Project evaluation: summary report Civil Society Participation Programme (CSPP)

Transcription

1 Monitoring and Evaluation Unit Project evaluation: summary report Zambia: Civil Society Participation Programme (CSPP) Title according to the commission: Civil Society Participation Programme (CSPP) Project no.: PN Country/region: Zambia/Southern Africa CRS sector: Overall objective: Overall term: Total costs: Commissioning party: Lead executing agency: Implementing organisations (in the partner country): Other participating development organisations: Target groups as per the offer: Lead executing agency: Civil society organisations and networks as well as relevant state actors participate responsibly in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of governance reform processes (including the promotion of access to justice) and poverty reduction policies. 04/2012 to 03/2015 (3 rd phase) 10,662,000 EUR BMZ Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Five strategic partner civil society organisations: Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), Caritas Zambia (Caritas), Non-Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) and the Paralegal Alliance Network (PAN) and other selected CSOs; the five state criminal justice institutions; the Governance Department (GD) and other Ministries; Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) EU, DFID, Irish Aid The entire population of Zambia Ministry of Justice Project description Over the last ten years, Zambia has enjoyed real GDP growth at more than 6% per year. Yet, this economic growth has not been accompanied by a decrease in wealth disparities. In fact, the percentage of people living in poverty has risen significantly over the past decade (60.5% in 2013 compared to 51.8% in 2006). Although the Zambian constitution enshrines the principle of separation of powers between the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, in reality power is concentrated within the Presidency. Furthermore, the accountability of parliamentarians to citizens is rather weak.

2 Page 2 Zambia is politically a relatively stable democracy that has seen peaceful handovers of the Presidency since the introduction of a multiparty democracy in In 2011, the Patriotic Front (PF) ascended to power with a manifesto that promised a strengthening of participatory democracy, including a revision of the NGO Act No. 16 of 2009 and the promotion of a people-driven constitutional reform. Yet, these promises have not been fulfilled to date whilst at the same time media freedom has been curtailed. These developments have raised the level of political tension over recent years. While trade unions have decreased their political activism, civil society organisations (CSOs) remain in the forefront of putting pressure on government to deliver on poverty reduction. Especially faith-based and community-based organisations enjoy a high degree of legitimacy with both citizens and government and are advocates for social justice. Other important players at sub-national level are traditional leaders. Official spaces for CSO-state engagement, such as Sector Advisory Groups (SAGs) at national level and Provincial Development Coordinating Committees (PDCCs) and District Development Coordinating Committees (DDCC) at subnational level exist. However, the SAGs performance has deteriorated over the past years and SAGs and DDCCs - even when these function properly - are not decision-making spaces. Thus, CSOs have to resort to creating other spaces of engaging government. Yet, they and their networks have not advocated for governance reform processes and poverty reduction policies as effectively as they could have. This is considered the core problem in the Programme. Access to justice is a government priority, yet faces significant constraints. Some of these were identified and to be addressed by the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP): poor linkages and lack of coordination between the various justice institutions, shortage of qualified staff and general knowledge in human rights, poor accessibility of justice institutions, especially by the poor, vulnerable, women and children, inadequate legal framework, lack of public awareness of human and civil rights and judicial procedure. Regarding cross-cutting issues, women remain marginalized in the socio-economic, cultural, political and legal spheres of life and HIV prevalence is at 14.3%. Therefore, gender and HIV/AIDS mainstreaming in development programmes are recognized as being an integral part of poverty reduction strategy. In this context, the CSPP seeks to improve the framework conditions for civil society (CS), enhance the space for state-cs engagement and increase access to justice for the poor. Its objective reads: Civil society organisations and networks as well as relevant state actors participate responsibly in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of governance reform processes (including the promotion of access to justice) and poverty reduction policies. The improved participation is expected to lead to increased mutual understanding and improved trust and acceptance of respective roles of the state and CS, to an enhanced degree of institutionalization of state-cs interfaces, to improved access to justice for the poor, to the incorporation of rights of disadvantaged groups in policies and laws and to improved anchoring and acceptance of reforms within society. This in turn shall lead to the overarching development goals of poverty reduction, increased accountability and transparency of government and improved equality of opportunities. Components 1-3 of the CSPP seek to improve civil society participation in political decision-making, policy implementation and policy monitoring. It was found that these three components are oriented consistently towards the module objective. These objectives are to be achieved through supporting the functioning of CS-state dialogue platforms, strengthening CS networks and their communication with their member organisations and constituents, strengthening of alliances and improved evidence-based advocacy. In the AtoJ Component (Component 4), the Programme seeks to strengthen the management capacities of the state criminal justice institutions (CJIs) 1. It provides support to the Zambian government s justice reform programme Access to Justice (AtoJ) with resources from the European Union (EU) and the German government through a Delegated Cooperation Agreement. The financial resources of the EU were largely employed