U.S. Embassy Ethiopia Public Diplomacy Grant: Advancing Autonomous Governance in Ethiopian Universities

Local presence (in the form of offices, staff, and/or registration) in Ethiopia is strongly encouraged.

For-profit or commercial entities, including for-profit media organizations, are not eligible to apply.

PD Ethiopia invites proposals for initiatives that will strengthen the capacity of Ethiopia’s ten leading universities to transition their governance structures to operate with greater independence from Ministry of Education (MOE) oversight, as defined in University Autonomy Proclamation No. 1294/2023. The program activities should be designed with the ultimate goal of helping these universities to improve the quality of education, enhance academic freedom, and strengthen relations with U.S. universities. All programs must include an American educational element or connection with U.S. experts, organizations, or institutions that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policies, values, and perspectives.

Specifically, the proposed initiatives should build upon the success of PD’s interventions to date, which have aided Ethiopia’s flagship research university – Addis Ababa University (AAU) – to implement key framework policy documents necessary for its autonomous governance through consultations with U.S. and Ethiopian university experts. Through these prior interventions, AAU has developed its key framework policy documents for its strategic plan, senate legislation, student admissions, internationalization, endowment, and resource mobilization. 

PD’s prior interventions have also included intensive engagements with the next nine leading universities on accreditation and internationalization.

The proposed initiatives should provide technical assistance to AAU and the next nine leading public universities via consultations and partnerships with U.S. universities and technical experts.

This technical assistance will help the ten Ethiopian universities develop their own key framework policy documents and build their institutional capacity to implement governance reform in key aspects of university administration including student admissions, research administration, faculty development, alumni engagement, internationalization, accreditation of key programs, and financial administration in advance of their 2025 deadline to successfully transition to autonomous governance.