Independent External Evaluation of the Electoral Cycle ... · EIMS : Elections Information...

UNDP Zambia

Independent External

Evaluation of the

Electoral Cycle

Management Project –

Zambia (2009 – 2012)

Terminal Evaluation

Chandiwira Nyirenda April 2015

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page i

TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ACCRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................ iii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... vi

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Purpose of the evaluation ............................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Scope of the evaluation ................................................................................................................ 1

1.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 2

1.3.1 Risks and Limitations .................................................................................................... 3

1.3.2 Project achievement rating ........................................................................................... 4

1.3.3 Evaluation timing opportunity .................................................................................... 4

1.3.4 Structure of the Evaluation report ............................................................................ 5

2. The project and its development context ............................................................................. 6

2.1 Project start and duration .................................................................................................... 6

2.2 Problems that the project sought to address ............................................................................... 7

2.3 Immediate and development objectives of the project ............................................................... 8

2.4 Expected project results ............................................................................................................... 9

2.5 Key Stakeholders and their roles in the project ............................................................................ 9

2.5.1 Ministry of Finance and National Planning .......................................................... 10

2.5.2 United Nations Development Programme ............................................................. 11

2.5.3 Implementing Partners ................................................................................................ 11

2.6 Risks and Mitigation strategies ........................................................................................ 12

3. Findings and conclusions ............................................................................................................ 14

3.1 Project design formulation ................................................................................................. 14

3.2 Logical Framework Analysis .............................................................................................. 16

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page ii

3.3 Project Implementation and Management .................................................................... 21

3.3.1 Annual Work Planning ................................................................................................ 23

3.3.2 Project Implementation Reporting ........................................................................... 23

3.4 Project performance and impact ...................................................................................... 23

3.4.1 Relevance: ........................................................................................................................ 23

3.4.2 Efficiency: ........................................................................................................................ 25

3.4.3 Effectiveness: ................................................................................................................. 28

3.4.4 Sustainability: ................................................................................................................. 29

3.4.5 Impact: ............................................................................................................................ 33

4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION ......................................................................... 43

5. LESSONS LEARNED .................................................................................................................. 46

Annexes ....................................................................................................................................................... 48

List of Tables and Figures ............................................................................................................................ 48

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page iii

LIST OF ACCRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS AVR : Automatic Voltage Regulator

AWP : Annual Work Plan

BRIDGE : Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections

CCMG : Christian Church Monitoring Group

CDC : Centre for Disease Control

CMOS : Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

CSO : Civil Society Organisation

CVE : Continuous Voter Education

CVR : Continuous Voter Registration

DFID : Department for International Development

DNRPC : Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship

ECZ : Electoral Commission of Zambia

EIMS : Elections Information Management System

EMB : Electoral Management Body

EU : European Union

GRZ : Government of the Republic of Zambia

IBT : Invitation to Bid

ICT : Information and Communication Technology

IDEA : International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

INRIS : Integrated National Registration Information System

IT : Information Technology

MISA : Media Institute for Southern Africa

MMD : Movement for Multi-Party Democracy

NCC : National Constitution Conference

NDI : National Democratic Institute

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page iv

NEA : National Execution Agency

NEX : National Execution

NRC : National Registration Card

NSC : National Steering Committee

NVET : National Voter Education Team

OD : Organisation Development

OYCD : Olympic Youth Development Centre

OYV : Operation Young Vote

PF : Patriotic Front

PMS : Performance Management System

POA : Public Order Act

PVT : Parallel Vote Tabulation

SADC : Southern African Development Community

SC : Steering Committee

TCDZC : Technical Committee on the Draft Zambian Constitution

TSC : Technical Sub Committee

TSC : Technical Support Team

TTF : Train The Facilitator

TV : Television

UNDP : United Nations Development Programme

UNEG : United Nations Evaluation Group

UNICEF : United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund

UPND : United Party for National Development

UPS : Uninterrupted Power Supply

USAID : United States Aid for International Development

USD : United States Dollar

VEF : Voter Education Facilitator

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page v

ZCAS : Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies

ZCID : Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue

ZNBC : Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation

ZNWLG : Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page vi

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Terminal Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Management Project (2009-2012) was commissioned with the following specific objectives;

1. To provide an in-depth and independent assessment of progress or lack of achievement of stated goal, objectives and results;

2. Assess the extent to which the project has built the capacity of the Electoral

Commission of Zambia and other targeted national institutions and non-

state organisations for effective management of the electoral cycle;

3. Draw up and document key successes, challenges, lessons learnt, innovations and best practices from the project and make recommendations for future support on electoral processes.

The evaluation also reviews the appropriateness of the form of assistance

provided, with a view to identifying lessons and making recommendations for future development cooperation around support to the electoral cycle management in Zambia. Overall the scope of the evaluation focused on the

following four criteria which were used to assess the level and quality of contribution the project made to the country’s electoral cycle of 2009 to 2012.

Relevance: The design of the project addressed a broad range of areas in which the need for improvement was identified in order to contribute to the

country’ democratic development. The project placed particular emphasis on capacity building in key players in the country’s electoral process, including state and non-state actors, in which systems and processes for supporting the

elections were targeted for improvement. In particular, the project sought to (i) build capacity in state institutions (ECZ and DNRPC) for managing the electoral process; (ii) build capacity in non-state institutions for enhancing

women and youth participation in the political process of the country; (iii) augment mechanisms for conflict resolution among political players before,

during, and after elections; (iv) improve domestic elections monitoring and observation; (v) enhance mechanism for inter-party dialogue; (vi) promote balanced and accurate media coverage of election events; and (vii) support the

review of the legal framework for elections. With “Electoral Cycle” model which the project adopted, Cooperating Partner support which was harnessed under

the project focused on addressing a comprehensive need driven issues throughout the electoral cycle rather than attending to isolated issues during election times. Given this focus, the project was Relevant (R) to the national

democratic governance development objectives.

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page vii

Efficiency: Original budget for the project over the four years of its lifespan was USD 19,810, 416. With the coming on board of the Department

for International Development (DFID) and the United States Aid for International Development (USAID), the total committed funding to the project

increased to USD 23,895,201.77. As of end of 2011, 60.6% of the total project budget (including funds received in 2011 from DFID and USAID) and 80% of the actual funds received had been utilized. The balance of the funding was to

be utilized during the period to the end of the project in December 2012. The Project Steering Committee (SC) and Technical Support Team (TST, collaborated effectively with the ECZ, DNRPC, and non state actors to provide

policy, strategic and technical direction and operational guidance. Technical Assistance was adequate and facilitated the implementation and completion of

activities to achieve stated results. For this reason, the projects efficiency in resource utilisation was Satisfactory (S).

Effectiveness: Overall, the Programme mobilized Cooperating Partner support to deliver benefits to the country’s electoral process that would otherwise not have been attainable with ease through other funding from the

Government of Zambia. Most significantly, the benefits delivered by the project include the following;

i. Credible tripartite 2011 elections whose results were endorsed by political parties, international monitors and local observers as being an

expression of the will of the Zambian people. ii. Significantly reduced incidences of political violence before, during and

after the 2011 elections and beyond;

iii. An increased number of Zambians who have been able to make informed decisions on their involvement and participation in the electoral process

resulting from the implementation of a vibrant voter education programme;

iv. Increased number of women and youths participating in the political

process of the country; v. Increased dialogue between political parties and the establishment of

structures and systems for dispute and conflict resolution; vi. Strengthened institutional capacities of beneficiary state and non-state

institutions.

The project provided ground-breaking support to the improved enfranchisement of Zambians through IT capacity building in the ECZ and

DNRPC for effective voter and civic registration respectively. In addition, through a sustained voter education programme over a period of more than one

year, the project enabled a large population of Zambians to make informed decisions to participate in the country’s electoral process. Against this background, it can be concluded that the project’s achievement of its objectives

was Highly Satisfactory (HS).

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page viii

Sustainability: The primary focus of the project was on contributing to democratic governance in Zambia through capacity building in institutions that

have a stake in the management of the electoral system of the country as well as supporting non-state actors and social groups to be more participative in elections processes of the country. With the support from the project in the

areas of organisational and IT infrastructure capacity enhancement, the ECZ has significantly improved its effectiveness and efficiency as an Electoral Management Body (EMB). The institution’s improved capacity as am EMB was

demonstrated recently (January 2015) by its ability to deliver an election with highly rated professionalism within a period of two months. By and large, the

institution’s functions such as election results management and voter registration are backed by sound IT infrastructure which is still up-to-date. Similarly, the voter education function is well integrated in the ECZ mandate

and the institution has spurred the sustainability of the intended results in this area by facilitating the integration of voter education in the school

curricula and the establishment of voter education clubs in schools. With regard to DNRPC, the implementation of the INRIS component of the

project has continued beyond the project’s lifespan with a considerable degree of progress. As is the case with ECZ, DNRPC has been a major beneficiary of IT infrastructure development support aimed at introducing a biometric national

identity card for Zambians.

As observed, the technological upgrades in both institutions have been implemented with careful consideration of the appropriateness of the technology and for this reason, there is scope for long term sustainability of

project achievements. However, policy support measures will play a major role in the sustainability of results of the project interventions. For this reason, while the introduction of the biometric identity card is backed by a review of

some pieces of legislation, which enhances the long term sustainability of the results of this intervention, the investment in ECZ’s IT infrastructure for CVR

is not adequately backed by policy support measures which guarantee that there is central treasury funding at all times to sustain the CVR process. Notwithstanding these minor risks, the sustainability of project results is

Moderately Likely (ML).

Impact: To a large measure, the Support to the Electoral Cycle project had a significant impact on advancing the democratic governance agenda of Zambia. In the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), the government has committed

itself to enhancing good governance by focusing on human and infrastructure development for governance institutions to improve their delivery capacities. Through its support to the capacity development of the ECZ and DNRPC, the

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page ix

project made a direct contribution to this good governance building process of the country with its focus on strengthening the delivery capacities of these two

governance institutions. With the support of the project, the ECZ’s delivery capacity as an Election Management Body (EMB) was significantly enhanced

and as a result the institution was able to deliver the 2011 general elections in a credible manner and under peaceful conditions as compared to previous election events. Beyond the 2011 elections, the ECZ has continued to

demonstrate its build capacity to effectively manage elections as evidenced by its ability to prepare for and deliver, within a short period of time, a credible Presidential election in January 2015.

Overall, the achievements of the project included (i) registering 86% of eligible

voters before the 2011 national elections (ii) more women were ready to stand as candidates in the 2011 elections; (iii) training of staff members from the ECZ, District Electoral Officers, and over polling staff to effectively manage

election day; (iv) training media practitioners in ethical reporting and reducing elections-related violence; (v) training voter education facilitators; (vi) training

traditional leaders in civic and voter education; (vii) developing a new results management system to facilitate the transmission of election results to the public within 48 hours after the closing of voting polls; and (viii) developing a

legislative review process for electoral proceedings to ensure their fairness and transparency. Based on these results the project’s impact was Significant (S).

Summary of recommendations

1. Although ECZ has received considerable support in terms of organisational capacity strengthening, detailed analysis of areas where external support would be required should be undertaken so as not to allow the weaknesses

in these areas become operational challenges for the institution in future. Some of the areas in which ECZ will require further support include the following:

a. Capacity building for voter education for staff still needs to be scaled up

to create a broader and stronger national pool of trainers who have undergone Train-The-Facilitator (TTF) programme;

b. Creation of a national cadre of voter education facilitators for the deaf and blind to specifically take care of the needs of these special groups of citizens using specially developed facilitation materials;

c. The National Voter Education Team (NVET) should be expanded from the

present membership of two people to at least 25 people nationally;

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page x

d. Electoral staff training in ECZ should be advanced further through

conducting the BRIDGE workshop for the accreditation of ECZ personnel and

identified future core-trainers.

2. Provide capacity building support to CSOs for them to set up and use credible PVT during elections.

3. More resources need to be invested in intensifying the relationship between

ECZ and DNRPC and bring it to a level where civil and voter registration will be seamlessly linked.

4. The ECZ should endeavour to enter into high level policy dialogue with government to ensure that resources are secured to support the CVR programme, which was abandoned due to lack of funding from central

treasury.

5. A formal body at the national level should be established to ensure the follow-up and involvement of beneficiaries (such as CSOs). A local Follow-up committee under the leadership of the Church mother bodies but

collaborating with a structure linked to Parliament, for instance, could play a positive role in creating an enabling environment for the scaling-up of project results.

6. Future support to civic and voter education should ensure that CSOs play a lead role with ECZ playing an oversight role (though setting standards) and

providing quality assurance.

7. ECZ should be supported to invest in the use of alternative IT platforms,

such as mobile phone technology, to bring reality to the concept of continuous voter education to supplement the efforts of other players such as CSOs. This should also apply to the increased and continuous use of

mass communication avenues, such as television, outside election periods.

8. Future support to the electoral process should take into consideration the need to pay attention to issues relating to the Constitution making process. One such area in which UNDP could render such support could be public

information and civic education campaign on the constitution making process, and the role and implications of the draft constitution.

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page xi

Lessons Learned

1. UNDP supports building systems in targeted institutions, but these institutions politicize this support through over reliance on politicians. This

is the case with the DNRPC INRIS component of the project which fell in the hands of politicians and as a result suffered serious setbacks in implementation.

2. UNDP support invested in resources in building local expertise to develop systems for improving the electoral process. The current Electoral

Information Management System (EIMS) in ECZ was developed by local staff using less financial resources than would have been the case if foreign

expertise had been brought in to develop a system that was likely to remain alien to ECZ.

3. The continuation of electoral cycle support model should also focus on institutional barrier-removal. Even if interaction with governmental

institutions can sometimes be cumbersome, it is a necessary component of any structure that is meant to be perennial. Including ministerial representatives in the national structure of the programme or at least

inviting them in high-level meetings is the most cost-effective way to raise th A formal body at the national level should be established to ensure the follow-up and involvement of beneficiaries (such as CSOs). A local Follow-up

committee under the leadership of the Church mother bodied, for instance, could play a positive role in creating an enabling environment for the

scaling-up of project results.

4. A formal body at the national level should be established to ensure the follow-up and involvement of beneficiaries (such as CSOs). A local Follow-up

committee under the leadership of the Church mother bodied, for instance, could play a positive role in creating an enabling environment for the scaling-up of project results.

5. High level donor coordination in the project was not regular due to

representation which involved people (such as Heads of Diplomatic

Missions) who are in a difficult position to spare time to attend to project related matters.

6. The project helped donors to maximize their contribution to the electoral process without incurring transaction costs on their part.

