Ethiopia-Sudan Development Marketplace

A number of NGOs, development entrepreneurs, international aid organizations and regional development agencies as well as senior government officials and ambassadors attended the event which took place at the UNECA Conference Centre in Addis Ababa. (View a complete list of participants -  Annex I). The DM was sponsored by the World Bank and its partners (CIDA, Ethiopian Airlines, Irish Aid, OXFAM-GB, UNDP-Ethiopia, UNDP-SRRF UNDP-Sudan, and UNICEF-OLS).

Country Process

Early in the DM process, three steering committees from civil society organizations in North and South Sudan and Ethiopia were established to manage the DM processes in-country, supported by secretariats. A joint steering committee meeting, held in Addis Ababa in November 2002, discussed and agreed on modalities for the management of the DM.

In Ethiopia, two major civil society consultations on the DM were organized. In addition, a brief orientation for the media as well as an orientation for the Ethiopian finalists in December 2002 were given. Consultation meetings were also organized with potential donors and supporters and jury members. Call for proposals were made through newspapers, radio and brochures, both in Amharic (the major local language) and English.

The Sudanese NGO "sector" is divided into two clusters: one comprised of NGOs based in areas under Government of Sudan control, and the other, made up of of NGOs operating in the South with various levels of affiliation to the rebel movement. The existing socio-political realties of the Country and the War in S. Sudan, has left a legacy of mistrust between these groups.

In Khartoum, the Near East Foundation was selected to assist the World Bank in launching and coordinating the Development Marketplace. A committee of 12 members comprised of local and international NGOs, and representatives of women's organization has also been set-up to steer and champion the process. This committee screened concept papers received in response to call for proposals for the DM in North Sudan.

In Nairobi, a similar arrangement was instituted by establishing a committee of nine members comprised of three main networks representing the local NGOs operating in SPLA held territories. The NGOs operating in the South worked through the exiting mechanism recently established to engage with the European Union. While the screening and coordination was done by the members of the steering committee, NRDOO, a local NGO, was selected to mange all the necessary finances to support this process.

A secretariat at the WB Ethiopia Country office supported the DM process in both Ethiopia and Sudan on a continuous basis. The outreach in Ethiopia and Sudan generated over 900 concept proposals, submitted in the first stage of the competition. Of these, 113 projects (35 each from Sudan and New South Sudan, and 43 from Ethiopia) were selected to display their projects at the final event and participate in the final competition.

Exhibition

Out of the 113 finalists, 104 exhibited their projects at booths. The type of projects presented at the exhibition covered a wide spectrum of development initiatives, ranging from agricultural marketing to health, education, social care, environmental rehabilitation, food security, income generation, capacity building, peace building and governance.

The projects presented by the NGOs were powerful windows on community's ingenuity. The energy and passion of these development entrepreneurs was impressive. The event was a surprising discovery of the enormous potential generated by a direct interaction with the grass-root actors.

Jury Process

During the event, an independent jury made up of local and international members from the development community (including the private sector) evaluated each finalist project exhibited at the event. The DM jury comprised about 5 members each from Ethiopia, North and South Sudan, and the international community (View a list of the Jury members - Annex II). The jury was divided into a mixed team to ensure fairness.

All 113 project proposals were first appraised by the DM jury of 20 members, five teams of 4 people each, each jury team appraising on average 22-23 project proposals. Then the actual interview with each participating finalist took place at the exhibition before the full jury met to award prizes and certificates. This process provided a transparent selection of winners based on agreed criteria and with a minimum of effort on all parts.

Awards

On the evening of the 28th February 2003, at a closing ceremony in the Ghion Hotel, the verdict of the DM jury was that all finalists were winners, in their own rights, in the fight against poverty and injustice

Thirty-four projects excelled and were selected as winners in innovation and best practices receiving awards of USD 10,000 each plus Winner Certificates. Of the 34 winners, 20 were able to directly associate with DM donor partners, thus increasing the likelihood of accessing further funding and, more importantly opportunities for longer-term relationships. The remaining 14 winners are covered through DM funds.

