Women. Peace. Power.

What We’re Doing

• Officially launching the project with stakeholders and community members.
• Delivering targeted capacity-building workshops and operational support for Edir leaders.
• Creating platforms for collaboration between Edirs, local government, NGOs, and other actors.
• Using community feedback to refine and adapt the project for maximum impact.

What We Aim to Achieve

• Stronger, more sustainable Women’s Edirs with clear leadership structures.
• Enhanced women’s leadership in grassroots community development.
• Increased resilience through stronger social safety networks led by women.

Our Impact

By investing in Women’s Edirs, ELiDA is reinforcing traditional systems of solidarity while building inclusive pathways for women to lead change in their communities.

What We’re Doing

• Empowering local actors through training for caseworkers, women’s affairs experts, CSOs, and law enforcement bodies.
• Providing survivor support, including medical, psychosocial, and financial assistance.
• Raising awareness through community workshops, advocacy campaigns, and educational materials.
• Mobilizing action during key events, including the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
• Fostering partnerships by facilitating dialogue and collaboration among grassroots organizations, authorities, and service providers.

Who We Reach

• Direct beneficiaries: 2,223 individuals, including women, girls, CSO staff, community leaders, and local authorities.
• Indirect beneficiaries: 1,922 community members reached via public awareness and advocacy activities.

What We Aim to Achieve

• Robust, community-based SGBV prevention and response systems.
• Greater community awareness and reduced stigma around gender-based violence.
• Empowered women and girls actively advocating for their rights.
• Stronger collaboration across sectors and sustainable local ownership.

Sustainability Approach

The project is designed for long-term impact by embedding prevention mechanisms within existing local structures and fostering strong partnerships. Upon completion, ELiDA will formally hand over the project to government stakeholders, ensuring ongoing support and integration into public systems.

Key Activities

• Training and mentoring 100 women leaders in WPS, advocacy, negotiation, and leadership skills.
• Providing mini-grants and technical support to 9 women-led organizations across Amhara, Tigray, and Oromia.
• Organizing peace forums and regional dialogues to amplify women’s voices in formal peace processes.
• Conducting advocacy campaigns, including digital outreach, to raise awareness and promote gender-responsive policies.
• Establishing Regional and National Women’s Peacebuilding Networks for sustained collaboration and advocacy.
• Facilitating international exposure visits to learn from successful WPS National Action Plan implementations abroad.

Expected Impact

• Enhanced leadership and advocacy capacities among women’s organizations and rights defenders.
• Increased representation of women in peace and security decision-making at all levels.
• Greater societal recognition of the importance of gender-inclusive peacebuilding.
• Strong cross-regional networks advocating for women’s rights and peace agendas.

Sustainability Approach

The project emphasizes building local ownership and sustainability by empowering women’s organizations, creating lasting networks, and strengthening advocacy movements to ensure continued progress beyond the project’s lifespan.

Objectives

• Strengthen women’s participation in local peacebuilding and human rights promotion.
• Build sustainable women’s peace networks to advocate for peace and gender equality.
• Enhance the leadership capacities of women peace-builders through targeted training on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agendas.

Key Activities

• Kick-off workshops to align stakeholders and connect prior peace initiatives.
• Capacity-building training for Women’s Peace Forum leaders on peacebuilding, security, and human rights.
• Establishment of a formal Women’s Peace Network via consultative meetings.
• Community events celebrating the International Day of Peace.
• Sensitization sessions and WPS-focused training for network leaders.

Target Groups

Women peace-builders, young women leaders, peace forums, human rights defenders, and broader community members in the project areas.

Addressing Challenges

Despite ongoing peace efforts, inter-communal conflict and human rights violations persist. Women’s voices have been underrepresented in peace processes. This project seeks to change that dynamic by fostering organized women’s networks that can sustainably lead peace and human rights advocacy.

Sustainability

By empowering women-led networks to operate independently and advocate effectively, the project ensures long-term peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the region.

Objectives

• Increase access to quality education for marginalized girls, including those with disabilities.
• Challenge systemic and cultural barriers to girls’ education.
• Provide psychosocial and academic support for girls affected by conflict and displacement.
• Empower young women as advocates and role models within their communities.

Key Activities

• Academic tutoring, mentoring, and coaching.
• Training on goal setting, self-reliance, and study skills.
• Awareness campaigns led by youth leaders, elders, and media to promote girls’ education.
• Support for girl-led and youth-led school clubs and peer networks.
• Psychosocial support for survivors of conflict trauma.
• Engagement with school communities to create safe, girl-friendly learning environments.
• Monitoring and documentation to share lessons and best practices.

Target Groups

• Girls aged 16–24 in grades 9–12, particularly those with disabilities and displaced youth.
• Local youth volunteers, teachers, women-led organizations, and community leaders.

Expected Impact

• Improved academic performance and school retention among girls.
• Increased leadership and advocacy capacities of young women.
• Reduced gender-based violence and early marriage rates.
• Strengthened community support and collaboration for girls’ education.

Sustainability

ELiDA fosters long-term impact by building ownership among local authorities, establishing partnerships and MOUs, empowering schools and youth groups, and sharing best practices for program scale-up.

Why It Was Needed

• Rebuilding inter-community trust
• Centering women’s leadership in peacebuilding
• Establishing durable, women-led peace networks
• Promoting narratives of tolerance and solidarity through media

Objectives & Key Activities

1. Strengthen Peacebuilding Structures

• Identified and supported 10 local women-led peace groups
• Conducted stakeholder workshops
• Formed a peace leadership committee of 30 women
• Delivered tailored training for grassroots peace roles

2. Foster Dialogue and Community Solidarity

• Designed “Conversations over Coffee” monthly forums
• Prepared inter-woreda dialogue sessions
• Planned women-led solidarity events bridging ethnic divides

3. Promote Peace Messaging Through Media

• Trained 20 women leaders in social media advocacy
• Developed bilingual (Amharic & Afaan Oromo) media content
• Prepared radio programming centered on women and peace
• Designed digital engagement strategies for broad outreach

Target Groups

• Women and young women from conflict-affected communities
• Women with disabilities
• Local peace-builders and youth facilitators
• Influential female voices on digital platforms

Project Interruption & Outcome

In 2024, USAID suspended aid to Ethiopia, impacting this project alongside many others. Although full implementation was not achieved, ELiDA successfully:

• Built critical relationships with community and government stakeholders
• Developed training materials and operational structures
• Created peace networks ready for reactivation

Sustainability Strategy

• Institutional: Strengthened links with local government and CSOs
• Programmatic: Developed adaptable training systems and operational plans
• Community-Based: Built grassroots support and local ownership for peace work

Looking Ahead

Though interrupted, this initiative laid a foundation for future gender-inclusive peacebuilding in a highly sensitive region. ELiDA remains committed to this mission and is actively exploring new partnerships and funding sources to relaunch and expand the project.

Objectives

• Build the skills of digital influencers, media actors, and CSOs to detect and respond to online hate and misinformation.
• Promote women’s and youth leadership in digital peace initiatives.
• Strengthen civil society’s ability to create safer digital environments.
• Generate data-driven advocacy through regular monitoring and digital landscape assessments.

Key Activities

• Mapping civil society and media ecosystems
• Conducting gender-sensitive digital assessments
• Hosting workshops for influencers, journalists, and civil society groups
• Facilitating peer learning sessions and multi-stakeholder dialogues
• Organizing a national digital peacebuilding conference
• Launching inclusive peace campaigns both online and offline
• Offering long-term mentorship and support for local peacebuilders

Why It Matters

As misinformation and hate speech become more widespread online, they are increasingly linked to real-world violence and societal division. These harms often disproportionately affect women, youth, and marginalized communities. This project helps build a more resilient, inclusive digital culture by empowering those most vulnerable—and often excluded—to lead the response.

Expected Impact

• Safer, more responsible digital environments across Ethiopia
• Stronger local capacity to combat hate speech and online incitement
• Increased women’s leadership in peacebuilding
• Broader community ownership of peace narratives and solutions

Key Objectives

• Empower women’s groups to lead in conflict response and peacebuilding
• Support formal and informal women’s networks with training, resources, and flexible funding
• Promote inclusive decision-making by addressing gender norms and structural barriers
• Advance Ethiopia’s WPS National Action Plan through grassroots-led implementation

What Makes WLiE Unique

• Bottom-up design: Women define priorities and lead the process
• Triple nexus approach: Integrates humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and development
• Inclusive by design: Reaches marginalized women, including those with disabilities and underrepresented age groups
• Supportive of livelihoods: Links women’s economic empowerment with public participation
• Engages allies: Works with men and community leaders to reduce backlash and foster buy-in

ELiDA’s Role in Ethiopia

As a key implementing partner, ELiDA brings its deep expertise in community peacebuilding, GBV prevention, and women’s empowerment. Together with CARE Ethiopia, ELiDA supports women’s rights organizations and informal grassroots groups through:

• Technical and leadership training
• Flexible financial support
• Advocacy tools to elevate women’s voices in local and national crisis responses

Expected Impact

• Women-led organizations influence peacebuilding and humanitarian action
• Scalable models for community-driven, gender-sensitive response emerge
• Ethiopia’s WPS agenda sees meaningful grassroots implementation
• Local leadership becomes central to national recovery

Objectives

• Develop a national tool to monitor and strengthen gender inclusivity within the National Dialogue.
• Advocate for adoption of the mechanism by key stakeholders, including government, civil society, and the National Dialogue Commission.
• Build the capacity of women-led CSOs to monitor and advocate for gender equity in the dialogue process.
• Ensure inclusion of women from diverse backgrounds—activists, youth, political figures, and grassroots leaders.

Target Beneficiaries

• Direct: 132 individuals, including 76 women and 56 men: CSO leaders, officials, political party reps, media professionals, researchers, and commissioners.
• Indirect: 726 individuals reached through training and dissemination.
• Key Implementers: 30 women-led CSOs from the Coalition for Women’s Voice in National Dialogue.

Key Activities

• National-level advocacy workshop with decision-makers and partners
• Expert validation of the Gender-Responsiveness Monitoring Framework
• Stakeholder consultations and promotional events to build political buy-in
• Translation and dissemination of the tool in 5 languages, including Braille
• Ongoing coordination with the National Dialogue Commission and Ministry of Women & Social Affairs

Expected Results

• A national Gender-Responsiveness Monitoring Mechanism adopted and utilized
• 40+ CSOs and 10 networks actively using the tool in advocacy and accountability efforts
• Heightened visibility and influence of women in national peace and decision-making platforms

Why This Matters

For Ethiopia’s peace process to succeed, it must reflect the voices and experiences of all its people—especially women, who are often sidelined in national dialogues. This project ensures that gender equity becomes a measurable reality in the National Dialogue, setting a precedent for inclusive governance and sustainable peace.