lessons drawn from the areap case studies...be noted that the presentation of information and/or...

Lessons drawn from the AREAP case studies Learning insights from the partners, Afrobarometer, the Southern African Trust and the State of the Union Coalition (SOTU)

Lessons learned

Africa Regional Empowerment and Accountability Programme

The Africa Regional Empowerment and Accountability Programme is a four-year project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID). It aims to improve access to high quality relevant data, evidence and analysis for African citizens, non-state actors and policy makers. It also supports the development of coalitions of citizens to use this information, voice their concerns and interests, and influence decisions of the state.

Three implementing partners (IPs) deliver AREAP: • Afrobarometer (AB) conducts citizen perception surveys across 35 countries in Africa• The Southern Africa Trust (the Trust) undertakes policy advocacy, capacity building and

disbursement of grants provided for pro-poor regional integration• The State of the Union Coalition (SOTU) focuses on engagement in policy development and

monitoring state compliance

AREAP’s Learning Information and Communication Hub (the Learning Hub) is managed and led by Triple Line Consulting. The Learning Hub was established in December 2014 to identify lessons and capitalise on synergies and joint working between the partners. The Learning Hub facilitates the partners to share experiences and learn from the practices, processes and outcomes of AREAP’s empowerment and accountability work.

Front cover photo: An Afrobarometer meeting

2 Africa Regional Empowerment and Accountability Programme 3

IntroductionDFID’s Africa Regional Empowerment and Accountability Programme has supported over a five year time frame (2011 – 2016) three apex organisations, Afrobarometer, The Southern African Trust and the State of the Union Coalition (SOTU), in holding pan African, regional and national policy and decision-makers to account for pro-poor policies and human rights, namely the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

AREAP included a Learning, Information and Communication Hub, which brought together and facilitated the three implementing partners

to produce nine evidence-based case studies. In the process of production (the dialogue, the identification of evidence, analysis, the drafting and the re-drafting) these case studies have been in invaluable tool for sharing, reflecting and understanding PRAXIS, i.e., the practice of programme implementation and the existing and potential synergies between the three partners. As ‘products’ the case studies offer valuable lessons for DFID, other donors, the partner organisations and the other civil society organisations working on these issues which we synthesize here.


Afrobarometer data has influenced and shaped debates in a number of countries.2 African elites can no longer say that they alone know what citizens want, as Afrobarometer’s surveys provide accessible and accurate information about peoples’ opinions. Even leaders who choose to ignore public opinion today know that this sort of survey data could well open them up to further scrutiny in the future.

Lesson 2: Verifiable evidence for building empowerment and accountability is critical

6 The role of strong, verifiable evidence in building empowerment and accountability is key, and is firmly linked to Lesson 1 above. Issues that affect the daily lives of poorer citizens are usually around service delivery, governance/democracy, access to justice and corruption. Information on these topics is not always easy to obtain but being able to capture ordinary men and women’s priorities and present accurate analyses that highlight shortcomings in delivery is a critical part of an empowerment and accountability process. The needs of poor people provide important sources of information for policy makers and also assist with building the momentum of campaigns. Additionally, citizens in all walks of life can use this information to challenge policy makers to demonstrate that their policies are working and/or that poverty is reducing. However, it should be noted that the presentation of information and/or evidence on the impact of policies on the poorest is often met with denial of the analyses or criticisms of the methodologies. This is discussed further in Lesson 7. The AREAP case studies illustrate how AREAP Partners work on

benefits of the new agreement for cross border trading. At the same time the discussion also helped government get its message across. Similarly, when supporting the operations of the Council for NGOs in Southern Africa (CNGO), the Trust provided guidance on governance and leadership, and supported stakeholder engagement and management, including facilitating national engagement with members in all SADC countries. As a result, the degree to which members’ voices are heard on national policy issues is much improved and the CNGO is more visible in terms of the quality and impact of the advocacy work it undertakes with its members.

