BALADI CAP CLA Final Report – Civic Engagement Initiative (CEI)

The initiative aimed to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage in advocacy and promote citizens' concerns. The CEI was implemented in collaboration with Intermediary Service Organizations (ISOs) and received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The CEI's central advocacy model was based on the assumption that grants to advocacy organizations and capacity building by ISOs would facilitate the creation of three networks, with ISOs as network leaders and CSOs as members. The networks were established to advocate for citizens' concerns, and the CEI's implementation of its first Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) exercise resulted in program adaptations, primarily through redirecting and increasing support for the establishment of the three networks. The second series of CLA activities aimed to review the revised CEI capacity-building model for advocacy and assess if the recently introduced adaptations resulted in improved advocacy effectiveness and enhanced sustainability of the three advocacy networks. The CLA review was implemented from February to April 2019, starting with BALADI CAP's "CSO Governance, Capacity and Innovation" Conference. The assessment entailed a desk review of CEI progress reports, background documents, and conference proceedings, as well as interviews with BALADI CAP's project leadership, CEI staff, the three ISO organizations, and nine CSO representatives who attended a CLA workshop. The CLA assessment revealed that the adaptations introduced during the second phase of CEI activities addressed the CSOs' concerns raised during the first CLA. Participants in the CLA workshop confirmed that the adaptations introduced by BALADI CAP during the second CEI phase have addressed their concerns with regard to training activities, specifically in reference to a consensual approach and training activities/network institutionalization sessions. However, the impending end of BALADI CAP led to increased pressure and focus on deliverables rather than process, which resulted in time pressure and challenges for some CSOs to participate in both Capacity Building Component (CBC) and CEI ISO trainings. The CLA learning highlighted the importance of planning network formation discussion sessions as part of the original project design and implementing them mid-way through the project lifetime to provide time for consultations and application of a consensual process in network-building. The benefits of CSOs' involvement in both organizational capacity building under CBC and advocacy networking under CEI are evident, though this training intensity seems to be a bit challenging for smaller CSOs. Discussions with CSOs in reference to the advocacy grants revealed overall agreement on the benefits of CEI grants in increasing the effectiveness of CSO advocacy. The grants provided financial means to hire technical experts in the fields targeted by the advocacy initiatives, which enabled CSOs to build their advocacy on solid technical and professional grounds. Capacity building on the grant negotiation process and support to the CSOs in their proposal design and grant implementation improved CSOs' ability to manage their grants and increased the effectiveness of their advocacy efforts.