Publication Reports Strengthening Civil Society Policy Framework 2021-2025

As part of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan of the Strengthening Civil Society (SCS) Policy Framework (2021 – 2025), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned baseline studies, Third Party Monitoring & Data Quality Assessments and mid-term and end evaluations in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and of the international lobby and advocacy (Global Component). These studies focus on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of the policy framework and its grants instruments, provide baseline values and track progress concerning SCS and other thematic indicators and they assess the quality of MEL systems of SCS partnerships and their members. The studies are aimed at formulating lessons for the remainder of the policy framework and to improve future policies.

The following reports are available on this page:

1. Baseline studies on the SCS policy Framework for Burkina Faso, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and the International (lobby and advocacy) Component: These baseline studies describe the country (and international) contexts, the state of civic space and establish baselines for SCS indicators. They also give insights into implementation, relevance, efficiency and coherence of the SCS policy and shed light on the organizational capacity of CSOs in the contexts under investigation.
2. Third Party Monitoring and Data Quality Assessments (TPM &DQA) for Lebanon and the OPT: These studies investigate the quality and functioning of MEL systems utilized by the partnerships active under the SCS policy framework.
3. Mid-term Reviews for Uganda and Lebanon: These studies describe the country contexts, state of civic space, provide insights into the implementation, relevance, efficiency and coherence of the SCS policy  and, for Uganda, establishes baselines for comparison in an endline evaluation in 2026 and, for Lebanon, measures progress for multiple SCS and other indicators.
4. Strengthening Civil Society in the Occupied Palestine Territories and other fragile contexts: This concerns a study on the validity of a selection of assumptions underlying the strengthening civil society (SCS) policy framework in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and other fragile contexts. The study was conceived to gain insights into the level of validity of assumptions underlying the SCS policy framework when applied in fragile (country-) contexts and served as a replacement to the planned MTR due to the security situation in the OPT.
5. Meta Evaluation on MTRs submitted by SCS partnerships: This report concerns a meta-evaluation conducted on the 46 mid-term reviews (MTRs) undertaken by the strategic partnerships and Leading from the South funds active under the Policy Framework for Strengthening Civil Society (SCS). The evaluation assessed the quality of MTRs, synthesized their findings and provides recommendations for the remainder of the SCS framework, the SCS evaluation cycle and requirements for the future conduction of good quality evaluations.