Thematic Evaluation of Support by Danish NGOs to Civil Society

Colophon

Title:
Thematic Evaluation of Support by Danish NGOs to Civil Society

Summary:
A thematic evaluation of the support of Danish NGOs to civil society in developing countries has been commissioned by Danida’s Evaluation Department.

The overall purpose of the evaluation is: To contribute to strengthening the achievement of and knowledge-sharing on results of the support of Danish NGOs to civil society in developing countries, within the overall thematic area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process.

Publisher:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Responsible institution:
Evaluation Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Author:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Other contributors:
Rosendahls - Schultz Grafisk (Print and digital edition)

Language:
English

URL:
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/um/9549/index.htm

ISBN:
978-87-7087-256-0

Digital ISBN:
978-87-7087-257-7

Version:
1.0

Version/edition:
03-12-2009

Publication standard nr.:
2.0

Data formats:
html,htm,jpg,gif,pdf,css,js

Publisher category:
statslig

Key subjects:
Danish NGOs, civil society, knowledge-sharing, NGO, developing countries, democratic development, popular participation.

Copyright:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Notes and other information:
Responsibility for the content and presentation of findings and recommendations rests with the authors.

Table Of Contents

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Executive summary

• Background and methodology
• Key findings
• Levels of results
• DAC Evaluation Criteria
• Monitoring and learning
• Recommendations

• 2.1 The Civil Society Strategy in Danish Development Assistance
• 2.2 Organisation of Danish NGO assistance

• 3.1 Key questions of the evaluation
• 3.2 Application of the results chain
• 3.3 Application of the DAC evaluation criteria

• 4.1 Sampling frame and characteristics
• 4.2 Country sample
• 4.3 Sample of organisations and activities
• 4.4 Data collection
• 4.5 Country context – governance and civil society characteristics
• 4.6 Summary

• 5.1 The enabling environment
• 5.2 Capacities
• 5.3 Channels of interventions (advocacy, service delivery, networks)
• 5.4 Changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations
• 5.5 Broader development goals

• 6.1 Relevance
• 6.2 Effectiveness
• 6.3 Efficiency
• 6.4 Sustainability

• 8.1 Levels of results
• 8.2 DAC Evaluation Criteria
• 8.3 Monitoring and learning
• 8.4 Recommendations

• 1 Background
• 2 Purpose and objectives
• 3 Scope
• 4 Approach and methodology
• 5 Organisation of the Evaluation
• 6 Output
• 7 Work plan
• 8 Competencies

Abbreviations and Acronyms

A note on terminology:

In this Evaluation, ’NGO’ is used to mean the Danish non-governmental organisations, ’INGO’ is used for international NGOs and ’CSO’ is used for civil society organisations i.e. other national or regional development organisations. ’CBO’ is used for community-based organisations and other local level organisations at grass-root level.

Executive summary

Background and methodology

In 2007, the Auditor General’s Office (Rigsrevisionen) pointed to the need for strengthened documentation of the results of the support to civil society in developing countries financed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) NGO co-operation. As part of the follow-up, Danida’s Evaluation Department commissioned this thematic evaluation focusing on the results achieved within the overall thematic area of promoting democratic development and popular participation in the development process (2002-08) in Ghana and Ethiopia, selected as case countries. The theme of the Evaluation corresponds to an overriding theme in the Strategy for Danish Support to Civil Society in Developing Countries – including Cooperation with the Danish NGOs, issued by the MFA in 2000 (hereafter called CSS). The theme also corresponds to the third objective of Danish development policy, Partnership 2000.

Channelling of official development assistance through NGOs is an important aid modality for DAC donors, including Denmark. About 15% of the Danish bilateral assistance is channelled through NGOs (1/3 of this is humanitarian aid). Internationally, there is little aggregate information on NGO assistance and spending. Most studies are country specific. The registration at country level, at best, lists name and overall objective of the organisations. There are no data available on the targeting of NGO assistance (equivalent to DAC codes), neither at aggregate nor at country level.

The objective of the Evaluation is to contribute to strengthening the achievement of and knowledge sharing on results within the thematic area in the two case countries. Through three questions, the Evaluation aims firstly to identify and assess outputs and outcomes of
a sample of activities of Danish NGOs and to the extent possible assess the contribution of the activities to broader impact. Secondly, the Evaluation assesses how the approaches (including capacity building and partnerships) applied by Danish NGOs contribute to improved democratic development and popular participation. Thirdly, the Evaluation aims to assess the usefulness of applied M&E systems for achievement, documentation and communication of results. Prior to carrying out the thematic evaluation, the Evaluation Department had commissioned a mapping of monitoring and evaluation practices amongst Danish NGO’s. Inter alia the study found a number of promising monitoring practices, but also a marked variety in monitoring practices, data collected etc.

Monitoring of the CSS at the thematic level was not included in the CSS, so prior to the Evaluation it was clear that at an aggregate level the Evaluation would not have systematic cross-organisational data to build on.

For the Evaluation to answer the questions on the results achieved and the approaches applied by Danish NGOs, it has been necessary to develop and apply a methodology, which captures process results. The Evaluation theme was therefore divided into a results chain in which the bottom level of the results chain is an assessment of the understanding of the ’enabling environment’; the second level is enhancement of ’capacities’; the third level is an assessment of ’channels of intervention’; the fourth level is assessment of ’changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations’; the highest level is the contribution to ’broader development outcomes’. The results chain approach has been drawn from a well-tested evaluation framework. The second methodological element for the Evaluation is the application of the DAC criteria. These criteria are held against the key findings distilled through the results chain. Relevance, effectiveness and sustainability, and to a limited extent impact are assessed. It has not been possible to systematically assess the efficiency of interventions.

The CSS does not apply a definition of democratic development and popular participation. Danish NGOs and their partners are largely permitted to give actual substance to the notion of popular participation and democratic development in their individual programmes and monitoring systems. The Danish NGOs engaged in development assistance are diverse and have different mandates and objectives and therefore focus on different aspects within the theme. The Evaluation applies the many aspects of the theme as elaborated in the CSS and defined by the Danish organisations and their partners in programmes.

The sampling methodology has been to include as many Danish NGOs as possible and also to cover as broad a sample of partners and activities as possible at country level. As mentioned the case countries were Ghana (programme country) and Ethiopia (nonprogramme country). Ghana provides an open space for civil society operations, while Ethiopia has recently narrowed a space, which was already restricted. The sample of Danish organisations working in Ghana includes IBIS and CARE, LO/FTF Council (trade unions), Ghana Friendship Groups and the Danish Association of the Disabled – Youth Wing (DHF-UK). The sample of Danish organisations working in Ethiopia includes: the Danish Red Cross (DRC), DanChurchAid (DCA), Save the Children Denmark (SCD), Afrika InTouch and Danish Evangelical Mission. Data collection methods have comprised semi-structured interviews, stakeholder workshops and direct observation of programme implementation and impact in the field. Available materials such as statistics, reports and research have been consulted.

Key findings

The overall conclusion is that Danish NGOs, through their partners, do contribute to popular participation and democratic development. The contribution is particularly valid as results at the lower levels of the results chain i.e. enhancing capacities, channels of intervention and changes of policy practice, behaviour and power relations. Concerning the last results area, the results are generally most marked at the local level, but there are also examples at national level. The contribution, through the theme, to poverty reduction and broader development outcomes is found in the form of poverty orientation of programmes, but measurable contributions to direct poverty reduction and contribution to broader development outcomes are difficult to trace.

Levels of results

Enabling environment

The Danish NGOs and their partners have prioritised rural presence and contributed to enlarging the enabling environment for popular participation and democratic development in target areas both in Ghana and Ethiopia. National level space for civil society is highly dependent on the state of democratic governance and the openness of Government towards civil society operations. In Ghana civil society has been able to maintain the existing space, in Ethiopia the environment has been further restricted for civil society participation in democratic development, the restrictions are tabled in the form of new CSO legislation. Civil society’s involvement in popular participation and democratic development is hardly visible at national level.

The enabling environment influences how far the NGOs are able to take their advocacy efforts. In Ethiopia applying the rights based approach is assessed by the Evaluation to be difficult or even simply risky, and Danish NGOs mainly support partners at the local level, where they have built up working relationships, so they work both with rights holders and duty bearers. In Ghana, the organisations also prioritise a rural presence and work through the rights based approach at the local level, but there is more space to establish links to the national political scene.

Enhancing capacities

All Danish NGOs in the sample, irrespective of size, topic and geographical area of engagement have engaged comprehensively in enhancing capacities of partner organisations. Capacity building, mostly instituted in partnership agreements, appears according to partners and other stakeholders to be a specific Danish way of operating. In the course of the evaluation period partnerships have become more institutionalised and capacity building processes have become more structured.

Enhanced capacities have enabled the CSOs to develop especially as social actors at local level in both Ghana and Ethiopia and establish themselves as legitimate representatives of the poor and include target groups in planning. In Ghana capacity for political engagement has also been enhanced through programmes targeting particular groups’ participation and democratic engagement. The partners of Danish NGOs appreciate the ’Danish’ approach, i.e. the capacity building organised in long-term partnerships.

Channels of intervention (networks, advocacy)

As channels of intervention, some of the Danish NGOs have made considerable ’investments’ in building up networks, and in supporting partners’ advocacy in both countries. Service delivery is also an important channel of intervention, but has only been assessed in this Evaluation, when combined with advocacy. Service delivery programmes play an important role in legitimising the programmes for some organisations, particularly in Ethiopia.

In Ghana, networks are stronger at the end of the period under evaluation and particularly the framework organisations engage resources in those. With regards to results networks are generally considered to be useful platforms for influence in Ghana especially in sectors, but in overarching policies and planning at national level there is less success – with the exception of the Disability Act.

The Danish NGOs and their partners have not challenged the accountability (or lack) of state institutions at national level. In Ethiopia, the focus of the Danish NGOs (SCD, DCA) is on improving technical skills of the networks, because of the limited space for civil society advocacy, and it cannot be said that networks have contributed to promoting democracy and public participation in Ethiopia in the time period of evaluation.

The rights based approach has in the course of the years become the common basic approach to advocacy. Danish NGOs in general have chosen to engage with partners that have a more collaborative approach as opposed to a more confrontational approach. The use of a ’collaborative approach’ to advocacy may be explained by several factors. One is that the civil society strategy, as part of the Danish development policy, assumes that development is long process in which capacity building is a corner stone. Secondly, funding is made available to long-term partnerships and engagement, so there are possibilities to engage in the long haul rather than short-term activist approaches.

Policy, practice, behaviour and power relations

The ’value added’ of Danish NGOs through their partners are particularly found at local level, and in Ethiopia in the more restricted space for civil society, achievements have been on the level of individual rights (changes in practice and behaviour). In those communities or those groups targeted, such as women and children, rights are protected as a result of the intervention. Marginalised and powerless groups targeted have begun to see themselves as social actors and have also started to act as change agents in their communities. In Ghana the main focus of the Danish NGOs has been on using and expanding the space for interaction between local government structures and citizens and groups of citizens organised in CBOs. There is emphasis on increasing women’s role as political actors and this has been achieved in the target areas. There is also increased CBO involvement in planning processes although it is not established that this as yet has led to changes of policies and power relations.

There is a difference between the context in Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ethiopia women in the targeted areas have been empowered to see themselves as social change agents in their communities whereas a project that aimed at getting them elected to local bodies utterly failed (DCA project). At national level in Ghana some Danish NGOs in the sample particularly those organisations with ’natural’ partners (LO/FTF, DHF-UK, and other organisations representing groups with disabilities) have influenced changes of policies. This is the ’technical know-how’, the credibility as representatives of particular groups in society, which seems to drive this change.

The Danish NGOs and their partners have not been challenging the power relations between citizens and state institutions. In Ghana the civil society has been invited to have a voice in national planning processes. Danish NGOs have supported (built capacity) for partners to do this. However, some observers conclude that the civil society so far has obtained little in terms of influencing the broader power relations in society.

Broader development outcomes

The interventions supported by Danish NGOs through partners are poverty oriented; the extent to which this leads to poverty reduction and can be sustained is dependent on a number of factors in the external environment. The poverty orientation of the interventions are strong and concerted, although the leverage is likely to be small due to limited scales of operation. With regard to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and ’human development’, there is less of a direct linkage to the theme of this Evaluation. The MDGs and human development is closely associated with service delivery and the themes of popular participation and democratic development takes the ’longer route’ of contributing to the MDGs. The ’short route’ of contributing to the MDGs is between service delivery and human development.

DAC Evaluation Criteria

Relevance

The approaches or pathways applied by the Danish NGOs are generally in line with the CSS; similarly are focus areas and objectives – although very different in nature – also relevant in light of the CSS.

Prior to an engagement the Danish NGOs assess and consider the local context and establish their overall development goals in line with government policies in the case countries. The organisations either find their niche (in Ghana) or promote the existence of a civil society within the limited space provided (in Ethiopia). Nevertheless, the relevance could be further strengthened through more in-depth analyses of the space for engagement and the power relationship between civil society and the state; and the more specific role or niche that civil society can operate in and further develop.

The CSS recommended that Danish NGOs should carry out state/civil society analysis prior to their engagement. This has for the framework organisations been turned into situation analysis, which in scope is more narrow than the anticipated state/civil society analysis. For the smaller organisations the analysis carried out have been limited in scope. A state/civil society (political economy) analysis would have resulted in a better upfront assessment of options and routes of engagement and consideration of strengths and weaknesses of different alternatives and avenues to achieve results.

Effectiveness

The Danish NGOs and their partners have been effective in reaching their stated programme objectives as individual organisations. The NGO’s and their partners obviously have different priorities based on their specific interpretations of the CSS on their area of engagement. The Evaluation points to results that contribute to the intentions of the CSS in a wide range of areas and at different levels. At the level of broader development goals are the level it is most difficult to extract specific results. Most organisations in their documentation do not clearly address how their interventions precisely are expected to contribute to decreased poverty levels. The link between activities and poverty reduction are often in-built assumptions and the interventions are therefore poverty oriented rather than poverty reducing. Furthermore, the interventions are often on so low a scale or confined to such a limited geographical area that it is difficult to link the interventions to reduced poverty beyond the local level.

Efficiency

In has not been possible in this Evaluation to assess efficiency understood as a more comparative assessment of the results achieved in the light of the costs incurred. Efficiency in terms of output/outcomes in relation to inputs and the value of comparison of alternative approaches is not discussed in the CSS, and while considerable resources seem to be spent on ensuring financial accountability, such an approach to efficiency is less present. In view of the common achievements of the process results at lower levels of the results chain by all organisations, and the more scarce results beyond the local level (broader policy influence and change in power relations at societal levels and contribution towards broader development outcomes), it could be pertinent to assess if and how efficiency is applied in activities and outputs at the lower levels of the results chain, in order to ensure that there is a reasonable correspondence between costs at these levels and development outcomes (impact and sustainability at national level). A stronger focus on efficiency would also ensure that Danish NGOs are well aligned with the aid effectiveness agenda.

This agenda has so far mostly concentrated on the aid effectiveness of government agencies, but it is likely to be extended to cover the NGO sector as well.

Sustainability

To enable sustainability of interventions, the Danish NGOs work with organisational sustainability of partner organisations mainly through considerable investment in enhancing capacities. These investments have paid off and the partners become stronger with good potential for organisational sustainability. This is however jeoparidized by limited prospects of financial suustainability.

Results related to increased participation and increased levels of communities claiming their rights towards the authorities can be difficult to sustain in both an open and a restrictive environment. And it is not only in a restrictive environment such as Ethiopia that it is difficult to sustain results related to communities claiming their rights. Also in Ghana, the fact that the increased participation and awareness on rights only on a limited scale has translated into improved services at the community level is likely to influence sustainability. The increased level of participation is not sustainable if there continues to be too few resources for services delivery on local level. Local communities will not continue to be engaged in drawing up local development etc, if they do not see their efforts being translated into reduced poverty at some point.

Monitoring and learning

At thematic level there is no reporting by Danish NGOs to MFA on the overriding theme of the theme of the CSS, i.e. promoting democratic development and popular participation. This type of monitoring was not institutionalised in the period under evaluation.

At individual organisational level, Danish NGOs have monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems of high quality. Nevertheless, there can be ’a long way’ from the head office M&E systems to the level of application in country. At country level, M&E (but not necessarily the head office system) is used actively for internal learning in the individual organisations.

There is considerable cross-sharing and cross-learning among organisations at country level. It is only not necessarily among the Danish NGOs that the sharing is most relevant. Sharing on issues related to Danish development policy is relevant for the Danish organisations and such topics are covered through dialogue meetings at the Danish embassy (in Ghana as a programme country).

The NGO networks in Denmark are used for sharing and learning, but there is a ’fatigue’ among the larger organisations that all feel they contribute more than they receive.

Recommendations

To the organisations

It is recommended that Danish NGOs undertake state/civil society assessments (political/ economy/social relations assessments) in relation to their main engagements in the future. The aim is to enhance the relevance through a better understanding of the potential impact and replication potential of interventions and for organisations to assess options (or lack of options) of most relevant approaches to reach objectives. This intention is to depart with the almost automatic route of enhancing capacities of long-term partners and assisting these to apply particular channels of intervention as the route to anticipated changes in practice, policies and power relations. The framework organisations with country programmes would rethink the present situation analysis and especially smaller organisations would need to draw more on existing materials (from think tanks, donors etc).

The Evaluation has shown that at lower levels of the results chain, Danish NGOs through their long-term partnerships consistently build capacity in partner organisations and assist these to act through different intervention channels. The NGOs should engage in more systematic efforts to document the outcome of these capacity building efforts and the links to results at other levels.

There is a tendency for NGOs to have partners that primarily engage with the state on national level in spaces where they are invited to by the government. It may also be fruitful for civil society to create their own space and develop their agendas outside the control of government and to engage in a dialogue with other actors such as parliaments.