to provide equipment (vehicles, IT, furniture etc.) as well as training to the CJIs in order to enhance their institutional capacity for the sector reforms. Furthermore, the strengthening of the state CJIs through improved monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, improved implementation of operational plans, improved coordination among the criminal justice institutions at both national and sub-national level as well as between CJIs and CSOs are all highly relevant areas of support and lead to creating a strong base for improved access to justice. The underlying hypotheses of the Programme are considered as overall plausible and transparent. In summarised form, they include state willingness to revitalise existing dialogue fora and to engage with civil society, on the one hand, and civil society s willingness to professionalise, reform internal structures and to cooperate in alliances and networks, on the other. They also assume willingness of CJIs to cooperate with each other and a strong leadership role of the Governance Department of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). While the willingness of government for cooperation was not as high as initially expected, it did improve in the course of the Programme. The assumption that the Governance Department could provide strong leadership to implement common activities between five government institutions was possibly slightly too optimistic 1 The Police, Prison Service, Legal Aid Board (LAB), National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) and the Judiciary.

3 Page 3 given the nature of the Zambian bureaucracy where a department of one ministry cannot take leadership over departments of other ministries and even less so over another branch of the state (Judiciary). The Programme follows a multi-level and multi-actor approach, focusing mainly on CSOs, but cooperating also with state actors, especially in the AtoJ Component. The focus is on improving the framework conditions and developing capacity for civil society engagement. The modes of delivery are consistent and targeted towards achieving desired results. They comprise technical, organisational and process advice by long-term and short-term national and international experts, training measures, materials as well as local subsidies and grants. The two provincial offices, each with a tandem of national advisors and development workers (DWs), can ensure targeted advice at the sub-national level. The objectives system is considered logical. Most indicators are specific, measureable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). However, the Module Indicator 2 is quantitative and does not measure the quality of the functioning of the Communication, Coordination and Cooperation Initiative (CCCI). Indicator 5 is an activity indicator. There is no indicator on organisational development for CSOs, despite the Programme s extensive focus on this area of support. There is a gender indicator at module level but gender is not mainstreamed into any of the other indicators. Overall rating according to the OECD-DAC criteria: Average rating for all criteria: 12,4 points: successful Individual rating of the OECD-DAC criteria: Relevance: 15 (very successful) Effectiveness: 13 (successful) Impact: 12 (successful) Efficiency: 12 (successful) Sustainability: 10 (rather successful) Relevance The Programme seeks to strengthen civil society s participation in policy formulation, policy implementation and policy monitoring and to improve the access to justice for the poor in order to increase accountability and transparency of government and its administrative actions, to consolidate the democratic system, and to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. The Programme further seeks to improve the equality of opportunities for the poor, women, persons living with HIV, persons with disabilities and youth, with the ultimate goal to contribute to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and poverty reduction. The Programme addresses a core development problem faced by the target group and is rated 4 2 in this regard. The rating derives from the rising poverty levels in Zambia over the past decade as well as high levels of gender inequality. Regarding citizen engagement more specifically, there are weak accountability links between citizens, and the Executive. Invited spaces for participation do exist, but generally do not function properly and if they do, do not necessarily increase the voice of citizens. Thus, civil society plays an important role to proactively engage state officials on policy formulation, implementtation and to foster government accountability. Yet, civil society is still in need of support to effectively play this role. The overarching plan for Zambia s development is Vision 2030, which aims at total adherence to principles of good governance by Targets include to improve access to justice by improving case disposal rate, enhance human rights awareness and reduce violations through effective enforcement mechanisms and to achieve and sustain efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public services. The revised SNDP (2014) sets no clear governance targets. However, the PF manifesto envisages a review of the current constitution and the NGO Act No. 16 of As such, the Programme contributes to the implementation of Zambia s policies and strategies, including the area of AtoJ, and is hence rated 3. The section on human rights, democracy and good governance in the United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000) stresses the central importance of governance, democracy and the rule of law in realising the MDGs. Furthermore, according to Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Zambia has acceded, everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Hence, the Programme is designed in line with international themes and standards and is rated 4 on this dimension. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has a strategic focus on promoting good governance, which includes fostering transparency and fighting corruption as a basis for development and poverty eradication. Furthermore, BMZ is committed to strengthen democracy, including the promotion of human rights more generally and those of women and children in particular. Therefore, the Programme fully complies with the commissioning party s basic development-policy orientation and is rated 4. 2 All the dimensions of each OECD/DAC criterion are rated on a scale from 1 (not true) to 4 (completely true).