State of the Union (SOTU)

4 Similarly SOTU helped its country platforms of CSO members to identify their gaps in capacity in organisational governance, management and sustainability and programming, monitoring and reporting systems as well as in human resource and financial management.1 Once the gaps were understood SOTU created a cost effective means to strengthen learning through the exchange of skills between CSOs and for representatives to engage more confidently in Platform debates.

Afrobarometer

5 Afrobarometer ensures that its data is collected from ordinary people so that their perspectives form part of the debate. In order for citizens to be able to contribute meaningfully, however, they require easy access to clear and robust information that they or their representatives can both understand and use. Afrobarometer’s public perception surveys provide high quality data. Using the example of challenges to constitutional term limits across Africa, we show how

Lesson 1: Citizens joining debates and shaping conclusions matters

1 One of the important roles apex CSOs can take on is that of enabling citizens to join debates about the issues that affect their lives. Involving affected citizens (especially more vulnerable/less visible groups) helps make debates robust and meaningful and contributes to citizens’ own empowerment. Evidence from AREAP demonstrates this can be done either by helping to create space for citizens themselves to engage, or by representing citizens’ views directly or indirectly through other organisations. However, participation at the table is only part of the story. For change to happen ordinary citizens need to be in a position to shape the discourse: to use the spaces to influence what is talked about and how stories are told.

2 All of this requires support in two key areas: capacity strengthening and accessible information. Smaller NGOs and CSOs do not always have the knowledge or confidence nor the management, debating and representational skills to be able to enter into policy debates and present convincing arguments. Thus apex CSOs can make an important contribution through building capacity to strengthen representation, particularly in less visible areas such as management and reporting.

Southern Africa Trust

3 The Trust organised a dialogue about the new Simplified Trade Agreement with Government of Swaziland representatives and women and men cross border traders. Participation in the meeting enabled the traders to understand the

developing information in different ways, which are outlined below.

Afrobarometer

7 When conducting their regular surveys Afrobarometer’s first step is to ensure that survey sampling is (and is seen to be) robust and representative of gender, age, geography, wealth and other intersecting characteristics. Afrobarometer also ensures that in country skills are built and maintained by training national partners in surveying skills and analytical techniques during survey implementation. Additionally, the process of evidence/information dissemination involves careful identification of audiences and planning of presentations. Afrobarometer presents findings publically by theme to donors, media, NGOs, parliamentarians and other groups and political sensitivities are noted. For example, the findings from Ghana’s R6 survey, which were somewhat negative, were first discussed confidentially with government, so that officials had opportunities to prepare responses. By doing this, Afrobarometer began the process of helping the government acknowledge rather than refute the findings. Politicians and officials may not embrace the reports that Afrobarometer produce, but they cannot ignore them as the findings represent ordinary peoples’ voices and are comparable with previous surveys.

SOTU

8 SOTU also collects information regularly but uses multi-stakeholder platforms in member countries to develop reports on governments’ management of national development priorities and compliance with African Union protocols. People from all walks of life are represented on the platforms, which make them potentially

powerful instruments. Debates in Malawi were generated by SOTU’s evidence on government compliance with AU protocols and were expanded through holding discussions with different groups of citizens. Materials were then produced for different audiences to support village level debates as well as urban discussions.


9 In contrast, the Trust collects information as and when it is required to inform a campaign or investigation, such as the research commissioned to investigate the totals in unclaimed benefits (and institutions holding funds) owed to former non South African mineworkers who had not been able to take their benefits with them when they returned to their home countries.3


Lesson 3: Progress is not always straightforward

10 Not all projects and programmes will deliver the expected results within the expected timeframe. Unexpected or unanticipated events may throw planned activities and outputs off track. However, sometimes the unexpected opens up new opportunities and ‘spin-offs’. Failure to produce anticipated results should not necessarily be interpreted as poor performance or failure, as even initiatives that appear not to have worked may be shown to be successful five or ten years later. Challenges here include systematically recording and documenting an account of what has happened (so that final outcomes do not disappear), and also documenting unexpected events and possible spin-offs from one project to another.