7. The project did not put in place a residual fund to support continuity of CSO involvement in the electoral process, such as voter education.

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page xii

8. The use of mixed procurement modalities involving UNDP and local procurement processes using UNDP guidelines helped build in flexibility

and minimized delays in processing low value procurements by ECZ.

9. UNDP ordinarily works with government establishments and therefore pays

more attention to government needs. For this reason some donors felt their interests were subdued as they could not take a strong stand on certain

issues concerning government contribution to project implementation.

10. Interaction between ECZ and UNDP was healthy and adequate. However,

DNRPC did not enjoy a very ‘constructive’ relationship with UNDP at all levels of engagement in the implementation of the project.

11. Project terminal evaluations are an invaluable source of information regarding what worked well and what did not work well in project

implementation. Such information is useful for future use in the design of other projects and also for tracking of and making improvements on the results of the project. However, these evaluations should be undertaken

immediately as part of the project closing down procedures as a long time lapse in between project closing and the conduct of a terminal evaluation

could result into valuable information not being captured partly due to the relocation of people that were associated with the project and partly due to the tendency among people to relegate important project issues to ‘history’ as they become committed to other engagements with the passage of time.

Independent External Evaluation of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia (2009-2012) Page 1

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the evaluation

This evaluation is intended to examine and assess the extent to which the expected results were achieved, the contribution of outputs to project

outcomes, and their likely impact, relevance and general sustainability.

In the ToR document (See Annex 1), the specific objectives provided which contribute to the overall purpose of the evaluation are:


2. Assess the extent to which the project has built the capacity of the

Electoral Commission of Zambia and other targeted national institutions and non-state organisations for effective management of the electoral cycle;

3. Draw up and document key successes, challenges, lessons learnt,

innovations and best practices from the project and make

recommendations for future support on electoral processes.

1.2 Scope of the evaluation

The scope of the evaluation was focused on the criteria outlined below.

Under each of the criteria an attempt was made to address specific issues

which provided overall guidance to the evaluation.

i. Relevance: The extent to which the design of the project and the

implementation of activities responded to the recommendations of

international and domestic observer groups on past elections and the needs

identified in previous studies, including (i) (SADC) Parliamentary Forum,

which conducted a mid-term of the 2006 Election Trust Fund; (ii) the

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) audit

of the 2006 elections; and (iii) the Steadman Group exercise in which 1,500

people were interviewed country-wide on issues related to the 2006 election

process. This aspect of the evaluation also paid attention to the

appropriateness of the project design to the UNDP’s approach to electoral

assistance.


ii. Efficiency: The extent to which resources that were at the disposal of the

project were used economically, including the worthiness of planned

activities and their contribution to the achievement of desired project

outputs. An additional consideration under this aspect of the evaluation

was the extent to which the project funds, expertise and time were

prudently used to produce the desired outputs.

iii. Effectiveness: To what extent project objectives were achieved and

contributed to the expected outcomes, including improved sustained

capacity of the ECZ to plan and d manage elections, improved and balanced

coverage of elections by media, increased involvement of women in elections,

improved participation of civil society, and improved understanding of the

election process among voters.

iv. Sustainability: The potential for the continuation of the impact achieved

and of the delivery mechanism following the withdrawal of existing funds.

v. Impact: The extent of the project´s contribution to the preparations

for and accomplishment of the 2011 tripartite elections, considering the

project design and execution,

In general, information to be gathered was underpinned by the following two

considerations;

i. Stakeholder participation:

Throughout the evaluation process, we were aware that information that

would be received from the stakeholders in general and the UNDP staff in particular would greatly influence the quality of the evaluation process. For this reason, we sought to secure high level participation from them in order

to ensure the credibility of the evaluation results.

ii. Ethics

Given the need to engage stakeholder in a constructive and objective manner, we recognized and protected the rights and confidentiality of the

respondents in accordance with the code of professional conduct adopted by the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG).

1.3 Methodology

According to UNDP, "Project evaluation assesses the performance of a project in achieving its intended results. It yields useful information on project implementation arrangements and the achievement of outputs. It is at this


level that direct cause and attribution can be addressed given the close causal linkage between the intervention and its effect or output. Project evaluation provides a basis for the evaluation of outcomes and programmes."1

With this understanding of the purpose for project evaluations, we took an

approach that emphasized on a wide range of data sources that comprehensively fed the evaluation process in order to bring out objective facts on project implementation and achievement of outputs. In this regard,

we used a mixed method approach to capture qualitative and quantitative data. This included the following:

i. Comprehensive desk review of relevant documents;

ii. Design of open-ended interviews and structured surveys;

Most importantly, focused interviews (see Annex 2 for list people

interviewed) were held with key stakeholders including; (i) the ECZ; (ii) The DNRPC; (iii) civil society; (iv) media; (v) and (vi) Cooperating Partners. It ought to be mentioned that in order to gain as much information as

possible, interviews take an open ended format so as to garner a greater amount of information through probing responses received from the people

being interviewed.

The selection of documents reviewed (see Annex 3 for list of documents

reviewed) and the stakeholders to be interviewed was largely guided by the UNDP team. However, where need arose, we reviewed additional documents and interviewed other people not suggested by UNDP for the purpose of

getting a diversity of views or opinions on a specific issue.

1.3.1 Risks and Limitations

Given the constraints of time and the possible limited access to some

stakeholders due to the timing of the evaluation process, which coincided with the festive period at the end of 2014 and the conduct of the

Presidential election in January 2015, the interviews conducted were restricted to Lusaka-based stakeholders. In addition, many targeted informants were not easily accessible which led to the consultant relying

heavily on documented information rather than on the views and opinions of relevant people. Most notably, the Consultant was not able to meet any

informant from the Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MFNP) despite the central role this ministry played in the implementation of the project as the National Executing Agency (NEA).

1 UNDP; Project Level Evaluation Guidance for conducting Terminal Evaluations of UNDP Supported Projects:

Evaluation Office, 2012, page 2.


1.3.2 Project achievement rating

The project evaluation process applied a rating system that sought to provide the Evaluator’s assessment of the project’s performance in various

areas. Table 1 below shows the rating categories that were applied.

Table 1: Ratings Categories

Rating Scales

Outcomes,

Effectiveness, Efficiency, M&E

Sustainability Relevance Impact Ratings

Highly Satisfactory (HS):The project had no shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives in terms of relevance, effectiveness, or efficiency

Satisfactory (S):

There were only minor shortcomings

Moderately Satisfactory (MS): there were moderate shortcomings

Moderately Unsatisfactory (MU):

the project had significant shortcomings

Unsatisfactory (U): there were

major shortcomings in the achievement of project objectives in terms of relevance, effectiveness, or efficiency

Highly Unsatisfactory (HU):

The project had severe shortcomings

Likely (L):negligible risks

to sustainability

Moderately Likely (ML):

moderate risks

Moderately Unlikely (MU):

significant risks

Unlikely (U):

severe risks

Relevant (R)

Not Relevant (NR)

Significant (S)

Minimal (M)

Negligible (N)

1.3.3 Evaluation timing opportunity

One of the off-shoots of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Management

project was the training to Law enforcement agencies in effectively policing election events in the country. This initiative, which was a response to

address an emerging national electoral challenge during the Kasama and Mufumbwe by elections in 2009 and 2010 respectively which were conducted under hostile environments due to widespread electoral violence

among competing political parties. This evaluation therefore provided a good opportunity to measure the relevance and impact of the project with regard to the capacity of law enforcement agencies to manage or mitigate electoral

violence during the Presidential elections of January 2015. For this reason,


this election event provided a good source of information with regard to the level of contribution this project may have made to improving policing of

elections events.

1.3.4 Structure of the Evaluation report

This report is divided into six sections. The first section, which is the

introduction, outlines the purpose of the evaluation as described in the Terms of Reference of the exercise. In addition the scope of the evaluation is described, in terms of the four evaluation criteria used for the evaluation;

namely relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of the project. Lastly, this section also outlines the methodology used to conduct

the evaluation.

The second section of the report describes the project and its development context, with a focus on (i) project start and duration; (ii) problems the project sought to address; (iii) immediate and development objectives of the

project; and (iv) expected project results.

In the third section of the report, finding and conclusions are described, using the four evaluation criteria described in paragraph one above of this

subsection, while in the fourth section of the report project results are examined using the matrix of strategic area of intervention and expected outputs presented in Table 1 (page 16) in the original Project Document2.

In the fifth section of the report, the main recommendations are presented, while section six of the report presents the Lessons learned in the course of project implementation.

2 GRZ/UNDP; Strengthening Electoral Process in Zambia; Support to the Electoral Cycle 2009-2012 ; ZMB10/00071651; p.16


2. The project and its development context

2.1 Project start and duration

Project implementation commenced without delay. Following the signing of the Project Document on 4th November 2009, the initial project implementation activities were set in motion and as a result, between 4th November and 31st

December 2009 the following progress was reported;

Project Officer was recruited;

Recruitment process of Project Manager had commenced;

Development of specifications for the mobile voter registration kits in collaboration with ECZ, UNDP Procurement support office, and UNDP was

underway;

Invitation to Bid (ITB) for mobile voter registration kits was launched for

the submission of bids;

The approach of civil society support was aligned to the electoral cycle

timeline through consultative meetings.

Overall, the timely start of project implementation gave ample time for project

activities to be implemented and thus contributed to the successful achievement of the following key results, which were critical to the

achievement of the overall project objective as defined in the project log frame, which was the delivery of credible 2011 tripartite elections;

i. Capacity building in the ECZ was done systematically, using an

Organisation Development (OD) approach which focused on developing a five year (2010 – 2015) strategic plan, organisation restructuring and improving staff performance through the introduction of a new

Performance Management System (PMS). At the conclusion of this exercise in 2010, the operational capacity of the ECZ, as an Electoral

Management Body (EMB), was significantly improved well in time to prepare the institution for effectively managing the electoral process leading to the 2011 tripartite elections. In addition, through a systematic

needs assessment, Information Technology (IT) capacity development needs of the ECZ and the DNRPC were thoroughly identified, albeit the delays in addressing these needs in the later institution.

ii. Voter registration was conducted over a period of eleven (11) months from June 2010 to May 2011 in preparation for the 2011 general

elections. The timely procurement of the mobile voter registration kits facilitated the registration process, which resulted in the capture an unprecedented 5,167,154 (86%) of eligible voters onto the voters’ register


for the 2011 general elections, as compared to 71 % of the eligible voters captured on the register for the 2006 general elections.

iii. The early start of project implementation in 2009 gave ample time to ECZ to standardise voter education materials and over a period of two years,

up to 2011, CSOs got fully engaged in implementing their voter and civic education programmes. In turn, this gave the general citizenry ample chance to understand their obligations and rights to vote. To a large

extent, the high voter turnout (53% of registered voters) during the 2011 general elections can be attributable to this factor.

Initially, the project was designed to be implemented over the period from 2009

to 2012. However, due to set backs experienced in the implementation of the component focusing on strengthening DNRPC, the implementation period of

the project was extended two times leading to its finally closing down in December 2014. With regard to timeliness project start-up therefore, the process is rated as having been Highly Satisfactory (HS) as assessed against

the achievements mentioned above.

2.2 Problems that the project sought to address

Since the reintroduction of multi-party democracy in Zambia in 1991, successive governments have repeatedly sounded their commitment to building structures and systems for promoting good governance and democratic indulgence. As a national commitment, this is reflected in the aspiration stated

in the Vision 20303 to “Develop political systems and structures while retaining the roots and positive aspects of their own mould of social, cultural and moral values”. While being faced with numerous challenges of democracy building, the country has exhibited unfaltering commitment to plural politics and democratic values.

Over a period of twenty three years since the advent of multiparty politics, Zambia has conducted four general elections and two Presidential elections. Some of these elections have been heavily disputed, such as in 2006, while

others have been described as having been free and fair, such as the 2011 tripartite elections. Admittedly, numerous challenges continue to exist in the electoral process of the country, ranging from limitations in aspects of

capacities of institutions involved in or contributing to the management of the electoral process to inadequate participation of some social groups, such as

women, in the political process. However, regardless of these challenges, the existing electoral system has become to be generally recognized in the country as representing a crucial element in the effective promotion of sustainable

democratic governance and is now accepted as being one of the most important

3 Republic of Zambia; Vision 2030; page 2


ways citizens can participate in decisions that affect their lives and hold their representatives accountable for results. Related to this, the nation is still

engaged in what has now become a protracted Constitution making process. Part of this process relates to improving the electoral process. It is anticipated

that these improvements to the electoral process will have an effect on the way elections are managed in Zambia.

2.3 Immediate and development objectives of the project

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Trust Fund to support

the 2006 elections marked the beginning of harmonised Cooperating Partner

electoral assistance to Zambia. Through this fund, nine Cooperating Partners

pooled funding (totaling USD7.3million) to support the electoral process in the

following areas;

i. Development of a roadmap for the implementation of the 2006 elections;

ii. Establishment of a continuous voter registration process;

iii. Implementation of civic/voter education programmes with the

involvement of civil society organisations (CSO);

iv. Engagement of the media in the dissemination of electoral information;

v. Documentation of lessons learned; and

vi. Development of support systems for the coordination of international

observers and training of local Election Monitors.

This Trust fund, which was widely acclaimed as a successful and practical demonstration of development cooperation harmonization, was followed by the 2008 Preparatory Assistance which was funded by the UNDP and the European

Union (EU). This assistance sought to address the capacity development needs in the ECZ and to conduct a comprehensive capacity needs assessment in the DNRPC. Further in the same year (2008) Cooperating Partners provided

support to the Presidential election resulting from the passing on of the incumbent President in that year. In the Logical Framework the overall

objective of the project is stated as “improved democratic governance through development of a free, fair, transparent and efficient electoral system in Zambia” .This objective justifies the focus of the Cooperating Partners’ support to

capacity development in the ECZ and the DNRPC, which are the two national institutions that facilitate citizens’ participation in the democratic process

through voter registration and civil registration respectively. In addition, through the project’s support to non-state actors, especially civil society organisations, who provide the oversight functionality in the electoral process,

this objective also recognizes the multiplicity of roles played by different actors in the provision of a free, fair, transparent and efficient electoral process.

Overall the development objective of the project was in tandem with the


national ethos of plural politics which has characterised Zambia’s political landscape since the reintroduction of multiparty democracy in 1991.

