Executive Summary Swedish Sida in Harare commissioned an evaluation to assess the impact of CIVNET’s activities and training programmes, for which they have provided funding support for the period between 2000 to 2007. An independent consultant, Ms Dren Nupen from Johannesburg, South Africa was contracted to undertake the evaluation because of her experience in the NGO sector in South Africa and the SADC region. The consultant was required to establish the following: 1 whether the organisational objectives for the period between 2000 and 2007 have been met by CIVNET; 2 whether it is possible to quantify the impact of CIVNET’s training programmes in the short to medium to long term and what the tangible outcomes and effects of the training programmes are on the communities and the workshop participants; 3 whether the community and its members benefitted from their participation in the training workshops and how they were able to take forward the Democracy Project at their localised ward level; 4 whether this was a good social investment for Swedish Sida and whether with the funds provided were able to reach the optimum number of participants in order to change their behaviour patterns and attitudes. 5 whether Sida’s strategies and objectives were reflected in the CIVNET’s activities vis a vis human rights and democracy; 6 the capacity of the implementing partner to deliver faithfully on the intended outcomes and if not possible to identify the obstacles they faced. The Evaluation methodology included a desk top review of all documentation related to the training programmes undertaken by CIVNET during the period under review. It further involved discussions and interviews with members of CIVNET’s Board of Trustees, NGO partner organisations, national, provincial and ward support staff and donor partners who have participated in supporting CIVNET during the period under review. Focus groups of small numbers of participants, trainers, provincial committee members and project assistants participated in the discussions and generously shared their experiences, frustrations and hopes with the consultant. These were held in Matabeleland South and Midlands. Evaluating the impact of civil society networks and their programmes is often difficult given the variety of variables that influence a situation at any one time, especially in the realm of democracy and human rights related projects. Direct attribution of change to one particular variable is difficult to measure but over a period of time it becomes easier to make causal linkages between, for example, increased voter turnout or a change in voter behaviour patterns with the consistent conduct of civic education workshops. Despite this caution, the responses from all those interviewed was overwhelmingly supportive of CIVNET’s civic education training programme and many stories were related about the impact that the training workshops have had on individual participants, and how their participation has benefitted their communities. Where the authorities and the elected public officials had been unhelpful and resistant to engage with community members about services and community issues, those ward training participants responsible for following up with the “action plans” were further supported by the monitors (also members of the Provincial Committees) in developing alternative strategies to resolve their community difficulties. THE CIVIC EDUCATION NETWORK TRUST (CIVNET)) IN ZIMBABWE – Sida EVALUATION 2008:51 3