11 There are a number of examples in the case studies that highlight how anecdotes can add to the understanding of a project’s impact and how ‘off the logframe’ results may sometimes be the result of casual stories about what worked or not, even years after the intervention. The AREAP Partners gave examples of how projects fared as the result of unexpected events that changed outcomes: Capturing information about these events is challenging but it can provide additional insights into delivery of longer-term project outcomes and benefits. The AREAP Partners have not always been able to track the final outcomes of examples highlighted in the case studies, but they have been able to rethink methodologies for collection of monitoring information and/or include approaches to addressing the totally unexpected in future strategic plans.


12 The Trust received a request for a small amount of funding for the cultivation of Moringa Trees in Limpopo. The request was the result of a casual story told to a woman farmer about the nutritional benefits of these trees. The Trust provided a US$20,000 grant to fund a small project, which was initially successful. This smaller project spun off into a larger project that then developed into a significant woman led business capitalising on 13,000 Moringa trees

with the leaves exported to several countries. One direct result has been the nutritional supplements from the trees that were made available to local children. Bringing this story up to date in terms of both detail and outcomes would provide understanding about process and give meaning to impact. The Trust is aware of this and is planning to to carry out tracer studies of a random sample of past grantees within the existing programme framework as an approach to “off the logframe” findings over the longer term.

Afrobarometer

13 Over time, Afrobarometer have found themselves having to respond to questions such as ‘how is the data actually being used?’ and ‘are there mechanisms in place to capture results?’ As a result, Afrobarometer and its partners have begun to collect information on ‘policy visibility’. This involves gathering examples of where survey findings are being taken up by governments and citizens and used to inform discussions, question and challenge policies and behaviour across the region. Afrobarometer partners are asked on a regular basis to share examples they have heard about of how data has been used. These examples have been assembled into a rich portfolio of stories, tweets, headlines, debates and other reports that are difficult to capture effectively through logframe indicators, but which nevertheless give meaning and shape to impact.4

SOTU

14 In 2014, The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a SOTU coalition member in Nigeria organised an event to raise awareness on tax justice. One woman at the meeting complained that women market traders at a local market were required to pay more taxes than men to trade in the market. CISLAC used this example to raise awareness of Nigeria’s ratification of the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women5 and the women organised a rally to protest against the taxes and draw attention to government responsibilities under the Maputo Protocol. Local government responded by issuing public notices about official levy rates and the problem was solved. SOTU uncovered

These examples have been assembled into a rich portfolio of stories, tweets,

headlines, debates and other reports that are difficult to capture effectively through

logframe indicators, but which nevertheless give meaning

and shape to impact.

this story by chance but has since resolved to take measures to set aside an hour in the Annual General Meetings for story sharing; recruit a journalist to write up the narratives and employ a Communications Officer with skills in writing and photography to capture stories.

Lesson 4: The importance of building relationships and working informally

15 Creating and maintaining space for CSOs and other representative organisations at high level meetings is often achieved through informal engagements (coffee, tea, lunch, encounters in corridors) with key officials or politicians, journalists, editors et al and using these opportunities to build good relationships with people who can move things forward. NGOs need to be ‘nimble’, to create and/or spot the opportunities that could be advantageous. These activities are difficult to explain, document and cost but they are critical in terms of maintaining dialogue, building trust and keeping “a foot in the door”. Similarly, inexperienced NGOs who are new to attending high-level meetings with policy makers may need to be supported in building relationships with the personnel, officials and politicians who are prepared to listen. These less visible ways of working should nevertheless be valued by donors, and factored into programme design and budgets.


