FINAL EVALUATION REPORT Evaluation of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Acknowledgements The evaluators would like to thank everyone in the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) for contributing their time, insight, and organisational support to the evaluation. Most of WFD’s programme managers, international stakeholders, national authorities and civil society groups also provided relevant input. The evaluation team acknowledges the constructive oversight of the staff of the Department for International Development (DFID). Disclaimer The views expressed in this report are those of the evaluators. They do not represent those of DFID and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office or of any of the institutions mentioned in the report. Authors Shaun Hext and Kevin Deveaux are the lead authors of this report. Aditya Khurana and Richard Burge from the IPE Global Group and Verena Michels and Dunja Speiser from BiRD (Bureau for Institutional Reform and Democracy) provided methodological advice and quality assurance. List of Acronyms ACDP African Christian Democratic Party (South Africa) ALN African Liberal Network (ALN) AWN Arab Women's Network (Labour Party) BAPC Budget and Appropriation Committee BiH Bosnia-Herzegovina BiRD Bureau for Institutional Reform and Democracy GmbH BMD Botswana Movement for Democratic Change CEO Chief Executive Officer CLARION Centre for Law and Research International (Kenya) CPA Commonwealth Parliamentary Association CPST Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Training (Kenya) CSOs Civil Society Organisations DA Democratic Alliance (South Africa) DAC Development Assistance Committee DAYLP Democratic Alliance Young Leadership Programme (South Africa) DFID Department for International Development DUA The Democratic Union of Africa DUP Democratic Unionist Party EALA East Africa Legislative Assembly EET External Evaluation Team EU European Union FCO Foreign & Commonwealth Office FDC Forum for Democratic Change (Uganda) FNS Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung (Germany) HMG Her Majesty’s Government (United Kingdom) HO Head Office ICAI Independent Commission for Aid Impact IDC International Development Committee of the House of Commons IFC International Finance Corporation IPE IPE Global Private Limited (Infrastructure Professional Enterprise) IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union IRI International Republican Institute Lab Labour Party LibDem Liberal Democratic Party MENA The Middle East and North Africa Region M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MP Member of Parliament MTE Mid-term Evaluation NDI National Democratic Institute for International Relations NGOs Non-government organisations NPC Network of Parliamentary Committees (Western Balkans) NPP New Patriotic Party (Ghana) OECD-DAC Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development-Development Assistance Committee ODM Orange Democratic Movement (Kenya) PEA Political Economy Analysis PFM Public Financial Management PDP Party of Democratic Progress (Bosnia and Herzegovina) SDA Party of Democratic Action (Bosnia and Herzegovina) ToR Terms of Reference TR Triennial Review UK United Kingdom UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme URP United Republican Party (Kenya) USFP Union Socialiste des Forces Populaire (Morocco) USAID United States Agency for International Development VFM Value for Money VVD Dutch People’s Party for Freedom & Democracy WAFA The Women’s Academy for Africa WB Western Balkans WFD Westminster Foundation for Democracy Executive Summary The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a Non-Departmental Public Body that provides technical advice to support developing parliaments, political party structures and civil society organisations – key institutions that make up a functioning democracy. WFD provides such assistance through staff employed in London and in the field, through the three main UK political Parties – the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats – and a group of smaller parties represented in the House of Commons. WFD has provided support to democracy and improved governance in countries emerging from authoritarian regimes and in post-conflict and fragile states for more than twenty years. It combines political party expertise and links to Westminster with technical expertise to provide support to emerging democracies. This is achieved by providing support to parliaments in addressing their core functions, assistance to political parties and by working with civil society in the countries in which WFD operates. A. DFID and FCO Support to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy The UK provided the Westminster Foundation for Democracy £16.5 million1 over three years, starting 2012, to support the Foundation to contribute to the strengthening of democratic governance, through building capable, accountable and responsive institutions in at least four post-conflict/fragile states and five emerging/transitional democracies. The grant was intended to lead to improved effectiveness of WFD to deliver these outcomes and to be a leader in the field of democracy assistance. The revised 2012-15 logframe to the Business Case states that, with DFID and Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) funding, WFD committed to the following output targets: Output 1: Parliamentarians, including female parliamentarians, in ten legislatures, undertake their key legislative, oversight, financial scrutiny and representative roles. Output 2: Ten political parties, in countries selected by WFD, have strengthened internal structures and external networks, enabling them to formulate, communicate and campaign on policy-based messages that offer a genuine choice to citizens. Output 3: Civil society organisations in five countries, including women’s groups have better access to and are trained to engage effectively with parliaments, parties and other stakeholders. Output 4: Enhanced strategic focus and strengthened coordination, including party-to-party, parliamentary and cross-party work; deepened technical expertise and professionalism; reformed structure and governance arrangements as set out in WFD’s Change Agenda. In 2012, WFD developed its strategic parliamentary programmes for 2012-15. These included seven country programmes and four regional programmes. While the political parties do not limit their activities to a set number of countries or projects, they have identified several longer-term programmes as well. WFD also focused on reforming the organisation to support improved delivery, which included plans for more strategic, coordinated, multi-year programming, supported by more rigorous monitoring and evaluation. B. Evaluation of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy In June 2013, DFID commissioned IPE Global Private Limited to undertake an evaluation of its multi-year support to WFD, co-financed by the FCO. The main objective of this evaluation is to assess ‘WFD’s effectiveness in contributing towards its intended outcome of making the parliaments and political parties it works with more effective, accountable and representative’. The expected impact is to ‘strengthen democracy, stability and good governance and improve citizen engagement, in the emerging/developing democracies and post-conflict countries and fragile states in which WFD works’. 1 £3.5 million per annum from FCO and £6 million from DFID over the life of the three-year programme Final Evaluation of Westminster Foundation for Democracy (2012-2015) i The overall evaluation of WFD was divided into six phases, each of which consists of reviews and analyses of different aspects of WFD’s functioning. These different phases culminate into a final evaluation and the project completion report, scheduled in the first and second quarters of 2015. Project Annuel Inception Mid-term Annual Final Completion review 1 phase assessment Review 2 Evaluation Report This Final Evaluation looks to assess the implementation of various programmes, selected based on discussions with WFD and DFID, and aims to: Evaluate the three-year programme of the Foundation in achieving the results and outcomes envisaged in the Business Case submitted and approved in 2012; Determine the impact of the work of WFD on beneficiaries and political governance institutions that have received support through the programme; Set out lessons learned; and Provide recommendations for WFD’s future implementation. The focus of the final evaluation is on relevance, delivery, results and sustainability. This evaluation differs slightly from previous ones, particularly the mid-term evaluation. It not only reflects the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria but also criteria applied by the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). The Final Evaluation was carried out between December 2014 and April 2015. It began in December with a desk review followed by field visits by the External Evaluation Team (EET) members to Jordan (Jan 11-16), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Jan 18-22), Serbia (Jan 22-23), South Africa (Jan 26-30), Kenya (Feb 9-18), and Albania (Feb 20-21). C. Methodological Framework The evaluation team assessed various programmes being undertaken in 5 of WFD’s target countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kenya, South Africa, and Jordan) against key goals and outputs set out by WFD in their corporate plan. This assessment included programmes at both the regional and country levels and looked at WFD’s work through networks and bilateral engagement of beneficiaries. The evaluation team started with an extensive and statistical desk study and document review of select WFD programmes. Desk research concentrated on analysis