ANSØGNINGSSKEMA:€¦ · Web viewDIPD Multi-Party Project: Ghana 2019-2020. Application for. multiparty cooperation p. roject. template. Annex 3B – October 2017. BM 50 20/06/2019

APPLICATION FORMULTIPARTY COOPERATION PROJECT TEMPLATEANNEX 3B – OCTOBER 2017

BM 50 20/06/2019Punkt 9 – Bilag 8

A. SUMMARY

Title Strengthening Local Multiparty Democracy in Ghana

Local partner Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG)Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana)

Other partners

Country Ghana

Period 1.7.2019 – 31.12.2020

Budget DKK: 1,250,000 DKK

Source of funding DIPD: 1,250,000 DKK

Date 11.06.19

Place Copenhagen

Signed by Mathias Parsbæk Skibdal

A.1. Objectives and strategyBrief summary of the overall purpose and objectives of the project, as well as the strategy designed to achieve the objectives. This should be written as a narrative which can be used as a presentation for the public.

Ghana is taking steps to introduce a multi-party system at local level. On Decem-ber 10th, Ghanaians will vote at a referendum to amend article 243(1) and article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution. The Articles prohibits political party engagement in local level elections and provides for the appointment of MMDCEs by the president. When successfully amended, political parties will be allowed to sponsor candidates in local level elections and MMDCEs will be elected through adult suffrage. The ref-erendum will take place at the same time as the local elections. If Ghanaians de-cide to introduce elections through political parties at local level, this brings about a historic opportunity to strengthen political decentralization. At the same time, it also poses a risk of challenges existing in the national political system trickling down to local level.

To harness the opportunity and curb the challenges, DIPD and a range of Danish political parties will implement a project with the purpose of supporting Ghana in its process to establish multiparty democracy at local level through capacitated politi-cal parties and an inclusive and decentralized political system.

DIPD Multi-Party Project: Ghana 2019-2020

The project will be implemented in the post-election period after the referendum and local election on December 10th 2019 and in the period leading up the general election in 2020 as the parties prepare their campaigns, with a possibility of a fol-low up project leading up to the local elections in 2022.

Overall objective 1: Political parties work together through dialogue to create an en-abling environment for meaningful local democracy and development in Ghana

The specific objectives under Objective 1 are:

Specific objective 1.1: Political parties collaborate and support efforts to institute structures and a framework for a multiparty democracy for effective governance at the local level

Specific objective 1.2: Political parties are stronger in building coalitions

Overall Objective 2: Strengthened representation and pluralism at local level through decentralized, representative and democratic small and big political parties


2.1 Smaller political parties develop their capacity and effectively play a role at lo-cal level governance

2.2. The big parties are more inclusive and decentralized

Objective 1 mainly focuses on dialogue and capacity building of political parties, especially the leadership, at national level, whereas objective 2 focuses on capa-city building of local branches of political parties at district level.

The project objectives contribute to DIPDs overall goal of “Strengthened demo-cratic culture, political parties and multi-party systems in partners countries”. More specifically, the Overall Objective 1 contributes by strengthening multiparty dia-logue and cooperation in a multiparty system (outcome 2) and the Overall Objec-tive 2 by contributing to having committed, skilled and capacitated political parties to develop politics and communicate with the electorate in an accountable manner (outcome 1.3).

Strategy

The project aims to create an enabling and decentralized political environment through national multiparty dialogues and build the capacity of the parties locally through peer to peer engagements with Danish political parties to be more effective and efficient in their role as representatives of the people. The project will focus at both national and local levels to create synergy between the two structures of gov-ernance in Ghana.

The project will work with political parties in Ghana across the political spectrum. All political parties in Ghana have the potential to win seats as MMDCE or majority of the district assembly seats. The project will therefore engage all parties, both the major and the minor parties, and will also build their capacity to ensure they have

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equal opportunity and the capacity to engage and contribute to more pluralistic and representative democracy.

In Ghana, politics is dominated by two major political parties, The National Demo-cratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). But the smaller parties also have influence in some constituencies where they have been able to establish some support base and can therefore be more influential in local level politics, es-pecially in those constituencies. The deferent structures of influence among the major and more influential parties and the minor and less influential ones also re-quire deferent strategies of approach to working with the two big parties and smal-ler parties as they have very different starting points. The bigger parties already have structures on the ground, but are very centralised in their policy development, whereas many of the smaller parties need more support in institutionalising the party in their respective strongholds.

Choice of partners

Political affiliation, or the appearance thereof, runs deep in the organizational land-scape in Ghana. It is therefore crucial to find the right implementing partner to en-sure political neutrality and in turn the participation of both NPP and NDC. For this reason, the project will be implemented jointly by two of the leading think tanks in Ghana: The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Center for Demo-cratic Development (CDD-Ghana). These organisations have long track records of implementing activities at national as well as local level and complement each other in their approaches and strengths. IDEG has been involved in advocacy cam-paigns nationally and have been engaging political party leaderships consistently on the issue of political decentralization. CDD has a strong presence at local level through its various programmes and have experience in capacity building local candidates running for the District Assemblies.

A.2. ActivitiesBrief description of the major types of activities to indicate the scope of work during the duration of the project.

Project activities will take place at national as well as local level.

The national level activities will involve dialogues for the leadership of the political parties and multiparty trainings to improve decentralized policy making and demo-cratic operation of political parties locally. In other words, the project will seek to create an enabling environment that nurtures pluralism and democracy at district level. The local level activities will be trainings and capacity building of the political parties in selected districts. Activities will take place with the individual parties in districts where they have strongholds. This will largely be through peer-to-peer en-gagements, where Danish party partners will work with a Ghanaian party.

The project has been divided into four phases. Activities in phase one and two are implemented prior to the referendum, whereas the implementation of activities in phase three and four are only implemented if the Constitution is amended. This is to ensure that resources are only invested if political parties are allowed to com-pete at local level and Chief Executives in the Metropolitan / Municipality / District (MMDCEs) are up for election.

Thus, the project will have the following four phases:

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Phase one: Inception

Implementation period: (1/7/19 - 31/10/19)

The activities in the inception phase will prepare for the project implementation if the outcome of the referendum is to amend the constitution:

- A national dialogue process with bilateral meetings with political parties and multiparty dialogues where the political leaderships will discuss issues related to the constitutional amendment and the entrance of political par-ties on the local scene

- A needs assessment to assess the capacity of the political parties and other stakeholders, and what their needs are if they are to compete at local level. The findings will inform activities in 2020

Phase two: Moratorium

Implementation period: (1/11/19 – 10/12/19)

Explanation: DIPD refrain from supporting activities in a country leading up to elec-tions. For this reason, there will be a moratorium of one and a half month.

Phase three: Preparation

Implementation period: 1/1/20 – 31/1/20

Explanation: If the constitutional amendment goes through, a specific activity plan will be developed for 2020. Furthermore, the implementation modality will also be finalized.

Phase four: Implementation


Explanation: Project activities are implemented

In 2020 there will be two types of activities:

- Multiparty activities: Dialogues, peer to peer engagements between Dan-ish and Ghanaian counterparts and capacity building of parties at leader-ship level. Mainly national activities

- Party-to-party activities: Peer to peer capacity building between a Danish party and a Ghanaian party, with a focus on candidates for the assemblies and the seats for MMDCEs. Mainly local activities in selected districts

As a minimum NDC, NPP, CPP, PPP, PNC and the Liberal party will be part of project activities. This is to ensure that all parties across the political spectrum with a fair chance of winning to win seats as MMDCE or majority of the district assembly seats get support.