16 The Trust creates a bridge between its civil society partners and policymakers, the latter being largely drawn from SADC and constituent organisations. Through informal networks, the Trust also facilitates the establishment of formal mechanisms of engagement between SADC and non-state actors to ensure the institutionalisation and sustainability of its policymaking mechanisms. For example, in 2009 after some years of lobbying, the Trust secured an agreement with SADC for the attendance of national CSOs from the southern Africa region at the SADC Poverty and Development Conference. This achievement represented a significant widening of the spaces and opportunities for more informed discourse.6

and systematically using gender analysis frameworks to inform research. A key strategy would be for apex organisations such as AREAP to form strategic partnerships with organisations that already have knowledge, skills and expertise. Furthermore, as two of the case studies demonstrate, it can take time to change social and/or gender norms, and if processes, protocols and procedures are not regularly tracked, women’s needs and priorities can and do slip off the agenda. The AREAP Partners have developed different ways to ensure that women are more strongly represented and their voices heard across a range of processes.


20 In 2008 the Trust started working with informal cross border traders in the southern Africa region, about 70% of whom are women. Women experience significant harassment and abuse whilst engaging in cross border trading, which are not experienced in the same way by men. For example, women are exposed to sexual violence at border posts, including rape, and they also suffer from poor or non-existent sanitary and hygiene facilities, which makes waiting at the border posts a degrading experience. They tend to be less literate and numerate may and find regulations and procedures more difficult, meaning they have to bribe officials. The Trust set up workshops to discuss traders’ problems, but the women were underrepresented overall and their participation was not significant, despite the fact that they form the majority of traders. The Southern Africa Cross Border Traders Association (SABTA) was set up in 2009 to represent traders, but it was 2013 before women CBTs had their own Informal Cross Border Traders Forum within SABTA to identify and prioritise their needs. This Forum has been active and with support from the Trust, women are now able to interact independently with officials and explore further assistance to women ICBTs.

SOTU

21 SOTU played an important role in promoting a broad continental framework on gender equality within the AU.9 The SOTU coalition, led by Oxfam, tracks the signing, ratification and implementation of AU charters including

the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women.10 Progress on this Protocol was slow, however, and in March 2013 SOTU supported African women’s coalitions to engage with Pan African Parliament (PAP) policymakers in South Africa, during the 10th anniversary celebration of the PAP. Many women voiced disappointment with the slow uptake of the Maputo Protocol and urged immediate action. They pointed out that despite the fact that the Protocol’s had been ratified by 36 countries, signed but not ratified by 15 and neither signed nor ratified by three, there had been slow progress in ensuring national compliance: not one member state in the AU had complied with the requirements. This indicates the necessity of maintaining consistent pressure on women’s visibility and empowerment initiatives.

Afrobarometer

22 Afrobarometer have always ensured that their surveys record the opinions of equal numbers of men and women, and over the years they have also included additional questions to track respondents’ support for women’s equality and women’s leadership; explore the differential treatment of women by police, government officials, employers and traditional leaders, and gauge the effectiveness of government efforts to empower women. Round 6 also included questions on occupation, which like all Afrobarometer data, can be disaggregated by sex (as well as other factors) using the online data analysis tool. This means that an enhanced understanding can be gained about what is happening in women’s lives across all the thematic areas covered by the questionnaires, which has the potential to provide important evidence that CSOs, media, commentators and decision-makers can draw on. In addition, as part of its capacity strengthening support to African writers, Afrobarometer have ensured that women have been included in skills development courses. It can be difficult to encourage women to sign up initially, but identifying potential candidates and talking to them individually has helped to increase numbers. One area where gender analysis could be integrated further would be to support media and others to use data to understand why the differentiated opinions of men and women are important.


Afrobarometer

17 An example of how Afrobarometer works on relationship building is demonstrated particularly through its activities in relation to maintaining good informal as well as formal relationships with the more responsible sections of the media. Before different sets of survey findings are presented to the public, Afrobarometer contacts the better quality journalists and radio stations that it works with and briefs them informally. This allows time for them to set up talk shows and other events around particular findings,7 and radio and TV stations also contact Afrobarometer when they need additional information for programmes.

