Ethiopia had its first-ever film policy on November 3, 2017. the trio Ethiopian Film Makers Association, Alatinos Ethiopianist Film Makers Association, and Ethiopian Film Producers Association are highily participated in the preparation of the policy. Throughout the last 40 years, prominent filmmakers and Institutions like The Ethiopian Film Corporation were voicing their vision of Ethiopia to have a film policy for progressive development. But works of drafting, polishing, and getting approval for the film policy is a recent phenomenon. In 2014, The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, legendary film figures, and representatives of Film Associations sat at Adama, Ethiopia, and drafted a film policy. In 2016, Ministry of Culture and Tourism together with representatives from Film Associations, and non-association aligned filmmakers came to an agreement to give the Ethiopian Film Policy a priority and make it have a final shape. The ministry established a task force. The task force worked for six consecutive months day and night to give the Ethiopian Film Policy its final polished form. the followings are the main activities of policy preparation: - A Policy expert gave training for the task force, - The task force discussed in sub-teams and together as a force inquired deeply on every article of the film policy, - Assemblies were organized with the presence of all representatives of the Ethiopian film society and gave their critical remarks, - The task force and the general assembly remarks a document and submitted to the Ministry. The document was a rationale stating what the final version of The Ethiopian Film Policy should look like, - The Ministry invited the the film associations, inquired, discoursed, and debated on the final version of the policy, Finally Ministry of Culture and Tourism presented it to the Council of Ministers and it got an approval.

The Ethiopian Writers Association organizes annual training and awareness creation for people that are not in literature but are potential writers ranging from 10th grade to Masters level given by University Teachers and Practicing Professionals in literature and folklore. The training, which is a certification program is given with other partnering creative sectors like theatre, film, music, painting, and more to the trainees. The training enrolls up to 60 participants with a budget of 35,000 USD (150,000 Br) per year. After training is delivered, the Association provides opportunities to the trained participants to present and showcase their literature work on several platforms like Radio Shows and Public Presentations that are owned and organized by the Association.

The Ethiopian DJs Association has been active for more than five years and it has up to 10 thousand members from all regions of Ethiopia. The main purpose of the association is to nurture, develop, and advance the professional skills of its members by developing the professional standard of the sector. The Association constituted an institution to provide professional support to its members by creating short training and workshops with various stakeholders to provide professional support to its members. The association also earnestly works with women DJs by encouraging them to perform and also open new opportunities to emerging women artists.

Fendika Cultural Center embarked on a journey to revive the culture of Azmaris, musicians that use only one or two instruments, and are an integral part of the vibrant and deep rooted traditional music of Ethiopia that existed for more than 300 years. The lively Azmaris are very creative and highly talented in improvising, creating, and translating messages of important significance using music. They have served their communities as a status quo and messengers and now they are somehow surviving by working in weddings, religious ceremonies, and mostly being nomads going from bars to bars collecting tips for their glorifying kinds of music. Fendika launched a project that brought 12 Azmaris, age from 18 to 32, from Gondar and Wollo of Amhara Region, Selalle Fiche of Oromia Region, and Mekelle of Tigray Regions to build their capacity and exposure, and connected them with 6 prominent and successful Azmaris in Addis Ababa. The platform researched and found how disadvantaged these groups of creatives are and crafted a project that sheds light on the lives of Azamaris and worked to create awareness of their lives and struggles. The project aimed at creating sustainable financial capacity by converting their talent into income. This project has created the opportunity in enabling the Azmaris to promote and keep the vibrant ancient culture of the tradition of Azmaris. This has helped the Azmaris in increasing their confidence and garner support. Fendika hosted a 20 days workshop where technical training was provided to the trainees. They were trained on how to manipulate their skills in playing and using different instruments. The workshop also worked on developing the vocal skills of the Azmaris. The workshops were more practical and backed by the discipline and ethics of the culture of Azmaris so that they can express the culture to Azmari proudly and honestly. This will create continuity in transferring the culture of Azmari strongly and invite more young creatives to be interested to pursue this as their career. The workshop also opened an opportunity for the trainees to train on the job by performing in different events that hosted different types of audiences organized by Fendika. The trainees were part of Fendika’s Cultural Group and the performances created balance in the expression of culture by integrating music, dance, and Azmaris as one. The events took place at Alliance Ethio Française, Fendika Cultural Center, and Jupiter Hotel that hosted more than 800 audiences for all events. The last event was hosted on the Epiphany Celebration locally known as Timket Festival Yeka Michael that Fendika hosts and participates in. This event has attracted more than 1,500 Audiences.

By Collaborating with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, The Ethiopian Filmmakers association along with Ethiopian Film Producers Association and Alatinos Ethiopian Film Makers Association and by involving Theatre Professional Association has produced five educational films on different issues to create awareness among the society.