2.4 Expected project results

The support to the electoral cycle management project was designed to achieve the following eight expected results:

1. Enhanced organisational effectiveness and efficiency of ECZ;

2. A workable Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) system developed with

increased number of registered voters;

3. Digitized (new biometric) National Registration Cards (NRC) issued to

Zambian citizens;

4. Revised legal framework for elections (Electoral Act, Code of Conduct etc.)

and dispute resolution mechanisms;

5. Increased women’s participation in the electoral process;

6. Capacity of Media actors’ enhanced and effective media monitoring

mechanisms in place for improved media coverage of elections;

7. Civic, Voter education and domestic observation programmes enhanced;

8. Inter-party dialogue strengthened.

These expected project results were arrived at through a multi-stakeholder

consultative process and were therefore reflective of the challenges identified during previous election events and were also based on anecdotal observations

of areas of weakness of the electoral process in Zambia. This point is further elaborated upon below in section 3 of this report. Given the congruence between the problems identified then in the country’s electoral management

process, the development objective of the project and the expected project results, it is evident that the project was relevant (R) to the democratic

development needs of the country.

2.5 Key Stakeholders and their roles in the project

The stakeholders listed, with their roles outlined, in Table 2 below played different contributory functions in the implementation of the project. Through consultations with them, vital information was collected which fed into the

process of preparing this report.


Table 2: Key Project Stakeholders

Stakeholder Role played in the project

Ministry of Finance and National Planning National Executing Agency - Project coordination, oversight and monitoring on behalf of GRZ

United Nations Development Programme Implementing Agency

Electoral Commission of Zambia Implementing Partner

Department of National Registration, Passports and Citizenship

Implementing Partner

Media Institute of Southern Africa Implementing Partner

Zambia Centre for Certified Accountants Implementing Partner

Olympic Youth Development Centre Implementing Partner

The Key project stakeholders listed in the Table above played various roles in the implementation of the project. These roles are outlined below under each of

the stakeholder.

2.5.1 Ministry of Finance and National Planning

As the National Executing Agency, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MFNP) was entity responsible for managing the execution of the

activities related to the project at a national level, and to UNDP at the international level. Through its oversight role, the MFNP coordinated the full

participation of ECZ and DNRPC as well as other government agencies with mandates relevant to the electoral process in Zambia.

The role of the MFNP as the NEA was widely acknowledged among other stakeholders as being central to the effective management and successful

completion of the Project. As noted, collaboration between it and the UNDP Country Office was Highly Satisfactory (HS) as evidenced by the high level consultations between the Minister and the UNDP Country Director on matters

relating to project implementation. Equally importantly, there was a clear separation of responsibilities between the UNDP Country Office and the GRZ as stipulated in the Letter of Agreement signed by the two parties. This agreement

took away any risks of role conflicts between the two parties in project implementation. As noted from the minutes of the Steering Committee

meetings, the MFNP was consistently represented at these meetings and made important contributions to their proceedings.

The open nature of the relationship between the MFNP and UNDP Country

office is also reflected in their consultative engagements in which they were involved o reach agreement on project implementation extension on two

occasions.


2.5.2 United Nations Development Programme

As Implementing Agency, UNDP was responsible for the timely and cost-effective delivery of the agreed project outcomes. Through the Letter of Agreement, the UNDP was tasked with the following service delivery responsibilities to the project:

Project procurement especially related to the Continuous Voter Registration;

Procurement support to DNRPC;

Support to non-state actors which included civil society organisation,

women groups, media, and political parties to enhance their role in electoral processes through a grant-making scheme;

Recruitment of project personnel

In addition, UNDP also had co-financing obligations involving USD 926,956.00 which it contributed to the project budget. With regard to project

implementation coordination, UNDP provided the Technical Support Team (TST), which was housed in the ECZ and the Project Support Team (PST), which operated from the Country Office. Through the TST, which was headed

by the Project Manager, the UNDP facilitated the achievement of project results in each of the intervention areas. Similarly, through the PST, the UNDP provided the backstopping support to the overall implementation of the project

with the involvement of the other Implementing Partners.

Through consultations with the MFNP, the UNDP was also responsible for securing approvals on the project document revisions and amendments which did not involve significant changes in the immediate objectives, outputs or

activities of the project.

2.5.3 Implementing Partners

The key Implementing Partners (i.e. ECZ and DNRPC) had duo roles to play in

project implementation. On the one hand, they were recipients of capacity building support from the project in targeted areas to enhance their contributions to the management of the electoral process of the country. On

the other hand they had specific responsibilities assigned to them with to strengthening other institutions or system related to the electoral process. In this regard, ECZ played a key role in supporting the capacity enhancement of

CSOs in the area of voter and civic education, while DNRPC assumed the responsibility of putting in place systems for improving civil registration as well

as introducing the biometric national identity card for Zambian citizens, a process which is still ongoing.

Other Implementing Partners, namely Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA – Zambia), Zambia Centre for Certified Accountants (ZICA) and the Olympic


Youth Development Centre (OYDC) had specific for capacity building among civil society organisations and youths.

Collectively, the effectiveness of contributions of these stakeholders to the implementation of the project can be assessed as being Highly Satisfactory (HS) as evidenced by the following major achievements;

i. A well coordinated project which was implemented with the involvement of all stakeholders;

ii. Demonstrated improved capacity of the ECZ to manage the electoral process of the country;

iii. A comprehensive voter registration programme which captured an unprecedented 86% of eligible voters in preparation for the

2011elections;

iv. A comprehensive civic and voter education programme which was implemented successfully in preparation for the 2011 elections

v. Well managed election 2011 elections whose results were widely accepted as credible;

vi. Increased participation of women in the election process which resulted

in at least 50% women candidates retaining their Parliamentary seats;

vii. Increased participation of youths in the electoral process

Although the DNRPC component of the project was not completed during the life span of the project, activities under this component are still being implemented and considerable progress has been reported as explained in section 3.4 of this report.

2.6 Risks and Mitigation strategies

In the project document, nine risks were identified which had the potential to pose challenges to project implementation. However, the assessment of the

likelihood of some risks to occur was poor. (i) The risk of delays in establishing a data sharing framework between DNRPC and ECZ was rated as being Low. This data sharing framework was never established throughout the life of the

project. Moreover one of the mitigation strategies of establishing early dialogue between ECZ and DNRPC prior to project implementation was never fully

achieved. (ii) The risk of delays in enactment of amendments to the Constitution Review process was rated as being medium. This risk turned out to be high as the Constitution review process has remained a protracted

exercise to date. (iii) The risk associated with delays in implementation of


structural reviews of the ECZ and DNRPC was rated as being low. In reality this risk turned out to be high as the structural reviews to the two institutions

have not been implemented due to funding constraints. However the mitigation strategy associated with this risk was sound as the two institutions have

continued to operate within the existing structures.

On the basis of these observations, it can be concluded that the risk identification and mitigation was Moderately Unsatisfactory (MU).


3. Findings and conclusions

3.1 Project design formulation

The project was designed to provide technical and financial assistance which focused on capacity building. As pointed out in the Project Document4, the overall project aim was to provide support for strengthening the electoral

process in Zambia through capacity development of the ECZ and DNRPC as well as Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in organising and managing the

electoral process. In particular, the project was focused at capacity development in the following actors in the Zambian electoral process;

i. The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ);

ii. The Department of National Registration, Passports and Citizenship

(DNRPC) of the Ministry of Home Affairs;

iii. Non State actors

Against the background of this need for capacity development in the electoral process in Zambia, the support of the project was conceived to produce the expected results itemized in 2.4 above.

According to previous studies and other anecdotal observations in the past, the electoral regime in Zambia was characterised by generally flawed electoral

management practices. Following the disputed 2001 elections, the government took a step to appoint an Electoral Reform Technical Committee and a

Constitutional Review Commission which were assigned the task of reviewing the electoral and legal frameworks respectively. This resulted in the enactment of the new Electoral Act No. 12 of 2006. This new Act provided for the legal

framework under which the 2006 tripartite elections were conducted. In addition, the Act also provided for a strengthened mandate of the ECZ and

stiffer penalties for corruption, illegal electoral practices, and other electoral related offences.

While these improvements were indicative of a positive thrust toward democratic development in the country, numerous challenges were also evident. These included the need to:

i. Harmonise the election related legal instruments;

4 Strengthening the Electoral Process in Zambia: Support to the Electoral Cycle 2009 – 2012 (ZMB10/00071651);

GRZ/UNDP Project Document; page 1.


ii. Further strengthen the capacity of the ECZ to make it more effective as an EMB;

iii. Elevate and promote the participation of women in the political life in general and in the electoral process in particular;

iv. Improve the regulatory framework for the media;

v. Enhance the collaboration between the ECZ and the DNRPC to ensure civic and voter registration were synchronized.

The above challenges, which were identified by international and domestic observer groups, were further justified by other studies which were commissioned by the ECZ, with the support of Cooperating Partners. These

studies included the following;

i. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary

Forum, which conducted a mid-term review of the 2006 Election Trust Fund;

ii. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) audit of the 2006 elections; and

iii. The Steadman Group exercise in which 1,500 people were interviewed country-wide on issues related to the 2006 election process.

These studies drew important lessons regarding the electoral process in

Zambia and on the basis of these lessons, landmark recommendations were made which emphasised the need to shift Technical Assistance from an event driven approach to a long term and systematic electoral cycle approach. Based

on this new approach, the Support to the Electoral Cycle Management Project (2009 – 2012) was initiated at the request of the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) to UNDP for support to strengthen the management of the

electoral cycle in Zambia. The conception of this project was influenced by the “window of opportunity” which emerged for;

i. “effectively contributing to the ongoing Constitution-making process by identifying pieces of legislation that can benefit from past election experiences” 5and

ii. “promoting meaningful and comprehensive participation of voters and all stakeholders in the election throughout the electoral cycle”6

5 Support to the Zambia Electoral Cycle (2009-2012) UNPD Project Document ; page 11

6 Ibid; page 11


Most importantly, this project was justified by its “electoral cycle” approach which UNDP endorses and “…which views electoral assistance as an ongoing or

cyclical activity rather than being event driven at discrete points during elections time”.7

Overall, this project had the overarching objective of developing the capacities of the ECZ, DNRPC and non-state actors for effective management of the electoral cycle and processes to address emerging national electoral challenges

as well as increase the integrity and public confidence in electoral systems in Zambia.

3.2 Logical Framework Analysis

The use of the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) to plan the project provided its designers with better and more relevant information regarding the inter-related key issues in the electoral process of Zambia. This approach guided the

logical analysis of these issues which were to be addressed by the project. In the resulting Logical Framework Matrix (LFM) the overall national democratic

governance development overall to which the project was contributing was well articulated and framed to address the desired long term benefits of the Zambian people with regard to democratic governance. With the peaceful

conduct of the 2011 elections, the results of which results were widely accepted as free and fair, the project made credible progress contributing to the nation’s

aspiration of “improved democratic governance through development of a free, fair, transparent and efficient electoral system in Zambia”.

At the national objective level, the indicators of achievement were generally infallible as they reflected what the Zambian electoral stakeholders desired to

see achieved in the electoral process. As an example, against the background of previous violent election events (such as the Kasama 2009 and the Mufumbwe 2010 bye-elections) and disputed election results, such as the 2006 general

elections, Zambians desired to build a conducive electoral environment in which elections are held under peaceful conditions and the election results are widely accepted as being free and fair. The project therefore sought to

contribute to this aspiration. However, much as the assumptions relating to the overall objective were realistic and conceivable, there were a lot of risks at

play which made it difficult for these assumptions to hold. Firstly, the project did not adequately provide for engagement with policy makers to put in place popularly agreed upon strategies, such as resource allocation, to ensure state

capacity to support and sustain free, fair, transparent, and efficient electoral system in the long term. Secondly, as observed, the bye-elections held after the

2011 elections and the 2015 Presidential elections have been characterised by

7 Ibid; page 12


incidents of electoral violence and reported cases of political intimidation perpetrated by the ruling party. These incidents have militated against the

concept “a free, fair, transparent and efficient electoral system”.

The specific objective (project purpose) to “address existing and emerging electoral challenges, including increased integrity of and public confidence in the electoral system in Zambia” fitted in well with the national commitment to

building good democratic governance as expressed in the nation’s vision 2030. With its emphasis on activities related to “capacity building” in national

governance institutions and among non-state actors, the intervention logic of the project’s LFM focused on what was widely recognized, among stakeholders,

as being the major root causes of the weaknesses in the electoral system of the country. The building of good democratic governance partly entails both enhancing and broadening citizens’ participation in the electoral process and

this is what was reflected in the achievement indicators related to the project purpose. For this reason, the indicators on (i) percentage of eligible voters registered for 2011 elections; (ii) percentage turnout of registered voters on

election day; and (iii) percentage of candidates standing for 2011 elections that are women, were all realistic as they were all fulfilled. However, the high

number of sixty eight (68) losing Parliamentary candidates petitioning the elections results indicated that the Electoral Act and Code of Conduct were still highly susceptible to breach by political parties and for this reason, the risk of

political anarchy was mitigated by the revised Code of Conduct which was in place at the time of the elections.

In relation to the expected results in the project LFM, the formulation of achievement indicators was in some cases blemished or not realistic. The

observations of the Evaluator on the indicators and the risks and assumptions are presented in Table 3 below.


Table 3: Analysis of the Expected Results performance Indicators and Assumptions and Risks

Expected results Achievement Indicators Assumptions and Risks Evaluator’s Comments

1. Enhanced

organisational

efficiency of ECZ

New Decentralized ECZ

Structure in Place; All components of EIMS in place

and being implemented;

Perception of the public,

political parties and civil

society towards ECZ independence and effectiveness

Consistent flow of funds from

CPs; availability of expertise; proper timeframe in place

including contingency

planning for by elections and

referenda.

Indicator underestimated the time Government

bureaucracy and required timeframe for completing

decentralization of an

institution;

Government funding was not provided to decentralize

ECZ

2. A workable Continuous

Voter Registration system developed;

increased number

registered voters

Numbers on voters roll;

Numbers of voters rejected due to inaccuracy of voters roll;

Numbers of new voters

registered who have come of

age since the 2006 registration

Cooperation of other agencies

and stakeholders; adequate

infrastructure in place.

A system for CVR was developed with the support

of the project. However Government did not make

available funds for ECZ to

implement CVR.

3. Digitized National

Register created; New

biometric NRCs issued

to Zambian citizens

New NRCs issued in digitized

format by 2010; All issued

NRCs in digital format by 2012; Digitized database

(including legacy data) in place

by 2011;

Cooperation of cardholders in

the replacement of old cards

Setbacks experienced to commence implementation

of the DNRPC component

of the project delayed completion and as a result,

this component has been

carried on beyond the

project life span.