Activities in phase 1 are carried out in the pre-election period leading up to the ref-erendum and four-yearly local elections in December 2019. In December 2020 na-tional general elections will take place, which means that phase 4 activities will be carried out in the post-election period of the referendum, and the pre-election pe-riod for the 2020 general elections where the parties will be preparing towards the elections which can create synergies to the activities with this project.

A.3. Expected resultsWhich changes will the project help bring about? Will the multi-party cooperation with DIPD be able to have an impact on the broader democratic dynamics in the country? Please be guided by the

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DIPD strategy and four results areas.

Ghana has stable democratic institutions, however, challenges remain due to a deadlocked political environment at national level, where a dominant two-party sys-tem (duopoly), a monetisation of politics and person-driven rather than policy-driven politics hinders pluralism. The introduction of a multi-party system at local level creates an opportunity for addressing these political challenges and more im-portantly strengthen democratic structures locally.

Short term results

The expected results by the end of project implementation in 2020 are:

- Political parties across the political spectrum get a space for collaboration towards promoting effective democracy in the districts.

- Political parties have the local capacity to operate in a democratic manner and be more effective and efficient in their role as representatives of the people.

Long term result

The increased multiparty collaboration and capacity of the political parties will lead to more pluralism at local level which will have a ripple effect on the national polit-ical environment. As various political parties hold power and begin collaborating at local level this can mitigate some of the negative effects of the winner-takes-it-all system at national level and spread out power.

A.4. Human rightsPlease outline if and how human rights are at play in the proposed project (ref to DIPD Guidelines p. 15)

Freedom House categorizes Ghana as “free”. The country has a relatively strong track record of upholding civil liberties, however with some weaknesses in the rule of law and a high level of political corruption (Freedom House, 2019).

There is freedom of opinion and assembly and the country has a large number of media houses representing various views and a large number of political parties (10 parties ran for elections in 2016). There is freedom to demonstrate and some social movements exist, such as Occupy Ghana and the Right to Information (RTI) Coalition, among others

Since 1992, the country has held competitive multiparty elections every four years and undergone three peaceful transfers of power between the two main political parties: the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC). This democratic success can to some extent be at-tributed to the legitimacy of the Electoral Commission (EC) and the neutrality of the chairperson of the Commission. In 2015, the long serving chairperson Kwadwo Afari-Gyan retired from public service, and since then the seat as chairperson has been politicised by the two dominant parties. This poses a risk for having peaceful and fair elections going forward.

Currently, the democratic order is challenged by recurring threats of electoral vio-lence and declining confidence in its governance and rule-of-law institutions. The

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evolution of a power structure between the NDC and the NPP, where the two par-ties have more or less become equal in political stature, has deepened polarization in the country and intensified their rivalry over the electoral mandate to govern the country. This has resulted in the entry of violent vigilante groups with political affili-ation. The power behind the vigilante groups became apparent during an incident in January 2019 at the by-election in Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in the Greater Accra region, where a heavily armed vigilante group disturbed the election process. The National Peace Council is leading a critical process, at the Presi-dent’s direction, in bringing the major parties together is an important step in stop-ping the operations of the vigilante groups.

A.5. Recommendations of the DIPD SecretariatThe secretariat will highlight how the application corresponds to DIPD’s strategy and principles, es-pecially emphasizing the relevance of the project overall, the quality of the application, and how it is expected to impact the partner and democratic development in the country.

The DIPD secretariat recommends that the board approves this application, while taking the following comments in to consideration:

In order to provide external quality control of the application, especially the analysis of the historic and political context, DIPD has contract Lars Udsholt for his profes-sional assessment of the application. His recommendations have largely been worked into the document.

Project relevance and DIPD strategyThe proposed project will mark the beginning of a new partnership between DIPD, IDEG and CDD, at first in the form of a multiparty partnership anchored at the DIPD secretariat and later, if the referendum goes through, with a strong and broad inclu-sion of several Danish political parties.

The proposed project fits well within DIPD’s strategy, with a strong focus on both multiparty dialogue, on the strengthening of political party organisations and on po-litical parties at the local level.

Relevance of countryDenmark has a long history of partnership with Ghana, and the withdrawal of the MFA’s governance programme in Ghana, there is both an expressed need and in-terest in a continued Danish engagement with the political parties of Ghana. Fur-thermore, Ghana continues to play a central role in both economic growth and political stability in the West African region.

The upcoming referendum on the introduction of multiparty democracy at the local levels of Ghanaian politics is seen as a potential gamechanger. While national politics is characterized by the duopoly of NDC and NPP and a narrow centraliza-tion of power, the introduction of multiparty politics at local level has the potential to create a new political reality. With political parties organisation at local level central to DIPD’s understanding of Danish political history, this is an obvious opportunity for DIPD and the Danish parties to offer valuable experiences to the Ghanaian parties.

Relevance of partner The project proposes a dual partnership with both IDEG and CDD. Both organisa-tions are relevant conveners of political parties in Ghana, but as with many other organisations, they each have their own bias. In order to convene both the major national parties and the smaller parties, who are looking to contest at local level, working with both organisations will be valuable.

Quality of application

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The application is generally well-worked through. It provides a thorough analysis of the political context and of the opportunities and risks surrounding the upcoming referendum.

EffectIf granted, this will be the first phase of the partnership and it is yet premature to assess the timeline and viability of long-term effects. If the first hurdle is passed and the referendum goes through, several new opportunities arise for local demo-cracy and a wider array of political parties in Ghana. It is expected that a DIPD en-gagement can lead to stronger cross-political dialogue between Ghanaian political parties and especially, that the local parties strengthen their organisation at the local level.

Budget An underlying budget has been developed by the secretariat, covering the activities leading up to the referendum. If the referendum goes through, a revised budget in-cluding the activities to be carried out by the Danish political parties will be devel-oped.

B. PARTNER

B.1. History, mission and organizational profileBrief description of the history and mandate of the organisation; an assessment of the overall organ-isational profile including overall objectives, organisational structure and financial situation.

Two local partners will implement the project in Ghana:

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG)

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, policy research and advocacy institute. Established in January 2000, its mission is to generate knowledge and enhance the capacity of citizens to influ-ence public policy choices, in order to consolidate democratic and development fo-cused governance in Ghana and the rest of Africa.

IDEG as a leading civil society think-tank in the areas of international development cooperation, electoral conflict management, participatory and accountable gover-nance, political dialogue and peace-building, high-level convenings, and fostering collaboration between state and non-state actors on a broad range of democracy and development policy issues at national, regional and international levels.

IDEG has designed and led campaigns for multiparty governance and constitu-tional reform with the objective of enhancing peace and stability, inclusive develop-ment, and national cohesion in Ghana and Africa and promoting the participation of civil society and other non-state actors in open governance (2005-2012), high-level international development cooperation dialogues (Accra 2008; Addis Ababa 2011, Busan 2011), and in the global review of Structural Adjustment Programs, also known as SAPRI (1997-2001).

