Results of development cooperation through Norwegian NGOs in East Africa: volume I

The developmental presence of Norway in East Africa is robust, but its funding system lacks transparency

It is among the Norwegian government’s targets to enable a more evidence-based perspective on the role of Norwegian NGOs as a channel of official development assistance. As such, this paper evaluates the development activities of Norwegian NGOs in East Africa. The paper states that the Norwegian programmes focused on poverty alleviation as well as on women and children.

The document’s findings include that:

the projects were in line with host government's stated priorities, and kept local authorities well-informed of their activities
the projects were knowledgeable about local conditions, and had adapted to opportunities and constraints
the funding system lacks transparency where allocated funds need to pass 6–9 administrative levels on their way from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to the affected people
most projects did not systematically use Results Based Management (RBM), which is a methodology intended to support implementers in focusing their efforts on achieving results.

Its overall conclusions and recommendations include:

Norad should require organisations receiving funds to increase investment in RBM capacity building
Norad should continue to fund small projects but only if special circumstances exist and can be clearly identified, and should instruct the umbrella organisations to act in the same way
NGOs should aim to have clear objectives and SMART (specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic and time-bound) indicators for all projects by 2013
NGOs should actively explore new organisational arrangements when blessed with a highly successful programme which could expanded and replicated
NGO funding should be based on an assessment of the NGOs quality of programming and subsequent prioritisation.

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Results of development cooperation through Norwegian NGOs in East Africa: volume I