Seven projects addressing HIV/AIDS were also granted USD 10,000 each plus Finalist Certificates. These HIV/AIDS projects are also likely to access further financial support from the WB/MAP (Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program) or the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO). The remaining DM finalists were granted Special Jury Award Certificates plus USD $2,000 each (22 projects), and Finalist Certificates plus USD $1,000 each (50 projects). A total of USD $504,000 was awarded. (View a spreadsheet summarizing the award detail - Annex III).

A post-DM meeting was held on 1st March 2003 at the World Bank premises in Addis Ababa. All finalists whose projects were supported by other donors dealt directly with the latter in terms of funding, project implementation and follow up. Others supported by World Bank funds are entering Grant Agreements to ease and clarify financial disbursement and project follow up.

Distribution of Winners

Award Mobilization

The country Mission was able to engage donors to support the DM event and sponsor winners. Donors designated their funding for certain countries and specific activities. The pool of funds made available was over $500,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethiopian Airlines supported the DM by providing discounted air tickets for finalist participants traveling from North and South Sudan.

Overview of the Knowledge Forum

Participants, with the assistance of Deepa Narayan (PREM), designed 11 parallel sessions conducted over two half days and one full closing day, with a total of 33 speakers - all finalists or steering committee members. Participants had full ownership of the design of the Knowledge Forum, and this stimulated enthusiasm and liveliness in the discussions. It also ensured a high level of attendance in all the sessions.

The first step was to frame key questions around which to focus the discussions of the knowledge forum:

• What were successful strategies that led to empowerment of poor people?
• What will it take to scale up these strategies and expand their reach and impact?

The ultimate framework for the Knowledge Forum was then built around those questions, using the empowerment framework and a broad categorization of the topical areas covered by the Development Marketplace proposals as a structure. Four themes were decided as topics to frame the sessions of the Knowledge Forum: (1) Livelihoods and Incomes; (2) Basic Services; (3) Local Governance; and (4) National Governance and Policy Processes.

The second step involved all of the Development Marketplace finalists deciding in break-out groups on the focus and composition of panels to be held within the four themes. Participants decided on topics for 3-4 parallel sessions within each theme, and identified among themselves Chairs, Panelists, Rapporteurs, and Timekeepers for each session. The final agenda of the Knowledge Forum (Annex IV) was the result of these two days of discussion and small group work.

Part of the Knowledge Forum focused on follow up. The discussions made it clear that an active civil society is a central component of any governance reform. Participants stressed 3 broad areas for future collaborative work: (i) continuation and perfecting the DM effort; (ii) establishing an effective NGO-network to deal with information exchange, NGO law, PRSP process, and in the case of Sudan, grass-root peace-making; (iii) developing a capacity building efforts focusing on the needs of the NGO community.

The exchange among participants coming from North and South Sudan, which are in the very early stages of peace building, was particularly noteworthy. Commitments were made from both sides to continue dialogue among themselves and advocacy toward their respective sides in hopes of creating a civil society level complement to the macro-level peace processes under way.

Conclusion

After more than eight months of planning and organizing, the Ethiopia-Sudan DM has achieved a number of its original objectives: connected talents and ideas with resources; CSOs were brought together to network and learn from each other; opportunities were created for Sudanese and Ethiopian CSOs to meet and share experiences; New South Sudanese and Sudanese CSOs had an opportunity to meet under a common purpose; 113 projects were awarded with modest funds either for start-up, recognition of best practice or for general capacity building purposes; existing funding institutions such as the WB/MAP and the HAPCO took the opportunity to select projects and commit support. The Knowledge Forum also was a truly bottom up and finalist-driven forum where finalists themselves took the lead to exchange knowledge and experiences on how to support livelihoods of the poor, support service delivery, improve local governance and participate in national and regional debates.