4 Page 4 Effectiveness The evidence provided in the table below indicates that most targets set in the offer have been achieved or are likely to be achieved by the end of the Programme phase. Examples of achievements are that supported civil society organisations increasingly contributed to political decision making processes through a high number of concerted submissions to government. Government has taken up several essential parts of these proposals. A significant increase can be seen in the number of meetings taking place between CSOs, state institutions and parliamentary committees, indicating an increase in recognition of CS on the part of the state. Also, at sub-national level in the supported provinces, state-cs relations improved. The fact that stakeholders agreed to recommence dialogue on the NGO Act in November 2013 may in part also be attributed to CSPP s persistent support and the Programme plays an important role in assisting the current collaborative review process between CSOs and the Ministry for Community Development and Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH). The Programme achieved additional results, not covered by the indicators, especially in the area of organisational development. These are, for example, that through institutional strengthening, the Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) has been consolidated as a foundation registered under Zambian law promoting Zambian civil society, that several CSOs have result-oriented strategic plans in place and have improved internal governance and that the NGOCC and other partners such as Caritas and the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) have functioning result-oriented M&E systems. In the area of AtoJ, a number of successful outcomes have been secured: Firstly, the Programme was effective in the consolidation of the CCCI, in which the five criminal justice institutions have reached a mutual understanding of their respective responsibilities, the need for inter-institutional cooperation and the importance of collaboration with CSOs engaged in the justice sector. Secondly, the Programme has also been effective in securing state-cs cooperation in which CSOs, such as the Paralegal Alliance Network (PAN) and its members are members of the CCCI and are increasingly considered legitimate partners that can contribute to the AtoJ reform processes. Thirdly, PAN and its members were central to the formulation of the draft National Legal Aid Policy. It should be noted, however, that the AtoJ activities generally declined significantly during 2014 after the EU s contribution to the AtoJ Programme expired (31 st March 2014). This resulted in a lack of funding for the successful implementation of certain activities planned under the government`s AtoJ Programme which partially also indicates a lack of integration of that Programme into the strategic plans of the 5 CJIs. Objectives indicator Target according to the offer Current status according to the project evaluation 1. Essential parts of at least 5 civil society positions regarding poverty reduction policy or governance reform processes (e.g. state budget, constitutional reform and related follow-up legislation, legal aid, reform of NGO legislation, decentralisation policy, planning and budget act) are incorporated in political decisions or legislation (Source: Comparison of introduced positions with approved policies/acts). 5 civil society positions Indicator achieved: 1. Basic Needs Basket (BNB) data compiled by the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) influenced income tax threshold and minimum wage established by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). 2. Elements of CSOs recommendations were taken up in the 2013 and 2014 government budgets 3. CSOs proposal to make the planning and budgeting process more participatory has been taken up in MoF s Planning and Budgeting Policy. 4. The AtoJ strategy into which PAN made inputs has been signed by the MoJ and is awaiting signature by the Troika (consisting of the Chief Justice and the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs). However, the MoJ is of the opinion that according to Zambian government procedure the Troika approval is not necessary for the Strategy to take effect. 5. CSOs and state actors under the lead of the LAB have drafted a National Legal Aid Policy jointly. This policy is currently awaiting approval by MoJ.

