Review of Norwegian democracy support via political parties

The Norwegian scheme for democracy support through the political parties aims to contribute to democratic and well-functioning party organizations in developing countries.

After having been administered by the parties themselves through a centre for democracy support since 2002 the scheme came under the Norwegian agency for development support – Norad – in 2011. The present Review takes stock of the operation and results of the current scheme and provides a set of recommendations for its future.

The scheme is small. Only around eight million Norwegian kroner have been allocated annually. Still parts of the annual sum remain unused every year because project proposals do not pass the quality control carried out by the Norwegian agency for development cooperation.

Prior to 2011 the parties submitted their project applications to the centre for democracy support and a board of party representatives had the decision-making authority. Under the current scheme the proposals are being handled by Norad, a professional body independent of political parties. This Review found that the new arrangement has strengthened quality control.

Although Norad is not traditionally familiar with the purely political sides of party life, its assessments of the project proposals are strict and point at obvious flaws when it comes to the parties’ basic grasp of contextual factors and project design. Getting a project proposal approved is more challenging for the Norwegian parties than before, This has been used as learning exercises to improve projects. Also the requirements for reporting have been stricter and consequently the reports produced by the parties have become more concerned with results since the 2011 refoundation of the scheme.

Endelig versjon av rapporten publisert 19. november 2014. Innholdsmessig ingen endring i forhold til tidligere publisert versjon.