Selam has been involved in knowledge brokerage initiatives mainly capacity building training by highly qualified professionals to upgrade the skills of Ethiopian musicians, sound engineers, artists, filmmakers, and other professionals. The capacity-building activities also include material support for young unestablished youth artists on various topics. To mention some: Technical training on the effective use of the internet for broadcasting purposes was delivered to young project participants. The training was aimed at raising awareness of youths on ethical and effective utilization of social media and equipping the right holders with the necessary knowledge and skill on content development and production of Internet Magazine, Radio/podcasts, and TV. Besides, the training was also meant to enable the trainees to effectively and responsibly use the internet and digital broadcasting platforms, such as podcasting, blogging, blogging for human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy. The training followed by practical hand on training and assisted by different training aid materials for practical application. After successful completion of the training, participants were made to practically apply the knowledge and techniques they gained from the training. The documentary film making & production training were planned to be conducted in all the projects implementing regional states and city administrations. The capacity building training was aimed at enabling young filmmakers to produce documentary films and use the films as a medium to convey different messages on human rights, democracy, social, environmental, and other cultural issues in their respective languages as well as cultural backgrounds. To this end, Selam has delivered different capacity building training on documentary film making in collaboration with different regional stakeholders. The project participants were trained on the three-film making technical areas: screenwriting, directing, cinematography, and editing techniques. The central focus of the training was equipping participants in effective utilization of the aforementioned filmmaking techniques to advocate freedom of expression, human rights, democracy, and other social and development issues. To this end, more than 16 documentary films were produced by all participants from more than 5 cities. One of the main activities planned to build the capacity of project participants was the provision of training on culture thematic area development. The training was meant to empower young activists and project participants, so as they would be able to craft thematic content on social and development issues, human rights, gender, and the environment. The culture thematic area development training was conducted in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray. Standard training content and materials were prepared and used for all of the training. A total of 241 (171 male and 70 female) participants have got the training. The capacity building for the circus group involved material and facility support. Through the project support, Circus Sina’s training facilities were able to be utilized by the end of December 2018. The work was successfully completed with administrative support from the culture bureaus, and in particular from the local woreda administration which provided its underutilized space for modification of the training space. Another circus group in the Amhara region, Circus Wude, also received material support within this activity period. Selam also rented a training space for the Tigray culture group within the premises of a local high school, ‘AtseYohanes’. The culture group is effectively rehearsing and sharing their knowledge and skill with the community in the space. In addition, by partnering with Circus Debre Birhan, as a senior circus organization in the country, took the opportunity further and organized an experience sharing opportunity in its office at Debre Berhan in other 2 regional cities for emerging circus groups. Besides this various networking and capacity building activities were implemented in the period. Different renowned music artists shared their career experiences in music-making and performance to young upcoming musicians. Senior musicians shared the possibilities and potential of music for cultural activism and advocacy which they often utilize to spread their messages. Apart from the technical music skill training, Selam has delivered technical training on studio and sound engineering; various training sessions were carried out in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray Regions. The training was accompanied by the practical sound engineering practices for both in-door and out-door musical performances. An initiative was taken on a series of workshops on different thematics as well as awareness-raising and advocacy efforts. Sighted and visually impaired and blind youth combined, can contribute to a decrease of stigmatization and marginalization of blind and visually impaired young people since the project can create a natural space for all the targeted young people to meet and get educated together. The project trained young people in hands-on skills within cultural fields and performed information campaigns and awareness-raising activities about the situation of blind and visually impaired people in Ethiopia. Selam Ethiopia in partnership with Yekignit Awtaroch amateurs’ youth association gave three months’ music training and practical workshops for two consecutive terms for almost 50 /27-M & 23-F/ visually impaired and blind youth in Addis Ababa. Similarly, in partnership with DebreBirhan Vocational teachers college and Circus DebreBirhana total of 38 /30 M, 8 F/ visually impaired, and blind project participants took music training by professional teachers from the college.

Circus in Ethiopia has a 50-year long history. In 1992, the circus was first structured in Addis Ababa with 5 major circus branches as well as 13 affiliated circus groups under the title “Circus Ethiopia”. Circus Ethiopia has helped circus art to be widely recognized throughout the country in a short period of time. It has also served as the cultural ambassador of Ethiopia globally. However, due to the 2006 Charity and Civil Society Law, Circus Ethiopia has been forced to dismantle because of the lack of funds. Thereafter, circus groups have been operating independently throughout the country. In recognizing the fact that private activities are not conducive to the growth of the sector, several individuals and associations have come together to form a national circus association—the Ethiopian National Circus Association (ENCA) Consortium. Establishing ENCA has greatly helped in leading the sector in an organized manner and getting proper attention and support from the government. It has also supported local artists to be more competitive in the international market of contemporary circus. The Ethiopian National Circus Association (ENCA) Consortium is comprised of 53 circus groups from five regional states, including Amhara, Tigray, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region as well as Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations. As a result of this initiative, all 53 circus groups have been legally recognized and issued licenses as well as national certificates.

