Currently Ongoing

Project # One

Title: Female Domestic Work in Ethiopia: Current situation and future reform

Duration: February 7th2023 – December 30th2024

Description

While the situation of Ethiopian migrant FDWs has attracted much research, there is no much corresponding interest in investigating the conditions of FDWs within Ethiopia itself. This is regrettable not only because FDWs in Ethiopia live under conditions of vulnerability, but also because the gendered impact of the political, economic, population and social transformations the country is undergoing are very likely to be manifested in the conditions and trajectories of domestic work in the country. 

In order to fill this gap, FSS is undertaking a two-year research and advocacy project on female wage labor – a sector that employs mostly young, uneducated, rural women who hold multiple and intersecting disadvantaged positions and are carrying the burden of legal exclusion. The purpose of the project is to generate knowledge on the conditions of female domestic workers and to improve the legal framework of domestic work in Ethiopia through research and advocacy/lobby interventions. Thus, it has two interrelated parts: the first constituting research on the conditions of FDW, and the second, advocacy and lobby activities based on the findings and recommendations of former. The project activities will be carried out in Addis Ababa and one regional city

  1. Objective and Method of the Research Section

The general objective of the research is to “generate knowledge on the existing situation and direction of change of female domestic work in Ethiopia in order to inform policy and legislation. The specific objectives are:

  • Identify the current situation of female domestic work in Ethiopia, including working conditions, wages, benefits, and job security.
  • Analyze the challenges faced by female domestic workers in Ethiopia, including discrimination, harassment, and exploitation, if any.
  • Investigate the role of intermediaries, employers, and rights advocates in the female domestic work sector in Ethiopia.
  • Explore the attitudes, perceptions, and practices of employers towards female domestic workers in Ethiopia.
  • Investigate the challenges faced by employers of female domestic workers in Ethiopia.
  • Identify potential policy and regulatory interventions that could improve the working conditions and protections for both employers and domestic workers.
  • Provide recommendations for improving the working conditions, rights, and protections of female domestic workers and their employers in Ethiopia.

As for the methodology of the research, the research team will conduct a thorough desk review of the available literature on FDWs. Moreover, it will assess reports of CSOs working on promoting the rights of FDWs in order to capture lessons learnt from their experience in advocating for the rights of FDWs. It will also aim to capture lessons from other countries’ experience in handling the right of FDWs.

The research team will collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data will primarily be gathered from FDWs, brokers, rights advocates, relevant NGO and government representatives through in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussion. Quantitative data will be collected through a limited survey of female domestic workers. It will then analyze the data, right a draft report of the findings and recommendations, that it will finalize on the basis of inputs from a validation workshop.

  1. Objectives and Methods of the Advocacy Section

The advocacy section of the project aims to further ascertain the realities of female domestic work and the gaps in the legal regime governing it, further refine the recommendations and action plan for comprehensive legislative change, and advocate/lobby for the implementation of the same.

Previously, FSS has successfully used the “research-dialogue-dissemination” trilogy on a number of occasions. However, it had always left the task of undertaking the advocacy task recommended by its research-dialogue outputs to those CSOs whose main work was precisely that. FSS fed these CSOs, ammunition with which they could effectively conduct their advocacy and lobbying work – as in the case of FSS’ research and dialogue endeavors on Khat that culminated in its support to the drafting of regulatory legislation.

The advocacy endeavor  will be carried out through a national conference which brings together all stakeholders including advocacy groups working on the rights of workers in general and women in particular, by forming lobby group composed of relevant stakeholders and like-minded CSOs, holding lobby group meetings where the lobby group plans its activities and discusses its way forward, and producing radio programs, newspaper articles, video documentaries, as well as through the produduction of research monographs and Amharic and English policy briefs that summarize the research and the legal reform recommendations.

Project # Two

ACRC-Addis Ababa Research Uptake Project

Project Duration: February – July 2023

Project description

The African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) is a collaborative approach to tackling complex problems in the continent’s rapidly changing cities. The FCDO-funded programme aims to generate insights and evidence that will help improve the living conditions, services and life chances of all city residents, particularly for disadvantaged communities. Initially working in 12 African cities, the project integrates systems thinking with rigorous political analysis to provide new insights designed to support urban reform efforts.