4. Revised Legal

Framework for elections

(Electoral Code of Conduct etc) and

dispute resolution

mechanisms

New Electoral Act promulgated

by 2011, in line with

provisions of revised Constitution; Revised Code of

Conduct respected and

endorsed by stakeholders;

Time taken for & outcome of

dispute resolution

Timely completion of work by

the National Constitutional

Conference (NCC).

Due to political factors, the Constitution making

process remains a

protracted exercise partly resulting in the NCC being

resolved and replaced with

the TCDZC (see p.33 of this

report);



5. Increased women’s

participation in the

electoral process

Increased women’s

participation in the electoral

process

Willingness of women to

participate; cooperation of

political parties

Indicator was fulfilled with an increased number of

women participation in the

electoral process who were

sponsored by their political parties.

6. Capacity of Media

actors’ enhanced and

effective media

monitoring

mechanisms in place

for improved media coverage of elections.

Strengthened, recognized and

inclusive self-regulatory

structures in Zambian print &

electronic media; Percentage of

articles & news items reflecting

restrained and balanced coverage of election events;

Numbers of violations of Code

of Conduct by media

Willingness of all media houses

to be involved in dialogue and

self-regulation of the sector

During the life of the project this indicator was

fulfilled. However, this was

not sustainable as

polarized reporting was

again evident during the

2015 Presidential elections, with Government owned

print & electronic media

exhibiting biased reporting

toward the ruling party

while private media exhibiting bias towards

opposition parties.

7. Civic, Voter education

and domestic

observation

programmes enhanced

Level of knowledge of civic

rights and the meaning and

running of elections amongst

the public and youth in

schools; Numbers and quality of independent domestic

observation exercises; Number

of abstentions

Cooperation of other

stakeholders; existence of

countrywide structures that

can be used to effectively carry

out civic and voter education

Indicator has been largely fulfilled with introduction

of civic and voter education

programmes in schools and

increased electoral activism

among youths country-wide.



8. Political Parties’

capacity enhanced

Level of balance & type of

language used in political

parties' press releases and

other communication; Numbers and outcome of

dialogue meetings held

between political parties and

the public, civil society, the

media, ECZ and other stakeholders; Number of

professionally-run party

primaries; Numbers of women

candidates nominated by

political parties.

Willingness of all political

parties to be involved;

availability of suitable venues

for establishment of resource centres

Dialogue between political parties collectively and ECZ

is evident; however, among

political parties there is

little indication that there is willingness to engage in

dialogue;

Civil society still appear to be in a weak position to

dialogue directly with the

ruling party, but find

themselves in partnerships of ‘convenience’ with

opposition political parties.


3.3 Project Implementation and Management

The project was implemented using the National Execution (NEX) Modality in under which arrangement its execution was driven by the ECZ and DNRPC as

implementing partners, while the UNDP, as the Execution Agency, provided the Technical Support Team (TST) under the leadership of the Project Manager. This TST, which was housed in the ECZ, provided the day-to-day support to

project activity implementation while the UNDP Programme team provided overall quality assurance in the activity implementation process. Figure 1

below provides the structure of project management arrangements.

Figure 1: Project Management Structure

The design of the project put great emphasis on ensuring that stakeholder and donor coordination were maximized. To achieve this, two coordination

mechanisms and two management bodies were put in place. These are described below:

a. Coordination and information sharing:

Donor Coordination mechanism: This included Heads of donor

agencies and was co-chaired by UNDP and ECZ. The forum was concerned with donor coordination, with emphasis on high level policy

dialogue, collaboration and information sharing related to project implementation.

Project Steering

Committee

Technical Sub-

Committee

Technical Support Team

Civic/Voter Education

and Domestic Expert

Observation Ex

Media and Political

Parties Expert

Civic/Voter Education

Expert

Project Assurance

Project Support


Information sharing Forum: This forum was convened by ECZ to which

the invitees were typically organisations working in the elections field and other relevant officials from donor organisations. The Forum served the purpose of sharing knowledge on election activities and

harmonization of stakeholder efforts to avoid duplication of activities among them.

While coordination mechanisms were relevant and had the potential to play a key role in the implantation of the project, their effectiveness was undermined

by the seemingly non-binding arrangement of their engagement with each other. As it is known, Heads of Donor Agencies are intensely involved in many other high level national commitments which left them little time to attend to

project coordination issues. Similarly, the information sharing forum was a loose arrangement of players whose involvement with the project was largely

adhoc and therefore did not consistently contribute to the coordination process. In conclusion, although the Donor Coordination mechanism and the Information Sharing Forum had potential to contribute to project

implementation, their involvement was generally of low profile.

b. Management bodies:

The Steering Committee (SC): This Committee was responsible for setting strategy and providing general oversight of activities including

financial oversight and approving funding allocations as recommended by the Technical Support Team (TST). Within the SC, a Technical Sub-

Committee (TSC) was established and tasked with preparing the issues to be tabled and discussed in the SC. The TSC membership included representatives of the ECZ and other relevant beneficiaries.

Technical Support Team (TST): The TST was established within the

ECZ to facilitate easy transfer of knowledge to the beneficiary institutions and to facilitate open interaction between the project and non state actor beneficiaries of the project.

The meetings of the National Steering Committee (NSC), which took place twice

per year and the Technical Sub-Committee (TSC), which met once a month, were consistent and this was indicative of the effectiveness with which they played their oversight roles, especially with regard to the allocation of funding

towards implementation of activities. Based on the minutes of their meetings, the two committees were adequately attentive to detail regarding project implementation to the extent that even the most rudimentary issues

concerning the project were discussed and documented. As an example, the civic and voter registration programmes which were being implemented prior to

the 2011 elections were discussed in minute detail to the extent that the country-wide movement of Registration Officers from both DNRPC and ECZ


were closely monitored and reported at the NSC meetings. Overall therefore, the effectiveness of these management bodies was Satisfactory (S).

3.3.1 Annual Work Planning

On an annual basis, project implementation was guided by Annual Work Plans (AWP) which were agreed upon by both the ECZ and DNRPC as the Implementing Partners and UNDP as the National Execution Agency (NEA). The

AWPs generally provided adequate detail regarding overall project expected outcomes and outputs as well as setting out annual planned activities and targets to be achieved on a quarterly basis, which were tied to specific

budgetary allocations.

3.3.2 Project Implementation Reporting

At national level, UNDP submitted progress reports to Cooperating Partners semi-annually to provide information on areas of project support to the

beneficiaries and to appraise them on project implementation challenges during the reporting period. Overall, the progress reports provided adequate detail regarding project implementation activities and funding allocations

relating to each of the output areas. Further these reports also provided information on emerging issues relating to project implementation, including

any shortcomings in meeting planned targets. However, in the project results matrix of the annual progress reports, more emphasis was put on activity completion reporting while there was little attention to reporting on the

outcome of activity implementation. In some cases implemented activities were simply reported as “completed” without providing details on the outcomes of

the completion of activity implementation.

3.4 Project performance and impact

The evaluation of the performance of the project and its impact was done from

the perspective of assessing its delivery of results using five criteria, namely (i)

relevance; (ii) efficiency; (iii) effectiveness; (iv) sustainability; and (v) impact.

3.4.1 Relevance: Conformity of Project Purpose and Overall Goal to the

countries' needs related to improved democratic governance.

The broad range of areas in the electoral process in which need for

improvement was indentified directly influenced the design and implementation of the project. The conceptualization of the project was influenced by past

events in the electoral process, a number of which revealed serious shortcomings and flaws in the way elections were conducted in the country. While previous support initiatives to the electoral process were designed to


respond to the dictates of political events during the election process, The Support to the Electoral Cycle management project (2009 – 2012) took a more

proactive approach to address important elements of the electoral process. In this regard, the “Electoral Cycle” model which the project adopted spurred

concerted effort to improve the electoral process during a relatively “quiet time” which provided a window of opportunity for Cooperating Partner support to focus on addressing comprehensive need driven issues rather than simply

responding to “ isolated crises” in the election process. With this holistic approach and strategy, the project touched on virtually all key elements that contribute to attaining a vibrant and effective electoral process.

Overall, the project sought to address challenges in the electoral process that were either identified in previous election events or which manifested as emerging issues in previous democratic governance building efforts to entrench

political pluralism in the nation. Most critically, this project sought to (i) build capacity in state institutions (ECZ and DNRPC) for managing the electoral process; (ii) build capacity in non-state institutions for enhancing women and

youth participation in the political process of the country; (iii) augment mechanisms for conflict resolution among political players before, during, and

after elections; (iv) improve domestic elections monitoring and observation; (v) enhance mechanism for inter-party dialogue; (vi) promote balanced and accurate media coverage of election events; and (vii) support the review of the

legal framework for elections. With emphasis on these areas, the project invariably sought to address a cardinal national need to strengthen democratic governance by enhancing the capacity of the state and non-state actors that

facilitate citizens’ participation in the political process, as the key characteristic of democracy.

The relevance of the project to democratic governance building was further enhanced through the inclusion of implementing partners who were brought on board to address emerging issues relating to the fulfillment of the project purpose. This necessitated an amendment to the project document in

September 2012 to include the following implementing partners;

i. Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia to support capacity building of community radio stations;

ii. Zambia Centre for Accounting Studies (ZCAS): to build the project management, financial reporting and report writing capacities of the 11 CSOs which were contracted to work with the project;

iii. Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC): to support the enhancement of capacities of youth organisations and provide support toward ‘youth

friendly’ curriculum development for enhancing electoral and governance skills.


Overall, the relevance of UNDP’ experience in providing electoral assistance is also underpinned by the design of the project which included not only

assistance to conduct the 2011 tripartite lections, but also supported strengthening of capacities of institutions that manage the electoral process

and afforded technical assistance to other key stakeholders such as the media, political parties, law enforcement agencies, domestic observation and CSOs. In this regard, the project’s purpose and overall goal was Relevant (R) to the

country’s democratic governance development needs.

3.4.2 Efficiency: Extent to which Inputs are effectively converted

into Outputs

Project resources and delivery:

The project was implemented with funding from seven Cooperating Partners,

namely (i) Canada; (ii) the European Union; (iii) Finland; (iv) The Netherlands;

(v) DFID; (vi) USAID; and (vii) UNDP.As noted, in the original project document

the allocated budget for the project over the four years of its lifespan was USD

19,810, 416. While Finland and Canada signed their agreements and

disbursed their funds contributions to the project earlier than November 2009,

project donors emphasised the need to initiate the project in a uniform manner

after signing the agreement with the Government of the Republic of Zambia

(GRZ). For this reason, the early disbursement of funds to the project by the

two donors mentioned above did not prompt activity implementation. With the

coming on board of the Department for International Development (DFID) and

the United States Aid for International Development (USAID), the total

committed funding to the project increased to USD 24,903,071.77. Table 1

below shows the total budget of the project indicating the sources of funding,

while Figure 1 shows the percentage distribution of funding contribution to the

project budget by sources.


Funding Source Amount (USD)

ECZ 3,596,385.72

DNRPC 2,000,000

Cooperating Partners

Canada 2,120,000.00

DFID 1,584,786.05

EC 9,620,000.00

Finland 247,074.00

Netherlands 1,300,000.00

UNDP 2,754,796.00

UNDP(Core Funds) 180,000.00

USAID 1,500,000.00

TOTAL 24,903,041.77

Table 1: Funding Contribution by source

As of end of 2011, 70.3% of the total project budget (including funds received

in 2011 from DFID and USAID) and 80% of the actual funds received had been utilized. The balance of the funding was to be utilized during the period to the

end of the project in December 2012. However, due to the setbacks in the implementation of activities related to the National Registration component, a no-cost request for the extension of the project from December 2012 to June

2013 was made UNDP and was granted by GRZ. A further extension of the project was made for the period July 2013 to December 2014 for the same

reason. The balance of the funding was therefore utilized to implement the remaining activities under the Integrated National Registration Information System (INRIS) during the extension periods.

The management and financial arrangements were generally efficient although delays in disbursement of funds by UNDP were reported, especially toward the

conduct of the 2011 tripartite elections, when the CSOs intensified their activity implementation programmes, such as in voter education. In addition,

the competitive process of grant management through which funding was disbursed to them also enhanced the need for them (CSOs) to be highly accountable for the funds.


Figure 2: Percentage distribution of funding contributions

ECZ14%

DNRPC8%

Canada9%

DFID6%

EC39%

Finland1%

Netherlands5%

UNDP11%

UNDP(Core Funds)

1%

USAID6%

Amount (USD)

i. Procurement;

To ensure efficiency in procurement of goods and services, an agreement

was entered into between GRZ and UNDP in which it was agreed that UNDP would provide support services relating to the following;

Project procurement, especially related to CVR;

Procurement support to DNRPC;

Support to non-state actors which included CSOs, women groups, media and political parties to enhance their role in electoral processes

through a grant making scheme; and

Recruitment of personnel.

This procurement was guided by UNDP regulations, rules, policies and procedures. The procurement agreement was generally appropriate for project

purposes as it provided for close scrutiny of procurement agreements and specifications. This appropriateness was demonstrated in the compelling of a

contractor to replace one thousand power generators, at their expense, when it was discovered that they flouted a procurement specification which required that the generators were supposed to have Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVR).


Overall, the project’s utilisation of resources was Satisfactory (S) as there were only minor shortcomings in the disbursement of funds most of which were

caused by delayed tendering procedures, especially those related to the DNRPC component.

3.4.3 Effectiveness: Evaluate how, and to what extent, the stated

project objectives have been met, taking into account the “achievement

indicators”.

In assessing the effectiveness of the project in meeting its overall objective, the

evaluation considered objectively verifiable indicators specified in the Project Document or in a Logical Framework. The Project log frame8

set out three

verifiable indicators:

i. Election results which are widely accepted as free and fair by Zambians, political parties and observers;

ii. Peaceful elections in 2011 and beyond with decreased incidences of violence and intimidation as compared with previous elections;

iii. Number of electoral petitions.

Regarding the first indicator, the results of the 2011 tripartite elections were widely accepted as having been free and fair. These results were endorsed by political parties, international monitors and local observers as being credible

and an expression of the will of the Zambian people. Moreover, this election resulted in the transfer of power from the ruling Movement for Multi-party

Democracy (MMD) to the opposition Patriotic Front (PF). The smooth manner in which this power was transferred was indicative of the acceptance of the election results by the competing political parties, a characteristic of the

election which could be attributable, to a large measure, to the intervention of the project in preparation for the elections.