The Institute is governed by a Council of Trustees (Governing Board), which over-sees the work of management. The Executive Director manages the daily work of the Institute alongside team of managerial and operational staff. The Institute fi-nances its programmes through grants from donors/development partners and oc-casional consultancy services. IDEG has in place a comprehensive Accounting and Financial Management system which has been designed to ensure effective man-

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agement of institute’s funds. This system covers management of fixed assets, in-come and expenditure, budgeting and reporting and expenditure control processes.

The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana)

Established in 1998, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is an independent, non-governmental research and advocacy institute dedicated to the promotion of democracy, good governance and economic development in Ghana and throughout Africa. Our vision is to have a free, peaceful and well-gov-erned democracy based on the rule of law, justice, integrity, equal opportunity for all and inclusive development in Ghana and other parts of Africa.

Over the years, CDD-Ghana has made significant contributions towards the growth of democracy in Ghana, in the areas of governance, decentralization, social ac-countability, anti-corruption, and election support work. These are implemented through high quality research, advocacy, capacity development and successful col-laborations with other like-minded organizations.

CDD-Ghana has a fifteen (15) member governing board comprising experienced technical and professional players from the public and private sectors. The Center is managed on a daily basis by an Executive Director, a retired professor of law, and Directors manning the four core departments at the Center – 1) programs, 2) research, 3) public engagement and advocacy, and 4) finance and administration. The Director of Finance and Administration oversees the administrative, finance, human resource units of the Center.

Beneath the heads of department/directors are Team Leaders for the various work streams.

The Center has an internal auditor dedicated to ensuring transparent financial man-agement, and an external auditor that audits the Center’s finances every year and produces annual audited accounts.

B.2. Position in political landscapeExplain what alliances and agendas are pursued by your organisation in particular in relation to the political landscape in your country?


IDEG has conceptualized Ghana’s multiparty local governance reforms and has developed the blueprint and technical competencies to facilitate its institution. Since inaugurating the advocacy for the reform in 2014, IDEG has engaged and worked with the various stakeholders to build the consensus that now moves the general motivation to consolidate Ghana’s democracy and accelerate inclusive development.

Currently, IDEG is advocating and campaigning for the adoption and implementa-tion of an integrative set of proposals that would kick-start local economic develop-ment through true decentralized/devolved governance by reforming Ghana’s multi-party governance structures. The proposed reforms will improve the conditions for sustaining peace and stability (political and macro-economic) and enhance long-term national cohesion. IDEG proposes three key reforms to improve the institu-

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tional framework for advancing accountable and developmental governance in the country:

(i) democratic devolution of executive power to elected local govern-ments;

(ii) improved regulation of elections, campaigns, and the developmental functions of political parties; and

(iii) Strengthening of strategic State bureaucracies to enhance their oper-ational efficiency and impartiality.

IDEG is engaging broadly, including the Supreme Court, Parliament, Public Service Commission, the Presidency and political parties, among other domestic actors, and forge strategic partnerships to advance the adoption and implementation of the reforms within 2017-2020.

IDEG leads the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) which is broad coalition of civil society actors with the aim to ensure peaceful and credible electoral management through active community and citizens’ participation, and collaboration with relevant state institutions to foster national cohesion in Ghana. The Institute also instituted the

Governance Issues Forum Network (GIFNET).


CDD-Ghana’s research and advocacy work programs are clustered around five (5) thematic areas namely, 1) Political and Constitutional Governance; 2) Economic and Cooperate Governance; 3) Civil Society; 4) Social Inclusion and Equity, and 5) Justice, Peace and Security. Building partnerships, alliances and collaborative plat-forms are part of the means by which CDD-Ghana pursues its democracy and good governance agendas. For example, CDD-Ghana initiated the formation of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers, the largest citizens observer group in Ghana. CDD-Ghana is also a founding member, and currently hosts the secretariat and management of the West Africa Election Observers Network (WAEON).Both CODEO and WAEON seek to advance and promote inclusive and credible elec-tions in Ghana and West Africa respectively.

Moreover, CDD-Ghana is an active member of the Local Government Network (LOGNET) in Ghana and has over the years partnered the network and jointly im-plement projects to advance decentralization and local governance in Ghana. LOGNET is a coalition of CSOs and NGOs in Ghana involved in promoting local democracy through effective participation and empowerment of citizens to influ-ence local policy and programs as well as service delivery at the sub-state level.

CDD-Ghana also recently coordinated the platform of CSOs that advocated for the speedy passage of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) bill. The bill was passed into law in 2018. The Center is also involved in monitoring to track govern-ment’s commitment towards implementation and operationalization of the law.

In the same vein, CDD-Ghana was part of CSOs that played a pioneering role in the mobilization of non-state actors as part of advocacy to demand action on the Right to Information Law.

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B.3. Strengths and weaknesses of your organisationWhat are the overall strengths and weaknesses of your organisation? What are the strengths and weaknesses related to the purpose of cooperation with DIPD – do you have previous experience in working with international and/or multilateral organisations? Which competencies and experiences in DIPD are you in particular interested in benefitting your organisation.


In the past 18 years IDEG has skillfully and effectively operated in Ghana’s highly polarized political landscape. That reputation has enabled the Institute to successfully convene presidential candidates during elections. IDEG has strong working relations with the leadership of all the political parties, big and small, in Ghana. Representatives of political parties at all levels participate in many of IDEG’s public dialogue and advocacy activities in the regions and at the national level. Furthermore, IDEG has held a number of meetings, retreats and seminars and has the trust and commitment of the parties.

IDEG has positioned itself as a key player in the area of multiparty local governance reforms through advocacy and persistent engagement. The Institute has contributed to the narrative about local governance reform going from a statement in Manifestos to a reality through engagements of key policy makers to speed up the amendment process, including the President, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development; Attorney General and Minister of Justice; Council of State, Parliament; National Commission for Civic Education; National Peace Council; MMDCEs; the media and religious leaders.

The Institute is experienced in public education and is currently in the process of training about 3000 community educators and about 200 civil society organisations to champion public education on the local governance reform. Also, IDEG has already conducted two rounds of nationwide outreaches and organized many public forums and learning events on the reform and it is identified as the leading CSO with the requisite competence to push the reform through.

Through dialogue and knowledge-networking the Institute has forged constructive collaboration with the leadership of State institutions such as Parliament, the Judi-ciary, National Peace Council (NPC), the National House of Chiefs (NHC), Min-istries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA) of Government (Executive), and the Na-tional Development Planning Commission (NDPC), among others. It has also col-laborated with multilateral organisations such as the African Union, ECOWAS, the World Bank, the IMF, the UNDP and the Commonwealth, among others, both at the country level and at their headquarters.


The Center brings years of experience in promoting election integrity, mobilizing citizens and candidates at the constituency/local level for the political and electoral processes. Significantly, the Center, through years of research, advocacy and ca-pacity building work at the district assembly level, has considerable competencies and experiences aimed at deepening popular participation, accountability, transpar-ency and responsiveness to enhance decentralization and effective service deliv-ery in local governance in Ghana. Through its democracy and good governance re-search and advocacy, the Center has identified as the main weakness insufficient and sustained advocacy on research and analysis conducted to bring the needed reforms.

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Over the years, CDD-Ghana has worked extensively with various international and multi-lateral organizations. These include the United States Agency for Interna-tional Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID), European Union (EU), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), among others. Equally, the Center has partnered and worked with international or-ganizations such as the Hewlett Foundation, Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Ford Foundation.