5 Page 5 Objectives indicator Target according to the offer Current status according to the project evaluation 2. In Lusaka and four other cities, there is one institutional cooperation each between state institutions and civil society organisations in the area of legal aid (Baseline [2011]: 2; Source: Agreements between CSOs and state criminal justice institutions). 3. Civil society organisations and their networks (e.g., civil society APRM Secretariat, CSPR, PAN) are increasingly recognized by relevant state actors (e.g., Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Auditor General s Office, MCDMCH, Parliament, criminal justice institutions, Ministry of Justice) as partners in dialogue regarding governance reform processes and poverty reduction. 4. On the basis of the agreed-upon division of labour, the 5 state crimi justice institutions (Police, Director of Public Prosecution, Legal Aid Board, Judi, Prison Service) inte objectives and activities of the Access to Justice Programme in their institutional planning and budgeting processes (Baseline [2011]; 0; Source: annual plans and budgets of the 5 criminal justice institutions). 5 institutional cooperations between state institutions and civil society organisations. Qualitative information 40% Government share of AtoJ budget Indicator achieved: In all the 10 provincial capitals and 4 additional district towns, CCCI chapters were launched, all of which with the participation of CSOs. The CCCIs that remained active and continue to meet in 2014 are in Lusaka, Chipata, Ndola, Kitwe, Lundazi and Mbala. CCCIs in Lundazi and Mbala still report regularly to the GD. Due to low funding levels, the Governance Department (GD) has not been able to monitor CCCI functioning properly in Indicator achieved: Available data suggests a significant increase of meetings between CSOs and state institutions and invitations by government and Parliament to CSOs between 2011 and Full data sets could only be provided for 2011 and 2012, which show an increase in meetings of 152 meetings in 2011 to 177 meetings in For 2013, even though data was not available for half of the CSO partners, the number of meetings rose to 355. Qualitative evidence from interviews with selected officials indicates both increased recognition and criticism of civil society. At the local/provincial level, interview partners from local government confirmed a marked improvement in dialogue. Indicator partly achieved: The Programme saw a slight decrease in state funding to AtoJ in relation to the total budget of AtoJ from 2012 to The status for these years was: 2012: 22% 2013: 21% This drop was mainly due to the efforts in 2013 to absorb the EU funding before its expiry in early The targeted value of 40% for 2014 could not be assessed, as there is no financial report available. Yet, activities were not integrated into the main government budget activities under the AtoJ heading (although AtoJ-type activities, such as prison renovations and court house construction do take place under the institutional budgets).

6 Page 6 Objectives indicator Target according to the offer Current status according to the project evaluation 5. At least two gender and HIV/AIDS activities each (e.g. to improve the access to justice for women and girls, promotion of political participation of women, HIV/AIDS work place programmes, HIVspecific budget monitoring) are implemented by the five strategic civil society partner organisations within their mid-term plans of operation (Baseline [2009]: 0; Source: documentation of the respective partner organisation). Caritas: 2 (Gender), 2 (HIV) CSPR: 2 (Gender), 2 (HIV) JCTR: 2 (Gender), 2 (HIV) NGOCC: 2 (Gender), 2 (HIV) PAN: 2 (Gender), 2 (HIV) Indicator achieved: Gender and HIV/AIDS activities have been included in the strategic plans of three of the five strategic partner organisations, some of which have started implementation. CSPR has developed a gender policy and gender mainstreaming guidelines and has received support from CSPP to train its staff in mainstreaming of crosscutting issues and to review its HIV/AIDS workplace policy. It further established an HIV/AIDS taskforce. The implementation of similar policies has been agreed upon with Caritas and JCTR. PAN has introduced gender- and HIV/AIDS-specific measures in its training programmes for paralegals. NGOCC, as an umbrella organisation of CSOs and CBOs engaged in women s rights, gender and HIV/AIDS activities, considers gender and HIV as constant elements throughout all of its work. Interviews and the gender analysis indicated that mainstreaming of crosscutting issues was tackled in all change projects, as exemplified in the change project documents. Overarching development results (impact) The Programme successfully contributed in various aspects to the overarching development goals. Impact is understood herein as development results that go beyond CSPP s area of influence or to changes benefitting the respective target group(s). From the Programme s result model, five higher-level impact areas can be identified. The first impact which CSPP aimed to contribute to refers to the objective of the joint programme proposal which reads: the population participates in the political process and effectively claims transparency and accountability of state institutions through parliament and CSOs. CSPP contributed to this impact as most change processes supported by CSPP aimed at increased participation of CSOs and/or the general citizenry in political processes. Indicator measurements show that there has been an overall increase in meetings between parliamentary committees, government officials and civil society, which illustrates a rise in the voice of civil society. Equally, the increasing number of submissions by CSOs into public decision-making processes points towards improvements in both the quantity and quality of participation. The fact that many of these submissions were prepared by network organisations and CSO alliances (instead of individual CSOs) enhanced their credibility and legitimacy since they reflect the views of broader sections of the general citizenry and CBOs and help views and interests from the sub-national find their way into the public debate at the national level. Second, the increased number of