SOTU

18 SOTU, as a relatively young NGO working at continental level, had to establish its strategic credentials in a relatively short period of time. It did this by building on the strengths of its member CSOs active in ten countries and using its own formal and informal contacts and reputation to access and gain leverage with different departments of the African Union. SOTU has strategically positioned itself alongside the work of the African Union and is recognised by decision-makers as creating a bridge between national civil society platforms and continental policy and decision-making.8

Lesson 5: Recognising gender perspectives can take time, but is critical

19 Recognising gender perspectives in empowerment and accountability programmes can be challenging even for apex organisations, but if empowerment and accountability do not apply as concepts to all citizens then they don’t apply at all. In all areas, it is important to take women’s lower visibility and public presence into account, and their possibly reduced confidence about openly articulating their needs. In addition, the tendencies of male policy makers and interest groups to overlook women’s views may lead to women’s priorities being overruled or ignored. Understanding this requires seeing each area of work from a gendered perspective


25 A Trust example highlights a campaign to change policy and practice around social security benefits for migrant miners in South Africa. The miners had paid obligatory contributions to social funds whilst in South Africa, but had been unable to access benefits once they returned to their home countries. It was a good story: the sheer injustice of thousands of mineworkers not being able to access their benefits to which they themselves had contributed resonated strongly with the public. The story exposed those in charge of the funds. In order not to be seen as the ‘bad guys’ they quickly tried to re-position themselves in the media as resolving problems (being part of the solution) rather than having created the problem in the first place. A good narrative like this one almost sells itself. The Trust recognise, however, that development and rights issues do not always grab media attention and good coverage, so their approach involves building relationships with different media partners to develop appropriate stories for particular audiences.

Afrobarometer

26 Afrobarometer use multiple forms of media and are particularly aware of the importance of radio in cascading news and debates to local stations that pick up themes and then rebroadcast them. Phone-in and news programmes are particularly powerful tools for information sharing and enabling citizens to participate. Afrobarometer’s approach to disseminating survey findings starts some months in advance and involves careful identification of the messages emerging from a particular survey, the audiences who will be interested in receiving the messages and planning of the initial presentations of the conclusions. The organisation has learnt from previous rounds that a useful focus can be achieved and greater impact generated if presentations are structured around key themes.11 The presentations of individual themes are staggered over a period of about three months. This enables people to absorb the findings and also help to keep debates alive. Clear briefings are developed for press and people attending the presentations, all of which help keep the discussions alive and accurate.

Lesson 6: The media are vital partners for empowerment and accountability

23 The media cannot be ignored. Firstly, they have outreach to groups living in remote areas and secondly they play a significant role in reproducing social norms, attitudes and perceptions that either reinforce or reduce social exclusion, discrimination, rights and accountability.

24 Civil society organisations can play an important role in raising awareness and briefing journalists; preparing them to give voice to poor people and to use high quality evidence to hold decision-makers to account. AREAP partners agree on the importance of having a defined media engagement strategy and action plan. Evidence from AREAP demonstrates that all forms of media can be used in different circumstances. Social media is becoming increasingly important as a means to raise awareness and influence attitudes and behaviours, particularly among younger groups and those with disposable incomes. Radio continues to be an important tool particularly in the lives of poor people, particularly women and those who are less literate in urban areas, and those living in rural and remote communities. Radio is also accessible to those who speak local languages. Understanding the media and audiences and having a clear approach to working with print, broadcast, TV and social media underpin empowerment and accountability initiatives and campaigns. Equally important is understanding the value of a good and evolving story that will attract a level of media attention and ensure that an issue remains live and debated. Below a number of factors are highlighted that have been critical to the ways in which AREAP Partners have developed their media relationships over the last few years.