CDD-Ghana seeks to leverage on the competencies of the DIPD through this part-nership to deepen its advocacy work around political reforms at the decentralized level, and as well deepen working relations with political parties and enhance its profile on multi-party democracy in Ghana, especially at the sub-state level, where the country is preparing, for the first time in the Fourth Republic, to hold local gov-ernment elections on partisan basis. Also, the Center seeks to enhance know-ledge and learning through the training and capacity building programs and also share experiences and lessons with facilitators and experts, especially, Danish experts towards consolidating multi-party democracy at the local level.

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C. BACKGROUND

C.1. Political situation of the countryDescribe the general political situation in which the project activities will be implemented; is the coun-try in transition; is it characterized as being a fragile country; is multiparty democracy already accep-ted; Reflect on the characteristics of the party system and the electoral system and how it influences the proposed project, etc. Describe the overall challenges within the focus area of the project (like challenges facing women, involvement of youth, local level structures, etc.).

National politics

Ghana is known as a democratic beacon in West Africa and is often praised for its peaceful elections and turnovers of power. The country has strong institutions and systems on paper. However, in reality, representation, inclusivity and pluralism are challenged by a deadlocked political environment at national level with a dominant two-party system (duopoly) and a culture of monetization and person-driven rather than policy-driven politics. This is reinforced by the first past the post (winner-takes-it-all) electoral system the consequence. As a consequence hereof, NDC and NPP are currently the only two parties in parliament for the first time in the history of the fourth republic. All small parties except the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) re-ceived less than 1% of the votes each.

Ghana has a presidential governance structure with a strong executive power. All Bills are initiated by Cabinet and no Bills are initiated by Parliament itself. The cur-rent Government of Ghana is the largest in the country’s history with a total of 123 ministers. This also leads to a very centralized system, with only minimum room for maneuvering in the decentralized branches of Government.

Ghana politics are governed by a patron client system. While this is not explicitly stated in legislation there is the strong expectations that members of parliament (MPs) will ensure the construction of roads, hospitals and other infrastructure in their constituencies. These expectations by far exceed the amount of funds pro-vided for each MP through regular budget provisions. Many community members express that they rely on personal favors from the MP they voted for, e.g. to get their children into schools and accessing opportunities and jobs.

Many voters cast their vote based on their ethnicity and where they live. NDC and NPP have each their regional strongholds in which they traditionally secure strong support. This also goes for the smaller parties having district strongholds, however to a much lesser extent than NDC and NPP. According to a pre-election survey conducted ahead of the 2016 elections by CDD Ghana, about 30 % of voters were considered as floating voters (CDD-Ghana, 2016)1

Representative and inclusive democracy is also challenged by extremely high costs of politics and so called “monetization of politics”. A recent study by CDD-Ghana and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) found that on average the cost of securing a primary nomination to compete for a seat in parliament is GH₵389,803 (approx. US$85,000) 2. Politics have become business, where politi-cians also often need to recoup the money they invested in their campaign.

The political parties

1 https://dailyguidenetwork.com/floating-voters-decide-december-7-polls/2 http://www.wfd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Cost_Of_Politics_Ghana.pdf

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http://www.wfd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Cost_Of_Politics_Ghana.pdf

https://dailyguidenetwork.com/floating-voters-decide-december-7-polls/


Two parties dominate the political landscape: NDC and NPP. NDC defines itself as a social democratic party, whereas the NPP defines itself as a conservative center-right party but in real terms, there is little difference in policies and manifestos. Nei-ther of the two parties appear ideology-driven, and in practice there is little differ-ence in actual policy outcomes when it comes to e.g. economic or social policy.

Both parties have party structures and branches at national, regional and in all 275 constituencies, electoral areas and polling stations. The regional councils are made up of representatives from the various constituencies elected for a four-year period. The national leadership is elected at a national congress (NDC), and national con-ference (NPP). Both parties have their headquarters in Accra and have similar structures of their National Secretariat consisting of a National Chairman, General-Secretary, Deputy General-Secretary, National Treasurer, Organizers, and a Na-tional Youth and Women's Organizer respectively.

The parties have taken turns in holding government power: NDC was in govern-ment in 1992-2000 (President Jerry John Rawlings) and again 2009-2016 (Presi-dent John Atta Mills (2009-2012); John Dramani Mahama (2012-2016)). NPP has been in government in 2001-2008 (President John Agyekum Kufor) and won gov-ernment power in 2016 with the current president Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo at the helm.

NDC and NPP have active women’s wings and youth wings and are very strong in the universities, where student politics is more or less centered around the two par-ties. Some think tanks argue that young people join the parties not to gain influ-ence, but rather to have access to resources. Despite the existence of such organi-zational structures, women and youth are underrepresented in decision making and in the political parties. The vast majority of the small parties have a woman wing and a youth wing of varying strength.

There is no strong third party in Ghana, instead there is vast number of smaller parties. Generally, these parties have much weaker structures and do not have much of a say in national politics. There are several examples of the two dominant parties having adopted policy proposals initiated by the smaller parties, but without giving them credit.

The smaller parties generally do not have a cohesive ideology in traditional sense. Parties such as PNC, PPP and CPP follow the socialist tradition of Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party that dates back to 1949. There is also the Ghana Liberal Party.

Of the small parties, at least four small parties are assessed by DIPD, IDEG and CDD to have a chance of winning seats as MMDCE or majority of the district as-sembly seats.:

1) People's National Convention (PNC)Established in 1992, this socialist left-wing party follows a Nkrumanist tradition. The party was in parliament from 1996-2016 as one of the only small parties. The party is relatively strong institutionally and had 64 candidates running for the parliamen-tary election in 2016. The party got 0.39% of the votes (42,405). PNC has a chance of winning in a number of districts in potential local elections due to the party's long history, especially in northern Ghana.

2) Progressive People's Party (PPP)Established in 2012 by millionaire Papa Kwesi Nduom, a former presidential candi-date for CPP. PPP defines itself as a political movement. The party is a member of

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Liberal International. It is relatively strong institutionally but has never been repre-sented in the parliament. The party is the second largest opposition party. In 2016, PPP had 163 candidates running for parliament and received 1.73% of the votes (187,078). It was close to winning parliamentary seats in about 10 districts, which they consider to be their strongholds.

3) Liberal Party Ghana (LPG) Former Independent People's Party (IPP)LPG was formed sometime after 2016 as a successor of the Independent People’s Party (IPP) established in 2012. IPP received 0.01% of the votes for the parliamen-tary election in 2012 and was disqualified in the 2016 election. The party is report-edly a member of Liberal International and Africa Liberal Network. LPG, as one of the only small parties, has a clear liberal ideology.

4) Convention People's Party (CPP)Established in 1997 when the parties National Convention Party (NCP) and Peo-ple’s Convention Party (PCP) teamed up. It is a socialist party following the Pan African Nkrumah tradition. It is relatively strong institutional and its history dates back to Ghana's independence. The party was in parliament from 2000-2016. It had 222 candidates for the parliamentary election in 2016 and won 0.76% of the votes (72,677). The party is particularly strong in northern and western Ghana. CPP, as one of the only small parties with a membership database and assess that they have 10,000-15,000 members.

Decentralisation (administrative and political)

The 1992 Constitution and the Local Governance Act (2016) provides for a local government system in Ghana. The country has 16 regions divided into 254 dis-tricts, municipalities and metropolitans3.

