead time in order to ensure the infrastructure; ad-
ministration and recruitment could be completed
properly. The initial establishment of the interven-
tion model, in particular the recruitment and nego-
tiation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU)
with the governmental organizations, proved to be
challenging. EPFA’s has shown to be able to imple-
ment all the project activities in a timely manner,
meeting its targets under each expected result with
few drawbacks.
Challenges faced by EPFA.
Despite the huge potential and strengths that EP-
FA’s have in peace building and creating people-
to people relation, there are challenges that the or-
ganization face in the course of doing its work. The
main challenges include;
1. Lack of big picture; this is particularly a big
problem for small NGOs like EPFA, which do not
usually have established connections with govern-
ment’s and multilaterals. As a result EPFA’s are not
aware of what is really happening on the ground in
terms of the scale of destruction, number and loca-
tion of displaced people and priority services that
need to be offered. This may lead to EPFA’s engaging
in projects that may not be priority or that are not
sustainable after its leave.
2. Poor coordination; in complex emergencies,
having a strong coordinating body is key to the
successful delivery of services to affected popula-
tions, like internal displace peoples (IDP). Where
there is no coordination, EPFA’s may end up hav-
ing duplicate projects in the same area, or may all
be working in one location and totally undeserving
other affected populations. In many instances when
the work of NGOs looks haphazard, it is usually due
to lack of strong central coordinating mechanism.
3. Being ignored; sometimes governments tend
to preferentially deal with bilateral and multi-

5. 5
laterals and in many instances tend to ignore local
NGOs like EPFA especially in decision making. Also
reports or concerns from EPFA’s and others that are
considered to be non-technical and are not taken se-
riously.
4. Donors’ Influence (Demanding Shadow re-
port):
As charities face increasingly competitive fund-
raising environments, they have begun to em-
ploy marketing activities to encourage donations.
This has led to an explosive growth of research in re-
cent years on the “demand side” of charitable giving.
While income is consistently identified as an impor-
tant predictor of the amount donated, the results are
mixed for the association between income and the
incidence of giving; studies either find a positive or
no relationship. As people with all levels of income
are capable of making donations, those with higher
income can afford to give more (Wiepking and Bek-
kers 2012a). With regard to donors’ choice, individu-
als with higher income may also prefer to donate to
different causes than those with lower incomes.
EPFA’s used different strategy to raise funds from
INGOs and local donors. The challenging part is
choosing the right source of funding. Each source,
while promising in its own way, has a unique set of
advantages and disadvantages. Here is a list of few
sources of funding that are proven to be the most
reliable ways to raise money for EPFA’s. From those
find raising techniques, the following one used ef-
fectively; crowd funding, raise capital by asking rich
businessmen/women, peer-to-peer fundraising, fun-
draising letters writing and fund competition used to
mobilize resource for the organization projects.
We find that even minor variations in the per-
suasive message have large and dramatic im-
pact on donor behavior, both in terms of the dona-
tion rates and amounts raised. Majority of the donors
needs shadow report from EPFA’s side. A shadow
report is a formal review of that state report pre-
pared by a coalition of civil society organizations for
review by the EPFA’s. Once submitted, the shadow
report becomes as much a part of the official record
as the report the state summited. The evidence and
assessment presented in the shadow report is given
as much consideration as the information presented
by the state. This shadow report helps the INGOs to
raise large amount of fund from different donor’s
countries and organization.
Shadow reporting is an important tool for non-
government organizations (NGOs) supporting
various human rights. These reports are written by
NGOs to supplement or present alternative infor-
mation to reports that governments are required
to submit under human rights treaty obligations in
a specific country from the perspective of civil so-
ciety. In other words, shadow reports are a unique
tool through which NGOs can present opinions
of civil society on government action and present
them to the UN Committees (CEDAW, 2010). This
way NGOs “shadow” the State report by providing
an analysis and critique of the State report. They are
usually published after or in response to the govern-
mental report.
Many organization have demand a shadow report
from EPFA but the organization based on its prin-
ciple unable to fulfill the donors demand, because of
this the organization face financial shortage to cover
project expense.
Impact of EPFA’s intervention
Quantitative evaluations of the non-governmen-
tal organizations sector in general are non-
existent. However, a number of academic studies
have estimated the effect of individual projects. For
example, several randomized evaluations of local
NGOs projects in Kenya and India found that they
improved educational outcomes (Banerjee et al.,
2003; Kremer, 2003). Kremer, Moulin, and Namu-
nyu (2002) describe a program in which the NGO
International Christelijk Steunfonds provided uni-
forms, textbooks, and classroom construction to
seven randomly-selected schools from a pool of 14
poorly performing candidates. This program raised
school enrollment and after five years, pupils in the
treatment schools had completed about 15 percent
more schooling. Not all randomized evaluations of
NGOs programs, however, find positive outcomes;
some evaluations find no difference (Duflo and Kre-
mer, 2003).

6. Ethiopian People’s Friendship Association
6
To measure the impact of EPFA’s intervention, the association conducted assessment at the end of each proj-
ects, the evaluation indicated that EPFA’s overall objective and specific objective related to the measurement
of improved key local services. It should be noted that women, youth and community as a while have been
positively impacted by the project. The project result show that high levels of satisfaction, responsiveness and
improvement as perceived by these beneficiary groups, in excess of the end of project targets.
Conclusion
EPFA have played and would continue to play important and critical roles in Ethiopia but these roles can be but-
tressed by frameworks of partnership with governments and important international institutions such as the Af-
rican Union, United Nation and European Union thought an effective coalition process that would afford clearer
understanding of the policy environment and the needs of societies and communities. Effective coalition would
promote complementary and mutually reinforcing approach and strategies towards development.
Benefits of the project that is likely to continue after donor funding has been withdrawn. The sustainability of the
project has its limitations. Although increased capacity of LNGOs and GOs was observed to have improved and
strengthened, and the continuation of dissemination activities could be supported by this, the scope and extent of
that dissemination and further on-going efforts could not be certain. Given the short timeframe of the EPFA proj-
ect (3 years) a transition or sustainability plan, especially on how the demand side activities would be taken over
by the supply side actors was not considered. Sustainability would require additional funding in order to maintain
the same level of project support and also a systematic transition/phase out plan in conjunction with government
stakeholders.
Promoting public awareness and stimulating donor response is key to a successful response to disasters. NGOs
must be encouraged and supported in the roles they do best. This will result to rapid and efficient service delivery
to affected populations. The multiplier effect of these varied endeavors would be to positively increase the scope

7. 7
of community participation in survival and develop-
ment efforts. The areas of multiple engagements will
also foster and encourage a sense of initiative among
the grassroots and enable a broad sense of popular
ownership of the development process.
Finally, there is mutual concern and apprehension
about external manipulation and use of NGOs to
serve extra-community purposes and a shared inter-
est in providing an enabling environment in which
their operations, instruments and goals are adapted
to the requirements of community interests. Within
this context, it would be important for policy makers
in both regions to continue to share experiences and
use this to develop common standards or parameters
for engagement
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