The second indicator was verified by the reported peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted. Incidences of violence before, during and after the elections were significantly minimal as compared to the previous elections,

such as the Kasama (2009) and Mufumbwe (2010) by- elections which were characterized by violent behaviour by members of contesting political parties. The peaceful environment in which the 2011 elections were conducted could

also be attributable to the purposeful intervention of the complimentary project aimed at strengthening the capacity of law enforcement agencies through a

8 See the Project logical Framework in Annex


short-term Electoral-related Support for Training for Law Enforcement Agencies (2011) in Zambia project, which was conceived and implemented

under ambit of the Support to the Electoral Cycle (2009-2012) project. This short term project contributed to the achievement of the overall objective of the

latter project as evidenced by the resulting fair application of the Public Order Act (POA) by law enforcement agencies and hence the decreased incidences of intimidation of the opposition political parties and the generally improved

professionalism in the policing of elections.

This scenario of a generally peaceful election was again witnessed during the 2015 Presidential election which was characterized by a largely intimidation

free environment in which political parties campaigned, a violence free polling period, and demonstrated professional policing of polling stations. The sporadic

incidents of political party ‘cadre’ clashes which were reported were confined and were largely a result of unruly behaviour of these cadres as opposed to being perpetrated by the political party establishments as witnessed in the

Kasama and Mufumbwe by elections in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Thirdly, the delivery of credible election in 2011 by ECZ, the endorsement of

the elections by international election monitors and domestic observers as being free and fair, as well as general acceptance of the results by the citizens resulted in a significantly reduced number of electoral petitions resulting

directly from a defective electoral process, such as election results manipulations by the polling officials. Although there were 74 electoral petitions in the aftermath of the 2011 elections (probably higher than the

number during the 2006 elections), most of these petitions were a result of malpractices committed by the Candidates themselves, such as electoral

corruption. However, the mere fact that the losing Candidates took the option of lodging petitions through established channels also demonstrated that there is widespread recognition of the existing legal provisions for electoral results

dispute resolution mechanisms.

The robust voter education programme which was implemented over a lengthy period and the revision of the electoral code of conduct, activities which were

both supported by the project, contributed to the minimized post election petitions. Against the background of this fulfillment of the key indicators in the

log frame, the overall achievement of project objectives can be rated as being Highly Satisfactory (HS).

3.4.4 Sustainability: Potential for the continuation of the project impact

achieved and of delivery mechanisms following withdrawal of existing funding.

The primary focus of the Electoral Cycle Management project was to contribute to the development of democratic governance in Zambia. This was to be

achieved through capacity building in institutions that have a stake in the


management of the electoral system of the country as well as supporting non-state actors and social groups to be more participative in elections processes of

the country. With the electoral cycle approach of the project, much of the attention of the project’s support was the delivery of credible tripartite elections

in 2011. For this reason the measure of sustainability relating to the project will be determined by what impact or results of the project can be discerned beyond 2011. As a way of ensuring the sustainability of the project impact

achieved beyond 2011, project support in 2012 focused on (i) individual capacity development (ii) institution capacity development, and (iii) development of software and systems. In this regard, the project made

considerable investment in building institutional capacities of the ECZ and DNRPC to ensure, among other things, optimized efficiency and effectiveness in

the management of the electoral process. In addition, the project’s other interventions supported capacity building of civil society and media to influence positive behavioral change among the electorate before, during and

after elections.

The assessment of the sustainability of the project’s results in this respect should, in theory, be concerned with determining the extent to which the project contributed to improving the involvement of these players in the

electoral process. Table 2 below shows the project’s investment of resources beyond 2011 and the contributions that this investment made to the sustainability of the project results beyond the project lifespan.


Table 5: Breakdown of project investments in critical areas for impact sustainability

Investment area Investment amount (USD)

Area of improvement

Institutional systems and structures strengthened

490,579.00 ECZ strategic plan revised and in implementation

New Performance Management System

introduced in ECZ

Prototype Smartphone results capture module

was developed and tested.

Technical capacities of Staff in the Voter

Education (Elections) Unit, Public Relations Unit, IT, Finance and Procurement

Departments developed.

Vote counting procedures and guidelines revised.

Analysis of voter turnout statistics on a demographic basis

476,694.00 Enhanced electoral data security and business continuity plan and upgrading of a Disaster Recovery Centre.

Methodology to analyse disaggregated electoral

data by sex, age and geographic area developed.

Establishment of the INRIS for the civil register

205,261 7.1 million civil records citizens digitized;

NRCs with biometric features being piloted

Support to the articulation of ECZ’s position on the Draft Constitution published by the TCDZC

59,974 Quality-based inputs towards Constitution

making process vis-à-vis the prevailing and future outlook of the electoral environment

Capacity building for women participation in decision making

1,349.00 Capacity development training programmes to

elected women members of the national assembly developed and implemented

Integrate gender analysis and gender-based programming in reporting on Community Radio Stations

427,640.00 Community Radio journalists trained in

gender-sensitive reporting

Media-monitoring mechanism established

Establish Voter Education Resource Centre targeting voter education to youths

249,732.00 The OYDC have been capacitated with the skills to disseminate electoral process-related information

VE training manual developed that can be

used to compliment ECZ’s voter education efforts in the long term.

Inter-party dialogue strengthened at provincial level and at senior political party

leadership level

56,806.00 Provincial Party Liaison Committee approach

adopted

With regard to the institutional framework for managing elections, sustainability of the intended project results is evident to a large extent. With

the support from the project in the areas of organisational and IT infrastructure capacity enhancement, the ECZ has significantly improved its

effectiveness and efficiency as an EMB. The institution’s improved capacity in this respect was demonstrated recently (January 2015) by its ability to deliver an election with highly rated professionalism within a period of two months. As

an institution, ECZ has received considerable support in terms of


organisational capacity strengthening and arising from this support its systems and infrastructure for elections management are still robust to enable it

professionally deliver in the future. By and large, the institution’s functions such as election results management and voter registration are backed by

sound IT infrastructure which is still up-to-date. Similarly, the voter education function is well integrated in the ECZ mandate and the institution has spurred the sustainability of the intended results in this area by facilitating the

integration of voter education in the school curricula and the establishment of voter education clubs in schools.

With regard to DNRPC, implementation of the Integrated National Registration Information System (INRIS) component of the project has continued beyond the

project’s lifespan with a considerable degree of progress. As is the case with ECZ, DNRPC has been a major beneficiary of IT infrastructure development support aimed at introducing a biometric national identity card for Zambians.

It ought to be mentioned however that in the case of both institutions, the extent of sustainability of the intended results of the project will be influenced

by several factors, including choice of technology and policy support measures. Firstly, the choice of technology for both institutions will not only influence the service delivery processes but also the sustainability of these processes.

As observed, the technological upgrades in both institutions have been implemented with careful consideration of the appropriateness of the

technology and for this reason, there is scope for long term sustainability. Secondly, policy support measures will play a major role in the sustainability of

results of the project interventions. While the introduction of the biometric identity card is backed by a review of some pieces of legislation, which enhances the long term sustainability of the results of this intervention, the

investment in ECZ’s IT infrastructure for CVR is not adequately backed by policy support measures which guarantee that there is central treasury funding at all times to sustain the CVR process.

In summary, although the electoral cycle approach is focused, the “success

indicators” in the log frame have a short term focus even though it is evident that a large measure of the project results is sustainable beyond the period of project support. Most notably, the improvement areas indicated in Table 2

above which are concerned with capacity building have shown potential for being sustainable beyond the project life span as the built capacity was still

evident even during the 2015 Presidential elections. For this reason, the potential for continuation of project impact achieved is Moderately Likely (ML) as the risks against the sustainability of results achieved are moderate.


3.4.5 Impact: The extent of the project´s contribution to the preparations for and

accomplishment of the 2011 tripartite elections, considering the project design and execution,

Against the background of the project’s overall objective of contributing to “improved democratic governance through development of a free, fair and transparent and efficient electoral system in Zambia”, the achievement of intended results can be described as being by and large mottled. Assessing the

project’s performance with respect to the strategic areas9 that were intended to be addressed to produce the planned outputs, the following picture emerges.

Strategic area 1:

i. Increase ECZ‘s organizational effectiveness so as to be able to respond to emerging challenges in a timely and cost effective manner;

ii. Increase the enfranchisement of potential voters through increased

accuracy of the register and its inclusiveness including strengthening of

national institutions with direct impact on the accuracy of the voters’ register.

Results:

i. Enhanced organisational effectiveness and efficiency of ECZ;

The project supported organisational capacity enhancement of the ECZ through targeted interventions involving strategic planning, organisational restructuring and introduction of a new Performance Management System

(PMS) which also involved training of 123 ECZ staff in its use. By 2010, the ECZ strategic plan was completed and approved for implementation. With an

implementation span of six years from 2010 to 2015, this strategic plan has guided the operations of the institution thus far. In addition, with its support to this strategic planning process, the project enabled the institution to engage

in long term planning imitative that emphasizes on addressing specifically defined strategic areas and which is linked to departmental and individual employee performance monitoring and evaluation. Although some long term

strategic objectives in the strategic plan have not been (fully) achieved, mostly due to inadequate or complete lack of funding from the central treasury, the

plan has provided a framework for departmental and individual work planning and has thus facilitated the achievement of short term annual objectives. One such long term objective that has not been addressed due to lack of funding

relates to the decentralisation of the ECZ to the district level. With the enormity

9 See Table 1, Project Document, page 16


of funding requirements to address this objective, it is not anticipated that decentralisation of the ECZ to that level will become a reality anytime soon. In

addition, one of the strategic objectives of the ECZ is to implement a Continuous Voter Education (CVE) programme. This programme has not taken

off due to lack of funding as the institution is funded scarcely in between election times resulting in election related activities coming to a virtual halt during such times.

Although VE is considered to be a very critical element of the electoral process, capacity in the ECZ has not been adequately developed to eneble the

institution to provide leadership in this area. The current National Voter Education Team (NVET) consists of only two people as opposed to the

minimum number of at least 25 people required to meet the national VE needs. Over the past decade, BRIDGE10 has risen to prominence as a global tool for professional development of EMBs. In the ECZ, this tool has not been

adequately used as a tool for creating a national pool of facilitators to continue running customized courses and provide a sustainable approach to capacity development elections management.

However, with the support of the project, ECZ has established a Voter

Education Centre which has been operational since December 2012. Through a Technical Assistance (TA) arrangement, the project also supported the development of Voter Education materials which included the Voter Education

facilitator’s guide and the Voter education hand book which continues to be used as a resource material for teachers and pupils in schools. The integration

of voter education in school curricula coupled with the creation of voter education clubs in schools is a major achievement in an overall effort of exposing the young generation to democratic governance at an early age.

With regard to the capacity of ECZ to manage elections, the project supported the upgrading of the Elections Information Management System (EIMS) which;

(a) facilitates transfer of voters to new polling stations and hence diminishing the possibility disenfranchising registered voters who have moved to new

locations; (b) enables electronic transmission of results and thus allowing for announcement of Presidential results within 48 hours, as demonstrated during the 2011 elections when the system was used; (c) expedites candidate

nominations as the system quickens the process of verifying status of candidates’ supporters to fulfill the requirement of the provisions of the legal framework which requires such supports to be registered voters.

10

Building Resources In Democracy, Governance and Elections


ii. A workable voter registration system developed; increased number

of registered voters;

The project facilitated the process of putting in place systems and processes for

Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). Through the project, one thousand kits for field voter registration work were procured and deployed in the field across the country. These tools included computer software and hardware, portable

power generators, and power pack batteries. While the law mandating ECZ to conduct continuous voter registration was passed 2001, such registration has

not been conducted in a sustained manner. At most the longest period during which some form of CVR was conducted was from June 2010 to May 2011 in preparation for the 2011 tripartite elections. Beyond 2011, the ECZ made an

effort to continue with the CVR process by maintaining one registration centre in Lusaka, which remained operational until December 2012. However, it

ought to be mentioned that solely for the purpose of preparation for the 2011 tripartite elections, CVR was successfully conducted, resulting in the capturing of 5,167,154 registered voters on the Voters Register. This was an

unprecedented achievement as it represented 86% of the eligible voters being entered on the register for the 2011 Tripartite Elections, as compared to 71 % of the eligible voters captured on the 2006 voters register.

The use of biometric technology to register voters significantly contributed to

the reduction of registration time for each eligible voter and this is attributable to the increased number of registered voters. With 1,000 mobile registration kits operating on a daily basis in each district of the country, the ECZ managed

to capture 86% percent of eligible voters countrywide with over one million having been were newly registered and aged between 18 and 35-year-olds.

By and large a fully fledged CVR programme beyond 2012 has not been achieved as funding was not provided from the central treasury to facilitate the

process. As a result, an opportunity was lost to take full advantage of the quiet period from 2012 to 2014 to utilize the voter registration kits in which a

considerable amount of resources (US$4,700,000) were invested and which remained idle from 2011to date due to this lack of funding to implement the CVR programme. Apart from the portable power generators, these mobile

registration kits have since become obsolete for various technological reasons, including the expiry of the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)

batteries in the laptops, which are not easily replaceable. ECZ has since commenced the process of replacing these mobile registration kits through an open bidding arrangement.

Most notably, the project contributed significantly to building the Information Technology (IT) capacity in ECZ through support to the construction of

backend IT infrastructure (such as servers) and provision of resources for staff capacity development through formal training and mentoring. As a result of


this support, the institution now has in-house capability to develop new software, as demonstrated by the ongoing process of upgrading the existing

software to expand the results management function that will facilitate electronic transmission of results from polling stations to the constituency and

national tallying centres.

The challenge for the ECZ, however, is to maintain its IT capacity and ensure

that the technology is enhanced to allow its database to be linked with the database of the DNRPC. This will ensure that those who turn 18 are immediately transferred to the voter register. This will require landmark

changes in the business operating system of the DNRPC and the ECZ.

iii. Digitized national register created and new biometric National

Registration Cards issued to Zambian citizens.

Against the background of minimal utilisation of ICT in the institution and lack of a national database for National Registration Cards that have been issued11,

project support to the DNRPC was a pioneering effort to address the need to create harmony between civil and voter registration systems. With a focus on digitizing the national register and issuing an NRC with biometric features to

Zambian citizens, the project provided an opportunity for the DNRPC to respond to the institutional capacity improvement needs recommended in the 2008 report on the Needs Assessment Study of the Department.