Figure 1: Local Governance System, Ghana

In 2018, Ghanaians voted to create 6 new regions bringing the total number of re-gions up to 16. Each region has a Regional Coordinating Council that coordinates, monitors and evaluates the performance and service delivery of the districts. In ad-

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dition to this, a regional minister and vice minister and a chief director are ap-pointed for each region.

In the districts, municipalities and metropolitans, the highest unit of local govern-ment are the Assemblies. The Assembly is “responsible for the overall develop-ment of the district” and to “formulate and execute plans, programmes and strate-gies for the effective mobilisation of the resources necessary for the overall devel-opment of the district” (Local Governance Act, 2016).

A Metropolitan, Municipal, District Chief Executive (MMDCEs) is the political–ad-ministrative head in each district with responsibility for the executive and adminis-trative functions of the district assembly.

Local elections take place every four years. This year’s local election will be com-bined with the referendum on the Constitutional amendment to have elections through political parties at local level. In the current system the MMDCE is ap-pointed by the President alongside 30 % of the Assembly members, based on their experience and specialised expertise. The remaining 70 % of assembly members are elected through universal adult suffrage through a first past the post electoral system.

All candidates are independent and cannot run as a candidate for a political party. Despite this, most candidates still have close political affiliation to especially NDC or NPP. However, personal performance and contribution to the communities ver-sus party affiliation often weigh higher in local elections compared to national elec-tions.

There is a general challenge with low levels of participation in local governance – elections as well as decision-making. Currently, local elections only have 30-35 % voter turnout compared to 70-75% at national elections. According to the Local Governance Act (2016) District Assembly members should consult their electorates before and after Assembly meetings. Additionally, the National Development Plan-ning (System) Act (1994) decrees a participatory local planning and budgeting process. This however does not happen in real life because of resource constrains and a lack of demand for accountability due to low literacy levels (SEND-Ghana, 2015)4 For this reason, civic education on citizen’s democratic rights and duties and the local governance system is critical to ensure stronger local democracy.56

The strong executive power in Ghana translates into a lack of autonomy in the dis-tricts. The Medium-Term Development Plans developed by the Districts are re-quired to align to National Development Policy Frameworks which are drawn from the manifesto of the ruling party. Furthermore, budgets of the Assemblies are con-strained by national standards that do not allow for local differences in prices and needs. All government staff in the districts are appointed by the national govern-ment. This negatively impacts service delivery because local capacity gaps are not adequately taken into consideration when placing staff around the country. This is added to a deficit in financial resources to implement the development plans. As-semblies cover some of their budget through Internally Generated Funds, but still heavily relies on funds from central level, e.g. the District Assembly Common Fund (DCAF). Even with DACF funds, district still experience a finical gap to address de-

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velopment needs. This is further reinforced by the irregular releases of the fund (SEND-Ghana, 2016)7.

So far, not much has been done in real life to strengthen local governance struc-tures and institutions. This can be largely attributed to a lack of political buy in and will from central government as more decentralized structures also means that power will be decentralised. As an example, it was not until recently the political parties publicly expressed their support to the amendment of article 55(3) and 243(1).

C.2. Relevance of the partnership with DIPDExplain how the proposed partnership with DIPD can contribute to a strengthening of the democratic development of the country as a whole and how it can assist in arriving at the intended results within DIPD strategy (the issue of relevance to the partner more specifically is covered in section E).

Since the introduction of the local governance system in Denmark in 1970, the Danish political parties have gained a lot of experience in working at the local level. The project will tap into this expertise by the DIPD and the parties.

This is in line with the vision of DIPD to contribute to the development of well-func-tioning, democratic political parties, multi-party systems, and other institutions as central stakeholders in a democratic culture in selected developing countries, fo-cusing on the local level.

The project will contribute to achieving the vision of DIPD by building the capacity of political parties to operate in a democratic manner, being both representative and accountable (output area 1.3) and by fostering political dialogue in a multiparty system (output area 2.1).

This partnership with DIPD provides three related and important opportunities for CDD and IDEG: 1. To continue the work started in partnership with SLP (the Dan-ish political party) many years ago to strengthen the minority parties and develop frameworks to better engage them in national governance and leadership. 2. To fa-cilitate a very important aspect of the proposed devolution and effective decentral-ization by allowing for transfer of knowledge from Danish parties to the parties on their new roles in governance and leadership in a devolved and decentralized local governance system. 3. Support the development of the first steps towards develop-mental political parties and strengthening the building blocks of development (the district).

C.3. Related activities by other stakeholdersList related activities by other stakeholders including Danish Embassies and NGOs, e.g. related pro-jects by actors working with similar themes. Can existing knowledge, materials etc. be utilized in this project? Please indicate possible synergy with other actors.

A range of stakeholders in Ghana implement projects and have initiatives that com-plement this project. There is however a general challenge in Ghana with lacking coordination between development partners, where there is a growing tendency of working in silos. For this reason, DIPD will have a strong focus on engaging other stakeholders to avoid duplications and to strengthen coordination related to project

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relevant activities to the extent possible. This will especially be done with the EU which leads some coordination efforts in the local governance sector.

The Danish Embassy: Has been active in supporting the governance sector from 1990, hereunder strengthening decentralization through the District Development Facility. As Ghana has become a middle-income country, DANIDA is ending its de-velopment support, and the Rights to Services and Good Governance programme ended in 2018. Development partnes.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a key player in the field of democracy support. UNDP supported the Constitutional Reform process in 2012 were 90 amendments to the constitution were suggested, hereunder to have direct elections through political parties in the MMDAs. UNDP also implemented the Joint Party Support and Strengthening (J-PASS) project leading up to the election in 2016 where 5 political parties had their institutional structure strength -ened. UNDP and EU co-chairs the Elections Working Group for development part-ners.

The EU Commission is a key player in support to the local governance system and provide budget support to the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee on Decen-tralisation (IMCC) and technical support to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The technical support includes development of the National Decen-tralisation Framework and Action Plan (2020 – 2024) and legal reforms and capac-ity building of IMCC.

USAID is active in supporting administrative decentralization and local governance and has among other things worked with CDD-Ghana and SEND-Ghana on strengthening horizontal accountability systems in the MMDAs and funded the Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism (GSAM) project. USAID is cur-rently developing its 5-year strategic plan, where decentralization is expected to be part.

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) has an office in Ghana and work with NPP and the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference among others. As one of the only devel-opment partners, KAS is actively supporting the process of amending the constitu-tion through support to Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference in organizing a Sym-posium on the upcoming referendum for religious and traditional leaders, political parties, civil society and other stakeholders. The aim is to form a coalition towards civic education on the referendum.

Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is providing parliamentary support mainly through capacity building, working with the various committees and other parliamentary institutions.

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) partners with NDC and furthermore has yearly train-ings of female and youth politicians from various parties.

C.4. Related democracy projectsPlease outline if other democracy projects are being implemented or being planned and how re-sources – both human and financial – are previewed to be allocated to each partnership.

Development partners in Ghana implementing democracy projects (as outlined in section C.5.) coordinate their efforts through the Heads of Missions meetings.

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Through the Danish Embassy in Accra, DIPD and the Danish parties will inform about and coordinate efforts with relevant development partners.

Coordination with sister organisations present in Ghana (FES, KAS and WFD) will be done bilaterally.

