Fostering the Meaningful Inclusion of Women in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue

This project aims to facilitate and support the meaningful inclusion of women in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue process. The Berghof Foundation builds off of their work over the past three years to consolidate the work of Ethiopian women working to facilitate regional dialogues and conflict resolution in their country. This work led to the formation of the Women’s Steering Committee. The Berghof Foundation supports the Women’s Steering Committee by providing capacity-building training facilitating alliance-building and networking opportunities. It supports the strategic positioning of representatives to engage and mainstream women’s participation in the National Dialogue process while sensitizing power holders about the strategic value of women’s inclusion in this national process. Project activities include: (1) providing virtual coaching advice and on-demand support on substantive issues to the Women’s Steering Committee; (2) providing administrative and logistic support; (3) providing in-person and virtual skill-based and conceptual training; and (4) holding workshops for both the Women’s Steering Committee and wider stakeholder groups.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased capacity of the Women’s Steering Committee to facilitate a Track II process to foster the meaningful inclusion of women in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue; (2) increased capacity of diverse Ethiopian women to meaningfully participate in the National Dialogue process; (3) enhanced strategic networking and alliance-building of women working towards meaningful women’s inclusion in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue process; (4) increased sensitivity of power-holders to the strategic value of working towards meaningful inclusion of women in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue; and (5) improve the strategic positioning of female representatives in Ethiopia’s National Dialogue.