Mid-Term Review of the AGIR Programme - Sida

2 F I N D I N G S
cial dependency is central to this process, it also risks the consolidation of a clientelistic
relationship in which CSO partners establish a dependency on the intermediaries
for capacity building, strategic planning and direction (harmonisation with the intermediaries’
interests) and mobilisation for fund raising. Moreover, in long-term relationships,
there is also a risk of the loss of a more critical view by the intermediaries
concerning their CSO partners due to a certain “routinisation” of the relationship –
this can truly endanger the capacity strengthening process. Ideally, it was discussed
earlier, that a partner selection process that was more open could allow for the exposure
to new partners for the intermediaries, thus avoiding an excessive routinisation
of the intermediary-CSO partner relationship.
Some questions can help to unpack the critical points concerning this dependency
issue:
To what extent have the intermediaries been self critical in analysing the
strengths and weaknesses of their past relations with CSO partners that transited
to AGIR funding? To what extent have they tried to address these drawbacks
(if at all)?
To what extent was the selection of “old CSO partners” mainly a way of reducing
the potential risks of working with new partners as well as assuring the
achievement of results in a relatively short period of time but at the expense of
overlooking other potentially better candidate organizations?
To what extent will any of these partner CSO organisations, who have previously
worked with the same intermediaries for extended periods of time, be
ready to be graduate after AGIR ends?
Most of these questions remain unanswered and as such were a cause for concern
among some donors and informants interviewed by the review team (and to which the
review team concurs) that there is a real potential risk of the consolidation of a clientelistic
relationship that could help perpetuate this dependency relationship.
Apart from the entry conditions for additional donors (re: agreement with core funding
and good donorship principles), the programme also needs to take into account
that the process of funding such a programme can be problematic for some donors
due to the process used by AGIR for the selection of partner organisations. As some
external donors mentioned, it would be difficult to fund AGIR because of the uncompetitive
process of CSO partner selection, which could be interpreted as condoning a
lack of transparency in the process. This is something to take into account if the
AGIR programme is willing to attract and add additional donors, since some of them
will tend to present preconditions for joining.
2.6.2 Reaching a Sustainable Level of CSOs and Their Participation in AGIR
The overall structure of the programme, with intermediaries heading the subprogrammes
and working directly with CSO partner organisations, has so far been a
relatively successful working model for strengthening the general capacity of civil
society. As discussed earlier, coverage of the main thematic areas central to a strong
civil society in Mozambique has been addressed through the selection of CSOs working
in the relevant areas. As a theory of change this approach of intermediaries that
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