Annex 2: Overview of the sample of organisations

IBIS

IBIS established a country programme in Ghana in 2001. In the following years IBIS built up a portfolio of programmes that include the Public Participation and Local Governance (PPLG), Education for Empowerment (EfE), Organisational Capacity Building (OCB) and the West African Human Rights and Democratisation Programme (WAHRD). In 2005 IBIS Ghana added programmes in Liberia and in 2006 in Sierra Leone and became IBIS West Africa. IBIS is also administrating the civil society component of Danida’s Good Governance and Human Rights programme on behalf of the Danish Embassy.

This Evaluation focuses on the PPLG and the OCB programmes. IBIS has been implementing the PPLG programme since 2002. The programme is now in its second phase and will run until 2013. IBIS has used app. DKK 4.2 million per year from the Danida frame for the PPLG programme. The objective of the PPLG programme is to support CSO to enable poor and marginalised people to play an active role in the governance of their communities. The OCB programme has been running since 2002 with the objective of developing the capacities of partner organisations. The OCB programme has ceased to exist as a separate programme and will be integrated into the other programmes as of 1st June 2009.

The Evaluation Team (ET) has based its assessment of IBIS’s interventions in Ghana on the following sources of information: The evaluation report of the PPLG programme phase I from April 2007, the lessons learned from PPLG I from May 2007, the PPLG Phase II programme document, programme and project documents from partners including strategy papers, review and evaluation reports as well as a vast amount of information published by partners such as bulletins, positions papers, booklets and books. The has interviewed IBIS staff and national partners in Accra as well as IBIS staff, partners (CSO and LG) and beneficiaries (CBOs and individual community members) in Tamale Metropolitan and in the district of East Gonja.

CARE

CARE Danmark (hereafter CARE) has been present in Ghana since 1999. CARE works within the agriculture and natural resources (ANR) sector. CARE entered the second phase of its ANR programme in Ghana in January 2009; the first phase ran from 2003-08. The overall development goal of CARE’s ANR programme in Ghana is to ’contribute to poverty reduction in Ghana through sustainable livelihoods for poor and marginalised rural families who depend primarily upon natural resources.’ CARE works at community level and uses a rights-based approach in its programmes, which revolves around rights to access resources and land rights. This is also how CARE works with issues of popular participation – the line of argument is that communities, through information on rights and how to claim these, are able to participate in local decision-making related to ANR. CARE and its local partners also have a strong presence at national level, mainly through policy advocacy and networking activities.

The ET met with and had roundtable discussions with staff from CARE’s head office in Accra and with the regional office in Tamale. Along with key staff from the Accra and Tamale office, the ET participated in a two-day field trip that was undertaken in the Upper East region with focus on the FASE component of CARE’s ANR-programme portfolio on Sustainable Farming Systems Extension. During the field trip the ET met with a district food security network established under the programme, beneficiaries (community), partner organisations of CARE and representatives from MoFA and district assembly. In Accra the ET had discussions with two of CARE’s partners that work more at the national level in the FOREST component of the ANR portfolio, which is Forest Livelihoods and Rights for Sustainable Natural Resources Management.

Ghana Friendship Groups

Ghana Venskabsgrupperne (GV) was established in 1979 and has since been engaged in various development projects in the Northern Region of Ghana. The main partner in Ghana has been the Ghanaian Danish Communities Association (GDCA)^[70]. MFA has provided funding for the partnership since 1986.

Projects and programmes implemented by GDCA in the evaluation period include the Ghanaian Danish Community Programme (GDCP), School for Life (SfL), the Community Life Improvement Programme (CLIP), the Youth Forum Project and the CBO Empowerment Project.

This Evaluation focuses on the CBO Empowerment Project. The implementation period of this project is June 2006 to November 2009 and the objective is to strengthen civil society and good governance at community, district and national level in order to contribute to reduction of poverty. GV has used app. DKK 1 million Danida funding per year to the CBO.

The ET has based its assessment of GV/GDCA interventions in Ghana on the following sources of information: The Midterm Review from January 2009, the project document, annual reports and training reports. The ET has interviewed GV staff in Denmark and GDCA staff, board members and volunteers in Tamale as well as district staff and beneficiaries in Savelugu district (participated in a community meeting in Moglaa village).

LO/FTF Council

LO/FTF Council (hereafter LO/FTF) has supported the trade union movement in Ghana since 1994. Until 2004 LO/FTF operated under a framework agreement but has since had to apply MFA for support on a case-by-case basis.

The trade union movement in Ghana has a long history, and also a history of being listened to by Government. It is among the very few movements in Africa actually organising the large majority of workers in the formal economy. The local partners are key-players in the labour movement in Ghana. LO/FTF has had three projects with the trade union movement in Ghana:

• Tourist and informal sector project in collaboration with Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) since 1994
• Early childhood project in collaboration with Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) since 2002
• General capacity building and informal sector project with TUC since 2005

The ICU project was discontinued in 2007 In Ghana the ET met with representatives from the two ongoing projects i.e. GNAT and TUC and the findings therefore mainly relates to these two projects. The ET had discussions with LO/FTF’s representative in Accra and with TUC and GNAT head offices. The ET also met with the TUC’s regional office in Tamale and had discussions with representatives from approximately eight of TUC’s member organisations. The results are based on these interviews as well as on programme document and status reports from the period.