submissions and efforts by CSOs to engage government on various issues, had a positive impact on increased accountability and transparency of government and administrative actions. This becomes specifically apparent in the enhanced responsiveness of government to some of the inputs made by CSOs as witnessed under Module Indicator 1. Some of the reforms CSOs advocated are expected to eventually increase government s accountability and transparency significantly. One example is seen in the increased openness by MoF towards the publication of clearer, more up-to-date and more comprehensive fiscal data. At the sub-national level in Eastern Province, it was confirmed by citizens that the accountability of government to the citizenry had improved as a result of CSPR s service delivery monitoring. These successfully implemented projects evidence that the assumption of a link between increased participation of civil society in political processes and enhanced accountability and transparency of the state is valid. However, it should be noted that results related to accountability and transparency can only be sustained when instutitionalised and addressed in the framework of systemic (constitutional or legal) reforms. Third, CSOs effectively claiming their space in the political sphere positively impacts on the consolidation of the democratic system and on strengthening the rule of law and human rights. It is also seen that increased accountability and transparency and the consolidation of democracy, rule of law and human rights are reinforcing each other. However, changes at this level are complex and require time to manifest themselves. Probably the currently most important and if successfully completed most sustainable reform process in Zambian politics is the constitutional reform. Even though the process is not concluded yet, it can already be observed that civil society takes a very active role in it and keeps the reform on the government agenda. CSPP supported the Civil Society Constitution Coalition (CSCC) in this area. Furthermore, CSPP supported projects related to civil rights, such as a campaign for the introduction of an access to information law, the reform of the NGO Act, advocacy efforts for the constitutional application of the Public Order Act, and the piloting of a human rights monitoring system. Although none of these reforms has been concluded yet, the persistent work of CSOs has

7 Page 7 already enhanced some democratic spaces and will eventually lead to strengthened rule of law and a consolidated democracy. At sub-national level, the development and dissemination of a DDCC Sub-Committee Operations Manual which defines the rules of the game for the interaction of state and non-state actors in these sub-committees enhanced the democratic spaces for civil society at the district level. Furthermore, it was reported that communities in Southern and Eastern Province had started to engage in social auditing and service delivery monitoring activities. Equally, the improved quality of evidencebased CSO submissions for municipal services delivery improvements to local councils did lead, according to interviews at sub-national level, to increased dialogue and openness between CSOs and local councils. Fourth, when it comes to the improved equality of opportunities for the poor, women, persons living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV), persons with disabilities (PwD) and the youth, significant impacts have been achieved. Progressive laws on Anti Gender-based Violence (AGBV) and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) were passed in recent years. NGOCC participated actively in the drafting of the AGBV Act and (with CSPP support) raised awareness on the new legislation. On the PwD Act Disability Support (another CSPP partner organisation) raised awareness on key provisions of the Act and against the stigmatization of persons with disabilities. Further, the draft new constitution entails progressive provisions regarding gender and women s rights. This is directly attributable to the advocacy work of NGOCC and CSCC on these issues. NGOCC also contributed actively to Zambia s new national gender policy. All these achievements are at least partly attributable to CSPP s work as CSPP partners participated actively in the drafting of these laws and policies and in some cases CSPP provided direct technical and financial support to the CSOs participation. Lastly, the cross-cutting issues gender, HIV/Aids, disability, and youth were mainstreamed in all projects supported by the Programme, and hence it can be assumed that CSPP has contributed to more inclusiveness. Thus, even though it is too early for an overall impact assessment, on the basis of observed impacts, it can be reasonably assumed that the Programme has made significant contributions to higher-level developmental objectives. Efficiency For the operational planning of its activities, the Programme adopted an innovative change project approach, by which it agrees with partners on the changes to be jointly achieved, the milestones on the way to the objectives as well as the contributions of the involved partners (in terms of financial resources and staff time). The change project documents also describe the contribution of each project to the Programme s objectives and indicators and require an analysis of the relevance of cross-cutting aspects, especially gender and HIV/AIDS. Each change project can be embedded in longer-term and more complex change processes. The Programme s principal modes of delivery have been advisory and financial support to CSOs and their networks. Advisory support included organisational development support, but also issue-based technical support and networking assistance. The Programme uses an interdisciplinary team of national and international advisors, who are partly seconded to partner organisations. At sub-national level, mixed teams of national staff and DWs run the provincial offices, which worked very well. Financial support includes financing agreements and local subsidies. In several cases, the Programme also provides goods and services through direct procurement. The GIZ inputs are defined in the change project documents. Under the EU co-funding for the AtoJ Component, significant