The implementation of activities related to this output delayed due to several

factors. Firstly, delays were experienced due the need that arose to clarify issues regarding the modules that were to be included in the development of the software for the national civil registration process. Secondly, even after

these issues regarding the modules were clarified, the process of short listing and selection the contractor took longer than expected due to the bureaucratic

procedures in the UNDP tendering process. Thirdly, the 2011 elections also contributed to the delay in the commencement of activities related to this output as the attention and support of the relevant institutions were diverted

to the conduct of the elections over a period of about five months.

In spite of these delays however, considerable progress has been made toward

the digitization of the national register and the introduction of the biometric National Registration Cards (NRC). Support of the project to the digitization of

records ended in December 2012 with an achievement of 7.1 million records having been digitized. With the use of the equipment which was supplied by the project, this process is continuing. With regard to the introduction of the

11 Baseline Study of the Support to the Zambian Electoral Cycle Project; 2011


biometric NRCs, the procurement process has been completed and a tender awarded to a German company called Dermalog, who have so far supplied

equipment specified in the tender documents. The equipment supplied included; (i) Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units; (ii) servers; (iii)

workstations; and (iv) mobile kits and these have been installed at six sites, namely Central site (Ridgeway), Provincial centre (Kamwala Headquarters), District (Lusaka Boma), Disaster Recovery Centre, Kafue District, and Chongwe

District. Software development has been completed and its configuration includes NRC, Birth, and Death modules. Fine-tuning of this software has been in progress since November 2014, while the mobile kits have also been loaded

with the software and are being tested before deployment.

The project also supported training for around fifty five (55) DNRPC officers to acquaint them with the technical skills of operating the kits. Under this support, training was also provided for nine personnel on assembling, servicing

and general maintenance of Laser Engraver printers. In addition to this training, the project also supported visits to Hamburg, in Germany, for eight Officers for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of the Factory Acceptance

testing.

As a contribution to this project output, the DNRPC has facilitated renovations of building infrastructure in all the five sites where the new equipment has been installed. In addition, work is also underway involving providing fibre

connectivity in the five sites.

Overall, the project support to the DNRPC provided a foundation for other

national citizens’ registration initiatives for the future. With the introduction of the biometric national registration cards for Zambian citizens, other national

stakeholders such as security agencies and health establishments have been afforded an opportunity to enhance their own public records management systems for various purposes. In Particular, the project’s support to the

development of the Integrated National Registration Information System (INRIS) has opened opportunities for other projects to be implemented. These include the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) funded Deaths and Causes of Deaths

project which is utilizing the Deaths module of the INRIS and the Continuous Births Registration project which is funded by UNICEF and utilizing the Births

module of INRIS.

Strategic area 2: Revised Legal framework (Electoral Act, Code of

Conduct) and dispute resolution mechanism.

Originally, the scope of ECZ’s involvement in the review of the legislative framework was comprehensive to the extent that it participated in the National Constitution Conference (NCC) and made proposals on the review of the

legislative framework related to the electoral code of conduct.


These proposals were incorporated in the Draft Constitution. However, resulting from the stalled Constitution making process, support to the

involvement of the ECZ in the legislative review process shifted to facilitating its articulation of its position in response to Part VI of the draft Constitution of

Zambia (Representation of the People: Electoral Process and Systems) for the consideration of the Technical Committee Drafting the Zambian Constitution (TCDZC). In this regard, the ECZ made its proposals on the following:

a. Proportional representation;

b. Enshrining the election date in the Constitution;

c. Mandating the Chairperson of the ECZ to be the Returning Officer for the

Presidential elections;

d. Putting in place of a mechanism for quick resolution of Presidential election

petitions;

e. Expanding the powers of the ECZ to enforce the Electoral Code of Conduct;

f. Appointment of the Election Tribunal;

g. Increasing the Constituencies from 150 to 235; and

h. Appointment of the Commissioners of the ECZ by a different Committee

other than the President.

While proposals (e) (f) (g) and (h) above were rejected by the TCDZC, aspects of

the electoral code which did not require legislative changes were reviewed. These reviews culminated in the adoption of measures to, among other things, prevent electoral related violence during election times. In addition, the revised

electoral code of conduct, which was also translated in the seven main national languages, provided a framework for law enforcement agencies to investigate

cases related to breaching this code of conduct and prosecute the violators. To date the application of this revised code of conduct is evident as observed from the numerous number of court proceedings on Parliamentary election result

petitions on grounds of electoral malpractices. This is further evidenced by the recent (February 2015)12 nullification of the Senga Hill Parliamentary election results, through a court ruling, due to electoral malpractices committed in

September 2011 by the incumbent Member of Parliament.

Through support to strengthening Conflict Management Committees, the national capacity for conflict resolution was enhanced. Specifically, project support involved reorganization of these Committees and developing new

training materials to build their capacity for dealing with conflict resolution at local level. This capacity building effort was buttressed by the production of a handbook, training guide and pocket book with guidelines on the operations of

the Committees. Additionally, the Political Party Liaison Committee is still

12

Post Newspaper : February


functional and remains helpful in bringing agreement among political parties on specific issues.

Due to high levels of conflict during elections, conflict management is one of the most important functions of the ECZ during these times. Traditionally, ECZ

uses the National and District Conflict Management Committees (NCMC and DCMC) to resolve conflicts and as a result these have become to be accepted as

the credible structures for resolving electoral conflicts. For this reason, the ECZ has consistently put emphasis on maintaining the capacities of these committees to ensure their continued contribution to the creation of harmony

in the electoral process.

Strategic area 3: Improve gender equality in the election process at

all levels.

Prior to the implementation of the project, many ordinary women were stuck in their ‘cultural shells’ and thought that politics were preserve for men only. In

addition, most political parties considered women as risky candidates and therefore were not willing to adopt them as Local Government or Parliamentary candidates. The electoral cycle approach and the early start of the project (in

2009) made it possible for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to be fully engaged in the pre-voting preparation processes. With this approach, CSOs had ample time to work with potential women candidates and lobby

Parliamentarians to promote the participation of women in the election process. The Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group (ZNWLG), for example, was

engaged in capacity building for aspiring candidates and through this process, trained over five hundred (500) women in aspiring for adoption. The result of this training was that 113 women were adopted by their political parties as

Parliamentary candidates, which was a major improvement from the past trends. The focus of the project on increasing the participation of women in the

elections also resulted in 50% of women retaining their seats in Parliament. Consequently, the results of the 2011 elections showed that PF had 8 winning female candidates while the MMD and United Party for National Development

(UPND) had 6 and 2 female winning candidates respectively.

In addition to encouraging the adoption of women as candidates, the project also helped in changing the attitudes of women toward politics. Through the

sensitization activities of CSOs and the voter education programme of the ECZ, more women claimed their political rights as demonstrated by their surpassing

men (50.14%) as registered voters on the 2011 register. The electoral cycle approach also helped identify emerging issues concerning women participation in the political process. As an example, pregnant women and elderly women

were given special opportunities to vote.


By and large, women continue to be underrepresented in the political process of the country. Currently, only 20 out of the 150 Members of Parliament are

women. Several factors are attributable to this situation one of which is the difficulty faced by female candidates in raising funds for election campaigns. In

addition, social barriers are still at play against women’s participation in decision-making and participation in elective politics despite that fact that women constitute more than 50 percent of the voting population in the

country. Collectively, these factors make it difficult to achieve meaningful results in the area of promoting women participation in the election process at all levels.

Strategic area 4: Increase the fair access to media by all political

parties; refine ECZ's media strategy and advocacy

In recognition of the important role the media plays in the electoral process,

the project supported a number of activities aimed at improving media coverage of elections. These included the development of editorial guidelines,

establishment of a media monitoring mechanism for ensuring quality and politically balanced reporting among media houses, developing a civic education campaigns for the TV media, and sponsoring live television debates

of Presidential candidates.

The project’s focus on media involvement in the election process was an unprecedented initiative which encouraged demand for balanced reporting by media houses and increased the use of media as platforms for debate and

dialogue between aspiring candidates and the electorate. The impact of this initiative is still evident currently as demonstrated by the step taken by the UPND to take the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) to court

for biased reporting against the opposition during the campaign period leading to the to January 2015 Presidential elections. In connection with these same

(2015) elections, MUVI TV also conducted a series of live television debates in which some Presidential candidates participated. In addition, it was also observable that government controlled print media houses also exhibited some

degree of balanced coverage of political campaigns, albeit prejudiced editorial contents against the opposition political parties. With these observations, it

can be concluded that the project put in motion a change process regarding media involvement in the election process which has continued beyond the life span of the project.


Strategic area 5:

i. Increase the awareness of citizens on issues of civic and electoral rights

and processes;

ii. Strengthen quality of domestic monitoring

The early start of the project in civic and voter education gave the CSOs that were contracted by UNDP ample time to plan and implement their

programmes. With standardized materials for civic and voter education, the project enabled the participating CSOs to disseminate the same information to the public and this helped in sending the same message to the general public.

Through the structured mobilisation of CSOs to participate in voter and civic education, the project also facilitated collaboration among them and minimized

duplication of efforts. More importantly, the electoral cycle approach enabled CSOs to be fully engaged with the electoral process for two years, from 2009 to 2011, and thus these players were able to appropriately package their

information and intensively implement their civic and voter education programmes and reach a wide spectrum of target groups across the country. In

addition, youth organisations, such as Operation Young Vote (OYV) and 2410 were able to concentrate their voter education programmes on their target groups through a variety of methods including drama, public debates and

other youth-friendly and innovative approaches, such as dissemination of messages through mobile phone and interactive fora through public transport.

As a result of the appropriate duration during which these programmes were implemented, coupled with the good quality and packaging of materials,

citizens were given a chance to understand their rights and obligations to vote. The high voter turnout (53.65%) during the 2011 tripartite elections is largely attributable to this good quality and timely Technical Assistance in the area of

civic and voter education. As a special group, youths were also encouraged not only to vote, but also to participate in the process of adopting candidates. Although the voter turnout during the 2011 elections showed a decrease as

compared to 2006 (70.77%), the percentage turnout in 2011 was calculated on a higher figure of registered voters (5,167,154) as compared to the 2006 figure

of registered voters (3,941,229).

With regard to domestic observation, the project supported the development

and production of the domestic observer guide which was used by local election observers at polling stations. The availability of observer materials was also increased and this facilitated a wider coverage of domestic observers. In

addition, the decentralisation of Domestic Observer accreditation eased the process and allowed for more Observers to be accredited. As observed during

the 2015 Presidential election event, ECZ still portrayed strong capacity in voter education as evidenced by the professionalism in which the voter


education programme was mobilized within a short period of time. During this election period, it was also observed that quality voter education materials and

competent facilitators are still available.

By and large, the project’s impact was Significant (S) as evidenced by the

above results which were achieved, through its support, in preparation for the accomplishment of the 2011 tripartite elections. These results are summarised

below;

i. Registration of 86% of eligible voters prior to the 2011 general elections,

which was a significant increase from the 71% captured on the 2006 voters’ register. More significantly, nationwide, out of the 5,167,154 eligible voters captured, 50.1% were women while 49.8% were men.

ii. 100 women leaders participated in a conference on women’s political

leadership, which led to an action plan and more women were ready to stand as candidates in the 2011 elections;

iii. 26 staff members of the ECZ, 672 District Electoral Officers, and over 50,000 polling station staff were trained to effectively manage the election day;

iv. 186 media practitioners were trained in ethical reporting and reducing

elections-related violence;

v. 1,442 Voter Education Facilitators (VEF) were trained (including training in

the area of promoting youth participation);

vi. 185 traditional leaders were trained in civic and voter education;

vii. A new results management system was developed to facilitate the transmission of election results to the public within 48 hours after the closing of voting polls; and

viii. A legislative review process for electoral proceedings was developed to

ensure their fairness and transparency.

Overall, these results contributed to strengthening the integrity of the electoral

process in Zambia and particularly, these achievements of the project enhanced the credibility and transparency of the 2011 tripartite elections.


4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

1. ECZ has received considerable support in terms of organisational capacity

strengthening. In its current operations the institution demonstrates professionalism in the delivery of its programmes, such as voter education

as well as in the overall management of elections. However, detailed analysis of areas where external support would be required should be undertaken so as not to allow the weaknesses in these areas become

operational challenges for the institution in future. Specific areas in which ECZ will require further support include the following:

a. Capacity building for voter education for staff still needs to be scaled up to create a broader and stronger national pool of trainers who have

undergone Train-The-Facilitator (TTF) programme;

b. Creation of a national cadre of voter education facilitators for the deaf

and blind to specifically take care of the needs of these special groups of citizens using specially developed facilitation materials;

c. The NVET should be expanded from the present membership of two people to at least 25 people nationally;

d. Electoral staff training in ECZ should be advanced further through conducting the BRIDGE workshop for the accreditation of ECZ

personnel and identified future core-trainers. In particular, the capacity building effort for ECZ using this tool should emphasise on the civic education, voter information, and electoral training modules

as these are the areas in which there is most need for capacity development in the institution.

2. As an election observation methodology, Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT)

has proven to be a useful tool that is used by CSOs engaged as domestic monitors to independently verify election results. With this tool, these domestic election observers use the technique of representative random

sampling to observe the administration of the election, the process of voting and of counting of ballots at polling stations. As a tool which also

provides for monitoring of the collection of official polling station results and independent tabulation of these results, parallel to election authorities, PVT adds considerable value to the delivery of credible

elections as it contributes to ensuring transparency in the management of election results. During the 2015 Presidential elections, the Christian


Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG)13 used PVT, with the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to monitor the election results and

with the use of this tool, this organisation added credibility to the results announced by ECZ. Having proven to be useful tool for monitoring

elections in the recent Presidential election and during the 2011 tripartite elections, PVT should be made a permanent feature in all future major elections and for this reason, there is need to provide

capacity building support to CSOs for them to set up and use credible PVT during elections. It is highly likely that increased local capacity to mobilize PVT would attract greater participation by domestic monitors in

the use of this tool.

3. Currently the relationship between ECZ and DNRPC appears to be unconsolidated and in, in many areas, subtly confrontational. There is therefore great need to invest more resources in intensifying the

relationship between these two institutions and bring it to a level where civil and voter registration will be seamlessly linked.

4. The voters register recorded an increased number of voters on the roll in 2011. However, it is expected that this has changed with people dying,

etc. There is a need therefore to put in place a mechanism for constantly updating the voter register to make it more current and avoid disenfranchising citizens, especially during by-elections. The ECZ should

endeavour to enter into high level policy dialogue with government to ensure that resources are secured to support the CVR programme, which was abandoned due to lack of funding from central treasury. One

approach would be for ECZ to run scheduled voter registration programmes during each given year (e.g. twice per year) in order to

ensure that there is an effort on its part to constantly update the voters register.