The association was established to promote more than 80 nations and nationalities with the main purpose to preserve the dance culture, To register the Ethiopian unique and diverse art of dance in UNESCO Intangible Heritage list and to promote the culture worldwide. to bring dance as a crucial part of the culture and creative sector in Ethiopia artists are coming together and established dance art association. The association is now working to insist establishments of dance training school both public and private. Dance art has a great potential to create employment opportunity , in order to have enough recognition and support as an independent art rather as accompanying art to other main acts in a nightclub or in a private band the association is working with government and other stake holders.

In light of its objective of promoting culture, Selam has carried out the first regional Selam festival in Bahir Dar, a capital city of Amhara national regional state, in January 2019. Selam Festival - Bahir Dar (SF-BD) was aimed at promoting culture through creative works of local actors and institutions with the central goal of creating platforms for capacity building and creating networking opportunities. In addition, SF-BD has paved a way to showcase local, regional, and global cultural creative works. There are key partners of Selam in the Amhara region that worked hard for the successful implementation of SF-BD. Among these partners, Amhara Region Culture Bureau, Mulualem Culture Centre, Bahir Dar city Mayor Office, and Amhara Mass Media agency are the prominent partakers. Selam festival – Bahir Dar has achieved both organizational and socio-economic goals. With the aim of being one of the most extraordinary flagships of Addis Ababa by attracting various jazz lovers from all over the world during its festival days, Selam Ethiopia in collaboration with Selam Sounds presented a spectacular festival called “Addis Jazz Festival”. This festival was designed mainly to become one of the best Jazz festivals in our continent through professional event organization and presenting world-class Jazz playing artists for its particular Jazz loving audience.

Fendika Cultural Center has devoted the last 4 years to build up a grassroots civil society organization that promotes Ethiopian cultural heritage, supports artists of different disciplines, and builds cultural and creative capital for Ethiopia’s sustainable development. Fendika is the only locally-owned, multi-disciplinary cultural center in Ethiopia. Prior to Melaku Belay’s leadership, which began in 2008, Fendika was an Azmari bet (house of the Azmaris) in Kazanchis, Addis Ababa, where there were 17 similar establishments in the area in the early 1990s. Azmaris are folk musicians adept at improvising songs from current affairs. In an ancient art form, Azmari music allows freedom of expression in a censoring environment. In the last three decades, Addis Ababa’s development has crowded out many small businesses, including 16 Azmari bets in Kazanchis. Fendika remains standing, as the one and only Azmari bet in the area, because of Melaku’s commitment to indigenous musical heritage and thanks to the support of our local and international friends. Now Fendika proudly presents Azmari musicians 365 days a year. Traditionally, Azmaris only earned tips from customers; Fendika was the first venue in Ethiopia to pay musicians regular salaries so that they can be freer with their creative expressions. Fendika is at the forefront of professionalizing indigenous music, art, and dance in Ethiopia. Our pre-COVID live music program included: indigenous Azmari music (daily, since the 1990s), traditional Ethiopian music and dance by our house band Ethio-color (alternating Fridays, since 2009), Ethiopian Jazz by Negarit Band with dance improvisation (alternating Fridays, since 2016), KAYN Lab experimental Jazz (Mondays, since 2017), and Funk Disciples big band (Wednesdays, since January 2020). Fendika organizes an annual street festival during Timket, the celebration of epiphany in January: we invite folk artists from various parts of Ethiopia to perform their indigenous music and dance on the streets of Addis Ababa, along with Fendika artists. The Fendika touring group, composed of eight artists, perform Ethiopian music and dance around the world. In the past five years, they traveled to more than a dozen countries and performed at more than 50 festivals and venues. For recordings, we have an Ethio-color CD, two Fendika CDs, and three pieces of Vinyl (with the Ex and Large Unit). Fendika’s Art Gallery has presented visual artworks by Ethiopian artists of different generations since 2016. In sum, Fendika Cultural Center’s work is multi-faceted with the purpose to promote Ethiopian cultural heritage, nurturing artists, and developing cultural, creative, and human capital for our society’s sustainable development.

