Civil Society Support Program 2

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) leads UK support for efforts to end extreme poverty. DFID Ethiopia works to help Ethiopia transform itself into an industrialised, resilient, more inclusive country that is more able to self-finance its way out of poverty and harness the potential of its youth. DFID Ethiopia has contracted the delivery of the Civil Society Support Programme II (CSSP II) to a consortium involving British Council, SDDirect and Pact. The purpose of this programme is to increase trust between government and civil society to deliver enhanced state accountability and responsiveness, resulting in better quality public services. SDDirect leads on CSSPII's work on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), as well as developing the programme’s approach to safeguarding. GESI is central to CSSP2, building on the Hard to Reach focus of CSSP1, which was one of the key successes. As Ethiopia’s political reforms have evolved, the programme has been able to adopt a rights based approach. This includes an explicit focus on gender transformation, encompassing projects working on gender based violence, women’s political rights and women’s land rights. The focus on social inclusion is reflected in a range of projects working with social minorities and with youth, as well as an approach to mainstreaming cross-cutting issues such as disability and gender.