Learning How to Make Democracy Work: The IFES Project in Ghana Midterm Evaluation

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This document is a midterm report on the impact of a project designed to support the further development of decentralized democratic governance in Ghana. Devised and administered by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), Project ECSELL (Enhancing Civil Society Effectiveness at the Local Level) was organized in mid 1997 under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and is active in 20 of Ghana's 110 districts. The project commenced in late 1997 with an assessment of the state of civil society and the District Assembly in the 20 districts that were selected, two districts in each of Ghana's ten regions. From the data collected IFES designed Project ECSELL as two sequenced programs: training to establish trust, enhance communication and build capacity to be followed by the collaborative award of small grants to sustain the gains achieved. This report presents evidence that the Project ECSELL training program at the midterm was achieving its goals