Review of Norwegian support to National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Kenya

The Project

The main goal of the program is to strengthen democratic institutions and advance political reforms in Kenya. The main objectives of the program was to strengthen the capacity of political parties to make more process oriented, participatory and strategic decisions about forming coalitions, to enhance the capacity of branch officials to contribute to their parties' decisions and activities, and to enhance the prospects for inter-party-dialogue at the national level and in targeted districts.

Interesting Findings

• NDI has achieved its targets and objectives. The organisation has demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of its administration.
• NDI has demonstrated the effectiveness of its flexible process approach, having achieved an exceptionally high standing among its clients.
• The focus areas of the program have proved to be highly relevant.
• The main weakness of NDI's approach has been weak documentation and subsequent weak learning. Reporting systems have been almost exclusively geared towards demonstrating to donors that the programmed activities have been implemented and that targets have been achieved. There has not been a systematic recording and mapping of challenges and/or set-backs.
• The review argues that political party strengthening is a necessary but not sufficient condition for peace and development. Although stronger political parties will arguably make peace more likely in the Kenyan context, stronger political parties alone is no guarantee of peace or democratic strengthening.