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Civil Society Assistance Program Final Report Civil Society Assistance Program Final Report: Report Period: October 2014 - September 2019 Delivered to: USAID Implementer: Counterpart International Cooperative Agreement Number: AID-OAA-LA-14-00011 2345 Crystal Drive Suite 301 Arlington, VA 22202, USA TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ATTACHMENTS ................................................................................................................................. 2 LIST OF ACRONYMS ......................................................................................................................................... 2 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... 4 III. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................................... 8 GENERAL ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. OBJECTIVE 1: CIVIL SOCIETY PROMOTES TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY AT NATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL LEVELS......................................................................................................................................................... 8 OBJECTIVE 2: CIVIL SOCIETY FOSTERS DIVERSE PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENTERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. OBJECTIVE 3: INCREASED ABILITY OF CSOS TO OPERATE COHESIVELY AND EFFECTIVELY........................... 9 V. ACCOMPLISHMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 24 VI. BEST PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES............................................................................................. 26 List of Attachments Annex 1 PMEP Table - Results PY1-PY5 Annex 2 Convergence Roundtable Evaluation Process Annex 3 Publication: Open Government Process in Ecuador Ecuador Civil Society Assistance Program 2 AID-OAA-LA-14-00011 Final Report October 2014 - September 2019 List of Acronyms CB Convergence Board (Spanish acronym for Mesa de Convergencia) CNC National Council of Competencies (Spanish acrony for Consejo Nacional Competitions) CNE National Electoral Council (Spanish acronym for Consejo Nacional Electoral) CONAIE Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ecuador. (Spanish acronym for Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador) CCPSC Council of Citizen Participación and Social Control. (Spanish acronym for Consejo de Participación Ciudadana y Control Social) CCPSC-T Transitional Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control CPI Counterpart International CLA Collaborating, Learning, Adapting CSA Civil Society Assistance Program CSE Social Contract for Education (Spanish acronym for the NGO Contrato Social por la Educación) CSOs Civil Society Organizations EIB Intercultural Bilingual Education (Spanish acronym for Education Intercultural Bilingual) EPS Community Based Entrepreneurship (Spanish acronym for Emprendimiento Popular y Solidario) ESQUEL Fundación Esquel FARO FARO Group FCD Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo FEPP Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progresso GADs Decentralized and Autonomous Governments (Spanish acronym for Gobiernos Autónomos y Descentralizados) LOTAIP Organic Law for Transparency and Access to Public Information (Spanish acronym for Ley de Acceso a la Información Publica) NA National Assembly NAC National Anti-Corruption Commission (Spanish acronym for National Anti-Corruption Commission. NAP National Action Plan for Open Government (Spanish acronym for Plan Nacional de Accion de Gobierno Abierto) OGP Open Government Partnership PC Participación Ciudadana PODA Participatory Organizational Development Assessment PY Program Year SENPLADES National Secretariat for Planning and Development (Spanish acronym for Secretaria de Planificación y Desarrollo TWP Thinking and Working Politically Ecuador Civil Society Assistance Program 3 AID-OAA-LA-14-00011 Final Report October 2014 - September 2019 I. Executive Summary The Civil Society Assistance (CSA) Program has operated under two very different political contexts. During the first 3 years of program implementation, the government restricted individuals’ rights to assemble as well as civil society organizations’ (CSOs’) opportunity to participate in matters of public interest. Understanding this context, the CSA Program emphasized building the capacities of CSOs, specifically those organizations working with vulnerable groups, promoting dialogue throughout civil society, and supporting advocacy efforts in their communities. Despite the abrupt change in political context, Counterpart’s use of thinking and working politically (TWP) and collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) tools throughout the project enabled us to work effectively despite the abrupt change in political context. Program Results As a relatively small and one of the few civil society strengthening and democratic reform programs in Ecuador – CSA has had outsized impact. Additionally, the program has been adept in understanding the changing political context and adjusting our support to grantees and activities to capitalize on the burgeoning reforms. The Program has impacted Ecuadorian democracy on several fronts: (a) Strengthened the capacity of civil society to interact more effectively with the government concerning the management of public policy; (b) Promoted mechanisms for transparency and accountability in local and national democratic processes; (c) Contributed to the improvement of the regulatory framework for the promotion of democratic reforms, the inclusion of vulnerable groups, citizen participation, and political and electoral processes. Throughout the life of the Program: • 2,842 people trained under the CSA Program • An average rate of 95% satisfaction with trainings provided by CSA partners, as measured through surveys applied to participants. • 1,825 civil society organizations, local governments, and academic institutions assisted under the CSA Program or that have participated in the trainings, forums, and public events held by Counterpart and CSA local partners. • 9,518 individuals have participated in discussion forums on topics of local and national interest and 803,855 individuals were reached on-line through these activities. • 10 networks of CSOs, youth, or coalitions of multiple actors established, and 28 networks strengthened under the CSA Program. • Over 500 CSOs have engaged in advocacy and watchdog functions. • 762 instances where media outlets have referenced CSA partners or beneficiary CSOs or have incorporated their inputs into media products. Counterpart primarily worked with three Ecuadorian CSO partners throughout the life of the project. The results of each of our partner’s work is highlighted below: GROUPO FARO (FARO) Ecuador Civil Society Assistance Program 4 AID-OAA-LA-14-00011 Final Report October 2014 - September 2019 FARO led Objective 1 “Civil Society promotes transparency and accountability at national and municipal levels” under CSA and conducted a series of Electoral and Political Processes initiatives. Its 4 main components included: FARO’s 3-year capacity-building initiative called Innovation was a comprehensive online training strategy, coupled with face-to-face coaching, and finalized through a subgrant where participants could implement a project based on their learnings from the module. Through Innovation, FARO strengthened the capacity of 693 people from CSOs, local governments, and political organizations in 17 provinces of the country. In addition, it generated 30local mechanisms for citizen participation and social control, motivating collaborative work between civil society organizations and local governments. To strengthen the political and electoral processes for the national elections in 2017, the Popular Referendum in 2018, and the sub-national elections in 2019, FARO led the Ecuador DECIDE initiative combining 4 main pillars: (a) citizen participation in the creation of public policies and proposals for candidates; (b) creation of an advanced online platform to interact with citizens and provide them access to information on candidates and upcoming ballot questions (c) political debates with candidates on priority issues (d) the use of technology and communication on social media networks to inform citizens about electoral processes and citizen proposals. FARO reached more than 4.5 million people through these activities. Through the Del Dicho Al Hecho1 (From Idea to Action) initiative, FARO promoted the participation of citizens in social control and monitoring of elected public officials. For this, it established alliances with key actors and designed a rigorous methodology to monitor the governance of the Moreno administration across 6 issues related to his campaign promises. They released reports that showed the results of their monitoring at 100 days since his election, 6 months, and 1 year after his election. During the second year of Moreno’s administration, FARO produced a follow up report on 3 of the issues. The results of the Del Dicho al Hecho initiative were documented through 18 reports widely disseminated to the public through an online platform. During the CSA Program, FARO also contributed to growing an enabling environment for civil society organizations through dialogues and advocating for legislation reforms to ensure association rights. PARTICIPACION CIUDADANA (PC) The Ethical Pact initiative was implemented from 2015-2016 by PC in nine provinces and created an effective
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