The Danish NGOs and their partners should actively use their results (e.g. empowerment of women and children) to advocate for more space for civil society. The NGOs/ CSOs have the comparative advantage (as opposed to the state) of being close to the communities when carrying out for example civic education. This should be used as a “sales argument” vis-à-vis governments and donors.

The individual NGO should in general maintain its comparative advantage. The smaller organisations should for example not be pressured to work on national level. It may be more effective for them to prioritise interventions that are aimed at e.g. empowering communities and holding local government accountable. They should link up with strong national networks instead.

The Danish NGOs should be better at monitoring external risks and assumptions. The capability of the state to deliver has to be closely monitored. Is the state able to mobilise resources and is it able and willing to carry out genuine decentralisation of power and resources? An affirmative answer is crucial for popular participation on local level to translate into better services and ultimately poverty reduction.

To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Efficiency measures of partnership relations, capacity enhancement, channels of interventions, target group coverage and sustainability/replication potential are difficult to establish. Nevertheless, it is recommended that in the future these considerations be brought into the programmes of Danish NGOs and in the monitoring dialogue between MFA and the organisations. Efficiency of Danish NGO operations has not been part of ongoing monitoring and assessments of programmes by MFA, but some framework organisations have started to include elements of efficiency in their own monitoring systems.

Danish NGOs are increasingly part of global alliances and they contribute to development changes together with other INGOs. It will be more and more difficult to isolate the added value of the Danish NGOs at the higher level of the results chain. It is therefore imperative that a common framework is found for measuring process results of the Danish NGOs.

The poverty orientation of the work of Danish NGOs in this thematic area has to be maintained for Danish NGO support to feed into the overriding goal of Danish development aid of reducing poverty in developing countries. The new M&E guidelines should emphasise that an active contribution (although it may be indirect) to poverty reduction has to be documented.

Thematic evaluations are resource-demanding exercises and it is recommended that in future, themes to be benchmarked or evaluated are agreed on between the organisations and MFA as part of the overall monitoring of the updated civil society strategy. This will ensure the availability of baseline information and commonly agreed parameters/indicators of measure of the major results areas of the strategy. In addition it is also recommended to take up specific issues, one theme could for example be stocktaking of the quality/application of state/civil society analysis (the terminology in the updated CSS is context analysis).

1 Introduction

In 2007, the Danish Auditor General’s Office pointed to the need for strengthened documentation of the results of the support of Danish NGOs to civil society in developing countries, as well as to the potential for enhanced sharing of experiences[¹]. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) subsequently proposed to conduct thematic evaluations as a relevant way to facilitate documentation and learning of the work of Non Governmental Organisations (NGO).

It is on that background that the MFA commissioned this Evaluation. The focus is on Danish NGO interventions within the thematic area of ’promoting democratic development and popular participation in the development process’. The time span for the Evaluation is 2002 to 2008. This focus corresponds to the central theme of the ’Strategy for Danish Support to Civil Society in Developing Countries – including Cooperation with the Danish NGOs, October 2000’ (hereafter referred to as the CSS)[²]. The strategy has been revised and an updated CSS was published in December 2008, i.e. at the end of the time period covered by this Evaluation.

The objectives of the Evaluation are to:

• Identify and assess outputs and outcomes of a sample of activities of Danish NGOs supporting civil society in developing countries, within the thematic area.
• Assess how and to what extent the approaches applied by Danish NGOs contribute to improved democratic development and popular participation.
• Assess the usefulness of applied monitoring and evaluation systems for achievement, documentation and communication of results.

It is the methods and performance of the Danish NGOs that are under evaluation and not the interventions of individual partner organisations as such, although the partner organisations obviously play an indispensable role in the operations. The starting point in Danish development policy and the relationship between MFA and Danish NGOs; field studies were undertaken in Ethiopia and Ghana. The focus on African countries is in line with the geographical concentration of Danish development assistance. Ghana provides an open space for civil society operations, while Ethiopia has recently narrowed a space, which was already limited. The Evaluation applies both qualitative and quantitative methods and findings have been triangulated by applying a variety of data collection methods comprising desk research and analysis of existing material; interviews with key informants, stakeholders’ workshops and direct observation of programme implementation and impact in the field.

The Danish NGOs in the sample have been assessed separately in order to judge their programmes against their own stated objectives, but in this synthesis report, the main analytical emphasis is on the aggregated results.

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 explain the setting and the methodology of the Evaluation. In Chapter 2, the CSS is introduced as the as the strategic framework and ’contractual’ platform for the Danish NGO operations supported by the MFA. The aim is to give readers an understanding of the background, strategic approaches and conditions of operation for Danish NGOs. Elements of the methodology, i.e. the results chain and the DAC evaluation criteria, are elaborated in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 outlines the sampling strategy and introduces the country contexts, i.e. Ghana and Ethiopia and more specifically the operational space for CSOs in the two sample countries.

Chapter 5, 6, 7 and 8 cover the aggregated findings and conclusions of the Evaluation. Chapter 5 presents results according to the five levels of the result chain. Chapter 6 presents results related to the DAC evaluation criteria. Findings on documentation, learning and sharing of results are found in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 contains the overall conclusions and recommendations.

Annex 1 includes the Terms of Reference; Annex 2 presents the sample of Danish organisations and their work in Ghana and Ethiopia.

The Evaluation includes full country reports for Ethiopia and Ghana. The reports may be uploaded from the CD-ROM attached to this report or may be viewed on the website http://www.evaluation.dk. On the same CD-ROM and website the reader will find an elaborate note on the results chain methodology (Annex 3), the list of people met (Annex 4) and a list of documents consulted during the evaluation process (Annex 5).

A team from Nordic Consulting Group A/S has conducted the Evaluation. The team comprised Anne-Lise Klausen, (team leader), Marina Buch Kristensen and Marie-Louise Appelquist.

[1] Rigsrevisionen: Beretning til statsrevisorerne om Udenrigsministeriets administration af NGO-bistanden.Marts 2007.

[2] In this report the abbreviation ’CSS’ refers to the strategy valid in the time period covered by the evaluation. If the revised strategy, published in December 2008, is referred to the terminology used is ’the revised CSS’.

2 The Danish platform for NGO assistance

This chapter introduces the CSS, i.e. the overall strategic framework and ’contractual’ set-up for the part of the official Danish development assistance, which is channelled through Danish NGOs. The theme of this Evaluation is drawn from the overriding subject matter of the CSS. The aim is to enable the understanding of the key elements of the evaluation methodology and subsequently the findings of the Evaluation.

2.1 The Civil Society Strategy in Danish Development Assistance

The CSS was drawn up as part of an analytical and consultative process in preparation of Denmark’s strategy for development assistance, ’Partnership 2000’ (1999-2000). The CSS is embedded in ’Partnership 2000’, which expresses the overriding objective of Danish development policy as ’lasting improvement in living conditions for the poorest sections of the world’s population by reducing poverty. The way to reduce poverty is to give people rights and access to social, economic, political and natural resources’[³]. ’Partnership 2000’ builds on three elements to pursue the overriding objective: broad poverty oriented economic growth; human development through social sector development; and promotion of democratisation and popular participation in the development process. It is in particular the third element, which is the basis for the CSS and therefore further developed in that strategy.

In the CSS the core approaches are to work through partners and to build their capacity as social and political actors. Advocacy for rights thereby becomes the overriding theme. Delivery of services is also considered important: when services are directed at the poor and marginalised, has an innovative angle and does not constitute gap filling for the government. Networking is another central modality in the CSS, but mainly expressed in relation to establishment of international networks. It should be noted that practice during the implementation of the CSS has put considerable emphasis on local and national ’advocacy networks’, which are seen as a way of strengthening the voice of civil society^[4].

In 2007 a process of updating the CSS was initiated. A participatory approach to the revision process was adopted and there was again a broad based inclusion of Danish organisations. In December 2008, the updated Civil Society Strategy was published, contents wise the document has many similarities to its predecessor. But major differences are found in the changed architecture of the international aid system; adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on halving extreme poverty by 2015; the Paris Declaration (2005) and the continuous work to ensure aid effectiveness; attention to fragile states and situations; and there is an increased obligation for Danish NGOs to increase their self-financing in the updated strategy. Moreover is the emphasis on poverty reduction less underlined, and establishment and existence of a strong and independent civil society is regarded as an achievement in its own right. Box 2.1 gives an overview of main elements of the strategies and main themes in the updated strategy.

2.2 Organisation of Danish NGO assistance

Denmark has a long tradition of civil society engagement both in Denmark but also in developing countries. The largest contributor to development activities of the Danish NGOs is the Danish Government. Funds are also raised through memberships and public fundraising^[5]. These two sources are not officially registered, but counted by the individual organisations.

The CSS has institutionalised the different funding modalities from the Government, which constitute: framework agreements, single applications projects and mini-projects. Of the DKK 893 million channelled through the Danish NGOs in 2002, 67% was channelled through framework organisations^[6]. The six largest Danish NGOs have framework agreements with MFA; Danish Association for International Co-operation (MS), DanChuchAid, Ibis, Danish Red Cross, Care Denmark, and Save the Children Denmark^[7]. The aim of the framework agreements, as stated in the CSS, is to enable the organisations to develop long-term strategic programmes in co-operation with their partners in developing countries based on the NGOs’ own visions and goals. The funding guarantee is expected to result in efficient routines and a working environment conducive to capacity building, flexibility and adaptation of programmes as experience is gathered and circumstances change. In 2007 the distribution of the NGO assistance to development activities remained roughly the same as in 2002 with 60% channelled through the six framework organisations.

Single projects constitute application-based assistance and are the second largest part of the NGO assistance; this funding type has also been fairly constant in the period under evaluation. Mini-projects, the third category, are projects granted under mini-programmes. The umbrella organisations Danish Youth Council (DUF), Danish Mission Council – Development Department (DMC-DD) and Disabled Peoples Organisations Denmark (DPOD) all administer mini-programmes. The Project Advice and Training Centre (PATC) administers a Project Fund for small-scale interventions.

The annual publication ’MFA’s NGO Cooperation 2007’ reconfirmed the focus of the CSS in the following wording: ’The emphasis is that the activities of the NGOs reach out to the particularly marginalised and poor population segments, and that the organisations support civil society’s ability to engage in an active and critical dialogue with the national authorities. Important areas of engagement are organisation and capacity development, promotion of the organisations’ capability for advocacy and lobbying, and participation in networks with like-minded originations’^[8]. In brief it can be said that the Danish development policy, the strategic framework and ’contractual set-up’ for NGO assistance has remained fairly constant in the period selected for this Evaluation.

[3] Denmark’s Development Policy – Strategy, Partnership 2000, MFA, October 2000.

[4] MFA’s NGO Co-operation 2007. The content of the CSS has been discussed in Chapter 2 in respect of elements, areas of change and pathways in the methodology.

[5] Research on private aidflows from Denmark to Africa was conducted by Klausen, Anne-Lise, Appelquist, Marie-Louise and Thaarup, Julie for the World Bank in 2008. The research will be published as part of a major research project at the end of 2009/early 2010.

[6] Five framework organisations and MS.

[7] Thefirst framework agreements were entered into in 1991/92 with Danish Church Aid, Danish Red Cross, Ibis and LO/FTF Council (Fagbevægelsens U-landssekretariat). In 1996 CARE also entered a framework agreement and in 2001 Save the Children. In 2004 LO/FTF Council discontinued as a framework organisation. MS had an appropriation on the Finance Bill until 2006 where the organisation entered into a regular framework agreement.

[8] MFA’s NGO Co-operation, 2007 p. 10. Own translation of Danish language publication.

3 Evaluation methodology

This chapter outlines the methodology of the Evaluation. The evaluation questions are presented, followed by a presentation of the results chain, a key element in the methodology. This is followed by an explanation of how the DAC evaluation criteria are applied to assess the results.

3.1 Key questions of the evaluation

This Evaluation concerns a central and overriding theme in Danish NGO assistance across a sample of organisations. The tasks therefore entail assessing the work of organisations with different characteristics, but within a common thematic area, thus allowing for an assessment of not just of the results of the individual organisation, but also the aggregated results and different levels of results.

The overall objective of the Evaluation is to contribute to strengthening of the achievements and sharing of knowledge on results of Danish NGO support within the overall thematic area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process. More specifically the Evaluation looks at:

• outputs and outcomes of a sample of activities of Danish NGOs supporting civil society in developing countries, within the area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process. To the extent possible the contribution of the activities to broader impact will also be assessed.
• how and to what extent the approaches (including capacity building and partnerships) applied by Danish NGOs contribute to improved democratic development and popular participation in the development process.
• the usefulness of applied monitoring and evaluation systems for achievement, documentation and communication of results^[9].

The CSS does no apply a definition of democratic development and popular participation in the development processes. Danish NGOs and their partners are largely permitted to give actual substance to the notion of popular participation and democratic development in their individual programmes and monitoring systems. The Danish NGOs engaged in development assistance are diverse and have different mandates and objectives and therefore focus on different aspects within the theme. The Evaluation has not attempted to find a common definition, but applies the many aspects of the theme as elaborated in the CSS and defined by the Danish organisations and their partners in programmes. The starting point for the evaluation methodology has therefore been to organise and systematise key concepts of the CSS in order to narrow the conceptual understanding of the overall thematic area of promoting democratic development and popular participation in the development process.

In relation to the third question of the Evaluation, it has not been possible to draw on systematic cross-organisational monitoring information on results achieved within the evaluation theme. Such information has not been collected in the period covered by the Evaluation, although individually the organisations have extensive monitoring set-ups (discussed in Chapter 7).

3.2 Application of the results chain

The results chain is an evaluation framework developed and tested in several evaluations of voice and accountability interventions (see Annex 5 found on the attached CD-ROM). The strength is that themes are made tangible as results, at the same time as the themes are ongoing processes, to which different values can be attributed depending on time, place, institutions and political systems. The results chain is therefore a way to understand process results and see how and if results on ’lower levels’ eventually translate into broader development outcomes^[10]. The CSS did not include a log frame or similar with clearly stated objectives and indicators. It did however have stated goals and principles. This Evaluation has transferred these goals and objectives from the CSS to the result chain as illustrated in Box 3.1. (see next page). As a supplement, the Evaluation has used power cube analysis to understand how places, spaces and power for civil society are created, maintained and expanded.

The term “space” is explained here, as the terminology is used throughout the Evaluation. It refers to the different arenas in which decision-making takes place, in which power operates and how these spaces are created. There is a distinction between three types:
a) ’Provided’ or ’closed’ spaces: spaces which are controlled by an elite group. b) ’Invited’ spaces: with external pressure, or in an attempt to increase legitimacy, some policymakers may create ’invited’ spaces for outsiders to share their opinions. c) ’Claimed’ spaces: these can provide the less powerful with a chance to develop their agendas and create solidarity without control from power-holders^[11]. “Power” and “places” are explained in Annex 5.

Although slightly complex at first glance, the results chain with it different columns and levels organises in a hierarchical way the different concept, processes and goals of popular participation and democratic development, so these can be evaluated in a meaningful way. The Evaluation uses the areas of change (the second column) as proxy indicators for ’democratic development and popular participation’ results at different levels in the chain.

The methodology also includes pathways between the levels. A pathway is a link between different areas of change, i.e. levels in the results chain. A pathway is for example investing in long-term partnerships. Partnership is one way of establishing a link between building the capacities of an organisation and the organisational ability to carry out advocacy. Another pathway is applying a collaborative or a confrontational advocacy approach. The Danish NGOs may through their partners promote different strategies for influencing policies etc. A basic premise is the adoption of the rights based approach, but this still gives the options of working with and build the capacity of partners that have a collaborative approach i.e. meaning that they co-operate closely with Government and potentially in this way address sensitive issues; or work with and build the capacity of partners with more confrontational advocacy approaches, who address sensitive and politically explosive issues in a more “head-on way” (sensitive issues could be human rights abuses, corruption, smuggling, illegal depletion of natural resources). The identification and discussion of pathways is furthermore helpful, when trying to understand if and how the ’value addition’ finds expression in the results chain. Looking for Danish added value is not merely a question of accountability, but rather a way of illustrating the added value of the Danish NGOs in the development process. Chapter 5 presents the different levels of process results.

3.3 Application of the DAC evaluation criteria

The second methodological element for the evaluation is the application of the DAC criteria. These criteria are held against the key findings distilled through the results chain. Relevance, effectiveness and sustainability, and to a limited extent impact are assessed. It has not been possible to systematically assess the efficiency of interventions. This would require an in-depth analysis of the individual organisations that have not been catered for in the evaluation framework. Nevertheless, the evaluation includes some observations on efficiency.

Relevance revolves around the role of NGOs in the development process, and the extent to which the activities of the organisations are aligned with the priorities and policies in the context of operation and the extent to which the Danish NGOs as a group have contributed to fulfilling the objectives of the CSS. The result-orientation of the Evaluation implies a focus on effectiveness, and potentially impact. The effectiveness of the sample of programmes of the Danish NGOs has been assessed individually for each organisation in the country reports.

Specific impact evaluations related to the theme have not been available to support the documentation for the Evaluation. M&E reports and other types of documentation do give some indication of development impact of the individual NGO interventions, but these reports are often generated internally in the organisations and do not necessarily present an independent view.

Sustainability is partly vested with the partner organisations, but it is also a question of lasting value added by the Danish NGOs (not necessarily visible but ’internalised’ in the partner organisations)^[12]. Sustainability questions can be asked at every level of result chain, but what is most important to acknowledge is that the nature of interventions in democratic development and popular participation aim to deliver process results, and it is difficult to say during the short time period covered by this evaluation, if for example methodologies are sustained in the partner organisations and if these in the longer term can be instrumental in for example influencing policies.

[9] ToR. Annex 1.

[10] The results chain in this evaluation methodology has been adapted from a framework developed by the Overseas Development Institute: Foresti et al. 2007 “Evaluation of Citizens’ Voice and Accountability – Evaluation Framework”

[11] IDS, 2005.

[12]Value added should not be understood in the sense that Denmark transfers particular goods, or have earmarked assistance as in former paradigms of development. It should be understood in the sense, that the CSS offers particular contents and modalities to the partnerships, which can be traced in the results chain.

4 Sampling and country context

In this chapter the different parts of the sampling frame is described and discussed. This includes the overall field of NGO assistance, choice of case countries and sampling of Danish NGOs and their activities. In the last section selected governance characteristics of relevance for the theme are discussed in the context of the two case countries.

4.1 Sampling frame and characteristics

Channelling of official development assistance through NGOs is an important aid modality for DAC donors, including Denmark^[13]. Some countries exceed 10%, and countries like the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland are close to 20% of their total assistance. Denmark channels 14.9% of the bilateral assistance through NGOs (4.5% ’humanitarian’ and 10.4% to ’development’)^[14]. OECD countries channelled more than USD 15 billion through NGOs annually in 2005 and 2006. This is about six times as much as Denmark’s annual total vote for assistance (bilateral and multilateral), of DKK 14 billion, i.e. USD 2.5 billion^[15].

There is very little aggregate information on NGO assistance. Most studies are country specific and these studies appear to have very little information on aggregate NGO spending. The registration at country level, at best, lists name and overall objective of the organisations. There is also a significant amount of private funding flows, which are not grasped by official statistics and not known by the donors. There are no data available on the targeting of NGO assistance (equivalent to DAC codes), neither at aggregate nor at country level. Therefore it has not been possible for the purpose of this Evaluation to provide an exact quantitative sampling frame based on precise data on volume and nature of NGO activities in the case countries encompassing the theme. Secondly, is it not possible within this field to estimate the contribution to such objectives by foreign NGOs and further within that field to isolate the contribution of Danish NGOs. Having said that there are studies in both selected case countries, which provide some basic information on the nature of civil society activities and it is possible qualitatively to place Danish NGOs in the enabling environment for NGOs at country level.

4.2 Country sample

Ethiopia and Ghana have been selected as fieldwork countries in order to include both a programme and a non-programme country^[16]. The country selection also allows for a comparison of engagement within different governance contexts (discussed in Section 4.4.). As mentioned above, the level of NGO funding (Danish and other international organisations) is readily available neither in Ethiopia nor in Ghana, so the overall funding level is based on guesstimates if at all available. According to a recent study^[17], the international NGO expenditure in Ethiopia in 2005 amounted to EUR 174.6 million. The Evaluation has not found similar statistics for Ghana.

The disbursements to Danish NGOs in Ghana and Ethiopia in the period of evaluation amounted to DKK 280 million and DKK 130 million respectively. In 2007, the Danish NGO assistance constituted approximately 16% of the Danish bilateral assistance to Ghana. NGO activities financed by the Embassies under the local appropriation fund are not included in the Evaluation.

4.3 Sample of organisations and activities

The sampling methodology has been to include as many Danish NGOs as possible and also to include as broad a sample of partners and activities as possible at country level. The main partner(s) have to the extent possible been covered. Due to resource constraints it has not been possible to include all the Danish organisations and the following method has been applied at country level:

• Coverage and inclusion of the three categories of organisations mentioned in the CSS (framework, single application projects, mini-programmes).
• Inclusion of all framework organisations present in the country (because of their particular role as expressed in the CSS).
• An equal distribution of single projects and mini-projects (under mini-programmes).
• In the field sample to include the framework organisations and larger single applications and their significant partnerships within the theme to ensure that the sample includes the bulk of theme related activities in a country. Moreover have the activities selected been those that have been implemented in the time period selected for the Evaluation.
• In relation to application of the categories above there has been adjustment according to geographical location so the field sample for it to become manageable for conducting visits within the resources of the Evaluation. In this respect it has also been weighted that there is a representation of small/large activities and rural/urban activities in the sample.

The theme selected for the Evaluation is in some cases part of an organisation’s country programme (the framework organisations). For other organisations the selection may constitute the major part of their engagement in the country. It is estimated that programmes of ’popular participation and democratic development’ programmes/projectscover as widely as 25 to 100% of the total engagement, often depending on interpretation within the organisations. The theme of promoting democratic development and popular participation is not only linked to specific projects/programmes, it can also be seen as the overriding methodology or approach for activities supported under the auspices of the CSS.

Ghana

Twelve Danish NGOs work in Ghana with support from Danida (this excludes individual organisations operating under the mini-programmes). The organisations that have received support from MFA are CARE Denmark, IBIS, Ghana Friendship Groups (GV), Disabled Peoples Organisations Denmark (DPOD), LO/FTF Council and the Danish Association of the Blind, who receive project support based on application; moreover are there projects implemented under the auspices of the Danish Youth Council (DUF – Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd), PATC and Danish Mission Council Development Department (DMC-DD), who administer mini-programmes; and finally the International Medical Cooperation Committee (IMCC), MS (Genbrug i Syd) and Women Action Group of Presby. All organisations work under the auspices of the CSS, but the activities of MS (Genbrug i Syd) and IMCC have a different focus than the Evaluation. The sample of Danish organisations working in Ghana includes:

• Framework organisations: IBIS and CARE
• Single applications: LO/FTF Council and Ghana Friendship Groups
• Mini-projects: Danish Association of the Disabled – Youth Wing (supported through the DUF administered mini-programme).

The inclusion of the Danish Association of the Disabled – Youth Wing project, has the extra dimension that it is supportive to project engagements of other Danish disability organisations, which are then covered partly, because in 2008 all Danish organisations working on disability in Ghana have joined forces in supporting the Federation of Physically Disabled in Ghana.

The following table provides a schematic overview of the sampled programmes and partner organisations See Annex 2 for a short description of the Danish organisations’ work in Ghana.

Table 4.1: Sample of Danish NGOs in Ghana

Ethiopia

Nine Danish organisations with support from Danida worked in Ethiopia from 2002 to 2008 (not including individual organisations operating under the mini-programmes). Generally, organisations that work in Ethiopia have large portfolios of service delivery in their programmes, because of the limited space for civil society engagement in non-service delivery activities. There are three framework organisations, Danish Red Cross, DanChurchAid and Save the Children Denmark; the umbrella organisations constitute DUF, DMC-DD and PACT, and lastly are AC International Child Support, MS (Genbrug i Syd) and Danish Ethiopian Foundation also present. The sample of Danish organisations working in Ethiopia includes^[18]:

• Framework organisations: DRC, DCA and SCD.
• Mini-programme: Afrika InTouch (support through DUF) and Danish Evangelical. Mission (support through DMC-DD).

The three framework organisations have jointly implemented a fairly large programme in Wollo from 1997 to 2007. An impact evaluation of this programme was carried out in 2008. The Evaluation has studied and had discussions with representatives of the three Danish organisations involved in that programme^[19].

The following table provides an overview of selected programmes/projects for each Danish organisation and the relevant Ethiopian partner organisations. Reference is also made to Annex 2, which contains a brief description of the organisations’ work in Ethiopia.

Table 4.2: Sample of Danish NGOs in Ethiopia

MS Action Aid Denmark is not part of the country sample, interviews have been conducted at the head office in Copenhagen, and recent analytical documents, have been internalised in the broader analysis of this report. The organisation is briefly described in Annex 2.

4.4 Data collection

The Evaluation has, when possible, used triangulation as a general rule for data collection and analysis. Data collection methods have comprised semi-structured interviews, stake-holder workshops and direct observation of program implementation and impact in the field. Available materials such as statistics, reports and research have been consulted.

The Evaluation has reviewed a vast amount of reports first and foremost from NGOs and their partners themselves such as programme/project documents (including strategy papers, baselines, review/monitoring report and end of programme/project evaluations). In addition other materials such as bulletins, booklets and brochures published by the NGOs and their partners have also been included. Semi-structured interviews and workshops with NGOs and partners have been held in Denmark, Ethiopia and Ghana.

The Evaluation has to the extent possible included information from external sources in order to validate the information coming from the NGOs themselves. International and national research have been reviewed and included. Interviews have been held with beneficiaries/community members, representatives from other INGOs, CSO/CBO, think tanks and representatives from local and national governments. National/local statistics have also been consulted when available.

There is in general a lack of hard data that can link the interventions of the NGOs to changes in behaviour and practices (power relations, reduction in HTP) and to development change (e.g. poverty rates, school completion rates, HIV/AIDS prevalence rates). There are in general no statistics available on local level where most of the CSOs and CBOs operate. The lack of data is especially serious in Ethiopia that has a history of information secrecy.

The Evaluation has therefore had to resort to using mainly qualitative data and primarily perceptions from various actors. The perceptions from the Danish NGO and partners have to the extent possible been validated with perceptions from other stakeholders. The challenge is that both the Danish NGOs and their partners have a stake in presenting as many ’good’ results as possible and bias is therefore an issue that one has to be aware of. Triangulation and validation of information are therefore important tools to use whenever possible. The Evaluation will highlight when a finding is primarily based on the organisations’ own perception.

4.5 Country context – governance and civil society characteristics

This section briefly describes the country environments for the evaluation and serves to create an understanding for the ’places, spaces and power’ of civil society within the two country contexts selected in the evaluation sample^[21].

Overall characteristics

Ethiopia is one of the larger and poorest countries in Africa. The GDP per capita was USD 124 in 2000 and USD 245 in 2007 (current prices)^[22]. The population is mainly rural with only 16% of the population living in towns. Poverty is deep and in the most recent Human Development Report (2007/08), Ethiopia ranks as 169 in the human development index (HDI) out of 177 listed countries. The country scores low on all human development indicators. Education is given top priority by the Government, and gross enrolment is now at 61% at primary level, 28% at secondary level and 17% at tertiary level^[23]. This is still low and far from the 100% achievement of primary school enrolment by 2015 advocated through the MDGs. Health provision also remains poor and the MDGs related to health are not within reach. Ethiopia found itself in a major crisis, when the government largely ignored the famine in 1972-74 that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people. A constitution with a federal state system with nine regions and two municipalities along ethnic lines was created in 1992.

Ghana has witnessed significant economic growth since 2000. The GDP per capita was USD 247 in 2000 and USD 645 in 2007(current prices)^[24]. The country has officially set the goal of meeting the MDG on halving poverty by 2015. Ghana, however, remains among the poorer countries in the world^[25], even though it is faring better than the majority of countries in the region^[26]. Ghana has managed to perform relatively well under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) agreement of 2003 with the IMF. Poverty continues to decline, falling from 52% in 1991/92 to 28% in 2005/06^[27]. The Ghanaian Government expects inter alia to meet the target for MDG 2 (universal enrolment in primary education^[28] and MDG 4 (i.e. reducing the under-five mortality rate)^[29]. After a decade of constant growth Ghana only shows marginal improvement in the Human Development Index from 1995-2004^[30]. Regional disparities remain, with higher incidences of poverty and MDG levels in rural areas and the North.

Popular Participation and Democratic Development

In Ethiopia a general election held in 1995 confirmed EPRDF’s power and a new state was proclaimed. The second election in 2000 was a repeat of the election five years earlier and the powerful Prime Minister Meles reconfirmed his position. At that election a growing opposition voiced concern over election fraud, and the political conflict with Eritrea over the border between the two countries, which had risen to a full scale war in 1998, also caused internal political discontent and conflict. At the election in 2005, the EPRDF won again, but large numbers of voters appeared to have lost their confidence in the party, and two opposition parties became prominent players. In the capital of Addis Ababa the opposition took all seats in the city council. The EPRDF retained its control of Government. Results of the elections were withheld and rumours of an opposition victory led to street violence. The security forces intervened, and deaths were counted in the crowd. Opposition party leaders, journalists and human rights activists were detained, and have gone through long trials. With the experience of the 2005 elections in mind the government monitors political developments and keeps an eye on political opposition and civil society before the upcoming elections in 2010. Despite economic liberalisation, TV and radio ramian under government control, and telecommunications and internet is slowly developing. The press is controlled by government and journalists are reported occasionally to be imprisoned. In January 2009, at the end of the evaluation period, the Ethiopian parliament passed a highly disputed NGO legislation. Among other restrictions, the law states that civil society organisations cannot work on rights issues if they receive more than 10% of their funding from foreign sources. This is regarded by development partners and in the civil society community as a way to change the role of civil society to stop working with the rights issues and return to service-delivery^[31].

Corruption is considered widespread in Ethiopia; the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (2008) lists the country as number 126 out of 180 countries. The main types of corruption seem in particular to be associated with the growing role of the private sector. Other types of corruption areas such as bribery for public positions are not pronounced, but favouritism is known to be common. Very little information is available on corruption to the general public, because of the press restrictions^[32].

In Ghana democracy is generally judged to be strong, compared to most other African nations, with high standards of political rights, civil liberties and freedom of the press^[33]. Since 1992 the country has gone through four peaceful general elections, including one peaceful change of ruling party in 2008.

The World Bank governance indicators show that voice, accountability and also the control of corruption have improved since 1996. This is partly a consequence of a significant increase in the level of expenditure from the Government to independent governance institutions in the last three-four years in addition to a series of political reforms^[34].

Political economy analysis indicates that the state is still exposed to capture by patronage networks and challenges related to neo-patrimonialism^[35], where the obligation of powerful individuals to support kin and supporters tends to prevail over the interest of the nation. Partly linked to the issue of patronage is the relatively limited level of transparency and accountability in the budgeting process. Parliament is assessed to lack sufficient capacity to review the Government’s budgets and accounts.

Nevertheless, the improving democratic process in Ghana is also a contributing factor to limiting the likelihood of crisis in the country, despite persisting imbalances related to geography (rural-urban, North-South developmental divides)^[36].

Human rights feature strongly in the Ghanaian Constitution from 1992 and include comprehensive protection of all categories of human rights. Several public and independent government institutions are in place to protect the various rights including the Judiciary and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice. In addition Ghana has signed all major international covenants and declarations concerned with human rights.

Summing up from the characteristics outlined above, there are major differences in how democratic development and popular participation have taken form in Ethiopia and Ghana. Ethiopia has limited popular participation and democratic space and government controls the civilian space. In Ghana, development has over the years increased popular participation and cemented democratic development.

International human rights organisations and think tanks, and development partners (inter alia) continuously report abuses of human rights in Ethiopia. In Ghana protection of human rights and promotion of civil liberties are prioritised by the government. One exception in Ghana is that a right to information bill is pending, in spite of very active civil society campaigns.

Civil liberties and a free media are guaranteed in the Ghanaian constitution. In Ethiopia media is controlled by the state and generally very restrictive.

Finally, kinship, allies and patronage networks are still factors in the power elites in both countries.

The role of CSOs

The size of the CSO landscape (i.e. number of CSOs) in Ethiopia is not publicly available, but within the community of organisations and networks there are estimates of 3,000+ organisations. Because of the vastness of the country, the federal system of administration, and finally the resistance of some CSOs to be registered, it is not possible to get a complete overview of the CSO landscape. A mapping study from 2007 notes that the number of CSOs is growing, but the study does not give any quantitative evidence^[37]. The international CSO engagement in Ethiopia has grown out of emergency relief starting in 1974. Gradually, some of the more resourceful organisations have moved into advocacy activities. The mapping study argues that ’NGOs in Ethiopia, with all their growing numbers and poverty alleviation projects have not brought about a far reaching impact. Their good practices are not scaled up and remain ’islands of success’’^[38].

The mapping study generally characterises the advocacy of networks and individual organisations as reactive, and furthermore says that there is a limited understanding of the role advocacy can play and advocacy skills among CSO staff is low. The major focus of CSOs is on service delivery particularly in social sectors and in rural areas.

Few advocacy networks exist but the number has increased in last few years. Advocacy networks engage in particular in technical topics. Some of the most prominent networks are the Christian Relief Development Organisation (CRDA), the Poverty Action Network for Ethiopia (PANE), and the Pastoralist Forum for Ethiopia (PFE). CRDA has about 350 member organisations, 100 of these organisations are international. The view of CRDA management was that the larger share of international NGOs present in Ethiopia are members of CRDA, but an unknown number of local organisations are not members of a network or organised in smaller networks. Ethiopia is not a programme country for Danish development assistance; however, Danish NGOs have been active in Ethiopia for decades particularly in relief assistance.

A recent mapping of the civil society in Ghana found that there are about 3,600 organisations registered with the Department of Social Welfare^[39]. The number of organisations is reported to be higher, but some do not register themselves with the Government.

The majority of organisations are found in the rural areas, and these organisations have limited financial resources, few staff and considerable capacity building needs. The mapping study also states that ’urban based CSOs’ visibility is high and they generate the bulk of civil society activity that is visible to the public’^[40]

The study also found that organisations join up in networks, either geographically based or thematic networks. The number of fully functioning networks is limited (no number appear to be available), but it was found that increasingly networks play an influential role both within civil society and in the national policy debate. The mapping study also found that there is a shift in civil society towards ’voice and accountability’ activities at the neglect of basic human needs. In 2006 another study grouped civil society in Ghana into three main groups, based on influence^[41], and concluded that the ’most powerful civil society organisations are the trade union congresses, which include all the specific trade unions; international non-governmental organisations; the political parties, the media and think-tanks.

Denmark has a long tradition of civil society engagement in Ghana, and the Danish embassy is engaged with civil society strengthening through the bilateral programmes, for example though the governance support programme. The recent Joint Evaluation of the Ghana-Denmark Development Cooperation concluded that Danida has over the years supported a number of highly valuable policy changes for ’the benefit of civil society^[42].

4.6 Summary

The figure below summarises the process and illustrates the platform, methodology and sample of the evaluation, which has been described in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The next chapters will present the aggregated results of the Evaluation.

Figure 4.1 Illustration of evaluation platform and methodology

View the picture in full size

[13] This section is large based on OECD/DAC. http://www.oecd.org, and Koch, Dirk-Jan; Dreher, Axel; Nunnenkamp, Peter; Thiele, Rainer: Keeping a Low Profile: What determines the Allocation of Aid by Non-Governmental Organisations?

[14] Figures from 2007. References: ’Danida’s annual report 2007’ and ’Danidas NGO samarbejde 2007’.

[15] Figures from 2007.

[16] Denmark has a number of programme countries for its bilateral assistance. At present there are 15 programme countries.

