How effective are forms of donor funding that set out to strengthen civil society, by bolstering the independent sector in developing countries? This form of aid is intended to help organised citizens in their struggles to achieve such overarching goals as democracy, good governance and human rights. Judging by available figures, foreign political aid is a significant and growing donor priority. A recent IDS (Institute of Development Studies) report on ongoing research into the question offers a new framework for evaluating the impacts and effectiveness of this type of aid.

Providing aid with a view to strengthening civil society is a comparatively new practice. The amounts involved are still very small in relation to overall donor budgets. However, these small amounts can have a big impact on the projects that receive such support. Donors do not share a common definition of civil society. Generally, it can is seen as the organised arena in society located between the government and the private citizen. By funding civil society organisations, donors hope to meet a variety of objectives, such as:

• strengthening representation of different social groups and interests (pluralism)
• defending collective interests
• creating representative institutions for the poor and disadvantaged
• creating the basis for a sustainable market economy.

Bodies that receive civil society funding include human rights and civil advocacy organisations, women's groups, disabled peoples organisations, trade unions, legal associations and the media. It is generally assumed that aid has a positive effect on these organisations, but effective evaluation methods are lacking. Preliminary conclusions flagged in the IDS report are that channelling aid to and through civil society is increasingly important to donors. Yet donor interventions along these lines are mostly ad hoc reactions to specific situations and appear unrelated to any systematic policy rationale or logical framework.

Although there is some evidence of positive effects and cost-effectiveness of donor support to civil society, few funded projects have been evaluated and relatively few overall evaluations of political aid have been attempted.

Other findings to emerge from the study were that:

• Major donors tend to give direct support to projects but NGOs remain significant intermediaries.
• The comparative effectiveness of different approaches and delivery mechanisms is rarely evaluated.
• Prevailing political conditions largely determine the relevance and potential impact of donor assistance.

The report urges the development of a new framework for evaluating the impact of aid needs, embracing:

• clear formulation of concepts, objectives and strategies to provide a better rationale for aiding civil society
• more policy research to refine existing approaches to political aid
• better co-ordination and information sharing among donors to improve their efficiency and impact
• more studies of individual organisations and the contribution of individual projects
• tailoring donor assistance to prevailing political conditions
• more involvement of recipient organisations in the evaluation process to ensure a 'southern' perspective

With grant support from DFID, research is now underway in three African countries - Ghana, South Africa and Uganda - which is investigating the impact of such assistance on the accountability and effectiveness of organisations engaged in activities designed to influence government policy and legislation. Based on careful empirical research the findings are intended to contribute on the policy debate concerning the efficacy of donor aid to civil society, and the extent to which civil society organisations actively contribute to the process of democratization in Africa.

Source(s):
`Strengthening civil society through foreign political aid`. Report to ESCOR #R6234, Institute of Development Studies. By M.Robinson (1996)

Funded by: DFID (UK) 1995-1998

id21 Research Highlight: 1998-September-03

Further Information:
Mark Robinson
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN19RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Contact the contributor: m.robinson@sussex.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies