Review Norwegian Church Aid – Darfur Programme

Background:
Norway has provided bilateral support to UN and humanitarian agencies in Darfur since 2004. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) has for the last two years been the only Norwegian organisation present in Darfur. The NCA Darfur Programme is a joint response by the ACT Alliance and Caritas Internationalis implemented in partnership with SudanAid and the Sudan Council of Churches in South and West Darfur. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has funded NCA’s Darfur programme since 2006 with an annual amount of NOK 10.5 million, which accounted for 10-14% of the total budget. The Programme has provided support to more than 300,000 beneficiaries since 2004, and since 2009 it has been one of the biggest programmes in the area with an outreach to the most vulnerable people in West and South Darfur.In early 2011, MFA asked Norad to conduct an external Review of NCA’s Darfur programme, and a team of consultants from Nordic Consulting Group was commissioned to do the Review.

Purpose/ Objective:
The main purpose of the Review was to analyse the relevance of the programme objectives based on an assessment of the overall conflict context in Darfur. The Review was asked to assess to which extent the context could challenge NCA’s adherence to humanitarian principles.

Methodology:
The Review was divided into three phases with the following deliverables:

• Phase 1: Desk study: Archive research in MFA, study of project documents, interviews in Oslo and development of evaluation tools
Output: Inception Report
• Phase 2: Field work: Interviews, observations, data collection - stakeholders and beneficiaries
Output: Debrief to key stakeholders in Darfur/Khartoum (Programme staff, Management and Norwegian Mission)
• Phase 3: Report: Debrief, analysis, verification and report writing
Output: Debrief key stakeholders in Geneva (CSA) and Oslo (NORAD, MFA and NCA) and Report

Key Findings:
1: The NCA Darfur Programme has evolved since its inception and adapted to new realities. It has been able to fill important lifesaving gaps in 2009 when NGOs were expelled or closed down.
2:  The Programme is constituted and builds on strong partnerships with SudanAid and Sudan Council of Churches. The national partners are essential due to their access and outreach to groups in rural areas, their ability to facilitate local peace process and ensure sustainability of projects
3: The Government is basically in control of humanitarian priorities and activities. HAC/ Government controls access for agencies approves project documents (TA) including staffing level and profile of staff and controls release of humanitarian data and information. Since 2009 programming and documentation of violation of human rights, protection and GBV issues and advocacy has been dropped by agencies in Darfur.
4: The Programme has during the past years built and developed its M&E capacity, having full-time international M&E staffing. Log frame analysis with impact indicators and gender disaggregated data has been implemented for all sectors. Internal and external reviews and evaluations have been introduced for some sectors, but not yet for all sectors.
5: NCA has been able to stay and expand its activities by keeping a low profile, suspending protection programming and documentation and using its long history in Sudan, its presence and network to negotiate issues of concern with local and national authorities
6: The present organisational set-up of the Programme seems to be working, having in mind the reality and conditions set by the Government. But the set-up is complex, basically having two parallel set-ups, distinguishing between Governance issues addressed to the Compliance, Support and Advisory Group (CSA) and Management issues addressed to NCA’s Management and Board.
7: Because of the scope and coverage of the Programme, NCA is playing a lead role in cooperation and coordination between agencies in South and West Darfur. NCA is an active partner within coordination mechanisms and senior management is co-opted into UN coordination mechanisms representing NGOs. MFA has encouraged NCA to take on more responsibility and take up the role as cluster coordinator for WASH cluster.

Recommendations:
1: The Programme would have to develop its analytical and strategic capacity to do conflict sensitive assessments - Do No Harm - and incorporate that consistently into programme planning.
2: The Programme will have to redefine strategies and speed up capacity building, and focus on activities/sectors with clear strategies and sufficient capacity.
3: NCA needs to speed up the process of making a strategy for focusing, consolidating, and handing over of the Programme to the local partners.
4: The Programme will have to redefine its livelihood section and ensure that the Programme will have the necessary technical competence and capacity.
5: Having understood the extreme sensitivity concerning protection issues in Darfur, the Programme needs to find innovative ways and means to document and report on critical issues of human rights, protection and GBV to inform programming and stakeholders.
6: The Programme has to increase its quality assuring systems to secure systematic ongoing reviews/evaluations for all sectors and administrative functions within the Programme and develop tools and instruments for remote management and monitoring. The Programme should develop strategic scenario programme planning for different scenarios.
7: The Programme will have to review its “red lines” or “threshold levels” according to humanitarian principles and international standards as already outlined in the Vision and Strategy for 2011-2015 and communicate that to key stakeholders.
8: The present complex organisational and management set-up of the Darfur Programme with dual communication lines for Management should be addressed by the CSA as soon as possible.
9: The Programme should either insist on UNICEF to take up its mandate as cluster lead for WASH or consider attracting funding and having staff to take up the responsibility as cluster lead for WASH.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid (if any):
Reference is made to a letter sent to Norwegian Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs with
attn: Yngvild Berggrav 1st November 2011 where NCA is giving its response to the Norad Review of the Norwegian Church Aid - Darfur Programme supported by ACT and Caritas