[17] Koch, Dirk-Jan; Dreher, Axel; Nunnenkamp, Peter; Thiele, Rainer: Keeping a Low Profile: What determines the Allocation of Aid by Non-Governmental Organisations?

[18] Organisation(s) with single application projects has not been included in Ethiopia. The activities of MS (Genbrug i Syd) are not relevant for the theme of the evaluation and based on the information at hand at the time of sampling, the activities of AC International Child Support were not considered relevant either. Danish Ethiopian Foundation has not received funding since 2003.

[19] The Joint Ethio-Danish Development Programme in North Wollo was a joint NGO programme in Ethiopia, which has had the overall objectives of enhancing food and livelihood security in a relief-prone area, North Wollo in Amhara Region. The programme included four phases and was implemented during the period 1997-2007. It Programme included a number of Ethiopian and Danish NGOs, which have been involved in emergency assistance in North Wollo in several decades, namely the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), the Danish Red Cross, the Lutheran World Federation/Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (LWF/EECMY), DanChurchAid and Save the Children Denmark. The various NGOs worked in differentfields: ERCS and the Danish Red Cross implemented projects within the health sector; LWF/EECMY and DanChurchAid were responsible for projects within agriculture and community development; and Save the Children Denmark, which has its own representation in Ethiopia, implemented child development projects.

[20] From the Danida framework allocation.

[21] In power cube analysis power is understood in relation to how spaces are created, the levels of power (from local to global) as well as different forms of power across them. The approach has been used by applied analysts, donors and civil society practitioners to analyse popular or civic participation in different domains (or spaces and places).

[22] World Bankfigures.

[23] EIU.

[24] World Bankfigures.

[25] UNDP Human Development Report 2006 ranks Ghana as 136 out of 177. See also World Bank MDG Online Atlas.

[26] EIU (2007): Ghana Country Report; G-JAS 2007.

[27] GLSS 2005/6.

[28] While Ghana is likely to meet MDG 2, there are indications that the quality of education is still very low, questioning the effect of the higher enrolment rates.

[29] GoG (2005): Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II.

[30] UNDP (2006): Human Development Report 2006.

[31] Interview with the technical secretariat of the governance technical working group (UNDP/DFID) and CRDA representing the views of civil society.

[32] Klausen, Anne-Lise: ’Merit and More’ Six questions on accountability in human resource management in the civil service in Ethiopia. Working Paper to the World Bank. July 2008.

[33] Freedom House (2005): Table of Independent Countries.

[34] ODI (2007): Budget Support to Ghana: A Risk Worth Taking? Briefing Paper.

[35] Killick (2004): What Drives Change in Ghana? A Political-Economy View of Economic Prospects.

[36] GPRS II (2006-2009) and Langer et al (2007): Horizontal Inequalities in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire: Issues and Policies. Crisis Working Paper No. 45.

[37] Six Agency Group (M Gebeyehu and K.Schmitt): Overview of civil society advocacy work in Ethiopia: A Mapping Exercise by Six Agency group in Partnership with CRDA. May 2007.

[38] Ibid, p. 2.

[39] Transtec/EC: Feasibility Study on Civil Society Support in Ghana. September 2008.

[40] Ibid, p. 11.

[41] CIVICUS: Ghana CSI Report. http://WWW.civicus.org/new/CSI_Ghana.htm.

[42] MFA: Joint Evaluation of the Ghana-Denmark Development Cooperation, 1990-2006, p. 92.

5 Levels of results

This chapter presents the aggregate results structured according to the five levels of the result chain i.e.; the enabling environment; capacities; channels of intervention (advocacy, service delivery, networks); changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations; and broader development outcomes.

Key findings (in italics) are also drawn with regard to ’main areas of change’ at the different levels; and assessment of pathways of change is woven into the sections. The findings build on the country reports from Ghana and Ethiopia, as well as information derived from interviews with head offices of the NGOs, and other available documentation (interviews and written sources).

5.1 The enabling environment

The Danish NGOs and their partners have contributed to enlarging the enabling environment for popular participation and democratic development at local level in target communities both in Ghana and Ethiopia.

National level space for civil society is highly dependent on the state of democratic governance and the openness of Government towards civil society operations. In Ghana, civil society has been able to maintain the existing space, in Ethiopia the environment has been further restricted for civil society participation in democratic development, and civil society’s involvement in popular participation and democratic development is hardly visible at national level.

The Danish organisations have in both countries prioritised rural presence, and here they have contributed to enlarging the space for civil society engagement in democratic development and for CSO-Government interaction (this is will be discussed further in the next sections).

At national level the NGOs have are largely operating in invited spaces, such as in Ghana, where some of the partners of Danish NGOs have taken advantage of the spaces for NGO engagement at national level that especially the development partners have insisted be created for example in relation to the formulation of Ghana’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS). Danish organisational support has also contributed to maintaining space for civil society at national level, and considerable contributions have been made by IBIS’ partners to a larger ’coalition’ or organisations, which have been able to halt a potentially damaging NGO bill on hold.

IBIS and partners have also been active in opening up the space for civil society to participate in the aid effectiveness agenda. This process is more related to the architecture of aid than to the Ghana government. It deserves mentioning, because at the High Level Meeting in Accra in September 2008 on aid effectiveness, civil society succeeded in getting agreement to the principle that country ownership should not be limited to Government ownership; civil society should also own the national development process.

In Ethiopia, Danish NGOs (directly or through partners) along with other NGOs have not been able to influence the overall framework (e.g. legislative, inclusiveness and responsiveness by central Government) of the NGO environment, according to the information the Evaluation has been able to gather. The Danish organisations and their partners have not been particularly visible and outspoken at national level (for good reasons), although DCA and SCD did have a short spell of engagement in national level policy advocacy through CRDA in the short window of openness from 2004 up to the elections in 2005. Since then the Danish NGOs have given some financial support to the CRDA network, as well as technical support for the network to strengthen gender equality. The CRDA has developed a careful and non-confrontational interaction with the government^[43] given the lessons learned by the network, when it tried to apply a more confrontational approach in the elections in 2005. Civic education and voter registration was conducted by CSOs in connection with the elections in 2005. The political opposition to the Government was significant and included many well-known NGO activists. The civil society organisations have felt that following unrest and arrests after the elections, the space for civil society engagement has diminished further from 2005 up to present.

Summing up

’Conducive conditions for civil society to operate’ in the words of the CSS, have been found in Ghana, where the country context allows for significant civil society space and engagement particularly at local level. This is also where the Danish NGOs have positioned the major part of their engagement. At national level, Danish NGOs have contributed towards their partners’ use and maintenance of the invited space; this is done in close collaboration with the donor community. In Ethiopia, the enabling environment at national level has become more restricted, but again it was found that practical and workable approaches have contributed to maintaining and even opening space of interactions at local level.

5.2 Capacities

All Danish NGOs in the sample, irrespective of size, topic and geographical area of engagement have invested comprehensively in and contributed towards enhancing capacities of CSOs selected as their partners.

Enhanced capacities have enabled the CSOs to develop especially as social actors at local level in both Ghana and Ethiopia and establish themselves as legitimate representatives of the poor and include target groups in planning. In Ghana, capacity for political engagement has also been enhanced through programmes targeting particular groups’ participation and democratic engagement.

Partnerships and capacities

The partnership modality is the main pillar of North-South cooperation of the CSS, and within the larger NGO/CSO environment long-term partnership agreements appear, according to partners and other stakeholders, in particular to be attributed to Danish NGOs.

Partnerships between Danish NGOs (as well as many other international NGOs) and national organisations have become the only method for engaging in programmes and projects. In the course of the evaluation period partnerships have become more institutionalised through agreements, and capacity building processes have also become more comprehensive and structured. There is also a move towards Danish NGOs having reduced the number of partners they engage with. It is not possible to say if partnerships have become more long term. The framework organisations in particular conduct partner assessments and develop individual capacity building plans with their partners. Most of the informants interviewed highlighted that other INGO (non-Danish organisations) fund specific projects with shorter time frames and are less willing or able to cover core costs of partner organisations. The Evaluation could however not verify if this was indeed the case.

The choice of partners reflects the objectives and methods and the mandate of the Danish NGOs and is decisive with regard to the types of results that the Danish NGOs are able to contribute towards. Generally Danish NGOs work with organisations, which have similar ’values’ and ways to operating as the Danish organisations, i.e. organisations, which see popular participation and enhancement of the democratic role of poor citizens or particular target groups as the main pathway to development. Partnerships are not forged with ’activists’ and controversial groups. Some organisations such as DRC, LO-FTF and DHF-UK have ’natural partners’. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage in relation to setting objectives and meeting objectives. DRC is for example not able to change partner, if a local Red Cross society does not function well. DCA and DEM/ EvaSUE have faith-based organisations as partners, as an entry point to engagement, but is not restricted in the sense of DRC, LO/FTF and the DHF.

With regard to capacity building, the Danish NGOs provide support to core institutional costs and invest in organisational development (finance, administration, M&E, planning and project management) and building of individual skills (related to particular topics e.g. advocacy training). This approach is used by NGOs in both Ghana and Ethiopia although it is most pronounced in Ghana^[44].

The approach to capacity building stresses inclusiveness and gives partner organisations an opportunity to plan with their members and include the voices of the poor and marginalised as envisaged in the CSS. The Danish NGOs for example invest in strategic planning (e.g. IBIS) that allows the broader constituencies of members and beneficiaries to participate in setting the organisation’s goals and objectives or make sure that partners include beneficiaries directly in formulation of interventions and M&E (e.g. CARE). This bottom-up and participatory approach enhances legitimacy of the partners as citizens’ representatives.

Social and political actors

The areas of change at this level of results are according to the CSS that ’partners have developed their capacities as social and political actors’ and are ’legitimate as representatives of the poor’. Building capacities, in the way that the Danish NGOs do, aims to fulfil this key objective in the CSS namely that partners should be assisted to protect and serve the interest of their members and be legitimate representatives of the poor and marginalised.

The funding ’guarantee’ for framework organisations, as envisaged in the CSS, provides working conditions conducive to capacity building, flexibility and continuous adaptation of programmes. DCA has for example been able to add new components to their political space programme in Ethiopia as the need arose, as has CARE in Ghana.

The funding prediction is enabling for a transfer of ownership and control to partners in the South. The Danish approach is believed to build trust among two parties and is most appreciated by partners as it gives them flexibility and room to define their own specific visions and objectives as opposed to implementing pre-defined objectives by international partners. Capacities as social actors have been built at local level in both countries, and in Ghana political engagement of women (for example through IBIS partners’) is also visible. There has been less emphasis on partnerships at national level and thereby also fewer results of enhanced capacities at national level. The limited national level engagement should also be related to the earlier discussion on the enabling environment, and given the restricted space as is found in Ethiopia, the organisations have rightly had a focus on enhancing capacities at local level engagement.

Some organisations (DCA in Ethiopia and IBIS in Ghana) work with the enhancement of capacities of duty bearers at local government level. This is a deliberate strategy to ensure that there is a balance between citizens increasingly claiming their rights and local governments responding. Other organisations, such as CARE and SCD seem in the course of the evaluation period to move more towards this dual approach to capacity building.

Summing up

Partnerships between Danish NGOs (as well as many other international NGOs) and national organisations have in accordance with the CSS, become the only method for Danish NGOs to engage in programmes and projects. The partnerships are institutionalised and capacity building processes are central to the partnerships. Most of the informants interviewed highlighted that Danish NGOs engage in long-term partnerships and are highly regarded by their partnerships for their thorough and respectful engagement.

The choice of partners reflects the objectives and methods and the mandate of the Danish NGOs and is decisive with regard to the types of results that the Danish NGOs are able to contribute towards. Danish NGOs work with organisations, which have similar ’values’ and ways to operating as the Danish organisations, i.e. organisations, which see popular participation and enhancement of the democratic role of poor citizens or particular target groups as the main pathway to development.

The CSS sees the development of partners’ capacities as social and political actors’ and ’legitimate as representatives of the poor’ as central. Capacities as social actors have been built at local level in both countries, and in Ghana political engagement of women is also visible. There has been less emphasis on partnerships at national level and thereby also fewer results of enhanced capacities at national level.

5.3 Channels of interventions (advocacy, service delivery, networks)

The Danish NGOs have, through their partners, made considerable ’investments’ in building advocacy (RBA) skills both for community and individual rights in both countries.

There are few examples of partner organisations that have challenged power balances in ’closed’ spaces controlled by elite groups. None of Danish NGO partners have for example attempted to challenge the Government or the Parliament in relation to for example state capture by patronage networks or grand corruption (state accountability).

Danish NGOs with a framework agreement have provided considerable support to national networks, but the ’enabling environment’ determines’ the efficiency of advocacy through networks. Networks are also used as coordination fora for exchange among organisations and/or for learning.

Advocacy

It is stressed in the CSS that Denmark wishes to support and strengthen forces e.g. organisations that strive to sustain democratic development and are able to act as an active partner or critic of the state in developing and extending democratic forms of government. Special emphasis in the CSS is placed on supporting the ability of civil society to engage in active and critical dialogue with the national authorities.

The Danish NGO partners mostly use consensus building as a pathway to work towards changing policies and practices and to interacting with government. The Danish NGOs in general have chosen to engage with partners that have a more collaborative approach as opposed to a more confrontational approach.

Applying the rights-based approach in a collaborative way is a common pathway for CSOs in the sample, when advocating for community rights. Danish NGO partners in Ethiopia (DCA, SCD, DRC) and Ghana (IBIS, CARE, GV) have adopted the rights-based approach and have gained substantial experiences with civic education on local level in relation to the rights of women and children and vulnerable groups, i.e. orphaned-or-vulnerable-children and people living with HIV/AIDS. Practices and innovative civic education tools such as community conversations, school clubs and peer education have been used by the partners and led to inclusion of target groups and stakeholders in planning and decision making.

In general the Danish NGOs in Ethiopia have not engaged in partnerships with organisations that have a confrontational approach to advocacy^[45]. And in spite of the restrictive environment, some organisations in Ethiopia are vocal and through a confrontational approach they try to create more Government responsiveness^[46]. In Ghana there is considerably more space for civil society to be critical and confrontational; in this environment the Evaluation finds that Danish NGOs and their partners also apply a collaborative approach, as the most suitable pathway of creating results.

There are few examples of partner organisations that have challenged power balances in ’closed’ spaces otherwise controlled by elite groups. None of the Danish NGO partners have for example attempted to challenge the Government or the Parliament in relation to for example state capture by patronage networks or grand corruption. This conclusion is also linked to the area of change at the level of capacities – that the partner organisations are primarily developing as social agents and not as much as political agents during the period covered. These are issues, which are pertinent in both country contexts. There are also few examples of ’claimed’ spaces, where partners develop their agendas and create solidarity without control from power-holders.

There appears in general across countries and organisations (Danish NGOs and their partners) to be limited experience with public policy advocacy including formulating alternative agendas and formulating concrete advocacy objectives despite considerable investments in advocacy trainings. In Ethiopia for example, DCA has invested a great deal in advocacy trainings. An advocacy assessment of DCA partners^[47] showed an average or below average performance for advocacy problem identification, research, setting objectives for success, stakeholder analysis, action plan and monitoring and evaluation. The assessment of the poor advocacy planning skills and performance is confirmed by a mapping of the CSO advocacy work in Ethiopia^[48]. Partners present at DCA’s platform meeting attended by the Evaluation, claim that they still lack skills and experience for engaging in public policy advocacy.

Service delivery

The CSS sees service delivery as a legitimate activity, if civil society can develop innovative methods (such as reaching disadvantaged children, or in agricultural extension) or ’add a new dimension^[49], in all cases should service delivery be combined with advocacy. The framework NGOs but also other organisations in the sample, have service delivery programmes. The Evaluation has not specifically assessed these programmes, but in cases where the theme of the Evaluation is not handled as a specific programme activity (for example for CARE and DRC), the Evaluation has included the advocacy element of a service delivery programme.

It is not possible to draw strong conclusions on the effectiveness of the advocacy element in achieving results in popular participation and democratic development in such programmes. On the backdrop of an often voiced critique in discussions on the balance between service delivery and advocacy, which says that the combination of service delivery on the one hand, and advocacy on the other hand tend to result in service delivery crowding out capacity building and advocacy activities. It is the view of the Evaluation that Danish NGOs in the sample have a balanced approach and ensures that advocacy and the related capacity building is given serious attention in such programmes. Viewed in context, in Ethiopia with the limited space to focus on advocacy, unless there is a ’wrapping’ of service delivery it has throughout the period covered by the Evaluation been difficult to engage the selected partners in advocacy activities. For the Ethiopian Government, service delivery is a legitimate and appreciated channel of engagement for CSOs, while the space for advocacy is limited and increasingly so. An issue like gap filling pop up as well as it is often questioned if organisations engaged in service delivery reduce their engagement in advocacy. CARE is a good example of this not being the case. Even though it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of using service-delivery combined with advocacy as a channel of intervention to increase popular participation, CARE is deeply engaged in both channels of intervention both at community and national level. On the other hand there is a certain fatigue in advocacy and participation, unless this goes hand in hand with improved service delivery.

Networks

In Ethiopia, most international NGOs and national CSOs are members of a network, the largest of these is the Christian Relief Development Association (CRDA). With regard to the network’s advocacy role, i.e. to secure more voice and space for civil society, the network has limited success. The interviews showed that there were mixed opinions in the NGO and donor community on the results achieved through CRDA.

A major reason is that the Government does not give much space for CRDA and the network only plays a role when invited by the Government to be active because of the limited space for civil society. Internal organisational problems including alleged involvement in partisan politics by the former leadership also seems to jeopardise the credibility of CRDA in its advocacy role in government task forces. The Danish framework NGOs are said to be visible in their support to CRDA, compared to other international organisations. They assist with technical expertise in key thematic areas and they are reliable and constructive partners for the network. It cannot be judged if the network is an effective channel of intervention, because it is the only one recognised by the Government at national level, and it is recognised to play an important coordination role. The approach taken by DCA and SCD is to assist CRDA to build the capacity of the members, appear as an appropriate channel of intervention chosen by the Danish NGOs given the situation with limited space for civil society.

In Ghana national NGO fora and sector networks have in particular been supported by IBIS and CARE. Networking at sector level (as opposed to national forums) is said to be the most effective pathway for advocacy through networks. In Ghana Danish NGO partners have used sector networks to give civil society a more concerted advocacy voice and to influence sector legislation (e.g. forest management, education, disability act), this possibility has been accorded civil society in close collaboration with donors. According to partners the Danish NGOs invested more than other INGO in advocacy and networks. This is in line with the CSS, which states that lobbying and advocacy work at both national and local level should constitute a key component of partners’ work.

At local level in Ghana, CARE has promoted the establishment of ’district food security networks’ that include DA members, MoFA representatives, different civil society organisations including CARE’s partners, representatives from banks, CBOs etc. Through the networks, the stakeholders discuss relevant issues related to food security with the overall purposes of coordinating, sharing ideas and information related to best practices in order to achieving the higher objective of increased food security and better farming practices through participation and inclusiveness of the target group. This constitutes another approach to the use of networks than that of e.g. IBIS and GV, which use networks to bring civil society together to order to have a concerted voice vis-à-vis the government.

Summing up – channels of intervention

The areas of change for channels of intervention are ’advocacy’ ’service delivery’ and ’networking’. Danish NGOs and their partners are engaged in all the channels. In advocacy the RBA has in the course of years become the common basic approach underlying advocacy approaches. A general trend in the pathways is to use a collaborative approach to advocacy, rather than a confrontational approach. This may be explained by several factors. One is that the CSS, as part of the Danish development policy, assumes that development is long process in which capacity building is a corner stone. Secondly, funding is made available for long-term partnerships and engagement, so there are possibilities to engage in the long haul rather than (often short-term) activist approaches. In both countries advocacy and service delivery go hand in hand. This Evaluation – given its theme – have focused more on advocacy, but service delivery plays an important role in legitimising the programmes for some organisations, particularly in Ethiopia.

Networks are stronger at the end of the period under evaluation and particularly the framework organisations engage resources in those. Networks are stronger in Ghana, but in Ethiopia the focus of the Danish NGOs (SCD, DCA) is on enhancing technical skills of the networks, coordination and learning, as the advocacy role is limited by the role given to civil society by the government. In the relationship between capacity building and channels of intervention in the results chain, it is to be noted that the increasing engagement of partners in broader organisational set-up is related to the partners’ having organisations of such strength that they can see the value of pooling resources for advocacy purposes and have resources (technical and financial skills) to engage in networks.

5.4 Changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations

In line with the focus on rural areas and sub-national engagement of Danish NGOs and their partners, it is at that level that most results in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations are found. When elements of policy and power relation changes are found at national level it is in Ghana. Particular partner organisations have contributed to national legislation in areas aiming at inclusion of disadvantaged groups (people with disabilities, early childhood development). In Ethiopia, changes are at local level and mainly in areas of individual rights and practices.

It is stressed in the CSS that within the theme of the Evaluation, Denmark wishes to support particularly poor groups to participate in development processes and have their voices heard and with due consideration to local cultures and social systems.

Denmark also wishes to support and strengthen forces e.g. organisations that strive to sustain democratic development and are able to act as an active partner or critic of the state in developing and extending democratic forms of government^[50]. Special emphasis is placed on supporting the ability of civil society to engage in active and critical dialogue with the national authorities. The areas of change identified for the level of results include changes in ’regulatory and policy framework’, ’accountability of state institutions’, protection of human rights (especially women, children, disabled and indigenous peoples). It is also stated in the CSS that capacity building of partners should contribute to their engagement in the formulation of PRSPs and other national strategies and reforms.

Local level

In Ethiopia, the Danish NGOs and their partners have been effective in implementing empowerment programmes for women, children and people living with HIV and AIDS. These often marginalised and powerless groups have begun to see themselves especially particularly as social actors, and have started to themselves as change agents in their communities. There is less evidence of the role as political actors. SCD, DCA and DRC/ ECRS support civic education programmes using community conversations as a pathway of engaging communities. SCD and partners in Ethiopia have increased the awareness of child rights, child abuse and exploitation, and capacity to support orphaned-or-vulnerable-children has increased among children, their parents, schools and traditional leaders. The DCA political space programme has through the partner changed power balances in the families and given women greater access to decision-making. According to interviews with beneficiaries, women involved in the project have become more aware of their rights in relation to for example harmful traditional practices. The increased awareness level has also had an effect on the number of reports on violations of human rights to the police and the court system in both SCD and DCA target areas. The number of cases reported has increased, but the increase in cases reported did not lead to more cases solved, because the police did not have the expertise or capacity to deal with the cases.

DRC/ECRS programme has components of civic education/awareness raising through community conversations and peer education. Through the work of the peer educators in schools, the level of awareness and capacity in schools on HIV/AIDS related subjects including sexuality and behaviour has risen and a mandatory pre-marriage HIV-test has been enforced in the local community.

Peer education has been used by DRC/ECRS to raise awareness on sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases among students. Likewise it is used by DCA partners to raise awareness of the negative impacts of early marriages by early marriage victims. DEM/EvaSUE also use peer education, i.e. from Christian students to other Christian students, to spread democratic values. In Ghana the main focus of the Danish NGOs has been on using and expanding the space for interaction between local government structures and citizens and groups of citizens organised in CBOs.

IBIS has contributed to empower CBOs to demand space to participate in elaboration of development plans and budgets and local government structures in target areas are becoming more responsive to demands from citizens. District authorities and citizens work together to e.g. formulate budgets and organise hearing, town hall meetings, radio discussions and questions and answers sections. IBIS as opposed to other NGOs (that primarily intervene on district or national level) has worked on operationalisation of sub-district level structures (area level councils). A concrete outcome is that area level plans are now commonly drawn up and feed into larger Medium Term Development Plans (MTDPs). CBOs that have participated in the IBIS programme have improved their abilities to identify issues of concern to the communities and to find common solutions that have been brought to the attention of local authorities.

Both women and youth are increasingly voicing their concerns at community meetings^[51]. However, the empowerment of only women and youth seems to be counter-productive. Women are regarded as too demanding, and the youth is ’over-empowered’, thus creating resistance towards change in communities between these vulnerable groups and the entire society^[52].

GV also work with empowering CBOs to demand increased local government responsiveness to suggestions and initiatives from local CBOs and to empower women to participate in the process and have succeeded in encouraging both women and youth to increasingly voicing their concerns at community meetings. Women have consequently begun to see themselves as social actors in public spaces rather than just in the home or in the family. IBIS has taken it a step further and have facilitated the election of women to local elected bodies – thus supported the development of women as political actors.

There is in this aspect a clear difference between the context in Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ethiopia women in the targeted areas have been empowered to see themselves as social change agents in their communities whereas a project that aimed at getting them elected to local bodies utterly failed (DCA project). The context has most likely had a significant impact. There are many obstacles for women to participate in public life in both countries, but the decisive factor may be that communities in Ghana have more experience with democracy.

National level

It is stated in the CSS that capacity building of partners should contribute to their engagement in the formulation of PRSPs and other national strategies and reforms. There are some examples of Danish NGO partners that have contributed to formulation of national policies and legislation; they have gained this access through invitation particularly from donors.

In Ghana civil society’s actual value added of participation in GPRS I and II is described inter alia by think tanks as minimal^[53]. Donors and research papers claim that in general there is limited dialogue between civil society and the state on policy issues. There is however some examples of strong national partners such as IDEG (IBIS partner) that claims to have influenced the review of the GPRS II. CARE and IBIS also stressed that they have influenced national legislation through partners and networks especially in relation to sector legislation and policies.

CARE also finds that the organisation has been successful in influencing a number of policies in the areas of forest, agriculture, national resources and IBIS finds that they have been able to influence education policy^[54].

The influence of the organisations at this results level has generally been difficult to substantiate, but it is valid to say that there is a contribution and the organisations have played advocacy roles, which have contributed to the preparation and tabling processes^[55].

Danish Association of the Disabled-Youth Wing (DHK-UK) and its partner GSPD-YW were with others behind the passing of the Disability Act in 2006 and subsequently the establishment of the Disability Council, which is the institutional body to oversee the implementation of the Act. This is a major milestone in the rights of persons with disabilities.

In 2004, the Government of Ghana adopted a policy on early childhood development. GNAT has been very active in the advocacy around this policy, which already started in 1995. GNAT has also achieved to get the Ghana government to attach Early Childhood Centres to all public primary schools. It should be mentioned that TUC and GNAT have worked with the informal economy and early childhood development respectively for many years before the partnership with LO/FTF was initiated. Furthermore TUC and GNAT have a range of international partners and it is therefore difficult to trace the attribution of LO/FTF. LO/FTF support and the capacity building mentioned above have contributed to the results obtained.

LO-FTF through TUC has advocated for allowing informal workers to borrow funds for investments and improving their income foundation from their pension savings with the national pension scheme SNITT. There are fewer examples of national policy influence through specific governance programmes (e.g. the IBIS PPLG programme).

The reasons for the limited results at national level in Ethiopia are that it is too difficult or risky to work on this level and that is it difficult to find strong partners who want to work with national policy advocacy. AIT’s partner (HCE) is a competent organisation with very committed staff, but still does not have the ’courage’ to discuss issues such as street children’s rights and needs with the Ethiopian Government.

Links between local and national level

The IBIS PPLG programme has supported the Ghana HIPC Watch and this is an example of a successful budget tracking initiative, although it is limited in scope^[56]. PPLG’s support to strategic partners – especially SEND and IDEG – has been a medium through which IBIS has carried results of local work to the national level for dialogue and policy influencing. IBIS partnership with IDEG has centred on IDEG giving support to local level CSOs to document some of the impact/results of their work, which IDEG then brings into national level policy dialogues.

The trade union (TUC), the LO/FTF partner is an example of an organisation that is carrying out public policy advocacy backed up by strong groups such as the Ghana student movements and the transport workers union. TUC with the support of LO/FTF, has for example undertaken research within the areas of labour market issues and as the only organisation in Ghana, TUC conducts pre- and post-budget analyses of the national budget, which are distributed freely to e.g. members of parliament. Quality research has increased the credibility of TUC among government officials, according to independent informants. It appears that the social movement may have a special advantage, when it comes to mobilising people and that policy advocacy is possible without strong grass root structures.

In Ethiopia the programmes have been restricted in establishing linkages between local and national level. Networks exist at national level and also in some local areas, but they have brought about few actual results in terms of policy changes and changes in power relations, the examples of policy changes deriving from local level advocacy are though the ban of the THP of milk-teeth extraction (ERCS/DRC) and influence on land registration legislation (DCA). With regard to the latter, DCA has worked for civil society engagement in the PRSP process e.g. through workshops. The Poverty Action Network for Ethiopia (PANE) was created during this process, and PANE has subsequently advocated for inclusion of pastoralist issues in the PRSP. Partner organisations also advocated for amendments to the land registration and the family laws.

International level

The links to international advocacy in both countries and across organisations have been modest, although the HIPC watch initiative from Ghana has attracted international attention and IBIS and partners participated actively in the Accra summit on aid effectiveness in September 2008. At the end of the evaluation period, the increasing collaboration in global alliances (such as Save the Children, MS Action Aid, CARE) will increase the international engagement for the framework organisations that all have increased their cooperation links at this level during the period covered by the Evaluation. Secondly, it should also be noted, that the focus of the evaluation has not been specifically on the international activities of the Danish NGO’s as such, but on the activities in the selected countries. Therefore it is likely that a range of internationally oriented activities carried out by the Danish NGO’s can be found, but fall outside the scope of the evaluation

Summing up – Changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations

It has been found that the ’value added’ of Danish NGOs through their partners are mainly at local level, and in Ethiopia in the restricted space for civil society, achievements have primarily been on the level of individual rights (changes in practice and behaviour). In those communities or those groups targeted, such as women and children, rights are protected as a result of the intervention. Marginalised and powerless groups targeted have begun to see themselves as social actors and have begun to act as change agents in their communities.

In Ghana the main focus of the Danish NGOs has been on using and expanding the space for interaction between local government structures and citizens and groups of citizens organised in CBOs. There is emphasis on increasing women’s role as political actors and this has been achieved in the target areas. There is also increased CBO involvement in planning processes although it is not established that this has led to changes of policies and power relations.

There is a difference between the context in Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ethiopia, women in the targeted areas have been empowered to see themselves as social change agents in their communities whereas a project that aimed at getting them elected to local bodies utterly failed (DCA project). At national level in Ghana some Danish NGOs in the sample particularly those organisations with ’natural’ partners (LO/FTF, DHF-UK, and other organisations representing groups with disabilities) have influenced changes of policies. It is the ’technical know-how’, the credibility as representatives of particular groups in society, which seems to drive this change.

On power relations between citizens and state institutions the Danish NGOs and their partners have not challenging. In Ghana the civil society has been invited to have a voice in national planning processes. Danish NGOs have supported (built capacity) for partners to do this. However, some observers conclude that the civil society so far has obtained little in terms of influencing the broader power relations from such engagement.

5.5 Broader development goals

The interventions supported by Danish NGOs through partners are poverty oriented; the extent to which this leads to poverty reduction and can be sustained is dependent on a number of factors in the external environment. The poverty orientation of the interventions are strong and concerted, although the leverage is likely to be small due to localised scales of operation.

In relation to this ’highest’ step of the results chain the Evaluation attempts to answer the question on whether the NGOs through their implementing partners have had an impact on broader development goals. The general aim of the support channelled through Danish NGOs according to the CSS is to strengthen civil society in developing countries with the aim of reducing poverty through promoting popular participation in the development process^[57]. It is stressed in the CSS that poverty reduction is the cornerstone of Danish development assistance policy, and support to civil society and concrete projects implemented by civil society organisations must make an active contribution to poverty reduction and improve the rights of poor and marginalised men and women and their access to and control of social, economic and political resources. The CSS says that the partners of the Danish NGOs are those organisations that have the will, ability, and popular legitimacy to participate in a democratisation process, as well as represent the poor through formal or informal organisations^[58]. The CSS does not mention specific goals, but emphasises the ’how’ and that that long-term engagement in processes is the approach to achievement of sustainable results. The interpretation of broader development results is therefore open ended but leading towards the overriding objective of Danish development assistance.

At the highest level of the results chain, this section assesses if the Danish NGOs through their partners have had an impact on broader development goals. According to the CSS, support to civil society should actively contribute to poverty reduction. The identified areas of change are ’democracy’, ’poverty reduction’, and ’human development’ using pathways such as legitimate representation, inclusion and alignment. However, the concepts and their interrelationships are not specified in the CSS. An example is that the achievement of the improved human development outcomes (achievement of the MDGs) is closely associated with service delivery, while the theme of popular participation and democratic development takes the ’longer route’ of contributing to the achievements of the MDGs.

All Danish NGO in the sample have had ambitions of contributing to broader development goals and poverty reduction through increased popular participation in social and political processes. In both countries the Danish NGOs have been effective at local level in as far as partners have been equipped with capacities, and implemented advocacy activities, service delivery and supported networks, as processes which are enabling for giving poor and otherwise marginalised people better access to and control over social, economic and political resources. At local level in target areas this has happened in some cases, but limited in scale as illustrated below.

The Evaluation found some evidence in Ghana that achievements at the first levels (enabling environment, enhancing capacities, channels of intervention) of the results chain have been translated into improved access and control over resources and services for those targeted. These are some of the improved services highlighted by the organisations, where local community advocated for improved services. It could be argued that successes on a case-to-case basis is partisan use of scarce resources rather than a changed distribution based on increased participation and democratic development, because there is no structural change and sustained improvement in resource allocation and no immediate replication in sight. On the other hand, the examples have prospects in the sense that new groups (women) have become social and political actors (at local level in Ghana), which could lead to structural changes in the longer term.

A major challenge for the pathway of engaging local communities to demand better services is that the financial resources that are available for services in the national budget are inadequate (and especially so at local government level). Despite the efforts of budget and policy monitoring by CSOs there are still problematic issues in the way that the national/district budget is implemented (delays in transfers, lack of transparency, diversion and leakages of funds, allegations of nepotism). The potential gains of the participatory planning processes instituted by IBIS, CARE and GV partners are consequently eroded and the return to poor communities may in some instances be negative in the sense that they participate in meetings instead of working on their livelihoods. Financial and democratic deficiencies in the decentralisation system thus undermine the attempts to make local government accountable and responsive.

The target group of CARE’s interventions are the poorest and most marginalised farmers and through its interventions, CARE aims for poverty reduction in the targeted communities through more sustainable livelihoods, e.g. diversification of production and better food production. This has however been achieved through direct service delivery and not through citizens’ advocacy for improved service delivery by local government. Nevertheless, the interventions, which are concerned with improvement of farmer practices, have resulted in increasing the number of citizens participating in the economic and social processes in the targeted communities.

A smaller organisation – such as the DHF-UK and its partner – has provided opportunities for marginalised youth groups to be organised and demand their rights as citizens to participate and access public services. Replication of its achievements is however limited, because of project size, timeframe, funding constraints and the voluntary engagement of both the Danish and the partner organisation limit its contribution to broader development results. The LO/FTF interventions are also poverty oriented as they focus on the informal economy, which consist of workers from the poorest sections of the Ghanaian society. TUC has within the last 15 years organised around 1% if the workers in the informal economy. The LO-FTF project is however a long-term intervention of influencing power structures and creating strong and influential labour unions that can potentially contribute to reduction of poverty.

