Mid-Term Review of the AGIR Programme - Sida

2 F I N D I N G S
the government often notes that it does not posses the resources (people and funds) to
engage with all communities and their citizens.
CSOs therefore play an important role in both strengthening the ability of these communities
to articulate their needs and rights and to link these communities with the
decision-makers who are the duty bearers, and must provide the services which citizens
need. Projects such as AGIR can provide the resources necessary to support
CSOs that are often constrained by a lack of resources and poor internal capacity for
advocacy and participatory planning.
2.2.1 External Voices on AGIR
As mentioned above, the position of civil society in Mozambique and the role of
CSOs have been recognised by many international donor agencies as being critical to
the development of the country. Many of these international donors are support projects
or programmes that, in one form or another, strive to achieve results similar to
those of AGIR.
In an effort to gauge the depth of understanding, interest in and opinion of these external
voices about AGIR, the mid-term review team undertook a series of interviews
with representatives from a range of donor organisations. Those donors contacted
included: USAID, CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency), DFID, EU
Commission, Irish Aid and SDC (Swiss Development Agency). Each of these organisations
have civil society-strengthening programming within their donor portfolios.
Other non-donor external voices within Mozambique (but internal to civil society and
civil society programmes or organisations) were also interviewed concerning the
work of AGIR – this included a government official and a member of parliament. As
expected, the views were mixed and sometimes contradictory. The recognition of the
AGIR programme was high, as each of the external voices interviewed expressed
knowledge of the existence of the programme. Some individuals, however, possessed
a limited depth of knowledge concerning the focus, general operation and content of
AGIR. Those external voices that did possess a more extensive and nuanced understanding
of the programme had the following comments on AGIR:
Programmatic approach using sub-programme architecture: Generally the programme,
and its use of sub-programme architecture, is seen as a value-added approach
allowing for increased focus with clear thematic areas. Specific examples given
were the role IBIS is leading in the area of access to information and the work of
SCC with farmers organisations, where demonstrable results in changing the practices
of a big forest exploitation programme (Chikweti) in Niassa province have been observed.
This approach was contrasted with another programme supporting civil society,
MASC, which has a broader scope and more diffuse impact.
Core-Funding Mechanism: The use of core-funding, and the flexibility this offers,
was also seen as a comparatively efficient mechanism to respond to the constantly
changing social, political and economic environment within which civil society or-
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