"How can the Elections Help us Quell Hunger?" Mid-Term Review of Norwegian Support to UNDP's Trust Fund for Civic Education

Abstract

This report is the mid-term review of UNDPs trust fund for civic education in Angola. The trust fund was set up in late 2006, with support from the embassies of Norway, Sweden and USAid, topped up with UNDP’s own funds. By late 2007, 22 CSOs or umbrella organisations had been selected and supported with grants to carry out civic education activities throughout the country. The most common activity is civic education sessions, where a specially trained promoter talks to a popular gathering. The review generally commends the outstanding performance of the UNDP project support unit (PSU) – which in a short time managed to set up and implement M&E routines for the many involved organisations, as well as an impressive schedule of training sessions on substantive civic and human rights issues. Improvements were recommended by the reviewers to enhance the programme’s impact: To sharpen the message to the recipients’ needs for empowering information, to redouble training in participative methods, and to prioritise target groups. The report argues that for the continuation of the programme some strategic choices should be made: Maximising impact in terms of social/political change; building CSOs; maximising the roll out of civic education “knowledge packages”; or rolling it out to specific (needy) sections of the citizenry.