In Ethiopia, the targeted communities have begun to change behaviour in relation to harmful traditional practices as a result of the NGO interventions. It is difficult to quantify but there is a strong perception that there has been a reduction in harmful traditional practices in targeted areas in the years covered. In Ethiopia, both SCD and DCA are working in isolated areas where they are the only international NGOs presently working on programmes using the rights based approach. Changes in these locations can therefore to some extent be attributed to their work, which is believed to have translated into retaining girl children in schools. DCA and SCD have contributed directly to the MDGs in this way, although the contribution is difficult to quantify because of the lack of scale. The DRC/ECRS programme is also directly linked to the broader development goal of fighting HIV/AIDS. National HIV/AIDS statistics indicate that the HIV/AIDS prevalence in Ethiopia has dropped from 2002-08 in all regions, but again this is not possible to quantify and attribute the change directly to awareness raising initiatives of DRC/ ECRS, but it is the assessment that a contribution has been made.

Summing up – broader development goals

At local level in particular in those areas targeted, marginalised people are educated on their rights and have increased their participation in democratic processes mainly through lobbying, advocacy and networking.

The interventions supported by Danish NGOs through partners are poverty oriented; the extent to which this leads to poverty reduction and can be sustained is dependent on a number of factors in the external environment. The poverty orientation of the interventions are strong and concerted, although the leverage is likely to be small due to limited scales of operation. With regard to the MDGs and ’human development’ there is less of a direct linkage to the theme of this Evaluation achievements listed. The MDGs and human development is closely associated with service delivery and the themes of popular participation and democratic development takes the ’longer route’ of contributing to the MDGs. The ’short route’ of contributing to the MDGs is between service delivery and human development.

[43] According to interviews with CRDA management, EC, World Bank and UNDP in Addis Ababa.

[44] There are more limited human resources available in the Danish NGO national offices in Ethiopia for mentoring partners. However, SCD is increasingly trying to institutionalise capacity building of partners

[45] DCA provided a small grant (DKK 100,000) to EHRC in the period.

[46] The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRC), Inter-African Group Ethiopia and Legal Association for Women have all been active in Ethiopia in the period. The two latter organisations have worked closely with Government but at the same time provided a critical voice. EHRC has been able to set the agenda on human rights but has been less successful to creating Government responsiveness to the human rights violations.

[47] See assessment of PANE, February 2007.

[48] An Overview of Civil Society Advocacy Work in Ethiopia by the Six Agency Group in partnership with CRDA, 2007.

[49] CSS, p. 35.

[50] CSS, p. 12 and p. 34.

[51] Midterm review, January 2009, informant interviews and direct observation of a community meeting in Moglaa village.

[52] Midterm review, January 2009.

[53] Informant interviews.

[54] The Evaluation did not have the possibility to assess these views in sufficient depth due to lack of documentation and time constraints, but notes that efforts in these areas are made.

[55] ’Contribution vis-a-vis ’attribution’.

[56] The IBIS PPLG programme could, according to national CSO, however have done more to monitor a wider range of poverty related funds going to sub-national levels.

[57] CSS, p. 51.

[58] CSS, p. 30.

6 Results – DAC evaluation criteria

This chapter assesses the theme of the Evaluation and the process results against the DAC evaluation criteria. The chapter focuses in particular on relevance, effectiveness and sustainability. It has not been possible for the Evaluation to assess the efficiency of the NGOs, as this would have required an in-depth analysis of each organisation, which has not been catered for. Impact has been evaluated in relation to the fifth level of the result chain, ’broader development outcomes’, and there is no specific section on impactin this chapter.

6.1 Relevance

Danish NGOs have found relevant entry point for their engagements; in the different contexts the entry points underline and exploit the comparative advantages of the individual organisations and their partners.

The Danish NGO engagement is relevant in relation to priority setting and overall development goals of the government, where NGOs eitherfind their niche (Ghana) or promote the existence of a civil society within the limited space provided (Ethiopia). The relevance could be further strengthened through more in depth analyses of the space and power relationship between civil society and the state; and the more specific role or niche that civil society can operate in and further develop.

The programmes and projects in the sample are relevant for implementation of the CSS.

The approaches or pathways applied by the Danish NGOs are generally in line with the CSS; similarly are focus areas and objectives – although very different in nature – also relevant in light of the CSS.

The enabling environment influences how far the NGOs are able to take their advocacy efforts. In Ethiopia, applying the rights based approach implies that Danish NGOs mainly support partners at the local level, where they find it ’manageable’, here they work both with rights holders and duty bearers. There is though a weak or no link to the policy influence at national level.

In Ghana, the organisations also work through the RBA at the local level but there is a much clearer link to the national political scene, where the NGOs and their partners try to influence sector policies related to the issues they work with at the local level. This approach binds together the different levels in a relevant way to obtain better results.

The entry points have been enabling for achievements of results at lower levels of the result chain (enhancing capacities, channels of interventions, and to some degree changes in policy, practice, behaviour and power relations particularly in target areas at local levels), as discussed in the previous sections. The NGOs work within different spheres or thematic areas. Many organisations have ’natural partnerships’, e.g. the labour unions, organisations for people with disabilities, church-based organisations, the Red Cross Movement etc., and they have a particular socialisation, which ’eases’ finding a relevant entry point and niche. This is also mentioned as one of the overall goals and principles for Danish NGO activities in the CSS: “All the Danish NGOs cannot do everything, and Danish NGOs should attempt to specialise within certain countries, sectors and themes”^[59]. It is with the particular specialisation as platform that that the NGOs should aim to promote democratic development and enable popular participation through their approaches.

The larger NGOs (framework NGOs and larger single application projects) have carried out situation analyses before engaging in a sector or in a geographical area. The situation analyses provide a foundation for identifying partner organisations and target groups and to support relevant activities that benefit the target group of the interventions (DCA, SCD, DRC, IBIS, CARE, LO/FTF). The situation analyses studied have not addressed and analysed the state/civil society relationship, i.e. governance characteristics in depth at national and local level. Some of the smaller NGOs (mini-projects) (AIT, DHF-UK) have initiated pilot projects before engaging at a larger scale (economically and/or time wise). This approach has allowed these NGOs to adjust their interventions following the pilot phase.

The CSS states, that “the roles of civil society must be understood and analysed in relation to the state in the country concerned”^[60]. The Evaluation finds that although the organisations have found relevant entry points, generally the Danish NGOs have not systematically positioned their interventions within a broader framework of state/civil society relations, i.e. there is no assessment of the political economy framework including analysis of power relations between the different stakeholders at present. This could have led to exploration of different pathways at lower levels of the results, such as different choice of partners, less emphasis on collaborative advocacy etc. This is not to say that results at higher levels would have been different, the point is that the choices of pathways would have been more explicit based on options and assumptions of best means to contribute to broader development outcomes through promotion of democratic development and public participation.

Furthermore, the situation analyses are not used or translated into actual baseline studies that could be used for documentation and learning purposes e.g. in relation to measuring the impact of the interventions.

With regard to the relevance of target groups both in Ghana and in Ethiopia, the Danish NGOs support partners, who work with a rights based approach (RBA), specifically related to the rights of women, children, people living with HIV and AIDS, land-less and disabled people, i.e. marginalised groups in society. Most organisations in Ethiopia do however not necessarily target the poorest segments within these groups. Examples are the target group of DRC’s peer education efforts and SCDs child rights clubs, which target children who are already in school. The target group of DEM’s project is Christian university students, again not a poor and marginalised group. AIT, however, targets street children, who are a very poor and marginalised group. In Ghana, the Danish NGOs have a stronger focus on the poor sections of communities.

Civil society organisations have a comparative advantage in engaging the communities in relation to RBA. Various stakeholders in Ethiopia confirmed that the Ethiopian state will have great difficulties in sustaining the work (e.g. the Community Conversations) initiated by civil society, since CSOs are much better placed to carry out such work, cf. below on sustainability.

All the programmes and projects that have been evaluated have been relevant and in line with the principles and objectives of the CSS. The Danish NGOs have used methods that were envisaged in the CSS. They have facilitated networks and build capacity in advocacy and they have used service delivery when linked to advocacy work. The NGOs have not necessarily contributed to all the objectives of the CSS (as will be discussed below under effectiveness). But they have been engaged in relevant projects/programmes that fall under the umbrella of the CSS.

6.2 Effectiveness

The Danish NGOs have, through their partners, been effective at the level of individual programmes and in implementing activities and reaching outputs and to some degree outcomes especially at local level. The organisations have however difficulties of replication and pointing to actual poverty reduction. This is an issue of scale as well as lack of policy influence of NGOs in decision making circles. As a group the Danish NGOs have contributed towards meeting the objectives of the CSS although there are areas of change envisaged in the CSS that the Danish organisations have focused less on as will be discussed in this section.

The effectiveness of the NGOs’ interventions has been assessed separately for each of the Danish organisations. These assessments are presented in the country reports of the Evaluation. In general the different enabling environments in Ethiopia and Ghana have not influenced the effectiveness of the NGOs’ work at activity and output level, which may be explained by the NGOs having chosen relevant entry points and reachable objectives within these environments.

Achievements of overall objectives, which are often linked to poverty reduction, are not easily traced, as the organisations in the programme documents do not always specify how it is expected that interventions will contribute to decreased poverty levels. The route from activities to poverty reduction is often an in-built assumption and the interventions are therefore poverty oriented rather than poverty reducing. Furthermore, the interventions are often on so limited a scale or confined to such a limited geographical area that it is difficult to link the interventions to reduced poverty at the more overall levels.

However, some organisations in Ghana such as IBIS, GV and CARE demonstrate how advocacy efforts of partners on local level have led to improved service delivery. In Ethiopia there is no hard evidence to substantiate that civic education, as carried out by SCD and DCA partners have led to a reduction in the number of girl children dropping out of school or that civic education by DRC have led to a reduction in HIV/AIDS prevalence. Consistent perceptions among various independent actors however indicate that it is the case.

As a group the Danish NGOs have all in all made major strives to implement the CSS. They have however not contributed with same vigour in implementing all aspects of the CSS. They have been effective in creating “conducive conditions for civil society to operate” on local levels irrespective of the country context. On national levels they have not been as effective, although in Ghana some of IBIS partners and other civil society organisations have contributed to setting a restrictive NGO legislation on hold.

The CSS envisaged that Southern partners should have legitimacy as representatives of the poor. The Danish NGOs have been effective in aiding partners to include their constituency in for example planning to facilitate a bottom-up approach.

They have contributed to developing partners and local communities as social actors in both countries. Local communities including women have taken a more active role in developing the communities and interacting with local governments and service providers. The CSS also envisaged developing normally poor and marginalised people as political actors. The Danish NGOs have been most effective in fulfilling this objective on local level in Ghana where women have successfully been elected to local councils. A similar attempt to get women elected to political posts failed in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, on the other hand the NGOs have been very effective in contributing to a protection of human rights of for example women, children and PLWHA.

On national level partners have been most successful in influencing national regulatory and policy framework in sectors where they have a special expertise. The Danish NGOs have effectively addressed the accountability of local governments but they have not as foreseen in the CSS addressed the accountability of central government. In relation to for example grand corruption cases and the issue of state capture.

It is hard to quantify how effective the Danish NGOs have been in contributing to broader development goals. They have contributed to human development when for example retaining girl children in school through civic education. But it is difficult to quantify the actual contribution. The Danish NGOs have been least effective in making an active contribution to poverty reduction, as required in the CSS. This is to be expected, because it takes time and resources and a number of conducive factors to translate popular participation into improved services for poor people and then ultimately poverty reduction. There are some examples of improved services as a result of increased popular participation but it is yet to be seen if the method will prove effective in the long run.

6.3 Efficiency

It would be relevant in future to increase focus on an efficiency perspective in the monitoring of results achieved by Danish NGO.

In has not been possible for the Evaluation to assess efficiency, nevertheless it is the view of the Evaluation that it would be most relevant in future to take in an efficiency perspective. Indeed some of the organisations have in the monitoring of programmes started to apply selected efficiency measures. This upcoming focus is related to the efforts to improve aid effectiveness in civil society support. In view of the common achievements of process results at lower levels of the results chain, but the difficulties of replication and the lack of major policy influence and contribution towards broader development outcomes, it is pertinent to assess if and how efficiency is applied at the lower levels of the results chain. This would serve to guide the organisations to understand and ensure that financial and human resources are not channelled into organisations without consideration for costs in relation to actual results (or lack of same) at the highest level of the results chain, i.e. broader development outcomes through democratic development and popular participation.

Partners seemed to indicate that Danish NGO’s were relatively well endowed with resources and very quality conscious, possibly more than they are concerned with optimizing efficiency. This is not a critique, because efficiency has not been tabled in the CSS or in the cooperation between MFA and the NGOs and in reviews commissioned by MFA. The general focus has been on accountability and savings where possible, and putting resources to good use.

6.4 Sustainability

To enhance sustainability of interventions, the Danish NGOs work with organisational sustainability of partner organisations mainly through considerable investment in enhancing capacities. These investments have paid off and the partners become stronger with good potential for organisaitonal sustainability. This is however jeopardized by limited prospects offinancial sustainability.

The partners of Danish NGOs work with both local government structures and local communities in order to focus on ownership and replication of interventions. The partners work with Government structures (duty bearers) and do not create parallel structures that are difficult to sustain.

Results related to increased participation of communities in demanding their rights towards the authorities can be difficult to sustain in both an open and a restrictive environment.

Organisational andfinancial sustainability

The contractual set-up under which the Danish NGOs operate, provide some unique conditions to enable organisational sustainability of interventions. The long-term core funding from MFA under the framework agreements for example enable the Danish framework organisations to set up long-term programmes with partners, a premise which is rarely present in the way other civil society organisations operate. Instead of going for quick results of short-term projects that might not be sustainable, the Danish NGOs have been able to engage in long-term programmes and long-term partnerships, which from the outset focus on organisational sustainability. Also the non-framework organisations have a stable funding source in Danida and the single project applications projects and several of the projects under the mini-programmes build on long-term partnerships between Danish and Ghanaian/Ethiopian organisations (Afrika InTouch-Hope for Children partnership in Ethiopia, partnership between the organisations for people with disabilities in Ghana, Ghana Friendship Groups engagement in Northern Ghana, LO/ FTF Council-trade unions partnership in Ghana). See Annex 2 for a brief introduction to the organisations and the partnerships.

CSOs, both in Ghana and Ethiopia, are highly dependent on foreign funding, and the pattern appears to be consistent in the period covered by the evaluation. Financial sustainability is therefore highly questionable. The unambiguous opinion of CSOs in Ghana is that the Ghanaian civil society would cease to exist if all the international development partners left the country tomorrow. In Ethiopia, the Government has even used the civil society’s dependency on foreign funding in their curtailing and control of the civil society in the new NGO legislation (2009). According to that new law, national organisations working on rights are restricted in the themes they work on and they cannot receive more than 10% of their funding from foreign sources if they work with rights, democratic development etc, i.e. issues other than service-delivery. This underlines the challenges that Danish and other international NGOs and the Ethiopian organisations face with respect to sustainability of programmes.

In both Ghana and Ethiopia, the Evaluation has found that many partner organisations have been able to attract increased levels of foreign funding after the partnership with the Danish NGO. This is not in itself a sign of sustainability but the partner organisations report that the organisational capacity building by Danish NGOs is a unique approach to promote a stronger national civil society, which also is enabling for the organisational sustainability of the interventions.

Ownership, sustaining and replication of rights

Some of the Danish NGOs have a strategy of working with both rights holders and duty bearers and they have extensively used the rights-based approach in their interventions. The strategy to work closely with Government, and especially local authorities, has brought about significant change at local level. In Ethiopia, the Evaluation has found that power balances in families and in the communities have changed in relation to customary law and practices. Partners have organised communities e.g. creation of water committees, formation of rights-advocacy associations and self-help groups and equipped them with tools in order for them to sustain the work. The groups expect to be able to continue representing their members and sustain the work that has been initiated.

In Ghana, addressing structural causes of poverty through empowerment and improved accountability of government institutions has been a way to increase long-term sustainability of the changes initiated. It is more sustainable than filling gaps for the Government through service delivery as many organisations have done in the past. CARE for example works closely with district assemblies and local community in the process to ensure ownership and sustainability of the models developed.

In Ethiopia, many NGOs work with service delivery (DRC, SCD, HCE) in the sense that they link or attach their advocacy and awareness raising activities to the service delivery they are engaged in. In this respect, the structures established for interaction between local communities and local government are likely to be sustained as the Government has decided to continue with for example Community Conversations.

Capacity building and close cooperation with duty bearers such as police, courts, school administration and women affairs departments offer potential for sustainability, when programmes are transferred to them. SCD for example has used government structures in relation to activities, e.g. education structures and establishment of the Child Protection Units within the official justice system (police stations). By not creating parallel structures, Government aims to continue the activities to the extent that they have adequate resources. It has, however, been questioned whether the Government has the skills, resources and also interest in continuing for example Community Conversations. Community dialogue as a means of community mobilisation might for example be continuing but the agenda at the meetings might be directed away from human rights and gender inequality issues to issues that suit government interests^[61].

A main conclusion related to Ethiopia is that the seeds that have been sown in terms of increased awareness of respect of women’s and children’s rights in local communities and among local government actors are less likely to grow and extend to the rest of the society because there is limited potential for replication because of legislation severely restricting such activities. The limited geographical coverage of project activities especially in a large country such as Ethiopia is a challenge for sustainability. The Evaluation found no indications of spill-over effects to other areas and partners suggested that there is a risk of positive trends being reversed since society’s awareness in general on the dangers of harmful traditional practices is low.

It is not only in a more restrictive environment such as Ethiopia that it is difficult to sustain results related to communities claiming their rights. Also in Ghana, the fact that the increased participation and awareness around rights only on a limited scale has translated into improved services at the community level is likely to influence sustainability. The increased level of participation is not sustainable if there continues to be too few resources for services delivery on local level. Local communities will not continue to be engaged in drawing up local development etc if they do not see their efforts being translated into reduced poverty at some point in the near future.

[59] CSS, p. 25.

[60] CSS, p. 13.

[61] Direct observation by the Evaluation of a Community Conversation in Merhabete that is now being facilitated by Local Government.

7 Documentation, sharing and learning from results

At the thematic level, there is no reporting by Danish NGOs to MFA on the overriding theme of the CSS, i.e. promoting democratic development and popular participation. At the individual organisational level, Danish NGOs generally have M&E systems of high quality but some results areas are better covered than others. An example is the results of capacity building, which some organisations cannot easily document. Secondly is the establishment of baseline data not always given high priority.