SOTU

27 The media were critical to debates that SOTU orchestrated in each member country in 2013 to gauge national compliance with AU protocols. In Malawi, for example, the media formed part of the in-country platform and were active in verifying the contents and conclusions of the compliance report before popularising it: they further followed up with government to establish whether the 2013 compliance report findings were true. The main press storyline was “Malawi is quick to ratify AU protocols but slow to implement”. This message resonated widely and rallied citizens and facilitated SOTU in bringing citizens and officials into discussions with each other. Eventually, the Malawian government agreed with the report’s assessment, prompting the President to direct that its recommendations be adopted. SOTU describes their relationship with the media as ‘transformational rather than transactional’ in that media action has helped SOTU build relationships and develop credibility that would otherwise have been challenging.

Lesson 7: Data must be sufficiently strong and robust to withstand independent probing

28 AREAP Partners have noted that the responses of government or other officials and agencies to critical evidence, analysis or findings can initially be hostile i.e. attacking the findings as incorrect, flawed or biased in some way and restating the government position. Thus data that supports empowerment and accountability work must be sufficiently strong and robust to withstand independent probing by government and/or the media or any other body that may want to dispute the conclusions. NGOs should also be prepared to respond to detailed questions on methodology and approaches. It is important to develop a strategy for addressing this kind of opposition. At one end of the spectrum this is about standing up to the critics, bringing the press and public onside; and at the other end – it’s about brazening out the complaints and criticisms as well as engaging with officials and working out how to cooperate in moving the agenda forward. The case studies demonstrate

how the AREAP Partners have responded to and managed this issue in different ways, developing different approaches as and when needed.

Afrobarometer

29 The first presentation of the findings from the Round 6 survey in Ghana (on the economy) elicited strong responses from Ghanaian officials, who rejected the sampling methodology (too biased), the sampling numbers (too small) and the timing of the sampling (things had improved since). However, after a number of TV news items, press and online reports and a defence by Afrobarometer of its methodology, the public began to criticise the government for not exploring the issues. Over the next three months the debates continued through subsequent presentations on public service delivery and trust and corruption in public institutions. The latter theme ignited the whole country for a number of related and unrelated reasons, particularly around the role of the police. Although initially hostile some officials eventually acknowledged the challenges and claimed that things were being done to improve matters.12 As a result some arrests were made.


30 In the case of the migrant mineworkers in South Africa, the Trust’s research on social benefits demonstrated that upwards of the equivalent of US$453mn was held by different Social Funds and not disbursed. There were a number of factors behind this including South African laws requiring migrants to leave on expiry of work permits; limited knowledge among ex-miners of rights to benefits; limited benefit transfer mechanisms; cumbersome benefit application requirements and poor economic conditions hindering the travel of miners to make claims. Some Social Fund managers disputed the interpretation of results and conclusions. The Trust met with them together with the researchers to arrive at a shared understanding. Once this had happened the managers became more supportive realising that they had to be seen as part of the solution. A task team was established to facilitate coordination among stakeholders and to support former mineworkers in accessing their benefits.


Lesson 8: Devoting time to an analysis of Value for Money can improve efficiencies year on year

32 DFID assesses Value for Money against criteria of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. In order to provide a VfM analysis organisations need to identify their activities, outputs and outcomes with costs so that these can be monitored throughout the delivery of a project or programme. The AREAP LICH has worked with the implementing partners to develop VfM case studies13 to help provide a greater understanding of cost drivers and efficiencies. Critical areas are around grant management, evidence, capacity strengthening and advocacy/influencing agendas. All AREAP Partners carry out activities in these areas but not all have the clearly articulated and costed objectives, projected outcomes, and indicators of progress.

33 Similarly, for advocacy, influencing and campaigning, there are potential VfM gains to be made by having a more systematic approach that asks questions such as “given the current context, what are the issues on which we could work in coalition and make traction on within

a given time-frame?” Organisations that do this best have clearly articulated strategies, costed outcomes and road maps for issues on which they can make a difference. Generally they advocate on priority issues with a specific purpose/outcome in mind and they sweep up other organisations in coalition to work with them, which achieves a broader and deeper impact. They also report on incremental progress (6 monthly/annually) which gives them scope to appraise whether strategies are working or whether adjustments are required.