Table 1: Type of collaboration with other development partners in Ghana

Stakeholder Theme Type of collaboration

The Danish Em-bassy

Multiparty dialogue and decentralization

Collaborate in the implementa-tion of the project. The Danish Embassy will be a close ally in coordinating the activities with other development partners.

EU Commission Decentralisation Technical collaboration, espe-cially in working towards nec-essary decentralization and lo-cal governance reforms for having an effective local democracy

USAID Decentralisation Technical collaboration, espe-cially in working towards nec-essary decentralization and lo-cal governance reforms for having an effective local democracy

UNDP Multiparty dialogue Technical collaboration in en-gaging the political parties through the multi-party plat-form

KAS NPP Technical collaboration in en-gaging with the ruling party NPP

C.5. Project preparationExplain how the focus of the project was identified. If this project is the second phase of a project that has been carried out with support from DIPD prior to this application - please present the main results and achievements and the conclusions/lessons learned.

As a result of a travel to Ghana in January 2019 to conduct a feasibility study by the Social Liberal Party (SLP) and DIPD, the Danish Embassy in Accra requested the Institute to engage in the historic opportunity for broadening and deepening democracy in Ghana. The development counsellor from the Embassy meet with the Head of Secretariat to request that DIPD pick up on the support to democratic structures where DANIDA left, especially in strengthening and deepening democ-racy at local level with the expected amendment of the Constitution.

Several Danish parties have experience in Ghana, including SLP and the Danish Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SLP supported a multiparty platform for 7 mi-nority parties to build their capacity in campaigning, mobilizing followers and drive

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issues-based policy (2015-2017). This resulted in a stronger collaboration between the minority parties, where they have started building election coalitions and shar-ing constituencies between them to better position themselves in elections. The SDP partners with NDC to strengthen the party’s internal democracy, gender equality and policy development. The first two project phases were implemented in 2012-2013. A planned third phase of the project was never implemented due to challenges with the NDC.

On this backdrop a scoping mission was planned for and approved by the DIPD board in April 2019. This was followed by an open call for the Danish political par-ties to express interest in the project. The following parties expressed interest:

- The Socialist People’s Party (SPP)- The Social Democratic Party (SDP)- The Conservative People’s Party (CPP)- The Liberal Party / the Danish Liberal Democracy Programme (DLDP) - The Alternative - The Red Green Alliance (RGA)

SPP and SDP participated in the scoping mission alongside DIPD. The reason for not more parties participating was the very short deadline due to the upcoming election in Denmark and the fast approving referendum in Ghana. During the scop-ing mission the delegation met with a wide range of stakeholders. After returning to Denmark, a phone meeting was held with all the Danish political parties that had expressed interest to confirm their buy in. All six parties expressed that they remain interested if the referendum goes through.

The project has been formulated in collaboration with IDEG, CDD-Ghana and the Danish Embassy. The project frame is quite broad, as the specific thematic areas of the capacity building and dialogue will be identified based in a needs assess-ment that will be undertaken in the inception phase of the project.

The detailed activity plan for 2020 will be developed at a workshop in Copenhagen in January 2020, where a representative from IDEG and a representative from CDD will participate alongside representatives from DIPD and the Danish political parties.

D. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

D.1. Problems and needs analysisBriefly describe and analyse the situation within the country or within your organisation that point to the relevance of the suggested activities (should also include description of key target groups for the project).

On December 10th, 2019, Ghanaians will vote at a referendum to amend Article 55(3) and Article 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution to allow political parties to com-pete at local level and to elect their Chief Executives in the Metropolitan / Munici -pality / District (MMDs). The introduction of local elections through political parties is a historic opportunity to strengthen decentralization and pluralism. The Constitu-tion in Ghana has only been amended two times since its approval in 1992 and promulgation in 1993. Once in 1996 and then in 2018. Therefore, this is a rare and historic opportunity for reforming the system.

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Allowing political parties to compete at local level also risks opening the floodgates for national challenges such as the monetization of politics to trickle down to local level and negatively impact local development. Furthermore, there is a general public concern that the introduction of political parties might also lead to more vio-lence as the stakes get higher.

To harness the opportunity and curb the challenges political dialogue is needed to ensure political buy in to push for the necessary reforms for a meaningful local democracy. As the political parties are to compete at local level for the first time in the history of the fourth republic, they need to build their capacity to operate in an effective, democratic and representative manner.

For the amendment to pass a minimum of 40 % of registered voters must vote at the referendum of which 75 % must vote yes. This means that there is a risk that the outcome of the referendum will be “no”. However, more and more points in the direction of an amendment of Article 55(3) and 243(1) as the President of Ghana, the National Chairman of NPP and the General Secretary of the NDC recently pub-licly supported the amendment.

Strengthening the Political Parties

In the current system, political parties only compete at national level, and do not have experience with campaigning at local level. This means that there is a need for building the capacity of big as well as small parties to have campaigns and poli -cies that reflect the local needs.

NDC and NPP have strong structures in place at national, regional and district level but are largely centralized: Both parties develop national manifestos which the local branches of the party follow closely without much room for adjustment to the local context. There is a need to strengthen localization of decisions and policies, and bottom-up approaches in the parties.

While a deeper assessment and consultations with the parties would uncover spe-cific needs, this particular component may address issues such as coalition build-ing and power-sharing at the local level, policy development and campaigning in order to enable the small parties to have role. Most small parties have weak struc-tures and do not have local party offices, despite a legal requirement for presence in at least 2/3 of the 275 constituencies. None of the small parties have an actual membership database and have only very few paying members. There are general funding and mobilization challenges across the parties, making them significantly less competitive than both NDC and NPP. There is however potential for some par-ties to win in selected strongholds around the country, which could lead to more pluralism. As the smaller parties have significantly less resources than the two big-ger parties and there is also a need to look into mobilizing and fundraising funds ei-ther through membership or through more innovative means.

NDC, NPP and most small parties already have manifesto, however, there is a need for all parties to translate the national priorities into local needs. All parties, big as small also enters a new field as none of them have campaigned in the dis-tricts before and need to adjust their national priorities to local level.

The need for political dialogue Effective local democracy can only exist if there is a conducive environment and decentralized structures in the political parties. For this reason, the project will also

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organise national multiparty dialogues for the leadership in the political parties to address some of the more systemic issues that need to be addressed for effective local democracy.

Other topics to be discussed through the national multiparty dialogues are needed decentralization reforms for the Constitutional Amendment to lead to meaningful change and strengthen multiparty democracy.

In addition to this, several other thematic areas have been identified and will be fur-ther elaborated on through the needs assessment. Other topics for engagement through the national multiparty dialogues could be the challenge with monetization of politics and how to promote civic education.

As a last focus area, functioning multiparty systems often goes hand in hand with coalition building. In Ghana there has not been a tradition for political parties to join coalitions. To strengthen collaboration at the local and national level, the project will also inspire coalitions based on Danish experiences through the dialogues.

D.2. Objectives and Results MatrixBased on the analysis of the challenges, problems and needs identified, explain the overall objective of the project and specific focus areas. Preferably no more than 2 focus areas or objectives should be identified within DIPDs overall strategy and four results areas.