Danish Association of the Disabled – Youth Wing

The Danish disability movement and its affiliated organisations have worked with sister organisations in Ghana for quite long time. The Danish Association of the Blind (DAB) has cooperated with the Ghanaian Association of the Blind (GAB) since the late 1980s. In 1991 the Danish Association of Disabled started cooperation with the Danish Ghanaian Society a project, which in course of four years distributed 400 used wheel-chairs in Ghana. In 2000 a more formal cooperation started between the Ghana Society for Physically Disabled (GSPD) and the Disabled Peoples Organisations-Denmark (DPOD), in connection with the latter’s formulation of a country strategy for Ghana. The first GSPD project was concerned with general capacity building of the organisation at national level and building up branches in the Central Region.

In 2002 a project to support the growing Women’s Wing was started. Both projects, were concluded in 2005, but were succeeded by new organisational capacity building projects. In 2005 a programme supported through the Danish Youth Council and implemented by the Youth Wing of the Danish Association of the Disabled (DHF-UK (Dansk Handicap Forbund-Ungdomskredsen)) was enabling for start-up of the GSPD Youth Wing. The main project was preceded by two pilot projects amounting in total to DKK 180,000. The project was organised as a ’mini project’ under the auspices of the Danish Youth Council and ended in January 2009. The total amount was DKK 330,000. The objective of the first pilot project was to ’establish a Youth Wing of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled’ and the second pilot project was ’an organisational strengthening of the GSPD-Youth Wing’. The main project then concentrated on ’communication, lobby and fundraising’. The relationship is a ’youth to youth’ project, with volunteers driving the Danish as well as the Ghanaian project activities forward.

DanChurchAid

DCA started working in Ethiopia in the end of 2002 and its country office officially opened in 2004. Both a Political Space and a Food Security Programme was initiated in 2006 and will run until 2010. Before embarking on a programme in Ethiopia, DCA carried out an analysis which showed that issues such as land ownership, gender equality and HIV/AIDS were critical issues for developing a functioning democracy in Ethiopia. The programme aims at mainstreaming HIV/AIDS and gender in all projects. HIV/ AIDS programme developed as an independent programme in March 2006 few months after Political space. The political space programme has used app. DKK 1.8 million from the Danida frame per year.

While in Ethiopia the ET met with the DCA office and interviewed staff members. The team had interaction with a number of DCA partners. The team visited Merhabete district with Ethiopian Human Rights and Civic Education Promotion Association (EHRCEPA) and participated in a Community Conversation (CC) and interviewed staff from the organisation, beneficiaries, community members and government officials. In Addis the Team participated in a programme platform meeting with partners such as Women Support Association (WSA), EHRCEPA and the African Development Aid Association (ADAA). Furthermore interviews were held in Addis with partners such as EHRCO (Ethiopian Human Rights Council) and Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA). The team focused mainly on the Political Space Programme and is therefore not is a position to judge the overall effectiveness of the Food Security Programme or the HIV Programme. The team did however view and discuss activities carried out under these programme and observations will be included in the analysis.

Findings are based on the Program strategy document for the Political Space Programme. Midterm Review of the Political Space Programme and the Food Security Programme from end 2008, project documents and the end of project evaluation of EHRCEPA (carried out by external consultants 2008), minutes from platform meetings and informant interviews.

Save the Children Denmark

Save the Children Denmark actively started its operation in Ethiopia in 1996 and established the Ethiopia programme as a fully fledged country programme in 2000. SCD works with three intervention themes in the Ethiopia country programme. These are primary education, child protection and HIV/AIDS. Through a Child Rights Programming Approach SCD transforms the abstracts of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into a concrete approach for developing, planning, implementing and managing programs. The evaluation team has focused on a programme running from 2004-08 on Child Rights Promotion in Sebat-bet Guraghe.

In Addis Ababa the Evaluation met with and interviewed key staff of SCD. A two-day field trip to Wolkite in Guraghe was undertaken along with SCD staff to visit partners and beneficiaries of the Child Rights Promotion project. The Evaluation met with the implementing partner Guraghe People’s Self-help and Development Organisation (GPSDO), visited a child-friendly recreation centre and discussed with Iddir leaders (community based institution), visited a child rights club (CRC) and discussed with children and teachers, visited a Child Protection Unit (CPU) and discussed with police officers and Yejoka leaders.

Danish Red Cross

DRC works from a bottom-up approach and use of volunteers is a key principle of the work of the organisation as well as of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS). DRC/ ERCS do not work directly with democracy and popular engagement in Ethiopia but they however do work with participatory approaches and community self-organisation in relation to the HIV/AIDS programme and seek to facilitate local communities’ dialogue with the local authorities. The ERCS launched the HIV/AIDS prevention and control programme with the present components in 1998 and DRC has been funding the programme since its formative stage. Besides a drug outlet project, the HIV/AIDS programme is the only programme supported by DRC.