Afrobarometer

34 The VfM analysis of Afrobarometer provides insight into the cost drivers behind the production, dissemination and use of high quality evidence. This includes, for example, a peer reviewed methodology by accredited academics and practitioners that is refined year by year; high quality research partners; pre-tested survey instruments; data cleaning and quality assurance; training for data collection and analysis; mentoring and support for authors writing briefing papers; orientation for civil society, decision-makers and the media on how to analyse and use the data and develop multi-media approaches to dissemination. Afrobarometer also provide some examples of actions that led to cost efficiencies. This is

a good approach that demonstrates value for money. An even better approach would be to provide actual costings year on year to support the analysis in monetary terms.


35 The VfM analysis of the Trust focuses on their role as a grant manager, examining the cost drivers of economy and efficiency in managing disbursements to CSOs, i.e., the unit cost of managing a single grant as well as the incremental management costs of supporting grant partners to deliver project outcomes. The analysis notes that 85% of the Trust’s total grants allocated are fully dispersed and that 77% of projects were successfully implemented (e.g., score B and above). A unit cost analysis shows that 32% of Trust’s time is spent on managing unsuccessful projects and that a far greater proportion of their time has been spent on these projects as a whole.

36 The more effective the selection process is in weeding out weak projects, the more cost efficient the management of grants could be. As a next step the Trust could usefully analyse the relationship between the incremental capacity strengthening support it provides (on an as needed basis) and a more proactive form whereby defined and scheduled group training

Organisations that do this best have clearly articulated strategies, costed outcomes

and road maps for issues on which they can make a

difference.

SOTU

31 During its research on compliance with AU Protocols at a country level, SOTU’s approach is to keep policy makers onside from the beginning by engaging them in multi-stakeholder platforms, which serve to build relationships and forge partners. The media are involved in each step of the research process, thus emerging conclusions are more transparent and debates are held. The approach for policy makers is to provide them with a brief background on SOTU’s report once completed, which helps to stimulate officials’ interest in policy engagement. The role of the media, as noted above, is critical in sharing conclusions and questioning government officials, and the multi-stakeholder nature of the report coupled with the robustness of the findings means that the report has credibility and is taken seriously.


is provided in generic areas of weakness faced by projects. It would be helpful to compare the extent to which the different approaches result in improved outcomes. This implies carrying out capacity needs assessments at the beginning of a project, and collecting follow-up assessments (e.g., on-line surveys) on how useful grant partners find the Trust’s support and how they apply it. An objective assessment of an organisation’s capacity at the end of a project would also be useful.

SOTU

37 To reduce costs and capitalise on the AREAP partnership, SOTU has drawn on the expertise of Afrobarometer who have provided training to platforms in the use of evidence-based advocacy and methodologies for qualitative/quantitative research. SOTU attended events organised by Afrobarometer in 2015 such as the launch of the survey findings in March, and the regional policy conference in Ghana in October. Afrobarometer also presented its findings at the SOTU continental Compliance Report Launch in Kenya in October. Finally platform members have attended the AB summer school in November 2015 in South Africa. SOTU have plans to co-host evens on the survey findings on regional integration. This is a good example of efficiencies gained from capitalising on the working relationships provided by AREAP and increasing effectiveness as a result.

international instruments that uphold freedoms of association, speech and assembly, thus creating dissonance between policy agreements and actions.

40 Keeping ‘a foot in the door’ and minimising damage despite setbacks or obstacles is important, and AREAP partners highlighted cases from individual countries as well as from the African Union and SADC. For example, Malawi has tightened control and oversight over CSO activities and structures through the establishment of a regulatory board, the NGO Board of Malawi, on which CSOs have no representative. The Minister is only required to consult the Council of NGOs in Malawi (made up of NGO representatives), but is not bound by their inputs. In Botswana, the National Policy for NGOs provides for strong participation of the national umbrella association for NGOs in the NGO Policy Council but the eight representatives are still outnumbered by the nine state representatives.

