Freedoms, Reforms and Elections in Ethiopia (FREE)

FREE brings under it strands of UK democratic governance work (on civic actors, institutions, and elections) that were previously housed under separate programmes. The programme aims to promote an open, inclusive, and active democratic space by directly engaging with civic actors (for e.g., civil society and media) and autonomous and oversight bodies (for. e.g., parliament), so that they can freely engage and hold government to account on issues that matter to them. The enabling environment that is needed for Ethiopia’s next general elections (slated for June 2026) is a key lens through which FREE’s activities around civic actors and institutions need to be understood.

The main components of the programme, which correspond to the needs it addresses, are:

• Support to civic actors (e.g., civil society and media) because they play a vital role in maintaining open societies and promoting accountability - as well as providing services to, and speaking out for, the most marginalised.
• Support to oversight Institutions and oversight work, that preserve and promote democratic governance, accountability, and effectiveness of development assistance. This work includes Fiduciary Risk Assessments.
• Rapid analyses to ensure that interventions are responsive and adaptive to the context, emerging opportunities and promotes democratic space. This work includes Political Economy Analyses.

What are the expected results?

Outcome: Ethiopia's democratic space is protected from further rollback as nascent gains achieved in civic space, institutional reform and enfranchisement of the electorate are sustained.

Outputs:

• Empowered civic actors (CSOs, media, political parties) engage in advocacy, promoting accountability, service delivery, and representation of citizens, including marginalized groups (women, girls, IDPs, PWDs).
• Increased technical capacity in oversight institutions for fiscal discipline, efficiency and accountability in public spending and fiduciary risks management.

FREE builds on the lessons, challenges, and successes, as well as recommendations from previous interventions and acknowledges the transformed context it will be operating in and is realistic about what it will be able to achieve with the resources available.

The proposed programme budget is £13m (inclusive of VAT and local taxes) over 4 years. The primary implementing partners will be media and civil society organisations and their sector representative bodies and oversight and autonomous bodies selected for targeted capacity support. The supplier and their potential partners would need to obtain registration under the relevant department as laid out by rules of the government of Ethiopia.