5. The project design did not take into consideration putting in place a mechanism for sustaining the outcomes of the project in various areas. Although the policing elections design was integrated in the police

training curriculum, other eras were not adequately addressed in the same manner. It is therefore recommended that mechanisms are put in

place for monitoring outcomes of project interventions and ensuring that these are sustained.

13

CCMG was comprised of the Council of Churches in Zambia, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, Jesuit Centre for

Theological Reflection, the Zambia Episcopal Centre, and Carlitas Zambia.


6. The project had initiated a vibrant civic and voter education programme, which attracted the coordinated efforts of CSOs. The successful conduct

of this programme resulted in an unprecedented increase in the participation of different social groups in the electoral process, including

some religious groups whose perception of politics took a positive change. Such successes have not been adequately captured to ensure continuity. Future support to civic and voter education should therefore

ensure that resources are made available for the continuation of this programme, which should be driven by CSOs with ECZ playing an oversight role (though setting standards) and providing quality assurance

to the conduct of civic and voter education by CSOs. By their nature, CSOs are grass root focused and being so they are more advantaged and

well positioned to implement sustained civic and voter education programmes that reach the grass roots of society.

7. Voter Education has not taken advantage of the current IT platforms, such as the increased use of mobile phone technology. ECZ needs to be supported to invest in the use of such technology to bring reality to the

concept of continuous voter education. This should also apply to the increased and continuous use of mass communication avenues, such as

television, outside election periods.

8. The delayed Constitution making process has contributed to the

increasing public questioning of quality of the electoral process. With the current public opinion linking the Constitution making process to elections, no support to the electoral process will be meaningful in

creating public perception of future elections as being open, fair and transparent without a ‘people driven’ Constitution being in place. It is

therefore recommended that future support to the electoral process should take into consideration the need to pay attention to issues relating to the Constitution making process.


5. LESSONS LEARNED

12. UNDP supports building systems in targeted institutions, but these institutions politicize this support through over reliance on politicians. This is the case with the DNRPC INRIS component of the project which fell in the

hands of politicians and as a result suffered serious backs in implementation.

13. UNDP support invested in resources in building local expertise to develop systems for improving the electoral process. The current Electoral

Information Management System (EIMS) in ECZ was developed by local staff using less financial resources than would have been the case if foreign expertise had been brought in to develop a system that was likely to remain

alien to ECZ.

14. The continuation of electoral cycle support model should also focus on institutional barrier-removal. Even if interaction with governmental institutions can sometimes be cumbersome, it is a necessary component of

any structure that is meant to be perennial. Including ministerial representatives in the national structure of the programme or at least

inviting them in high-level meetings is the most cost-effective way to raise their awareness.

15. A formal body at the national level should be established to ensure the

follow-up and involvement of beneficiaries (such as CSOs). A local Follow-up committee under the leadership of the Church mother bodied, for instance,

could play a positive role in creating an enabling environment for the scaling-up of project results.

16. High level donor coordination in the project was not regular due to

representation which involved people (such as Heads of Diplomatic Missions) who are in a difficult position to spare time to attend to project related matters.

17. The project helped donors to maximize their contribution to the electoral

process without incurring transaction costs on their part.

18. The use of mixed procurement modalities involving UNDP and local

procurement processes using UNDP guidelines helped build in flexibility and minimized delays in processing low value procurements by ECZ.


19. The project did not put in place a residual fund to support continuity of CSO involvement in the electoral process, such as voter education.

20. UNDP ordinarily works with government establishments and therefore pays more attention to government needs. For this reason some donors felt

their interests were subdued as they could not take a strong stand on certain issues concerning government contribution to project

implementation.

10. Interaction between ECZ and UNDP was healthy and adequate. However,

DNRPC did not enjoy a very ‘constructive’ relationship with UNDP at all levels of engagement in the implementation of the project.

11. Project terminal evaluations are an invaluable source of information regarding what worked well and what did not work well in project

implementation. Such information is useful for future use in the design of other projects and also for tracking of and making improvements on the results of the project. However, these evaluations should be undertaken

immediately as part of the project closing down procedures as a long time lapse in between project closing and the conduct of a terminal evaluation

could result into valuable information not being captured partly due to the relocation of people that were associated with the project and partly due to the tendency among people to relegate important project issues to ‘history’ as they become committed to other engagements with the passage of time.


Annexes

Annex 1 : Terms of Reference

Annex 2 : List of people interviewed

Annex 3 : List of documents reviewed

List of Tables and Figures

Table 1: Ratings Categories

Table 2: Key Project Stakeholders

Table 3: Analysis of Expected Results, Performance Indicators, and

Assumptions and Risks

Table 4: Project Budget and Funding Sources

Table 5: Breakdown of Project Investments in Critical areas for Impact

Sustainability

Figure 1: Project Management Structure

Figure 2: Percentage Distribution of Funding Contributions by Source

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE Terminal Evaluation OF THE SUPPORT TO THE ELECTORAL CYCLE

MANAGEMENT PROJECT

ANNEX 1:

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has periodically requested the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) to manage a series of multi-donor trust funded projects since the 2006

General Elections to support elections and strengthen the capacity of the Electoral Commission of Zambia

(ECZ). This has been in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 46/137 of 17 December

1991 and its successor resolutions. Initial support was through a project of support to the 2006 elections

with a total budget of US$7.3 million. This was followed by another project of support to the 2008

Presidential By-Election at a cost of US$6.1 million.

In 2008, the GRZ requested for support from UNDP to manage a multi donor trust funded project to

strengthen the management of the electoral cycle in Zambia. This project was also aimed at supporting

the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship (DNRPC) in the establishment of an

electronic based civil register with biometric features, and strengthening capacities of non-state actors,

including political parties.

The overall objective of the project was to develop capacities of the ECZ, DNRPC and non-state actors for

effective management of the electoral cycle and processes to address emerging national electoral

challenges as well as increase the integrity and public confidence in electoral systems in Zambia. The

project was also aimed at providing long-term support for the electoral institutions, systems and

processes to achieve the following eight expected results:

9. Enhanced organisational effectiveness and efficiency of ECZ;

10. A workable Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) system developed with increased number of

registered voters;

11. Digitized (new biometric) National Registration Cards (NRC) issued to Zambian citizens;

12. Revised legal framework for elections (Electoral Act, Code of Conduct etc.) and dispute resolution

mechanisms;

13. Increased women’s participation in the electoral process;

14. Capacity of Media actors’ enhanced and effective media monitoring mechanisms in place for

improved media coverage of elections;

15. Civic, Voter education and domestic observation programmes enhanced;

16. Inter-party dialogue strengthened.

The project main components were implemented by (ECZ) for management of elections, DNRPC for the

civil register and UNDP for the non-state actor component. The contributors to the project have been the

Governments of Canada, United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), European

Commission, Finland, Netherlands, the United States of America, and UNDP.

50

The project was signed in 2009 and was initially expected to end in December 2012. It was later extended

to June 2013 based on the recommendations of the Mid-Term Review conducted in 2011 and further

extended to June, 2014 to allow for the completion of implementing the Integrated National Registration

Information System (INRIS) that would issue biometric NRCs as well as provide citizens with improved

service delivery through a linked system authenticating data of individuals resident in Zambia. The total

budget of the Trust Fund was US$23.8 million. The GRZ through the DNRPC and ECZ committed a total of

US$2 million and US$3.5 million, respectively through in-kind contributions. There was also specific

support earmarked for policing the elections through a project implemented with DFID’s support. The

project was executed at national level with some of its activities being implemented at downstream levels

in all districts and constituencies in Zambia.

The project’s support to ECZ and DNRPC came to an end in June 2014 and in this regard, a terminal evaluation has been commissioned to meet the UNDP corporate accountability requirements for project management as well as enable assessment of its performance as agreed with the GRZ and contributors to the trust fund and learn lessons to inform future interventions on electoral processes. 2.0 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE EVALUATION

The purpose of the Terminal Evaluation of the support to the electoral cycle management project is to examine the performance of the project, from its inception, towards achievement of its stated goal, objectives and results. The specific objectives contributing to the overall purpose of the evaluation are:


5. Assess the project design in terms of relevance to the overall development situation at the national level: relevance to national strategies, and relevance to beneficiaries;

6. Assess the project impact on national electoral processes; 7. Assess relevance and effectiveness of the project’s strategy and approaches for the achievement of

the project objectives; 8. Assess performance of the project in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and timeliness of producing

the expected outputs; 9. Assess the quality and timeliness of inputs, the reporting and monitoring system and extent to which

these have been effective; 10. Assess relevance of the project’s management arrangements; identify advantages, bottlenecks and

lessons learnt with regard to the management arrangements; 11. Provide recommendations to key project stakeholders for follow- up activities; 12. Assess the extent to which the project has built the capacity of the Electoral Commission of Zambia

and other targeted national institutions and non-state organisations for effective management of the electoral cycle;

51

13. Draw up and document key successes, challenges, lessons learnt, innovations and best practices

from the project and make recommendations for future support on electoral processes. The evaluation is aimed at providing stakeholders at international, national and local levels with independent views of the Project’s performance and lessons.

3.0 SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION

The reference period for the terminal evaluation will be the entire duration of the project and all

activities implemented to achieve the above specified eight output results and their corresponding

outcomes.

The evaluation is required to meet standards set in international (such as OECD DAC), United Nations

Evaluation Group (UNEG) and UNDP guidelines and procedures, and at a minimum, address the following:

a) Effectiveness: The extent to which the project met its stated goal and objectives and yielded

outputs at component level and contributed to the expected outcomes in accordance with the

results framework for the project. Other areas of focus under effectiveness will include:

Appropriateness, evaluability and measurability of stated results and their corresponding

indicators in the results framework.

Outlining factors beyond the control of executing and implementing agencies that may have affected the attainment of results, as well as an assessment of how risks were managed.

Effectiveness of the project management structure.

b) Relevance: The extent to which the project design and its implementation was the right solution

to the problem and addressed the needs and priorities of the electoral cycle management as per

project design and dealing with emerging issues. Other areas of focus under this criterion include:

Adherence to the UN mandate on electoral assistance and UNDP goals in the democratic

governance.

Relevance of the project in support of national and upstream needs as well as local and

downstream needs, including needs of specific entities such as non-state actors.

Extent of targets being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based

(SMART).

c) Efficiency: The evaluation will examine how economically the project used resources at its

disposal, including the efficacy of planned activities within the time frame and budget for project

implementation, to achieve intended results. More specific areas focus under this criterion will

include:

52

Whether the results of the project were achieved at an acceptable cost compared to

alternative approaches of accomplishing the same objectives and results.

Value for money, whether financial investments, especially major procurements, were

justified in light of the benefits delivered and sustainability of results.

Project costs were justified in comparison with similar scale of electoral support projects

in other countries.

Extent to which contributing partners support provided added value.

d) Impact: The extent to which the results of the project have resulted in improved efficiency,

integrity and credibility in the electoral cycle management. Other areas of focus under this

criterion will include:

Contribution to public participation and confidence in the electoral systems and

processes.

Extraction of best practices to showcase workable innovations that had far reaching

results and benefits to targeted populations (Women, Youth, Disabled, etc.) and in other

areas as appropriate.

Identification of noticeable innovations observed during the project’s implementation.

e) Sustainability: The extent to which improved systems, processes and capacities resulting from

this project are likely to continue generating intended results beyond the life of the project, as

well as ability to adapt and use such capacities for other future electoral and related processes as

a reference. Specific areas of focus under this criterion will include:

Ownership and embracement of introduced systems, processes, procedures and other

innovations

Capacities for supporting peaceful electoral environments, including incident Reporting

and Response Systems.

Future intended and potential use of provided equipment, systems and skills.

Project contribution to Electoral Management Bodies’ capacities to meet mandates.

Project’s contribution towards addressing recommendations of Observer Mission Reports

of the 2011 Elections.

Within the above criteria and as appropriate, the evaluation is expected to cover the following:

An in-depth assessment of whether the capacity needs of targeted institutions identified at the

beginning of the project have been addressed.

The extent to which the project mainstreamed gender and human rights in its design and

implementation.

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4.0 EVALUATION METHODOLOGY

The evaluation will be expected to apply appropriate and scientifically compelling approaches to increase

the validity of the findings. This will build on an existing pool of policy, programme development and

monitoring information that has accumulated through-out the life of the project, as well as national and

international reports with information on elections in Zambia during the reference period. The evaluation

methods will include, but will not be limited to the following provided they are agreed at the inception

phase:

a) Desk Review of Project Documentation

Review (as necessary) of documents related to the overall programme, as well as background material

used in project preparation, approved project document, technical reports, progress reports, work plans,

and other information available at either ECZ, DNRPC and or UNDP. The key background documents to be

reviewed will include but are not limited to the following:

Project Document

Baseline report

Project workplans and Progress Reports

Mid-Term Review Report

Project review and progress reports of the Policing the elections Project

Capacity Assessment Documents produced with project support

Various studies produced with support of the project including the, Voter Apathy Survey, Voter

Turnout Survey, Voter Education Needs Assessment and Strategy, Research into the Public

Outreach Strategy as well as other technical documents.

Minutes of the Programme Technical Committee and Steering Committee meetings.

ECZ reports and other reports produced by stakeholders with data and information related to the

project.

Other national and appropriate (impartial and unbiased) regional and international reports with

data and information on elections in Zambia during the reference period.

Any other documentation requested by consultant/team.

Other Data Collection methods will include but will not be limited to the following:

In depth interviews with all key informants from key Implementing Partner organizations and

beneficiary clusters (ECZ, DNRPC, Other Government Ministries, cooperating partners, UNDP,

Non State Actors, Electoral Management Bodies at provincial, district and community levels, and

other key stakeholders including beneficiaries as necessary).

Interviews with consultants and/or technical assistance providers who were hired by the project

to build the capacity of Implementing Partners in line with the goals of the project.

Conduct field visits with various stakeholders and beneficiaries/participants to verify reported

progress and triangulate information obtained from the desk review and In-Depth Interviews.

54

Hold Focus Group Discussions as necessary with representatives of electoral bodies and

beneficiaries at community levels.

Case studies for comprehensive examination and cross comparison of cases to obtain in-depth

information.

The evaluation also has a substantive focus on capacity development and thus will require an application

of capacity assessment tools. Further, evaluators will be expected to develop an evaluation design matrix

at inception which will propose methods and data to be collected to respond to evaluation questions

drawn from the above criteria.

The evaluation will be carried out in accordance with both OECD DAC and UNEG/UNDP evaluation

principles and standards that together emphasize the need for: Independence, Credibility, Utility,

Impartiality, Transparency, Disclosure, Ethics, and Participation.

