Luanda Urban Poverty Programme II

Baseline institution appraisal, influencing strategy and monitoring and evaluation framework

 

In 2004/5, BPD's Director was invited by DFID to serve as one of a five-person team to review an NGO-DFID partnership around poverty alleviation in Luanda.  This three-week exercise resulted in:

 

  • A Baseline Institutional Assessment of the current situation in Luanda
  • Guidance with a strategy to influence government and private sector partners around pro-poor service delivery
  • Support with Monitoring and Evaluation mechanisms to review progress of the influencing strategy 

 

The strengths of the partnership lie in its focus on community participation; a long-term aim to improve the national political environment; increased financial and managerial sustainability of community based projects; and the use of a co-ordinating unit to facilitate the programme. The partnership highlights some wider lessons that can be used to influence and inform other partnerships, such as the focus on delivery versus facilitation and brokering, the complexity of policy influencing work, and the importance of organisational buy-in.