Organisational Review of Norges Naturvernforbund / Friends of the Earth Norway

Norges Naturvernforbund / Friends of the Earth Norway (FoE-N) is a non-governmental, nation-wide and membership-based organisation established in 1914.

FoE-N’s international projects constitute ca. 20 percent of the organisation’s personnel resources (ca. eight full-time staff) and close to 40 percent of the budget (ca. NOK 18 mill. per year, out of a total of NOK 47 mill. per year).

This organisational review was conducted to assess the extent to which FoE-N is capable of achieving results in accordance with agreed goals, the guidelines for Norad’s grant scheme and overall Norwegian policies and guiding principles for development cooperation. The review mainly deals with Norad-funded projects in Nigeria, Togo and Mozambique.

The methodology was based on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and a systematic document review. In addition, one-week field work was carried out in Nigeria. The selection of Environmental Rights Action (ERA) in Nigeria as a case study implies that more evidence was collected to support the findings related to this partner, while findings related to FoE-N’s partners in other countries should be treated with more caution.

The review findings were grouped in four categories: (1) The organisation (incl. organisational structure, role in civil society, international strategy, relations to Norwegian political priorities,professional competence and capacity, cross-cutting issues); (2) Partnerships (incl. partner selection, added value, exit strategy); (3) Results (incl. planning, documentation, reporting); and (4) Financial management (incl. financial and administrative routines, accounting system, anti-corruption).