2. Why Ethiopia?
• Ethiopia became an icon of poverty and
underdevelopment, with the financial input of
NGOs counting for ¼ of the national income
(Gill, 2010)
5. The Development Interface:
German NGO and Volunteers Ethiopian NGO
College Staff Students/beneficiaries
How significant are issues
of communication for the
implementation of this
programme, and what are
their repercussions?
6. What factors caused the breakdown of
the partnership?
• Professional and suspicious issues regarding
the Project Manager
• Resources and culture (Ethiopian context)
• Tense environment for foreign NGOs
• Food shortage
• Poor communication channels and reluctance
to cooperate.
“I think Ethiocare needs to understand that government
organisations in Ethiopia are not the same as Europe”
7. Teachers & Other Staff
• “ACSC is not a good place to be. Nobody is telling us
anything. There were problems from both sides. The
communication system simply was not there. It was a
frustrating time” (Mahlet, ex-social worker).
• “There is a communication gap between the two
[partners] - they must seek a solution for that. Otherwise
we’re left peripheral.” (Kirubel, ex-teacher)
• “There have been recent signs that awareness of problems
that occur at college have spread. It is bad for the general
atmosphere” (ACA Management)
• “They keep you in the dark, and after 30 years of
experience I simply don’t want to remain in the dark. The
atmosphere is [one of] discomfort and fear of the
unknown and the only way out is to look out and break
away.” (Kirubel, ex-teacher)
8. The Students
• Ethiopia is home to around 5 million orphans,
30% of which are due to HIV/AIDS (UNICEF, 2003)
• “They know of their background, but they don’t
want to be reminded of it. They feel like it is their
fault they are being helped by another person.
They feel guilty, but can’t do anything about it”
(Seble – Teacher)
• One student explained how she suffers the
“burden of guilt” and that independency is her
“daily dream”
9. “Stupid Words”
• “Other staff, they were using stupid words. I don’t expect this
treatment from any human beings. I know I am poor, but I
believe I will be better. I don’t want to hear I am worthless.”
• “I understand they have to say disadvantaged backgrounds. But
I am a student, not a street girl”
• “In order to get support, (by introducing us), they have been
using some intolerable words.
• “I have learned patience. In order to continue my education, I
have to tolerate others while they are insulting me.”
• “They know us as stray girls without families. That’s shameful
for me”
• “I am proud myself and by my college. It helps me to get my
goals. But sometimes this organization talks about us like we
are street girls and says what we are not. This make our society
to have a bad impression of us and they say a taboo word us
that makes us ashamed.”
10. NGO leaders, believing so passionately
in their cause sometimes find it hard to
learn from, or co-operate with others
who have different ideas about how to
reach the same goals” - (Guest, 2001)
This certainly characterizes the development interface,
but I also argue that difficulties to co-operate can stifle
what the NGO leaders were initially passionate about,
and why they were created in the first place – helping
their beneficiaries.