FSS’s role

For Addis Ababa, FSS is primary responsible for leading the fourth theme: research uptake.  ACRC’s work in Addis Ababa spans the housing, youth and capability development and structural transformation domains, along with political settlements analysis and a city of systems study covering ten key city systems. Accordingly, the uptake work will focus on engaging key stakeholders in Addis Ababa to co-produce and co-create knowledge, and to communicate research findings from these thematic areas to accelerate changes in policy, practice and programming with respect to the city’s urban transformation agenda.

Project # Three

Title:   Governing Climate Mobility (GCM)

Duration:   2019-2022

Partners: GCM is coordinated by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and implemented in collaboration among DIIS (Denmark), FSS (Ethiopia) and the Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), University of Ghana.

Funding: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of  Denmark through the Consultative Research Committee for Development

Research Theme: A Novel approach linking research on governance, climate change and mobility. It  examines how governance contexts influence mobility options and decisions in areas affected by climate change.

Research Focus: Governing Climate Mobility is a 4-years research program that investigates the role of governance contexts and interventions in shaping climate-related mobility. This may include various forms of migration, forced mobility, resettlement and forced immobility.

We do so through theoretically informed field-based research in two sites (in South Wollo Zone, Ahmahar and in West Arsi Zone, Oromia) affected by Climate change in Ethiopia.

The research project specifically examine:

  • Historical mobility patterns and their linkages to governance interventions and environmental change.
  • Current governance contexts and interventions and their influence on climate-related mobility. This includes a focus on both formal and informal across levels of governance, e.g. local, national and international.
  • Governance factors supporting adaptive climate-related mobility and limiting negative forms of climate-related mobility.

Sharing Results: We share results of GCM’s research through academic publication, mass media, policy publications and public seminars. We aim to produce innovative visual communication for broad audiences and when possible to make our outputs publicly available on our website.

Through field-based research, the program seeks to produce knowledge that:

  • Works with the full diversity of mobility practices
  • Supports adaptive forms of climate mobility
  • Informs policy and practice on climate change and mobility

Read more and follow the program at: www.diis.dk/GCM as well

Project # Four

The State and Transformation of Female Wage Labor in Ethiopia: The Case of Textile/Garment, Floriculture, and Cafe & restaurant service Industries

Duration: November 1st2020 – October 30th2022

Description

Although the majority of Ethiopian women are still engaged in the informal sector, a large number of women are joining the formal labor market in recent years. The textile/garment, floriculture and the cafe & restaurant service sectors are the ones where women wage laborers are more visible. This trend is likely to continue with the expansion of the economy.

The increased participation of women in the labor market has several advantages not only for the women, but also for the country at large. It leads to women empowerment, child welfare at the household level, and faster national economic growth. However, there are challenges, which women low-skill laborers face including gender discrimination, unequal payment and low wage and unsafe working environment. In addition, as they continue to shoulder their traditional domestic responsibilities, their engagement in wage labor has increased their burden.

For the above reasons, research on the current state of FWL and the direction of its development on the fast growing industries of textile/garment, floriculture and cafe & restaurant service that permit the investigation of the urban and rural, the skill/semi-skilled and unskilled, the permanent and the casual, as well as the low-paid and the extremely low paid types is essential.

Furthermore, it is equally important to further discuss and elaborate the overall situation and direction of FWL, including the various aspects of the health (with special emphasis on covid-19), well-being and security of women engaged in wage labor by drawing on the findings of the research, in a series of round table events in which trade union leaders and activists, industrialists, relevant civil society and community leaders as well as women rights activists and policy makers participate; with the proviso that the outputs of the discussion events are disseminated through newspapers and broadcast media.