The project has two overall objectives:

Overall objective 1: Political parties work together through dialogue to create an en-abling environment for meaningful local democracy and development in Ghana


Specific objective 1.1: Political parties collaborate and support efforts to institute structures and a framework for a multiparty democracy for effective governance at the local level

Specific objective 1.2: Political parties are stronger in building coalitions

Overall Objective 2: Strengthened representation and pluralism at local level through decentralized, representative and democratic small and big political parties


2.1 Smaller political parties develop their capacity and effectively play a role at lo-cal level governance

2.2. The big parties are more inclusive and decentralized

Objective 1 mainly focuses on dialogue and capacity building of political parties, especially the leadership, at national level, whereas objective 2 focuses on capa-city building of local branches of political parties at district level.

D.3. Change Strategy and ActivitiesOutline the overall strategy chosen to address the problems and to achieve the objectives identified. Are the chosen activities and approaches necessary and sufficient to bring about the desired change?

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Theory of Change

The introduction of local elections through political parties is a historic opportunity to strengthen decentralization and pluralism, however, this depends on political will from political leaders and that political parties have the capacity to play their demo-cratic role at local level

Multiparty dialogue and peer to peer engagements with political party leader-ships will strengthen political will towards a more effective and efficient local governance system

When political parties have stronger local structures, localized political priorities and form coalitions this enables them to operate in a democratic manner and to represent their electorate

This will lead to political power anchored in the districts where citizens can hold their local duty bearers directly accountable.

It will also allow different political parties to hold power at the same time, which eventually can mitigate some of the negative effects of the winner-takes-it-all system by distributing power more equally.

Strategy for change

This project is a pilot project, where the Danish parties can explore the potential of collaborating with counterparts in Ghana. Furthermore, the activities in 2020 will help inform a potential second phase of the project leading up to the local elections in 2022.

The project has a holistic approach to strengthening local democracy in Ghana by addressing the issue at nationally as well as locally. The strategy is to create an enabling political environment that nurtures pluralism and local democracy at dis-trict through national multi party dialogues with the leadership of the political par-ties, peer to peer engagements between Ghanaian and Danish politicians, and to build the capacity of the parties locally to have the tools and skills to effectively play their role at representatives for the people in the communities in the districts, mu-nicipalities and metropolitans.

The project will work with Ghanaian parties across the political spectrum. All politi-cal parties in Ghana with a potential to win seats as MMDCE or majority of the dis-trict assembly seats will be part of the project.

There will be different approaches to working with the two big parties and the smal-ler parties. The work with the big parties will focus on ensuring that policies are rel -evant at local level within the national framework of the parties. The work with the small parties will focus on building structures and equipping the parties with the skills to represent their electorate effectively and efficiently.

Danish and Ghanaian parties will partner in the following way:

SPP will work with PNC and CPP

SDP will work with NDC

CPP will work with NPP

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DLDP will work with GLP8

PPP is still to have a partner.

Implementation of project

The project will be implemented in four phases:

Phase one: Inception

Implementation period: (1/7/19 - 31/10/19)

The activities in the inception phase will prepare for the project implementation if the outcome of the referendum is to amend the constitution:

- A national dialogue process with bilateral meetings with political parties and multiparty dialogues where the political leaderships will discuss issues related to the constitutional amendment and the entrance of political par-ties on the local scene

- A needs assessment to assess the capacity of the political parties and other stakeholders, and what their needs are if they are to compete at local level. The findings will inform activities in 2020

Phase two: Moratorium

Implementation period: (1/11/19 – 10/12/19)

Explanation: DIPD refrain from supporting activities in a country leading up to elec-tions. For this reason, there will be a moratorium of one and a half month.

Phase three: Preparation


Explanation: If the constitutional amendment goes through, a specific activity plan will be developed for 2020. Furthermore, the implementation modality will also be finalized.

Phase four: Implementation


Explanation: Project activities are implemented

The thematic areas for the trainings and dialogues in the implementation phase will be informed by a needs assessment which will be undertaken during the inception phase of the project.

In 2020 there will be two main types of activities:

- Multiparty activities: Dialogues, peer to peer engagements between Dan-ish and Ghanaian counterparts and capacity building of parties at leader-ship level. Mainly national activities

- Party-to-party activities: Peer to peer capacity building between a Danish party and a Ghanaian party, with a focus on candidates for the assemblies and the seats for MMDCEs. As a minimum NDC, NPP, CPP, PPP, PNC and the Liberal party should be part of the activities. This is to ensure that

8 PNC: People’s National Congress; CPP: Convention People’s Party; NDC: National Demo-cratic Congress; NPP: National Patriotic Party; GLP: Ghana Liberal Party; PPP: Progressive People’s Party.

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all parties across the political spectrum with a fair chance of winning seats as MMDCEs in some districts get support. Mainly local activities in se-lected districts

Activities in phase 1 are carried out in the pre-election period leading up to the local elections and referendum in December 2019. In December 2020 general elections will take place in Ghana, which means that phase 4 activities will be carried out in the post-election period of the referendum, and the pre-election period for the 2020 general elections where the parties will be preparing towards the elections. This is expected to create synergies to the activities with this project. The next local elec-tion is planned for 2022.

The table/matrix below will help present the 1-2 objectives agreed upon and the activities to achieve the objectives.

Overall Objective Phase One - Four

Objective 1: Political parties work to-gether through dia-logue to create an enabling environ-ment for meaningful local democracy and development in Ghana

Activity line 1.1: Production of needs assessment

Activity 1.1 and 1.2 will contribute to positioning CDD and IDEG as con-veners for a multiparty platform on decentralisa-tion and political re-forms. The needs as-sessment will inform the project going forward.

Activity 1.3 and 1.4 will contribute to creating an enabling environment for political and administrat-ive decentralisation.

Activity 1.5, 1.6 and 1,7 will ensure that the pro-ject is informed by actual needs of the political parties and lessons learned

Activity line 1.2: A national dialogue process with bilateral meetings with political parties and multiparty dia-logues where the political leaderships will discuss issues related to the con-stitutional amendment and the en-trance of political parties on the local scene

Activity line 1.3: Multiparty dia-logues on administrative and political decentralisation and other reforms

Activity line 1.4: Peer to peer en-gagement and capacity building of parties to increase decentralised political structures

Activity line 1.5: Development of detailed activity plan for 2020 based on findings from needs assessment

Activity line 1.6: Outcome harvest-ing to map lessons learned

Objective 2: Strengthened repre-sentation and plu-ralism at local level through decentral-ized, representative and democratic small and big politi-cal parties

Activity line 2.1: peer to peer train-ings for local branches and candid-ates of NDC, NPP, GLP and PPP separately

Activities under objective 2 will contribute to build-ing the capacity of local branches of political parties to effectively and democratically play their role. These activities will how-ever only be implemen-ted if Article 55(3) and 243(1) are amended.

Activity line 2.2: peer to peer train-ings for local branches and candid-ates of PNC and CPP separately

Activity line 2.3: Production of Local Governance Guide to Political Parties

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Please include below the activity plan for the first, which will also be the specific activity plan you will report against in the annual periodic narrative and financial report.

