Final evaluation report sustaining dialogue on Ethiopian campuses activity

The overall goal of the SD Activity was to establish a culture of trust and collaboration on select Ethiopian university campuses and facilitate increased resilience to triggers, produce more broad-minded graduates, and reduce negative relational social patterns and inter-group violence. Despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutting down universities in 2020 and curbing the final year of the SD Activity, the evaluation found that the Activity contributed to positive attitudinal and behavioral changes among SD participants, including greater trust and understanding of individuals from other groups as well as increased cross-ethnic friendships. The Activity also contributed to conflict mitigation efforts between different ethnic and religious groups on campus. Despite several positive outcomes on the target campuses and among the SD student participants, evaluation respondents linked few changes in attitudes and behavior off-campus to SD’s peace incubation activities. Most SD-supported universities demonstrated commitment to continuing SD activities through use of their own budgets and piloting dialogue sessions, but COVID-19 restrictions interrupted this capacity-building and handover process to university administrations. Seventy-six percent of SD stakeholders think the Activity should continue at the universities, but some raised concerns that lack of administration-level political will could obstruct this continuation and that Ethiopian government support would be necessary to support SD-type work in the future.