UNEG evaluation Guidelines can be accessed and down loaded at:

www.uneval.org/normsandstandards

5.0 DELIVERABLES OF THE EVALUATION

The main deliverables of the evaluation should include, at a minimum, the following:

a) Inception Report: The evaluators will be expected to produce an inception report which should include at a minimum, an evaluation design matrix and details of the proposed methodology, tools, and a plan of activities to be conducted along with their costs.

b) Interim Evaluation Report: The evaluators will be expected to produce an Interim report which will be shared with the ECZ, DNRPC, the Ministry of Finance and other members of the Quality Assurance Task Team.

c) Draft Evaluation Report and a PowerPoint presentation: The evaluators will produce and present a draft Evaluation Report to a validation meeting. The validation meeting will then provide comments, corrections and other submissions from stakeholders for consideration by the consultants in the finalization of the report. From time to time during the course of the assignment, the evaluators may be requested to submit preliminary reports to the quality assurance task team that will be set up to support the evaluation process through reviewing the methodology, tools and products. This is a useful mechanism to ensure that the evaluators are closely guided throughout the evaluation and provide oversight support to the Programme Implementation Team to uphold the ethical requirements of evaluations.

d) Final Evaluation Report: After incorporating comments from the reviews and validation meetings, the evaluators will be expected to submit five (5) original copies and Microsoft Word and PDF versions of the final report. Any other applications used to analyze the data and products associated with the assignment such as datasets, analysis plans, transcripts, collation and aggregation tables, etc. will also be expected to be submitted in soft copy.

http://www.uneval.org/normsandstandards

55

The evaluation report should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings, conclusions,

lessons and actionable recommendations. At a minimum, the report should follow the outline in Annex 1 but evaluators are encouraged to be creative and exercise brevity in writing.

6.0 EVALUATION TEAM COMPOSITION

The evaluation team will consist of two members: an International Consultant (Team Leader) and a national consultant. The Team Leader will be responsible for overall quality of the report and management of the national consultant. Both the team leader and national consultant will be involved throughout the entire duration of the evaluation. The specific academic, skills and experiential requirements of the evaluation team members are as follows: Team Leader: The lead consultant will be an international consultant and a political governance expert with vast international experiences of conducting evaluations of electoral support projects. More specifically, the team leader is required to have the following skills and experience set:

S/he should be in possession of a master’s degree (a PhD will be an added advantage) in political science or other related social sciences;

At least 10 years working experience in technical or managerial positions in the electoral cycle management or related political governance functions;

At least three years experience working at policy level on electoral management or completion of three evaluations of global, regional and national electoral support projects;

At least five (5) years experience in international development evaluation or completion of at least 10 evaluation assignments as a team leader including three of the above if available;

At least three years working advisory experience in institutional capacity building or completion of at least three institutional capacity building assessments as sole assessor or team leader;

Experience with Multi-Donor and country level electoral evaluations will be an added advantage;

Excellent analytical and writing skills; and

Fluency in English is essential (Both spoken and written) National Consultant: The national consultant will be a local governance expert with extensive knowledge and experiences on political governance in Zambia. S/he is expected to have the following specific skills and experiences:

MSc degree in political science or a related social science field;

At least seven (7) years in political governance preferably in electoral systems and processes out of which at least five years should be in country experiences at either technical advisory level and/or managerial level;

At least five (5) years work experience in monitoring and evaluation and completion of five evaluations as a sole evaluator or team leader.

Good understanding of Zambia’s political governance environment

Experience with Multi-Donor and country level electoral evaluations will be an added advantage;

Excellent analytical and writing skills; and

Must be a Zambian national with good working knowledge of a good number of main local languages. 7.0 EVALUATION MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS

56

The principal responsibility for managing this evaluation resides with the UNDP Zambia Country Office working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders through the quality assurance task team. The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will be responsible for the day to day management of the evaluation and the Project Management team will be responsible for recruitment processes and putting in place all the logistics during the evaluation. This will include setting up meetings and interviews with stakeholders, and putting in place travel logistics, organizing validation meetings. During the different deliverables of the evaluation and the process, stakeholders to the project (including cooperating partners, civil society organizations, Ministry of Finance, etc.) will be available and on hand to determine accuracy of the findings and recommendations, thereof. The lead consultant is only expected in the country during the data collection, analysis and draft phase and is expected to leave the Country after the validation meeting. This entails that much of the communication before and after the data collection and report drafting phase will be through emails and teleconferences. However, the National Consultant may be requested to attend such functions in person.

8.0 Timeline The evaluation is scheduled to start in November, 2014 and continue for a total of 20 working days spread over a period of one month. A detailed schedule of the proposed timeline has been provided in Annex 2.

9.0 Remuneration The daily rate for consultancy fees will depend on the level of education and experience of each individual evaluator. Consultants are expected to explicitly indicate their daily rates when applying for this evaluation. Payments will be made in US$ for the international consultant and in local currency at prevailing UN exchange rates for the National Consultant. The evaluators will receive the payments in the following installments:

% Milestone

0% At contract signing

5% Following presentation and acceptance of Inception Report;

35% Following submission and approval of the 1st draft terminal evaluation report

60% Following submission and approval (UNDP-CO and UNDP RTA) of the final terminal evaluation report

10. Application Process and Deadlines Applicants should: 1. Provide CVs, certified copies of academic and professional certificates and other relevant documents

with indication of phone and /or email contact details and fees. 2. Provide a summary of how they would approach the evaluation not exceeding two (2) pages.

57

3. Clearly mark the application and subject line of email applications “Terminal Evaluation-Support to

Electoral Cycle Management (Zambia)” 4. Submit one evaluation report the consultant considers to be his/her best

Interested applicants should submit their applications by XXXXXXXX, 2014. The application should be sent to: The Deputy Resident Representative (Operations), United Nations Development Programme, 9350 Alick Nkhata Road, P.O Box 31966, Lusaka, Zambia. Or

By E-mail to: [email protected] Applications that are not properly marked will not be considered. Applications made by fax will not be considered. Women are particularly encouraged to apply. 10. ANNEXES ANNEX 1: SAMPLE OUTLINE OF EVALUATION REPORT Opening Page

Project Title

Evaluation time frame and date of evaluation report

Implementing Partner and other project partners

Evaluation team members

Acknowledgements Table of Contents Acronyms Executive summary (4 Pages Maximum)

Brief description of project

Context and purpose of the evaluation

Findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned Introduction

Purpose of the evaluation

Scope and Methodology

Structure of the evaluation report The Project and its development context

Project start and duration

mailto:[email protected]

58

Problems that the project sought to address

Immediate and development objectives of the project

Expected results and baselines established

Expected results Findings and Conclusions Findings of the evaluation organised along the lines of the evaluation criteria and utilising creativity in mixing text with tables, figures and pictures as necessary. Key areas to be reported on are as follows:

Project Design / Formulation

Analysis of LFA/Results Framework (Project logic /strategy; Indicators)

Project ownership and project replication or scale up approaches

Assumptions and Risks

Lessons from other relevant projects (e.g., same focal area) incorporated into project design

Planned stakeholder participation

UNDP comparative advantage

Linkages between project and other interventions within the sector

Management arrangements Project Implementation

Adaptive management (changes to the project design and project outputs during implementation)

Partnership arrangements (with relevant stakeholders involved in the country/region)

Feedback from M&E activities used for adaptive management

Project Finance:

Monitoring and evaluation: design at entry and implementation (*) UNDP and Implementing Partner implementation / execution (*) coordination, and operational issues Project Results

Overall results (Contribution to goal/development results, attainment of objectives and results)

Mainstreaming

Sustainability (*)

Impact

Conclusions and Recommendations • Corrective actions for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project • Actions to follow up or reinforce initial benefits from the project • Proposals for future directions underlining main objectives

Lessons Leaned

Best and practices needing improvements in addressing issues relating to relevance, performance and success

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Annexes

i) ToR ii) List of persons interviewed iii) Summary of field visits and people and organisations interviewed iv) List of documents reviewed v) Evaluation Design Matrix vi) Data Collection Tools used during the evaluation vii) Co-financing and Leveraged Resources (as per attached table)

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ANNEX 2: PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES AND CONSULTANCY DAYS

S/N Evaluation Activity Consultancy Days Deadline November,

2014

December

2014

International Local

Wk1

Wk2

Wk3

Wk4

Wk1

Wk2

Wk3

Wk4

1. Recruitment of consultants _ _ 30th Nov, 2014 2. Evaluation entry meeting 1st Dec, 2014 3. Literature Review & Preparation of Inception

Report (Including development of data collection tools & field checklists) 3 Days 4 Days 5th Dec, 2014

4. Presentation and submission of Inception Report - - 5th Dec, 2014 5. Finalisation & submission of Inception Report

based on review comments 1 Day 1 Day 8th Dec, 2014

6. Field Data Collection (UNDP & Government/CPs and other stakeholders in Lusaka)

4 Days 4 Days 12th Dec, 2014

7. Field visits to selected places outside Lusaka 5 Days 5 Days 19th Dec, 2014 8. Data Analysis & Interpretation & Preparation of

the Draft Report and distribution to stakeholders (with a meeting to discuss the preliminary report with the Quality Assurance Task Team)

4 Days 4 Days 25th Dec, 2014

9. Stakeholder Validation Meeting 1 Day 1 Day 26th Dec, 2014 10. Finalisation & submission of the final report 3 Days 2 Days 29th Dec, 2014 Total: Consultancy period 20 days 20 Days 20 Days

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ANNEX 3: EVALUATION CONSULTANT CODE OF CONDUCT AND AGREEMENT FORM

Evaluators:

1. Must present information that is complete and fair in its assessment of strengths and weaknesses so that

decisions or actions taken are well founded.

2. Must disclose the full set of evaluation findings along with information on their limitations and have this

accessible to all affected by the evaluation with expressed legal rights to receive results.

3. Should protect the anonymity and confidentiality of individual informants. They should provide maximum

notice, minimize demands on time, and respect people’s right not to engage. Evaluators must respect

people’s right to provide information in confidence, and must ensure that sensitive information cannot be

traced to its source. Evaluators are not expected to evaluate individuals, and must balance an evaluation

of management functions with this general principle.

4. Sometimes uncover evidence of wrongdoing while conducting evaluations. Such cases must be reported

discreetly to the appropriate investigative body. Evaluators should consult with other relevant oversight

entities when there is any doubt about if and how issues should be reported.

5. Should be sensitive to beliefs, manners and customs and act with integrity and honesty in their relations

with all stakeholders. In line with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, evaluators must be

sensitive to and address issues of discrimination and gender equality. They should avoid offending the

dignity and self-respect of those persons with whom they come in contact in the course of the evaluation.

Knowing that evaluation might negatively affect the interests of some stakeholders, evaluators should

conduct the evaluation and communicate its purpose and results in a way that clearly respects the

stakeholders’ dignity and self-worth.

6. Are responsible for their performance and their product(s). They are responsible for the clear, accurate

and fair written and/or oral presentation of study imitations, findings and recommendations.

7. Should reflect sound accounting procedures and be prudent in using the resources of the evaluation.

Evaluation Consultant Agreement Form14

Agreement to abide by the Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System

Name of Consultant: __ _________________________________________________

Name of Consultancy Organization (where relevant): ________________________

I confirm that I have received and understood and will abide by the United Nations Code of Conduct

for Evaluation.

Signed at placeon date

14

www.unevaluation.org/unegcodeofconduct

62

Signature: ________________________________________

63

ANNEX 4: EVALUATION REPORT CLEARANCE FORM

(to be completed by CO after the completion of the evaluation)

Evaluation Report Reviewed and Cleared by

UNDP Country Office

Name: ___________________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________ Date: _________________________________

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ANNEX 2: LIST OF PEOPLE INTERVIEWED

No. NAME ORGANISATION POSITION

1 Isaac Mwale Operation Young Vote Project Coordinator

2 Justine Mushoke 2410 Executive Director

3 Justina Sibale National Council of Catholic

Women

Chairperson

4 Mary Yunike Mwale National Council of Catholic

Women

WUCVVO

5 Theresa Chewe Southern African Centre for

Constructive Resolution of

Disputes

Administration

Manager

6 Emma Mwinga Zambia National Women’s

Lobby Group

Head of Programmes

7 Winnie Sikazwe Olympic Youth Development

Centre

Young Leaders

President

8 Johnny Zimba Olympic Youth Development

Centre

Programme Manager

9 Pyere Milimo Olympic Youth Development

Centre

Administration

Assistant

10 Likemore Mchinje Olympic Youth Development

Centre

Handball Head Coach

11 Clement Chileshe Olympic Youth Development

Centre

Director

12 Nshamba Muzungu Media Institute for Southern

Africa

13 Mike Soko United Nations Development

Programme

14 Taona Mwanyisa National Democratic Institute Resident Country

Director (Malawi)

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No. Name Organisation Position

15 Brown Kasaro Electoral Commission of

Zambia

Head , IT Department

16 Maata Sikota Electoral Commission of

Zambia

Principal Electoral

Officer

17 Eric Kamwi Electoral Commission of

Zambia

Principal Legal

Counsel

18 Edward Chiteta Department of National

Registration, Passports and

Citizenship

Assistant Director ,

ICT

19 Father Leonard Chiti Jesuit Centre for Theological

Reflection

Director

20 Pieta Seppanen Embassy of Finland Programme Officer

21 Nkuruma Chama Kalaluka Honorary Consulate of the

Kingdom of Netherlands

Trade and

Investments Officer

22 Bruce Lawson-McDowall Department for International

Development

Deputy Head of Office

23 Anouk Rutter Department for International

Development

Governance Advisor

24 Martina Perino European Union Programme Manager

25 Dr Peter Mwaba Ministry of Home Affairs Permanent Secretary

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Annex 3: LIST OF DOCUMENTS REVIEWED

1. Annual Work Plans

2. Baseline Survey Report of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project –

Zambia (2009-2012)

3. Mid-term Review of the Support to the Electoral Cycle Project – Zambia

(2009-2012)

4. Minutes of the Steering Committee and Technical committee Meetings

5. Progress Reports

6. Minutes of the Technical Sub-Committee Meetings

7. Progress Update on the Non-State Actor Component of the Support to the

Electoral Cycle Project, Zambia 2009-2012

8. ECZ Training Report (2011)

9. Electoral Related Programme of Support for Training for Law

Enforcement Agencies (2010 – 2011)

Independent External Evaluation of the Electoral Cycle ... · EIMS : Elections Information...

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