An interview with Annonciate Ndikumasabo, Senior Regional Governance Advisor (SDC), about the learning journey of the Eastern and Southern Africa Division (ESA) and the Democratization, Decentralization and Local Governance Network (DDLGN) of the SDC.[1]
Why did the SDC decide to engage in a learning journey on systemic changes in African authoritarian contexts?
It all started in 2017 when our ESA division decided to join forces with the DDLGN to overcome the challenges posed by the lack of democracy, hampering the effectiveness of development cooperation. We launched a first learning journey on governance in fragile contexts and organized a regional workshop on the shrinking space for civil society in 2018. Considering that authoritarianism was gaining ground in Eastern and Southern Africa (according to Freedom House, 5 of the eight countries we worked in were ranked as not free, and three were and are still classified partly free), we shifted our focus on seeking relevant strategies and approaches to increase effectiveness in such contexts. Based on knowledge generated, in 2020, we went further and launched a learning journey on systemic changes to figure out how to influence progress on human rights and democratic governance and achieve systemic transformational changes.
On what contexts did you focus? Why?
The annual reports from our field offices revealed increasing trends of authoritarianism in Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, and Rwanda. We, therefore, took these five contexts as case studies. We analyzed their political systems through political economy analyses to find out relevant entry points and types of change required in our approach to influence positive governance. We reviewed our assumptions regarding the type of impact that we were expecting in such contexts and asked ourselves if they were still valid.
Could you name a few outcomes of your learning journey on how to increase development effectiveness in authoritarian contexts in ESA region?
First, it was necessary to underline that working in an authoritarian context is a deliberate and purposeful choice. We agreed that all the involved parties, including teams and partners (be it on the field or at the headquarters), should understand and accept the challenges of working in such contexts. We also agreed on the need to increase our knowledge of the constantly evolving contexts on which we work. Our learning process thus recommended several strategies, including conducting systematical political economy analysis and policy research to stay up to date at key moments of strategic programming; strengthening domestic accountability and enhancing checks-and-balances; cautiously integrating governance as a transversal theme in other sectors when it becomes difficult to work on political issues; understanding regional dynamics to overcome the inability to influence change at the national level; regularly analyzing the governments’ openness to reforms, the quality of policy dialogue, space for civil and political rights, and impact on people’s well-being; taking care of the security of SDC local staff and partners exposed to a high level of pressure.
What can you conclude from this learning journey? Based on this experience, does the SDC plan to embark on another one?
We can already see the added value of this learning journey at the internal level. It helped us move from a limited approach to governance to a more comprehensive one. At the impact measurement level, we are now analyzing if and how we can achieve systemic changes in such contexts and how SDC interventions can generate needed transformations to improve the livelihood of the population. The idea is not to move from a learning journey to another one, but to incrementally engage in constant learning for adaptive management.
[1] The Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
