The project aims to strengthen civic and community-based actors' capacity to engage in policy analysis, advocacy, dialogue, and collective action for peaceful, democratic change; and foster multi-stakeholder civic partnerships in support of inclusive dialogue, respect for human rights, and advancing more effective, citizen-responsive, and accountable governance. It will deploy a Collective Impact (CI) Approach to empower civil society to drive successful implementation and impact of the project. Networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) will co-create activities and capacity strengthening for themselves and the sector, with Creative and its partners taking a facilitative, supporting role in building comity, connection, and trust. ECE will unite and bolster broad coalitions of CSOs and other stakeholders as they gain the skills and will to work together to solve common problems. ECE's CI approach will be activated via problem-driven iterative adaptation (PDIA), which we will use as a core methodology to support joint action across local system actors as ECE CSO partners work to shift behaviors, deconstruct complex challenges, and address root causes.

The ECE goal is to “Strengthen Ethiopia's civic fabric in support of more inclusive, peaceful, and responsive government”. The two specific objectives are:
1) Strengthen civic and community-based actors' capacity to engage in policy analysis, advocacy, dialogue, and collective action for peaceful democratic change.
2) Foster multi-stakeholder civic partnerships in support of inclusive dialogue, respect for human rights, and more effective, citizen-responsive, and accountable governance in Addis Ababa and selected growth poles.