NGO registration begins in Ethiopia

23 Sep, 2009

Local and foreign non-governmental organisations operating in Ethiopia have three months to register with the newly created Charities and Societies Agency (CSA) under the terms of a controversial new law, the English-language newspaper Capital Ethiopia reports.

The NGOs will be classified by the CSA as either charities or societies and as domestic or foreign, where foreign organisations are those that receive over ten per cent of their funding from abroad (the vast majority). Under the Charities and Societies Proclamation law, adopted by parliament in January, foreign organisations are now banned from undertaking activities in the areas of human rights, gender equality, children