Re-Inventing Civil Society Formations for More Effective Pro-Poor Regional Policy Influencing in Southern Africa

This report shares findings from a midterm review conducted by the Southern Africa Trust, as part of its monitoring and evaluation programme, to collect benchmarking data on the capability of, and extent and quality of participation by, civil society organisations (CSOs) to engage in regional policy processes to end poverty. The midterm review compared indicators against a baseline study conducted four years prior in 2007. Through advocacy and funding, the Southern Africa Trust works to support processes to deepen and widen civil society's participation in policy dialogue that can have a regional impact on poverty reduction. The evaluation suggests that the Trust is assisting to influence pro-economically-poor policies.

The survey was administered in English, French, and Portuguese to a randomly selected sample of 500 organisations from across the southern Africa region, drawn from the Trust's database. Fifteen percent (15%) of the sample submitted completed responses and a further 6% returned incomplete responses. Respondents were mostly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on advocacy at a regional level on development governance and food security. The questionnaire sought information on organisational capacity (technical knowledge, staff numbers, and financial resources), frequency of evidence-based research, networking practices, knowledge of policy processes and, finally, extent of participation in regional policy processes. The report explains that as a result of the decision to administer the survey to a random sample of a database that was not adequately stratified or cleaned, the survey results presented in this report do not offer an absolutely statistically sound sample against which the Trust can assess the impact of its work definitively. However, the data can be used to benchmark the work of grantees against the general pool and to draw general indications that will be assessed in more detail in future impact assessments of the Trust’s work.

The key findings of the survey indicated the following:

• Capacity for policy-relevant work in the sector, taken as a whole, has strengthened.
• The general knowledge base about regional policy development processes has improved. In particular, the knowledge base of responding grantees, advocacy organisations, and those focused on development governance practices has improved. The Trust is recognised as an important source of knowledge on regional policy development processes for these partners.
• Networks across sectors have significantly strengthened, with substantially more organisations networking and with a broader range of interest groups, especially researchers, the mass media, business groupings, and parliamentarians, and especially on development governance issues.
• There is a significant increase in the proportion of organisations in the sector doing evidence-based research. The study shows that 81% of responding grantees base their policy work on evidence-based research, compared to 2007 when only 30% of respondents reported evidence-based approaches. This is especially seen on themes relating to informal cross-border trade and development governance.
• Eighty-three percent of respondents and 80% of grantee partners of the Trust that produced new policy recommendations had their inputs taken up in policy development processes, up from 25% in 2007. Groups working on trade, migration, and social protection have the highest success rate in inserting their policy positions into policy development.
• Compared to national-level evidence-based research, organisations in the sector are still not doing enough regional-level (including country comparative) evidence-based research to influence regional policy development.
• The Trust is an important actor in regional multi-stakeholder dialogue and a critical enabler of pro-economically-poor regional policy engagements, especially through its role in linking different civil society groups and creating networks amongst them, as well as linking civil society groups to policy-making forums.
• The Trust would benefit from reviewing its database and better categorising organisations. This would permit targeted communications and surveys.

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