By Bruck Shewareged

Much to the dismay of members of the civil society here, parliament took a definite step to adopt the Proclamation for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies as law on Tuesday when it referred the bill to the House Standing Committees for Social Affairs and Foreign, Defense and Security Affairs.

The most controversial clause, Article 2 sub-article 2 of the proclamation, commonly known as the 10-90 ratio law stipulates that any NGO or CSO shall secure no more than 10 percent of its income from foreign sources if it is registered as local NGO.

If it exceeds 10 percent it will be registered as foreign NGO or CSO. And no foreign NGO or CSO shall participate in only providing aid or charity. It cannot participate in advocacy works such as democracy, election, women's and children's rights and so on.

The civil society members have been trying so hard to convince government to amend many of the articles which they say will render them ineffective and could, in fact, force them to go out of existence. This year alone, hundreds of representatives of NGOs discussed the issue with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi twice, and presented their concerns.

Despite that, no major change has been introduced to the draft law.
Eshetu Bekele, Executive Director of the Poverty Action Network of civil society organizations in Ethiopia (PANE), told The Reporter of his dismay at observing no significant change in the draft proclamation.

He said that there are millions of beneficiaries who receive many types of services from NGOs and CSOs and government should have considered them as well before it came up with such restrictive law which severely cripples their capacity to render services.

"I understand that government might have its own concerns regarding some of the NGOs which breach the law. But I believe that government can assert control within the existing legal framework rather than introducing such a blanket law which puts restrictions on many of them," Eshetu said.

"Government should also consider the fate of many workers employed by the NGOs and CSOs. Those at management level are professionals and can find other jobs easily if the NGOs they work for cease to exist. But what will happen to the many thousand workers hired by NGO?" Eshetu asked.

The chairman of the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party (EDUP-Medhin), Lidetu Ayalew, who is also an MP echoed some of Eshetu's concerns about the fate of those employees and the millions of beneficiaries.

"If we receive assistance for economic development, why not receive aid for democracy, human rights and equalities?" Lidetu asked. He urged the government to revisit the proclamation.

Mohammed Ali, member of the opposition party Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) and an MP, appeared to be the harshest of the critics when he said, "If local NGOs are considered as foreign NGOs just because they received external aid, are we to label the Ethiopian government, which receives massive external aid, as a foreign government?"