Ethiopia has a long history of informal community-based organizations but it took somerntime for the formal civil society to take root during the imperial regime in Ethiopia, andrnwas severely restricted during the socialist derg regime. After the downfall of the derg,rnit became a relatively better period with respect to the freedom of civil society activitiesrnand their operational climate.rnThrough the ages, different governments have enacted their own laws and regulationsrnfor the proper registration, coordination and administration of organizations in the thirdrnsector. The icebreaker was the 1966 Associations Proclamation based on the then civilrncode of Ethiopia. Other regulations to mention are the 1995 Guidelines for NGOrnOperations and the 1999 NGOs Code of Conduct. Recently, the FDRE came up with arnnew proclamation providing for the registration and regulation of charities and societiesrnin the country. The proclamation was met with mixed reactions, predominantly negativernfrom opposition parties, human rights watch dogs and the NGOj C50 community.rnThis research was undertaken to find out the actual fact on the ground regarding thernperspectives, experiences and possible consequences of the proclamation as per thernviews of NGOs and C50s; government officials and parliament members; andrndevelopment practitioner researchers and journalists. The research used explanatoryrnand descriptive research methods. The findings of the research indicate that there arernindeed sizable disparities as to how the different respondent groups perceive thernproclamation: how important they think the proclamation is, the actual reason for therngovernment to come up with the proclamation at this time, how satisfied they are withrntheir actual experiences, whether they think the pre-enactment process was fair andrnopen to all, what they think of specific provisions and what they th ink would be therneffect of the proclamation and whether those effects are positive or negative. But, therncommon ground that can be reached from their views on the issue is that there arernsome areas where by each and every concerned party should work on more to makernthe overall outcome better. Accordingly, based on the research's findings, conclusionsrnand recommendations were drawn.rnThe recommendations include that NGOs should be more proactive in their operationsrnto align themselves better with the proclamation's provisions, that the agency shouldrnbuild more capacity to better meet the needs of its clientele, that the agency and thernNGOj C50 community should promote a spirit of cooperation between them, that ifrnpossible some provisions have to be amended in the proclamation, that awarenessrnprograms should be undertaken, that the NGOs and C50s should be given more time tornregister, and finally that the agency should offer strategic assistance to organizations inrnthe third-sector.