EU: Final Evaluation of Afkar III Programme

AFKAR programme was managed by OMSAR and funded by the EU Commission. The aim of the program was to enhance the role of civil society by supporting their initiatives, building their capacities, and activating dialogue with the public sector. This was conducted through a three-fold process: 1) Create linkages between the CSO’s to limit political/religious pressures hindering partnerships and enhance policy dialogue 2) strengthen and reinforce the capacities and accountability of CSO’s 3) activate dialogue and partnerships between CSO’s and the public sector. The target areas were Beirut, Jbeil, Hasbaya, Marjeyoun, Akkar, Nabatieh, Hermel, Jabal Amel, Beqaa, Tyre, Baalbek Governorate, and Shouf. The expected result of the project is the strengthening of CSO’s to serve as effective vectors of democratic and socio- economic reforms. The project had reached its final stages and the EU was interested in assessing the extent to which the programme has met its objectives. Five projects were assessed by utilizing the OECD-DAC framework. A mixed methodological approach was utilized. InfoPro relied on primary and secondary research as part of its evaluation. In total, 29 KIIs / In-depth interviews and 5 focus groups were conducted to reach the objectives of the evaluation.