Goal and Specific Objectives

The first goal is to examine through a primary field-based research the current state and emerging trends of female wage labor, including the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the three industries of textile/garment, floriculture, cafe & restaurant service as well as the challenged faced by the workers both at the workplace and in their households and communities in order identify viable policy options;

The second is to further discuss and elaborate the overall situation and direction of FWL, including the various aspects of the health, well-being and security of women engaged in wage labor by drawing on the findings of the research and with additional inputs from relevant stakeholders.

In order to achieve the above stated broad goal, the project shall address nine specific objectives in each of the three industries of textile/garment, floriculture, and cafe & restaurant service.

Activities

FSS will undertake ten discreet activities in order to realize the objectives and goals stated above

Project # Five

Title: The Ethiopia Scenarios Project

Duration: February 1st 2021 – 28th February 2022.

The Ethiopia Scenarios Project is a joint civic initiative undertaken by FSS and the Society for International Development (SID). It aims at provoking wide-ranging conversations on the issues and challenges that Ethiopia and its citizens must face in the coming decades.

Cognizant of the impact of the dynamic global, economic, geostrategic, ecological, and sociocultural forces that are shaping the country and the region more generally, the partner organizations are convinced that the leadership and the citizens need to have a deep and knowledgeable appreciation of the forces at play and how they might be able to manage them best, and to understand the possible trajectories that such forces might take and their implications for the country.

The major activities of the project as well as the modalities of their implementations are as follows:

  • The two parties convene and host all activities that are aimed at advancing the Ethiopia Scenarios Project in accordance with the project implementation plan drafted by SID. For the purpose of implementing the project, FSS has selected and formed a high-level team of experts drawn from the fields of history/socio-culture, political science, and economics (namely, Prof Bahru Zewde, Pro.f Kassahun Berhanu and Dr. Berhanu Denu) that will be supported by the Executive Director of the organization as well as all relevant staff.
  • The two parties are responsible for the choice of venues, logistics and invitation of key speakers and other participants to these events. In view of the ongoing corona virus pandemic, it is anticipated that all events shall be organized in virtual spaces or in exceptional cases, in in-person events at which all prescribed social distancing guidelines shall be applied and enforced.
  • FSS organizes, at the appropriate juncture of the project, media engagement and exposé of the project outcomes both through traditional and new media with a view to extending awareness of the outcomes of the Ethiopia Scenarios Project amongst the broader public and to helping build a broader constituency for the engagement around the issues raised.
  • Under guidance of SID, the parties make efforts to ensure the documentation of all and any events organized with a view to ensuring that the outcomes of the various activities and events are captured for posterity.
  • The two parties jointly own all existing and future intellectual property rights in materials produced under this Agreement. Furthermore, both parties agree to undertake all acts that may be necessary to give effect to this assignment.
  • FSS is responsible for the management of all financial transactions within the Ethiopian territory defraying payments to third parties involved.

Project # Six

Title: The Politics of Youth-Government interactions in Africa – Ethiopia

Duration:   2020-2021

Partners: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and Forum for Social Studies (FSS). The project is also implemented in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. It is coordinated by the CMI. 

Objectives: The main objective of the research project that is funded by the Research Council of Norway is to examine nature of interactions between youth and government in the post-1991 period in Ethiopia. The project is motivated by the need to find better ways to economically and politically empower the youth in Ethiopia and the other study countries which are characterized by political and economic fragility. By exploring regime-youth interactions and major policies addressing the young, the project aims at getting better insights into whether such policies actually empower the youth, or whether they bind them in patronage relationships and thereby reinforce marginalization. The specific objectives of the research project include – the political economy of youth employment schemes, youth representation and mobilization, and youth agency and protest.

Methods: Both primary and secondary data collection instruments will be employed for this project. Primary data will be collected in Addis Ababa and selected field sights in the regions.  In addition, documentary evidence including government policy and strategy documents, annual plans, reports, legislations, regulations, and other related documents will be used for the study.

Expected outputs: The research project will lead to the production of a working paper on youth-government interactions in Ethiopia since 1991 and also two reports (peer-reviewed articles) – one on the political economy of youth employment schemes and the second on youth representation and mobilizations. Moreover, there will be two policy briefs.