There can be ’a long way’ from the head office M&E systems to the level of application in country. At country level, M&E is used actively for internal learning in the individual organisations.

It is often more relevant for the Danish organisations to share their experiences in the countries with other organisations as well as with their international alliances/partners than with other Danish NGOs. There is considerable cross-sharing and cross-learning among organisations at country level. The NGO networks in Denmark are used for sharing and learning but there exist a ’fatigue’ among the larger organisations, which all feel they contribute more than they receive.

One of the remarks from the Auditor General’s report was that the Danish NGOs use considerable resources on evaluation of their interventions and that the MFA and the NGOs therefore could benefit from an increased degree of sharing of results^[62].

The Evaluation has reviewed selected evaluation reports, programme reviews and status reports of the organisations. Findings are also based on the previously mentioned mapping of M&E practices. Furthermore discussions have been held on M&E practices with both Danish NGOs and their partners in Ghana and Ethiopia and the team has also had discussions with the Head Offices (HOs) of the organisations in Denmark.

In 2008 the Evaluation Department commissioned a study on NGOs M&E practices^[63], as a first follow up to the assessment from the Auditor General’s Office of the administration of the NGO assistance (2007). The mapping concluded inter alia that “monitoring frameworks established in the project and programme documents are increasingly seeking to move from monitoring of inputs and of activities to identification of outcomes. Monitoring is increasingly taking place at levels beyond the project and an increased use of national and international indicator frameworks is noted”^[64]. The study also concluded that most organisations have an established practice for M&E, but “not many have perfected a systematic approach to all steps in M&E, and there is “no explicit use of international quality standards (DAC or others) in NGO evaluation practice.”

On this basis some key conclusions regarding documentation practices, sharing and learning from results are drawn. It should be emphasised that there are huge differences related to the different type of organisations, i.e. framework organisations, single application organisations or organisations with mini-projects.

Interviews at the HO of especially the larger organisations revealed that considerable human and financial resources are vested into developing M&E systems for the country offices to use in their daily work with programme management. These systems are state-of-the-art systems based on international standards. At the programme level the systems can be difficult to use as the resources for carrying regular M&E with the level of details required are simply not there. The country offices use the M&E systems to the extent that they can but also use innovative approaches to M&E that is manageable to them.

The organisations that work under mini-programmes have standard formats for their reporting to DUF or DMC-DD. These formats are simple and easy to use and have a clear focus on output rather than outcomes. It is unclear to what extent the NGOs at the HO level are using this reporting for internal learning purposes.

Both the Danish NGOs and their partners have put considerable efforts into improving their M&E systems during the evaluation period. Programme and project designs of partners have improved, even if they are in some cases still of a relatively poor quality^[65], and monitoring has become more systematic. Partners are increasingly appreciating the value of monitoring as a tool for understanding if and how a project is progressing. They are, however, questioning the reporting format for focusing too much on quantitative as opposed to qualitative reporting. In general partners call for better tools to be able to improve monitoring of qualitative changes. This is especially the case for tools that can be used by community members to track all the small stories that constitute a positive change. Weaker areas with regards to M&E relate to documenting results; in particular the results of capacity building. Efforts are documented, but the changes achieved and how they facilitate results at other levels are generally less easy to follow. There will always be a limit to how comprehensive M&E systems can become, but given that this is an area where organisations invest considerable resources, it may be fruitful to ensure better systematic knowledge concerning results achieved and lessons learned.

A conclusion also discussed in preceding chapter is that the Danish NGOs (and their partners) use networks as a key channel of intervention and that the networks are actively used to promote the objectives that the NGOs work with. Networks exist at local, national and regional level and they are used as a way to stand stronger for advocacy purposes and also for sharing of experiences.

As mentioned above, the Danish NGOs work with very different thematic issues, from HIV/Aids interventions over children’s rights to better farming practices for landless farmers. Sharing of experiences among the Danish NGOs is therefore often not as relevant as sharing of experience with INGOs from other countries that work around the same issue. E.g. SCD shares with the other Save the Children Alliance members and with other organisations promoting child rights; DCA share with and learn from their network of church-based organisations that work within the same thematic area; CARE network with other INGOs that work within the NRE sector.

Ghana is a programme country, and according to the CSS the Embassy in all programme countries shall establish an NGO forum. The Danish Embassy in Accra hosts such biannual NGO country forums for the Danish organisations. In their report, the Danish Auditor General’s Office called for an increased focus on serious content of these country forums. It is the impression of the Evaluation that the country forum in Ghana function as a common reference point that is also of interest to the Embassy and that the Danish organisations in this way have good knowledge of each other’s areas of work.

In Ethiopia, there is less cross-sharing among the Danish organisations and the Embassy is relatively new and focused on regional cooperation, so it has not institutionalised meetings with the Danish NGOs at the time of the Evaluation^[66].

The Evaluation has seen several examples of the Danish NGOs actively using the results from their M&E systems to improve programmes and/or adding components in order to obtain better and more integrated results.

Monitoring has led to concrete project/programme improvements such as adding a legal aid component (DCA) to the programme and including capacity building of local government. A situation analysis after the election in Ethiopia in 2005 also led to programme adjustment (building democracy was deleted as an objective to comply with the increasing hostility from the Government towards NGOs engagement in this area) (DCA). SCD has put the second phase of their project in Guraghe on hold because the results from the first phase were so good that the second phase project proposal came to be of too ’low’ standard. In this way SCD has used the monitoring to keep improving standards in their own organisation as well as in partners’. IBIS’s PPLG programme in Ghana is a good example of internal learning. Thorough end of programme evaluations ensured that both IBIS and partners learned valuable lessons for the second phase of the PPLG programme.

Different thematic networks have been established in Denmark with funding from MFA. There are a number of thematic networks (Children and Youth network, Gendernet, Aidsnet etc.). The Thematic Forum is the name of the network that deals with M&E, capacity building and advocacy. Through interviews at HO level of the Danish organisations it seems as if the larger Danish organisations do not benefit as much from these networks as the smaller organisations.

The smaller organisations that receive funding through the mini programmes have a high degree of information sharing with other like-minded organisations in Denmark. Both DUF and the PATC organise events and meetings for sharing and learning, which is extensively used by the member organisations.

[62] This conclusion was specifically related to the single application projects but is found relevant for the complete Danish NGO landscape.

[63] Mapping of Monitoring and Evaluation Practices among Danish NGOs. Final report, May 2008.

[64] Ibid, p. ii.

[65] Over ambitious objectives, mix of output/outcome/impact and risk and assumptions are not well articulated.

[66] In connection with the joint programme in Wollo, the three framework organisations naturally had a close level of sharing. This has however not translated into other joint efforts.

8 Overall conclusions and recommendations

The overall conclusion is that Danish NGOs, through their partners, do contribute to popular participation and democratic development. The contribution is particularly valid as results at the lower levels of the results chain i.e. enhancing capacities, channels of intervention and changes of policy practice, behaviour and power relations. Concerning the last results area, the results are generally most marked at the local level, but there are also examples at national level. The contribution, through the theme, to poverty reduction and broader development outcomes is found in the form of poverty orientation of programmes, but measurable contributions to direct poverty reduction and contribution to broader development outcomes are difficult to trace.

8.1 Levels of results

Enabling environment

The Danish NGOs and their partners have prioritised rural presence and contributed to enlarging the enabling environment for popular participation and democratic development in target areas both in Ghana and Ethiopia. National level space for civil society is highly dependent on the state of democratic governance and the openness of Government towards civil society operations. In Ghana, civil society has been able to maintain the existing space, in Ethiopia the environment has been further restricted for civil society participation in democratic development, and civil society’s involvement in popular participation and democratic development is hardly visible at national level.

The enabling environment influences how far the NGOs are able to take their advocacy efforts. In Ethiopia applying the rights based approach is assessed by the evaluation to be difficult or even risky, and Danish NGOs mainly support partners at the local level, where they have built up working relationships, so they work both with rights holders and duty bearers. In Ghana, the organisations also prioritise a rural presence and work through the RBA at the local level, but there is more space to establish links to the national political scene.

Enhancing capacities

All Danish NGOs in the sample, irrespective of size, topic and geographical area of engagement have engaged comprehensively in enhancing capacities of partner organisations. Capacity building, mostly instituted in partnership agreements, appears according to partners and other stakeholders to be a specific Danish way of operating. In the course of the evaluation period partnerships have become more institutionalised and capacity building processes have become more structured.

Enhanced capacities have enabled the CSOs to develop especially as social actors at local level in both Ghana and Ethiopia and establish themselves as legitimate representatives of the poor and include target groups in planning. In Ghana, capacity for political engagement has also been enhanced through programmes targeting particular groups’ participation and democratic engagement. The partners of Danish NGOs appreciate the ’Danish’ approach, i.e. the capacity building organised in long-term partnerships.

Channels of intervention (networks, advocacy)

As channels of intervention, some of the Danish NGOs have made considerable ’investments’ in building up networks, and in supporting partners’ advocacy in both countries. Service delivery is also an important channel of intervention, but has only been assessed in this Evaluation, when combined with advocacy. Service delivery programmes play an important role in legitimising the programmes for some organisations, particularly in Ethiopia.

In Ghana, networks are stronger at the end of the period under evaluation and particularly the framework organisations engage resources in those. With regards to results networks are generally considered to be useful platforms for influence in Ghana especially in sectors, but in overarching policies and planning at national level there is less success – with the exception of the Disability Act.

The Danish NGOs and their partners have not challenged the accountability (or lack) of state institutions at national level. In Ethiopia, the focus of the Danish NGOs (SCD, DCA) is on improving technical skills of the networks, because of the limited space for civil society advocacy, and it cannot be said that networks have contributed to promoting democracy and public participation in Ethiopia in the evaluation period.

The rights based approach has in the course of the years become the common basic approach to advocacy. Danish NGOs in general have chosen to engage with partners that have a more collaborative approach as opposed to a more confrontational approach. The use of a ’collaborative approach’ to advocacy may be explained by several factors. One is that the civil society strategy, as part of the Danish development policy, assumes that development is long process in which capacity building is a corner stone. Secondly, funding is made available to long term partnerships and engagement, so there are possibilities to engage in the long haul rather than short-term activist approaches.

Policy, practice, behaviour and power relations

The ’value added’ of Danish NGOs through their partners are particularly found at local level, and in Ethiopia in the more restricted space for civil society, achievements have been on the level of individual rights (changes in practice and behaviour). In those communities or those groups targeted, such as women and children, rights are protected as a result of the intervention. Marginalised and powerless groups targeted have begun to see themselves as social actors and have also started to act as change agents in their communities. In Ghana, the main focus of the Danish NGOs has been on using and expanding the space for interaction between local government structures and citizens and groups of citizens organised in CBOs. There is emphasis on increasing women’s role as political actors and this has been achieved in the target areas. There is also increased CBO involvement in planning processes although it is not established that this as yet has led to changes of policies and power relations.

There is a difference between the context in Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ethiopia, women in the targeted areas have been empowered to see themselves as social change agents in their communities whereas a project that aimed at getting them elected to local bodies utterly failed (DCA project). At national level in Ghana, some Danish NGOs in the sample particularly those organisations with ’natural’ partners (LO/FTF, DHF-UK, and other organisations representing groups with disabilities) have influenced changes of policies. This is the ’technical know-how’, the credibility as representatives of particular groups in society, which seems to drive this change.

The Danish NGOs and their partners have not challenging the power relations between citizens and state institutions. In Ghana, the civil society has been invited to have a voice in national planning processes. Danish NGOs have supported (built capacity) for partners to do this. However, some observers conclude that the civil society so far has obtained little in terms of influencing the broader power relations.

Broader development outcomes

The interventions supported by Danish NGOs through partners are poverty oriented; the extent to which this leads to poverty reduction and can be sustained is dependent on a number of factors in the external environment. The poverty orientation of the interventions are strong and concerted, although the leverage is likely to be small due to limited scales of operation. With regard to the MDGs and ’human development’, there is less of a direct linkage to the theme of this Evaluation. The MDGs and human development is closely associated with service delivery and the themes of popular participation and democratic development takes the ’longer route’ of contributing to the MDGs. The ’short route’ of contributing to the MDGs is between service delivery and human development.

8.2 DAC Evaluation Criteria

Relevance

The approaches or pathways applied by the Danish NGOs are generally in line with the CSS; similarly are focus areas and objectives – although very different in nature – also relevant in light of the CSS.

Prior to engagement the Danish NGOs assess and consider the local context and establish their overall development goals in line with government policies in the case countries. The organisations either find their niche (in Ghana) or promote the existence of a civil society within the limited space provided (in Ethiopia). Nevertheless, the relevance could be further strengthened through more in-depth analyses of the space for engagement and the power relationship between civil society and the state; and the more specific role or niche that civil society can operate in and further develop.

The CSS recommended that Danish NGOs should carry out state/civil society analysis prior to their engagement. This has for the framework organisations been turned into situation analysis, which in scope is more narrow than the anticipated state/civil society analysis. For the smaller organisations the analysis carried out have been limited in scope. A state/civil society (political economy) analysis would have resulted in a better upfront assessment of options and routes of engagement and consideration of strengths and weaknesses of different alternatives and avenues to achieve results.

Effectiveness

The Danish NGOs and their partners have been effective in reaching their stated programme objectives as individual organisations. The NGO’s and their partners obviously have different priorities based on their specific interpretations of the CSS on their area of engagement. The Evaluation points to results that contribute to the intentions of the CSS in a wide range of areas and at different levels. At the level of broader development goals are the level it is most difficult to extract specific results. Most organisations in their documentation do not clearly address how their interventions precisely are expected to contribute to decreased poverty levels. The link between activities and poverty reduction are often in-built assumptions and the interventions are therefore poverty oriented rather than poverty reducing. Furthermore, the interventions are often on so low a scale or confined to such a limited geographical area that it is difficult to link the interventions to reduced poverty beyond the local level.

Efficiency

In has not been possible in this Evaluation to assess efficiency understood as a more comparative assessment of the results achieved in the light of the costs incurred. Efficiency in terms of output/outcomes in relation to inputs and the value of comparison of alternative approaches is not discussed in the CSS, and while considerable resources seem to be spent on ensuring financial accountability, such an approach to efficiency is less present. In view of the common achievements of the process results at lower levels of the results chain by all organisations, and the more scarce results beyond the local level (broader policy influence and change in power relations at societal levels and contribution towards broader development outcomes), it could be pertinent to assess if and how efficiency is applied in activities and outputs at the lower levels of the results chain, in order to ensure that there is a reasonable correspondence between costs at these levels and development outcomes (impact and sustainability at national level). A stronger focus on efficiency would also ensure that Danish NGOs are well aligned with the aid effectiveness agenda. This agenda has so far mostly concentrated on the aid effectiveness of government agencies, but it is likely to be extended to cover the NGO sector as well.

Sustainability

To enable sustainability of interventions, the Danish NGOs work with organisational sustainability of partner organisations mainly through considerable investment in enhancing capacities. These investments have paid off and the partners become stronger with good potential for organisational sustainability. This is, however, jeoparidized by limited prospects of financial suustainability.

Results related to increased participation and increased levels of communities claiming their rights towards the authorities can be difficult to sustain in both an open and a restrictive environment. And it is not only in a restrictive environment such as Ethiopia that it is difficult to sustain results related to communities claiming their rights. Also in Ghana, the fact that the increased participation and awareness on rights only on a limited scale has translated into improved services at the community level is likely to influence sustainability. The increased level of participation is not sustainable if there continues to be too few resources for services delivery on local level. Local communities will not continue to be engaged in drawing up local development etc, if they do not see their efforts being translated into reduced poverty at some point.

8.3 Monitoring and learning

At thematic level there is no reporting by Danish NGOs to MFA on the overriding theme of the theme of the CSS, i.e. promoting democratic development and popular participation. This type of monitoring was not institutionalised in the period under evaluation.

At individual organisational level, Danish NGOs have M&E systems of high quality. Nevertheless, there can be ’a long way’ from the head office M&E systems to the level of application in country. At country level, M&E (but not necessarily the HO system) is used actively for internal learning in the individual organisations.

There is considerable cross-sharing and cross-learning among organisations at country level. It is only not necessarily among the Danish NGOs that the sharing is most relevant. Sharing on issues related to Danish development policy is relevant for the Danish organisations and such topics are covered through dialogue meetings at the Danish embassy (in Ghana as a programme country).

The NGO networks in Denmark are used for sharing and learning, but there is a ’fatigue’ among the larger organisations that all feel they contribute more than they receive.

8.4 Recommendations

To the organisations

It is recommended that Danish NGOs undertake state/civil society assessments (political/ economy/social relations assessments) in relation to their main engagements in the future. The aim is to enhance the relevance through a better understanding of the potential impact and replication potential of interventions and for organisations to assess options (or lack of options) of most relevant approaches to reach objectives. This intention is to depart with the almost automatic route of enhancing capacities of long-term partners and assisting these to apply particular channels of intervention as the route to anticipated changes in practice, policies and power relations. The framework organisations with country programmes would rethink the present situation analysis and especially smaller organisations would need to draw more on existing materials (from think tanks, donors etc).

The Evaluation has shown that at lower levels of the results chain, Danish NGOs through their long-term partnerships consistently build capacity in partner organisations and assist these to act through different intervention channels. The NGOs should engage in more systematic efforts to document the outcome of these capacity building efforts and the links to results at other levels.

There is a tendency for NGOs to have partners that primarily engage with the state on national level in spaces where they are invited to by the government. It may also be fruitful for civil society to create their own space and develop their agendas outside the control of government and to engage in a dialogue with other actors such as Parliaments.

The Danish NGOs and their partners should actively use their results (e.g. empowerment of women and children) to advocate for more space for civil society. The NGOs/ CSOs have the comparative advantage (as opposed to the state) of being close to the communities when carrying out for example civic education. This should be used as a “sales argument” vis-à-vis governments and donors.

