Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed appointed Jima Delebo as Director General of Charities and Societies Agency since last Oct.29. He said he has no affiliation with any political party and his assignment went based on merits. He had worked as Association’s Registration Office Head in the then Ministry of Justice during the drafting period of the existing CSO law. Before this assignment, he had been working privately on CSO area. Worku Belachew sat with him to discuss major issues on the draft law. Q: What changes does the draft law promise? Jima: The draft law has brought changes beginning from the nomenclature of CSOs. The law in effect classified CSOs mainly based on their funding sources as Ethiopian charities and societies, Ethiopian resident charities and societies and foreign charities and societies. The classification was meant to advance the ultimate benefits of peoples and to delineate areas in which the CSOs may operate. Hence, Ethiopian charities and societies are formed based on the law of the land and should generate only less than 10 percent of funds from foreign sources. These entities can engage in both development and rights-based areas. However, Ethiopian resident as well as foreign charities and societies can generate over 10 percent of their funds from foreign sources but they are limited to operate on development fronts. Put it another way, the latter two cannot work for the advocacy of rights-based issues. Thus, one of the limitations of the existing law is that it shies away from recognizing that right issues have universal nature. Q: You mean that the draft law has provisions for expat individuals to operate in Ethiopia in right-based issues? Jima: So long as they respect the laws of the land, they can operate on these areas. This is in addition to ensuring the right to organization of citizens in its fullest senses. The very requirement to form CSO is respecting the laws of the land. Ethiopia is one of the signatories of international conventions on the protection of human rights. The draft law promises the conventions’ full-scale implementation. Q: So, tell us about the new categorization? Jima: We’ll have two broad categorizations, local and foreign CSOs. The first ones are formed under the laws of Ethiopia while the second ones under foreign laws. Q: One of the problems in the existing law is that it is said to have failed in putting a gray line among charities and societies, has the draft law resolved this problem? Jima: Based on the Draft law, CSOs are organizations that are formed by two and more than two people to achieve legal objectives, and are formed to serve purposes that are not for profit. They could have natural or juridical personalities; it includes non-governmental institutions, professional associations and labor unions. Under the existing law, charities work for their parties while societies for their member. The draft law, however, offer unrestricted freedom for CSOs to function in any legal area. In short, the entities will not necessarily be formed for third parties or to serve members. Q: The other bottleneck was, professional association should be established by natural persons only, organizations with juridical personalities have been prevented from forming associations, we can mention the failed attempt to establish media council. Jima: The draft law has it that organizations with juridical personality can form associations. Not only this, it is also possible to form consortium of consortiums when CSO’s umbrella organizations plan to achieve their common objectives. Q:Associations as well are banned from working for third parties, the law requires them to work for the benefits of their members only. Jima: Yes, in addition to this, they can work for the benefits of the people sticking to their objectives. Q: The other pressing issue CSOs raise is that the 70/30 budget appropriation while the former goes to their projects and the latter for a d m i n i s t r a t i v e tasks. Will there be any change to it? Jima: Here the budget allocation is improved to 80/20. Q: Improved or become tighter? Jima: No, it is more relaxed now. Any expenditure that relate to project lies on the 80 percent sphere. Project costs are detailed on the law. [It also helps CSOs to get more funds], Donors also focuses on the appropriation. In many countries the administration cost is not over 15 percent. This means, there is clear line between both costs unlike the existing one. Q: Do you think the Agency is fit to regulate the CSO sector? Jima: The Agency’s main task should be ensuring the ultimate benefits of the people as a result of CSOs activities. The CSOs have to be formed in a relaxed manner and the right to association must be protected. I believe that the Agency’s constraints in terms of human and material resources should be alleviated. As to our assessment, the Agency’s human resource turnover has reached 50 percent, and this is partly due to the unsatisfactory benefit packages. This contributed to poor service provision. As many customers usually say the service provision makes the operation of charities and societies more difficult than the law itself. Thus, we understand that we have ardent job ahead of us to address this pressing problem. The monitoring and evaluation muscles of the Agency are no fewer burdens to charities and societies. Due to this, the guidelines in effect go even to the level of overriding the proclamation [621/2009]. Thus, our aim is now to flex our supportive muscle. Q: Whose mandate is it to oversee the Agency, parliament or attorney general? Jima: The Agency now reports to the Federal Attorney General. But it is a controversial issue. The draft law suggests that it needs to report to parliament. I don’t think the Agency is one of the democratic institutions. It is part of the executive organ. There is no even international experience for the such regulatory body to fall in the hands of the legislature. Q: How you ensure independence then? Jima: Frankly speaking, whether it falls in the executive or legislature wing, what matters most is respecting law. The leadership of the Agency should be loyal to the law. What protects us is the law. And we’ll prove it in practice as well. That is what I believe. The Ethiopian Herald: Thank you very much. Jima: It’s my pleasure.