The African Union

41 Where restrictions at national level limit activity, CSOs may rely on access to regional and/or continental decision-making levels in order to be able to get messages across to national representatives. These opportunities may be closed down in some cases, however. For example, CSOs experienced a major setback in May 2013 when they were denied access to the 50th AU Anniversary Summit following

a statement from the AU Chairperson, Madam Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who said that CSOs were distracting attention away from the Summit agenda. This statement effectively curtailed the involvement of the CSOs at the Summit and at fringe meetings. Twenty-two African CSOs have since participated at side events at AU Summits unless they received a formal invitation,14 but many of the sessions at the June 2015 AU Summit were anyway “closed” to CSOs. Some African CSOs were invited to attend the high-level Gender Summit, which ironically was poorly attended by decision-makers.

SADC

42 By contrast, spaces for NGOs in SADC policy discussions are slowly opening up. The Trust, at the invitation of the SADC Secretariat, is supporting the establishment of a broad and inclusive SADC platform of engagement for non-state actors, and SADC is also looking for ways of engaging with regional youth organisations.

43 However, the majority of CSOs still lack access to SADC Summits and continue to rely on erratic invitations to attend the annual Summit. As a response, CSOs create spaces for dialogue on regional integration and development on the sidelines of the official Heads of State Summit, demonstrating that they consider it important to maintain a presence and a profile in cases where formal spaces are not available.

Lesson 9: Progress in improving citizen’s participation may be slow, and include setbacks

38 Many of the examples presented in this case study illustrate events with positive outcomes. Progress is not always straightforward, however, and on occasions citizens may be prevented from being present at discussions and meetings in which they previously included. Disheartening though this situation is, it is to be expected as citizens acquire more information, knowledge and skills, and become more capable of challenging vested interests.

39 Many African governments are suspicious of national CSOs and view them as supporters of opposition parties. In some cases, some governments have proposed or passed laws that regulate and restrict NGO civic space. There is a paradox here in that most of the countries that restrict national CSOs are also signatories to

1 Examples drawn from Case Study 6.

2 Example drawn from Case Study 4.

3 Examples drawn from case studies 1 and 6.

4 This is also stressed in VfM case study 7.

5 July 2003.

6 Example from Case Study 3.



9 The Trust played a similar role with SADC and between 2007 and 2008 contributed to a campaign that resulted in the SADC

Declaration on Gender and Development being elevated to a SADC Protocol.

10 Protocol to The African Charter On Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights Of Women In Africa 2003.

11 Often the economy, service delivery and trust in public institutions.

12 The Director of the Police in the General Public Affairs Department outlined the specific steps being taken to improve discipline and standards.

13 Case studies 8, 9 and 10.

14 Formal invitations are often issued close to the date of the meeting, making travel and visa arrangements difficult.

Endnotes

Credit for photographs and images (in order, including cover): Afrobarometer, Dmitry Baranovskiy (The Noun Project), Remy Medard (The Noun Project), Thomas Helbig (The Noun Project), Gregor Cresnar (The Noun Project)


AcronymsAB AfrobarometerAREAP Africa Regional Empowerment and Accountability ProgrammeAU African UnionCBT Cross border traderCISLAC The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy CentreCNGO Council for NGOs in Southern AfricaCSO Civil society organisationDFID Department for International DevelopmentIPs Implementing partnersNGO Non-governmental organisationPAP Pan African ParliamentSABTA The Southern Africa Cross Border Traders AssociationSADC Southern African Development CommunitySOTU State of the Union CoalitionVFM Value for money

The AREAP case studies were developed by the AREAP Partners and the Learning, Information and Communication Hub, established in December 2014. The Learning Hub is facilitated by Triple Line Consulting. It brings AREAP Partners together every quarter to share experiences and examine evidence so as to reflect and learn. Case study development involved successive in-depth focus group interviews and reviews of secondary data generated through programme implementation processes.

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