The individual NGO should in general maintain its comparative advantage. The smaller organisations should for example not be pressured to work on national level. It may be more effective for them to prioritise interventions that are aimed at e.g. empowering communities and holding local government accountable. They should link up with strong national networks instead.

The Danish NGOs should be better at monitoring external risks and assumptions. The capability of the state to deliver has to be closely monitored. Is the state able to mobilise resources and is it able and willing to carry out genuine decentralisation of power and resources? An affirmative answer is crucial for popular participation on local level to translate into better services and ultimately poverty reduction.

To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Efficiency measures of partnership relations, capacity enhancement, channels of interventions, target group coverage and sustainability/replication potential are difficult to establish. Nevertheless, it is recommended that in the future these considerations be brought into the programmes of Danish NGOs and in the monitoring dialogue between MFA and the organisations. Efficiency of Danish NGO operations has not been part of ongoing monitoring and assessments of programmes by MFA, but some framework organisations have started to include elements of efficiency in their own monitoring systems.

Danish NGOs are increasingly part of global alliances and they contribute to development changes together with other INGOs. It will be more and more difficult to isolate the added value of the Danish NGOs at the higher level of the results chain. It is therefore imperative that a common framework is found for measuring process results of the Danish NGOs.

The poverty orientation of the work of Danish NGOs in this thematic area has to be maintained for Danish NGO support to feed into the overriding goal of Danish development aid of reducing poverty in developing countries. The new M&E guidelines should emphasise that an active contribution (although it may be indirect) to poverty reduction has to be documented.

Thematic evaluations are resource-demanding exercises and it is recommended that in future, themes to be benchmarked or evaluated are agreed on between the organisations and MFA as part of the overall monitoring of the updated civil society strategy. This will ensure the availability of baseline information and commonly agreed parameters/indicators of measure of the major results areas of the strategy. In addition it is also recommended to take up specific issues, one theme could for example be stocktaking of the quality/application of state/civil society analysis (the terminology in the updated CSS is context analysis).

Annex 1: Terms of Reference

1 Background

In 2007, the Auditor General’s Office (Rigsrevisionen)^[67] pointed to the need for strengthened documentation of the results of the support of Danish NGOs to civil society in developing countries, as well as to the potential for enhanced sharing of experiences. This was aimed at the support funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter the MFA), both to organisations with framework agreements but also to NGOs receiving funding based on project applications. There was specifically pointed to the relevance of conducting thematic evaluations aimed at the work of the NGOs.

In response, the Minister for Development Cooperation stressed the commitment to ensuring appropriate monitoring and evaluation of results of the Danish NGO’s support to civil society, including that the possibility of conducting thematic evaluations in order to facilitate learning would be looked into.

As part of the follow-up, Danidas Evaluation Department (EVAL) commissioned a “Mapping of monitoring and evaluation practices among Danish NGOs”. The mapping was finalized in the spring of 2008 and showed, amongst other things, that the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices were diverse and that, although promising practices were seen, monitoring and evaluation of results in many cases was relatively weak.

Further, EVAL has decided to commission an evaluation focusing on the results achieved through the support of Danish NGO’s to civil society, within the overall thematic area of promoting democratic development and popular participation in the development process. The evaluation will also assess the approaches applied for achieving outcomes, including efforts related to capacity building and partnerships. This entails assessing the work of a number of various NGO’s working within this thematic area, thus allowing for an assessment of not just the results of an individual organisation, but also the interplay between the efforts of various organisations and how this may affect the overall achievement of results.

As part of collecting information on results, existing data from the M&E systems of the Danish NGO’s will be reviewed. This provides an opportunity to identify to weak points as well as promising practices of result M&E, and to recommend on relevant ways forward for improving the M&E systems and practices.

The evaluation will be forward-looking and make recommendations to improve the achievement of results as well as practices of systematic sharing of relevant experiences among Danish NGOs and their partners, the MFA and other development practitioners, with a view to strengthen the results orientation in the development assistance.

2 Purpose and objectives

The overall purpose of the evaluation is:

To contribute to strengthening the achievement of and knowledge-sharing on results of the support of Danish NGOs to civil society in developing countries, within the overall thematic area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process.

More specifically, the objectives of the evaluation are to:

• Identify and assess outputs and outcomes of a sample of activities of Danish NGOs supporting civil society in developing countries, within the area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process. To the extent possible the contribution of the activities to broader impact will also be assessed.
• Assess how and to what extent the approaches (including capacity building and partnerships) applied by Danish NGOs contribute to improved democratic development and popular participation in the development process.
• Assess the usefulness of applied M&E systems for achievement, documentation and communication of results.

The evaluation should use the five DAC criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability when assessing the support of Danish NGOs to civil society^[68]. The result-orientation of the evaluation implies a strong focus on effectiveness and, to the degree possible, impact, but also relevance, efficiency and sustainability are important aspects in a thorough assessment of the activities and their results. Annex 1 contains a preliminary outline of an evaluation framework connected to the five DAC criteria, to be revised and/or refined during the inception phase.

An important advantage of conducting a thematic evaluation is the potential for assessing and comparing the results across an area, related to the various approaches applied, as well as the interplay among activities. Thus evaluation should not only assess the results of the individual activities in the sample, but also consider the linkages among activities and results. The evaluation must cover various approaches, including but not necessarily limited to advocacy, partnerships and capacity building.

3 Scope

It may pose a challenge to identify and assess achieved results within the area of NGO support to civil society with sufficient certainty. This is linked both to the fundamental complexity of the subject area, and to the relative limited systematic documentation of results of the Danish NGOs, as seen in the mapping NGO’s M&E practices mentioned above. Thus it has been decided to focus the evaluation on a sample of activities within a few countries, to allow for sufficient in-depth analysis of a carefully delineated field. It is important to ensure that this relatively small sample contains an appropriate mix of types of organisations, approaches and experiences, to maximize the relevance and learning potential of the evaluation. Thus, at the outset the scope is left relatively open, given that selection of an appropriate sample of activities for this evaluation should be based on a wider investigation of country contexts and specific activity portfolios. This places strong emphasis on the role of the inception phase for specifying the scope, in accordance with the considerations outlined below.

Thematic focus

The overall thematic focus of the evaluation is the area of democratic development and popular participation in the development process. This is due to the fact that these issues constitute key objectives of both the existing as well as the revised Civil Society Strategy^[69], and therefore is appropriate for an evaluation that needs to assess activities carried out under the present strategy and produce results of relevance for the implementation of the new, revised strategy.

The overall objective for the development assistance channeled through Danish NGOs is to strengthen civil society in developing countries with the aim of contributing to eradicating poverty. Both the current and the revised Civil Society Strategy place special emphasis on promoting popular participation in the development process, and emphasis is further attached to the importance of NGO project activities a) reaching out to especially marginalised and poor population groups and b) supporting the ability of civil society to engage in active and critical dialogue with the national authorities. Important focus areas include providing support towards organisation and capacity building, promoting the ability of organisations to engage in advocacy and lobbying activities, and participating in networks with like-minded organisations.

According to both the current and the upcoming revised Civil Society Strategy, Danish NGO’s can access support for service delivery within e.g. health care, education etc. However, such activities should always be undertaken together with capacity building and advocacy, so that the target group is afforded “increased political capacity and the ability to influence the structural cause of poverty”. Following this, the evaluation may include both activities that aim directly at improving e.g. participation, as well as activities where achievement of results within the area of democratic development and popular participation is linked to service delivery. This also mean that improved capacity building may both be treated as an area of result in its own right, as well as an approach or modality applied to achieve results further out the results chain. The same can be said for improved participation/advocacy efforts.

Although the issue of democratic development and popular participation in the development process denotes a specific area of clear relevance to both the current and the upcoming, revised Civil Society Strategy, it is still a wide theme, and a further narrowing down during the inception phase is expected.

The chain of results

Most Danish NGOs focus on capacity building of local partners and advocacy in their programmes. A Number of NGOs have shifted their programmes from direct service delivery and income generating activities to focus more on structural causes of poverty through advocacy and networking. Today Danish NGOs largely work through national and local NGOs in developing countries. They extend financial and technical support to improve the capacity of these partners. The partners are then expected to deliver specific results in terms of, for example improved popular participation in democratic processes, improved accountability of local and national Governments and ultimately improved development outcomes related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

There is by now a significant body of experience with the approach of capacity building and partnership from which to learn and share some lessons. This evaluation will assess this result chain and analyze to which extent the approach of capacity building of partner organisation has been able to deliver results, at the various levels, as illustrated below:

View the picture in full size

The evaluation will consider results on each level. It should be noted that the links outlined above in reality may be more complex and less linear, with multiple influencing factors, interconnectedness and feedback mechanisms. This means that defining and measuring results typically proves more difficult for the organisations, the farther out in the chain of results they aim. Most organisations tend to focus on outputs and to some extent outcomes: Partners may improve their capacity for undertaking advocacy and it may result in improved advocacy efforts. However many NGOs are struggling with how to define and document how these efforts translate into development outcomes further out the result chain. The evaluation will look at the contribution of the activities towards broader development outcomes. The question is what are the main pathways leading from improved participation to broader development goals such as poverty reduction? A full-scale assessment of overall outcomes and impact is outside the reach of the proposed evaluation, but the evaluation will look for indications of broader development outcomes where possible, but the assessment will primarily be based on existing material, and the results and conclusion in this area may be indicative only.

M&E information for accountability and learning

An important part of the data material for the evaluation will be the results of the M&E systems that the NGOs and their partners use to document results. This will bring about an overview of the existing material within the focus areas of the evaluation. Further, as part of the validation of this material, the evaluation will need to make an overall assessment of the M&E systems in place. Taken together, this will allow the evaluation to identify weaknesses as well as good or promising practices with regard to result M&E, and to point to ways forward for improving the overall documentation of results, as well as for enhancing the sharing and use of results information. The evaluation will among others examine how results and results monitoring are aligned with broader development objectives, e.g. through the use of a clear results framework, use of common or national indicators etc.

It should be noted, that this is seen as an integral part of the result focus of the evaluation, rather than as an independent area of investigation. Thus, the evaluation will not attempt to map and assess all specific M&E systems of relevance within the focus area of the evaluation, but rather to ensure that the material gathered for assessing results is put to the best possible use, also with regard to facilitate improvement of systems for result M&E.

Country focus

In accordance with present Danida priorities, the evaluation is expected to focus on a number of countries in Africa. Given the diverse contexts in which Danish NGO’s carry out activities it is important to ensure that various countries are covered by the evaluation. When selecting the countries it is important to consider:

• That the selected countries ensures representation of a range of Danish NGO’s as well s different types of activities within the thematic area; both in each selected country and for the evaluation as a whole.
• That there is a sufficient amount of activity of Danish NGO’s, both in each selected and or the evaluation as a whole. Further, that there are enough activities present with a lifespan that makes it realistic and relevant to assess not only for outputs, but also outcomes and potentially impacts.
• That the selection of countries includes at least one programme country. If a nonprogramme country contains a portfolio of activities suitable for this evaluation it will be considered for selection, in order to allow for comparison of experiences within the different contexts of Danida-support.

Based on these criteria, the evaluation will as point of departure consider activities in Ghana and Ethiopia. Based on the results of the inception phase, other options may be considered.

Time frame

The evaluation is expected to cover the period 2002-08. This will allow for inclusion of both longer-term activities that have had sufficient time to produce not only outputs but also outcomes and impacts, and of recent trends in the approaches and activities of the Danish NGO’s. Thus, careful attention to the temporal aspects and their implication for the potential achievement of results must is needed when selecting the sample of activities for the evaluation.

4 Approach and methodology

The evaluation falls in two main parts: One is a broader study of the country contexts and overall presence and activity portfolio of Danish NGOs. The aim is to allow for an appropriate choice of countries and definition of activity sample, as well as to provide a framework and contextual understanding to inform analysis of the sample. This part is expected to be mainly a desk study, and will largely be undertaken as part of the inception phase, although the broader analyses may need to be supplemented or revisited later in the evaluation process. The second part is the more in-depth data collection and analysis of the sample of activities, based on both desk study and field visits.

The evaluation will be based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. The specific methodology and analytical framework will be finalized during the inception phase, and must be approved by EVAL. The Consultant will ensure triangulation of findings by applying a variety of data collection methods comprising desk research and analysis of existing material; interviews with key informants, stakeholders’ workshops and direct observation of program implementation and impact in the field.

Desk study: The Consultant will review reports from the Ministry and the NGOs. The reports will include thematic reviews of organisations, program strategy papers, monitoring and evaluation reports of Danish NGOs and selected implementing partners. A substantial part of the literature and report review will be conducted as part of the inception phase. However reports will be reviewed again after the field trips to validate assumptions.

Workshops: The Consultant will carry out (at least) two workshops with key stakeholders. The first workshop will be a brainstorming session with representatives from Danish NGOs and the Ministry. This workshop will enable the Consultant test the evaluation questions and the methodology. The second workshop will take place in the finalization phase. This last workshop will contribute to triangulation of the findings and help validate the main findings of the evaluation from key stakeholders, as well as contribute to cross leaning between organisations and between organisation and the Ministry and facilitate buy-in from key stakeholders. Besides these two workshops, the consultant must be ready to participate in a workshop in Copenhagen to present the report and facilitate dissemination of results.

Interviews with key stakeholders in Denmark: Interviews should be conducted with key informants primarily face to face and otherwise by phone. Key stakeholders include representatives from involved NGOs that have a framework agreement with the Ministry, representatives from a sample of NGOs that that have received project grants from the Ministry, interviews with relevant departments in the Ministry such as the evaluation department, HUM and KVA. The Interviews will be conducted in semi-structured form. Key areas for discussion will be identified and questionnaires or interview guides will be elaborated. There will be an interview round before the field trip for to collect data and another interview round after the field trips to validate assumptions and the data collected.

Fieldtrips: Countries for fieldwork will be selected based on the criteria above and the desk study conducted as part of the inception phase.

The Consultant is expected to undertake (at least) two field trips, one for each of the countries selected for field study. The purpose of the fieldtrips will be to collect data on the implementation of the programs of Danish NGOs and their partners in developing countries and to through interviews with relevant stakeholders to assess the achieved programmes and projects. Further, there may be one optional field trip as part, if deemed needed for the inception phase. This field trip would enable the Consultant test the methodology and the research questions.

The Consultant will interview representatives of all Danish NGOs present in the countries and representatives of at least three of their local partners in each country. There will be at least one field trip in each country to visit project sites and interview final beneficiaries. Furthermore there will be interviews with the Danish embassy, representatives of other development partners and the government. There will be interviews with external resource persons to triangulate the information received from direct stakeholders.

5 Organisation of the Evaluation

The evaluation will be carried out by a team of independent, external consultants contracted by EVAL. The consultants will also be responsible for ensuring dialogue with and input from the Danish NGOs. EVAL will be responsible for managing the process and for facilitating initial contact with NGOs and involved Embassies. A reference group will be established, and allow for an effective process, the number of participants in the reference group will be kept small.

6 Output

The main outputs of the evaluation consist of the following:

• Inception report; draft and final version, not exceeding 30 pages excluding annexes. The inception report should include the results of the desk study, including proposal final country choice (for field visit and further desk study) and choice activities to be covered by the evaluation, including the Danish NGO’s and their local partners involved in the activities. The criteria and analytical processes applied for the selection must be described. In relation to the specific sample, the inception report should also present the proposed methodologies and the elaborated analytical framework for the evaluation, including final evaluation matrix. The draft version is reviewed by EVAL and where appropriate, consultations with the reference group and other stakeholders take place, in order to provide comments for the elaboration of the final inception report.
• Evaluation report, draft and final version, not exceeding 50 pages excluding annexes. The draft version will be reviewed by EVAL and the reference group, in order to provide comments for the elaboration of the final inception report.
• An evaluation summary of between three and five pages should also be produced aimed at the broader public audience.
• The evaluation report should be presented at a workshop in Copenhagen, with participation of representatives of involved Danish NGO’s)
• All report should be presented in British English and must comply with EVAL’s guidelines.

7 Work plan

The preliminary work plan is as follows:

• December 2008: Signing of contract, initiation of work.
• December 2008-January 2009: Inception Phase I, including stakeholder interviews and meeting with NGO’s. Includes final country choice. Draft inception report for this phase to be delivered to EVAL by the end of January.
• January 2009-March 2009: Incepetion Phase, II, including fieldtrip. Draft inception report to be delivered to EVAL by end of March.
• March 2009-May 2009: Final data collection and analysis, including fieldtrips.
• May 2009: Writing of report, debriefing workshop. Draft report to be delivered to EVAL by May 19, 2009. Final report delivered by June 15, 2009.

8 Competencies

The evaluation team should comprise consultants with the following skills: Thorough knowledge of and experience with Danida development policy and strategies, especially with regards to support to civil society and the role of NGO’s and civil society in development. Thorough knowledge of and experience with democratic development and popular participation in the development process. Long-standing experience from a number of African countries must be present on the team. At least one team member must possess knowledge of and experience with the work of Danish NGOs. Knowledge and experience with evaluation methodologies, including both qualitative and quantitative methods, including experience from similar tasks. Thorough knowledge of M&E systems and their use for development purposes is required. At least 1 team member must be fluent in Danish, to facilitate communication with Danish NGOs and reading of documents in Danish.

[67] Rigsrevisionen: Beretning til statsrevisorerne om Udenrigsministeriets administration af NGO-bistanden.Marts 2007.

[68] See Evaluation Guidelines, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, 2006, for further information on definition and application of the evaluation criteria.

[69] See Strategy for Danish Support to Civil Society in Developing Countries – including Cooperation with the Danish NGOs; Analysis and Strategy Document.Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danida, October 2000 and Opdateret strategi for dansk støtte til Civilsamrundet i udviklingslandene, Strategi og Analyse.Samlet udkast, 20. Maj 2008. Udenrigsministeriet, Danida 2008. The revised strategy is expected to befinalized in December 2008.

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

View the picture in full size

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

View the picture in full size

*) 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.