Ethiopia National Circus Association (ENCA) was established with one of the major objectives of creating a resilient cultural sector in Ethiopia and promoting the diverse and rich culture of the Ethiopian people to the rest of the world through astonishing circus performances. All corners of the world have been reached by a number of young circus troupes and they proudly showed their unique and colorful culture to the international audiences. Now a day the Ethiopian circus art has added a special taste to the current world’s contemporary circus art development. The Ethiopian circus uniqueness comes from using traditional music as background, traditional dance, and choreography, typical Ethiopian costume, with a taste of Ethiopian tradition and culture ways of production. Ethiopia has more than 86 Ethnic groups with their own identity: such as typical language, music, dances, myths, costumes, norms, different public holidays, cultural practices (such as weddings, mourning, celebration, etc.), ritual practices, and cultural experiences in general. This deep rooted and divers background is an asset for the culture sector in Ethiopia and these are a medium brings an opportunity for Ethiopian circuses to promote Ethiopian culture in different circus festivals and cultural venues throughout the world. The artistic skill of the young Ethiopian circus artists become high standard and competitive. This brought the sector into the international markets too. In the last 4 years, the Ethiopian circus groups performed over 5,000 shows all over the world at international festivals, Cirque du Soleil, international circus award programs, cruise ships, and TV programs. This opportunity brought wide diverse experiences for the artists, managers, directors, and trainers of the circus groups. Ethiopian circus artists also share to different country’s circus artists their best experiences and cultural values and practices. The circus is not only the means to promote the culture of Ethiopia people to the rest of the world and a means of income for a large number of unemployed youth in the country but also it is a way for all young circus artists to taste, enjoy and started practice their culture proudly and helped them a lot to know the cultural practices of their ancestors/forefathers and for being confident enough about themselves. Therefore, the circus is one of the best arts that saving and maintains the Ethiopians’ culture in the globalization and to keep shining. Before the establishment of the ENCA all the circus groups in Ethiopia have been struggling to sustain the development of circus and promote the culture of the country in Africa and in the rest of the world. But, it could not bring changes rather the situation became worsen from time to time. Therefore, the establishment of ENCA became very crucial for the development and visibility of circus art in Ethiopia. The establishment of ENCA became realized by 5 regions and 2 city administration circus associations and it brings hope for all the members and gave the power to influence the policymakers of the country to recognize circus as one of the important cultural sector in the country. Not only have these but credits been given for the circus sector for promoting the Ethiopian culture in different parts of the world.

In August 2018, two large culture forums were conducted in the cities of Mekelle and Bahir Dar with the common focus on increasing dialogue and exchange of ideas to contribute to the development of the Ethiopian culture sector. Key to the conversations was the value of international exchange to promote innovative thinking and to make use of experiences within common challenges and developments for culture sectors and culture actors across national borders. In Mekelle, the forum was organized together with Rahel Art Gallery, one of the project’s partners. The forum made use of the ongoing celebration of the “Ashenda Festival”, an annnual holiday focusing on young girls and women. This thematic also led the way for panel discussions that highlighted a variety of perspectives on gender equality and women’s right, as well as on how culture is able to play a crucial role within these issues – and therefore should be further strengthened. SELAM culture forum was also hosted in Bahir Dar, Amhara Region on August 27, 2018, with key partners in the region, Amhara Culture and Tourism Bureau, and Mulualem Culture Center. The Bahir Dar forum was organized under the theme of ‘Strengthening Social interaction Through Culture Expressions’. The panel discussion had four different topics that were suggested by the partners as important cultural development issues that need focus within the region. The topics in the forum were: ○ Roles and challenges for female artists in the cultural sector; ○ Strengthening social interactions through cultural expressions; ○ The Making of Bahir Dar city a city of festivals; ○ The role of the media in the cultural sector “I have a dream”, one of the two circus productions and tours planned for 2019, was produced and executed by Circus Debre Berhan (CDB). 18 young artists were involved both in the production tour of the circus. The main objective of the tour was to raise awareness and promote equal opportunity for girls in various socio-economic activities within local communities. In January 2019, the circus team received capacity building training in scriptwriting, directing, choreography, as well as stage management by external and internal resource persons. Succeeding the successful completion of the production of the circus, CDB has prepared a tour plan in Amhara, Addis Ababa, and SNNPR. “I have a Dream'' was performed in 8 cities of the Amhara region and 5 cities of SNNPR specifically, in Debre Markos, Bahir Dar, Gondor, Lalibela, Wolldia, Dessie, Kombolcha, and ShowaRobit, Hosa’ena, Durame, Halaba, Arbaminch, and Hawassa. A total of 30 (14 in Amhara and 16 in SNNPR) shows were performed at universities, high schools, and marketplaces of these towns. The overall turnout for these shows was estimated at about 4,821 females and 111,306 males.