financial, material, training and advisory support was granted to the governmental CJIs. In the case of the Prison Service, the Judiciary and (later on) the MoJ, the EU/GIZ support was mainly provided through financing agreements as a prior due diligence analysis had found these institutions to have sufficiently robust administrative systems. In the case of the other participating CJIs, goods and services were provided through direct procurement by GIZ. Being able to mobilize resources from donors other than the German government enhanced the Programme s efficiency. Roughly two thirds of CSPP s resources come from BMZ, while the EU, Irish Aid and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) finance the remainder. This is assessed here as cost-effective in that the advisory support offered by GIZ could be complemented by financial contributions of EU, DfID and Irish Aid to project partners. Additionally, for some projects, the Programme was able to pool its resources with USAID (Parliamentary Scorecard) and the Christian Blind Mission (PwD Act Campaign). Another factor improving efficiency is the cooperation with the GIZ partner programmes in the governance sector, which was regarded as successful. In fact, the operationalization strategy of an indicator for the improvement of municipal services was formulated in very close consultation with the decentralisation programme D4D. Similarly, CSPP and D4D cooperated very closely in all activities with CSOs which focused on the National Decentralization Policy and its implementation. However, cooperation with D4D at sub-national level over the course of Programme implementation was less than initially anticipated which, in part, is attributed to the fact that a sub-contractor is responsible for D4D s activities at the district level. CSPP also was able to mobilize around 150,000 from the Sector Programme Human Rights in Development Cooperation which GIZ is implementing in Germany on behalf of BMZ. With these resources, it was possible to support the HRC s efforts to develop a pilot human rights monitoring system in close cooperation with CSOs.

8 Page 8 A perpetual challenge throughout Programme implementation was the disbursement of funds, an issue that was raised by practically all CSO and government partners. Late disbursements did compromise project implementation and as such also overall efficiency. This was mainly due to GIZ s rules and procedures and the partners difficulties to administer and account for the funds according to these. The Programme did attempt to mitigate this problem to some extent through awarding direct procurement contracts. This sped up activities, but led to other challenges, i.e. that project partners in their own words felt micro-managed by CSPP regarding the booking of venues and appointing and managing consultants (even though this was always done in close consultation and agreement with the partners). Sustainability The sustainability criterion for the evaluation of the Programme is assessed at both the policy level and the institutional level. At the policy level, the extent to which positive structural changes and reforms are long lasting and irreversible is assessed. The fact that the Programme could influence a number of policies at the macro-level positively, such as the National Legal Aid Policy and the National Planning and Budgeting Policy, can be seen as indications for sustainability. However, the National Legal Aid Policy has not been approved yet, nor has the whole Troika (Chief Justice and Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs) approved the AtoJ Strategic Plan. Thus, it is difficult to make final assessments at the time of report writing. This may have to be reassessed at the end of the Programme phase. At the institutional level, several achievements for more sustainability of CSOs can be recorded resulting from the organisational development (OD) focus of the CSPP. This included, for instance, the institutionalisation of functioning M&E systems and the development of results-oriented strategic plans for several CSO partners. The establishment and consolidation of ZGF as a Zambian funding and capacity development institution should be hailed as a particular success regarding sustainability. However, it should also be noted that CSOs (with the exception of those that have a business arm to their operations) will always be dependent on external funding and international agencies development priorities. Thus, even in the presence of results-oriented strategic plans, CSOs may have to shift priorities to comply with donor s priorities in order to survive. Furthermore, as the development of one strategic partner has shown, depending on their leadership, CSOs can experience volatility in their management capacities and downward accountability, compromising their organisational sustainability and that of their results. Regarding the AtoJ Component, it became evident that most of the structural changes introduced by the Programme have so far been dependent on outside funding and are hence not sustainable. Gains made, such as the setting up of the CCCI are thus dependent on further capacity development and financial support. Overall assessment Overall, the Programme has made a significant and important contribution to strengthening state-civil society relations in the fields of policy formulation, implementation and monitoring and to improving Access to Justice. Therefore, the Programme has been rated as successful. The Programme s focus on promoting evidenced-based advocacy was noted as particularly useful and was appreciated by both CSO partners and government alike. Furthermore, the CSPP played, and still plays a very constructive role in supporting state-civil society dialogue on the NGO Act reform. In the AtoJ Component, the focus on creating cooperations between the CJIs and civil society at both national and subnational levels has been successful and has demonstrated that this can lead to significant improvements in access to justice for the poor and marginalised. Published by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Registered offices Bonn and Eschborn Friedrich-Ebert-Allee Bonn, Germany T F Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg Eschborn, Germany T F E I info@giz.de