The ET interviewed the DRC representative and the national coordinator on HIV/AIDS of ERCS. The ET has focused on the third phase of the programme which ran during the three year period from 2006-08. The Evaluation also met with the HIV/AIDS officer and home based care officer of the ERCS Jimma branch. In Jimma, the ET furthermore visited a school peer education club (HIV/AIDS issues) and had a chance to discuss with some of the children, and also met with two beneficiaries of the income-generating support programme. In Saannaa, the Evaluation discussed with the trained facilitator
of the community conversations (CC) and with one of the ’delegated’.

Afrika In Touch

Afrika In Touch (AIT) is a church-based youth organisation that primarily works on a voluntary basis. Currently AIT has partnerships in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda is in the process of starting up again in Tanzania.

The main purpose of AIT’s work in Denmark is dissemination of information about Africa and African development mainly through different church-based organisations. AIT’s projects are all implemented on a volunteer basis in organised project groups. In Denmark AIT carries out fundraising and has five paid employees but the main part of the project related work is undertaken by the voluntary project groups. Key words for AIT’s work are friendship and partnership.

In Ethiopia, AIT has worked With Hope for Children Ethiopia (HCE) since 2004. HCE is a civil society organisation working for improving the lives of extremely poor children and children living on the streets. AIT receives funding from DUF and is currently running an ’organisational development project’ with HCE. Before the current project, the partnership was initiated with a pilot project, also primarily with elements of organisational development, and a youth leader exchange programme.

Danish Evangelical Mission – Dansk Etioper Mission (DEM)

DEM is an independent organisation within the National Church of Denmark and aims at being a resource for growth and renewal of churches in cooperation countries such as Ethiopia.

DEM’s primary partner in Ethiopia is the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. The first DEM missionaries were sent to Ethiopia in 1948. When the Mekane Yesus Church was established in 1959, it became a natural partner, and DEM has supported the church financially and by missionaries since then^[71]. The Evangelical Students Union of Ethiopia (EvaSUE) became a partner in 2007. EvaSUE is an umbrella organisation established in 1974 for the Christians University Students’ Union.

The evaluation will focus on DEM’s partnership with EvaSUE and specifically the project carried out by EvaSUE in relation to capacity building of students in Ethiopia in democratisation processes. This project was carried out in 2007 with Danida funding through the mini-programme administered by Danish Mission Council Development Department^[72]. It is a small corner of DEM’s work in Ethiopia. It is a pilot project that takes a different angle (democratic participation) from the rest of the missionary work carried out by DEM with partners in Ethiopia.

The Evaluation is built on the following sources of information: The project document, quarterly progress reports, the training manual and interviews with EvaSUE staff and beneficiaries of the project.

Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke – MS Action Aid Denmark

In the Evaluation, the sixth framework organisation, MS, is not represented in the country samples. Based on reports received and an interview at the MS HO, the Evaluation has included the organisation in the broader analysis.

MS has a special history and has had a special status in the national budget. MS was founded in 1944 to work in favour of reconciliation and reconstruction in post World War Europe and was in its early years engaged in relief work in European countries. MS’s first experience in developing countries was in the late 1950s in ’community development in India’ (1959-69), in ’school building in Ghana’ (1958-63), and ’collection of money for blacks in South Africa’ (1960). In 1963 MS received a grant from the state to post the first team of so-called volunteers to Eastern Africa – the technical assistance, which was later to become the backbone of MS’s development efforts in the South. The volunteer programme became the trademark of MS and has up to recent changes in a way been ’a method’ for capacity building in its own right supplemented by trainings at the MS training centre in Tanzania as well as Global Platforms in El Salvador, India, Kenya and Copenhagen.

In the last few years MS has gone through a dramatic change process and is now driven by development objectives, more than by a methodology (volunteers). In 2008, MS joined ActionAid and now works under the overall objective to: promote just and democratic governance through support to the development of a strong and critical civil society through partner organisations working for political empowerment of the world’s poor and marginalised.

In 2006, MS has also become a framework organisation on equal terms with the other NGOs receiving support from MFA.

MS works in the following thematic areas: Building local democracy, fighting corruption, conflict management, land rights, trade justice, gender equality and youth for development. MS is present in seven countries in Africa, in Nepal, the Middle East and in Central America.

Sum of disbursements to Danish NGOs in Ghana 2002-08 in DKK million

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Sum of disbursements to Danish NGOs in Ethiopia, 2002-08 in DKK million

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*) Red Barnet angiver for 2007 og 2008 Etiopien inkl. Somaliland

[70] The organisation has recently changed name to the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA).

[71] Apart from 1977-80 when the Marxist regime made it impossible to have Danish missionaries in Ethiopia.

[72] The project costs are less than DKK 100,000.