Overall Objective Phase One – Inception Phase (2019)

Objective 1: Politi-cal parties work to-gether to create an enabling environ-ment for meaning-ful local democracy in Ghana

Activity line 1.1: Needs assessment to assess the needs of the political parties if local elections through polit-ical parties are introduced

Output 1: Bilateral meet-ings held with each of the political parties in-volved in the project Output 2: One multiparty dialogue held Output 3: One needs as-sessment conducted

Activity line 1.2: A national dialogue process with bilateral meetings with political parties and multiparty dia-logues where the political leader-ships will discuss issues related to the constitutional amendment and the entrance of political parties on the local scene

D.4. Sustainability and exit strategyPlease reflect on how the activities initiated under the project will be embedded in your organiza-tion’s long-term perspective and how sustainability of the results will be secured. What particular initi-atives will be taken as an exit strategy?

DIPD expects that this is potentially the beginning of a longer-term engagement in Ghana, if the Article 55(3) and 243(1) are amended and this first project goes well.

The project will focus on capacity building and the institutionalisation of a national multiparty platform. The aim of the activities is to sow seeds that will grow even if the project does not extend after 2020. By giving political parties simple tools, including a guide on local politics, the hope is that they can take some initiatives forward. Furthermore, the aim of the dialogue meetings is to position CDD and IDEG as conveners of political parties in the area of re-forms and decentralisation.

However, DIPD recognizes the importance of a responsible exit strategy and this will be dis-cussed with IDEG and CDD during the planning phase for 2020 (phase three).

D.5. Risk factorsRisks can damage, delay or impact negatively on the project implementation; such factors need to be mitigated. Include both internal risks within your organisation and external risks referring to the national context. It is important to be as realistic as possible.

Risk level Describe the type of risk Suggest mitigation

Internal to the or-ganisation

CSOs and think tanks are per-ceived as partisan for which reason some political parties do not wish to collaborate

CDD and IDEG jointly imple-ment the project together. The two organisations also in-volve the National Peace Council and other stakehold-ers

Lack of coordination between IDEG and CDD

A steering committee wil be put in place to meet every two months.

Activities related to the general election in 2020 will take up most time of the partners

A project coordinator will be contracted to be responsible for the implementation of pro-

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ject activities

External to the or-ganisation

Parties not interested in having their capacity built

The parties will be engaged at leadership level to ensure their buy in

Vigilante groups will negatively influence the pre-election pro-cess

CDD and IDEG will lialise with NPC in their work with the vi-gilante groups

Lack of coordination between development partners which result in duplication of efforts

Coordination through the Heads of Mission meeting where DIPD will be represen-ted by the Danish Embassy. Consistent coordination ef-forts targeting the EU

D.6. For fragile states/fragile situations (only to be filled out if relevant for project)If the project unfolds in a fragile state/situation, please describe the experience of your organisation with working in the given context and measures taken to address challenges to the implementation of the project and security risks.

Ghana is a stable country with no serious safety or security concerns.

D.7. Information activities (if relevant)Please touch upon the purpose, goal and target group of any information activities related to the pro -ject, including the activities planned, the types of media to be used, and the partners or actors to be involved in the activities. Information activities in partner country are covered under Activity in Part-ner Country, whereas information activities in DK are covered under budget line 9.

A Local Governance Guide to Political Parties will be produced based on previous DIPD publications such as “Political Parties at Local Level – Danish Experiences for Inspiration”. The Guide will be very practical and hands on. It will address the issues identified through the needs assessment. The Guide will target staff in the local branches of the political parties.

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E. BUDGET

E.1. Budget linesCosts must be presented in Danish kroner (DKK). Explanation of the various budget lines can be found in the DIPD Guidelines.

Note the need for output based budgets in the underlying budget sheet (Annex 9)

Budget line DIPD

1a. Activities in Denmark 0

1b. Activities in Partner country 206,000 DKK

2. Investments 0

3. Internal consultants 80,000 DKK

4. External consultants 50,000 DKK

5. Local programme staff 84,000 DKK

6. Local administration 200,000 DKK

7. Travel costs (international) 500,000 DKK

8. Monitoring and review 20,000 DKK

9. Information activities in DK (max. 2% of 1-8) 0

10. Budget margin [max 5% of 1-9] 60,000 DKK

11. Project costs total [1-10] 1,200,000 DKK

12. Audit costs 50,000 DKK

15. Grand Total 1,250,000 DKK

The budget allocations per output are as follows:

Output DIPD

1.1 Women are active and taking leadership in politics

1.2 Youth are active and taking leadership in politics

1.3Political parties are committed, skilled and capacit-ated to develop politics and communicate with the electorate in an accountable manner

625,000 DKK

Total Outcome 1

2.1 Political parties interact in multiparty dialogues 625,000 DKK

Total Outcome 2

Project cost total 1,250,000 DKK

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E.2. International travel costsExplain the need for carrying out international travel as part of the project. Costs should include all travel expenses including per diem and accommodation/hotel.

A key component of the peer to peer learning between Ghanaian and Danish political parties is that Danish politicians travel to Ghana to work directly with the Ghanaian counterparts. For this reason, the cost of international travel is relatively high. The high cost is also due to the large number of political parties that will be participating in the project.

In addition to this there will also be travel by the DIPD project coordinator and travel to con-duct an outcome harvesting exercise by the end of the project.

E.3. Consultancy costsExplain the need for external consultancy costs, including the reasons for not relying on local re-sources, if this is the case. Also indicate the level of payment per hour used.

Costs for internal consultants will cover costs held by the Danish political parties in organ-ising travels to Ghana for Daish politicians to participate in peer to peer engagements, dia-logues and capacity building. As there are up to six Danish political parties interested, the costs to this budget line is relatively high.

Costs for external consultants will cover costs for constants to conduct the needs assess-ment and to facilitate workshops and trainings.

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F. ORGANISATION AND ADMINISTRATION

F.1. Division of responsibilitiesHow are tasks in project implementation divided between your organisation and DIPD?

Division of responsibilities Denmark:

All multiparty activities will be coordinated by DIPD. DIPD will also have the overall responsibility for organising trips to Ghana for Danish politicians under the multi-party activities. In the peer to peer activities, the Danish political parties are respon-sible for the coordination of the travels.

In Denmark, there will quarterly consortium meetings with DIPD and the other Dan-ish parties involved in the project to monitor progress where DIPD provides up-dates. This is a decision-making body.

F.2. Partner organisationHow will the project be administered and organised within your organisation; how will responsibilities be divided; and who will be involved in project implementation.

Division of responsibilities Ghana:

- IDEG is responsible for the implementation of multiparty national activities. This includes multiparty dialogues and national trainings. IDEG will receive funds directly for implementation of national activities

- CDD is responsible for the implementation of local activities. This includes peer to peer learning and training sessions in the regions and districts. CDD will receive funds directly for implementation of local activities

The day to day activities will be carried out by a project coordinator. Both IDEG and CDD will also appoint a staff responsible for monitoring the day to day work of the project coordinator.

Decisions regarding the project implementation will be made by a steering commit-tee consisting of the project coordinator, the Heads of IDEG and CDD. Further-more, the committee will have advisory members, such as the National Peace Council. The committee will meet at least every second month to monitor progress and coordinate project activities.

Figure 2: Division of Responsibilities

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Steering Committee

Made up of IDEG, CDD-Ghana, and other stakeholders

Ghana

Consortium

Made up of DIPD and the involved political parties

Denmark

Project coordinator DIPD Project Advisor


F.4. Monitoring How will monitoring of project take place; how often will reporting take place; have DIPD partner vis -its been planned?

There will be at least bi-weekly updates from the project coordinator in Ghana to the DIPD coordinator. The project coordinator is the link between Ghana and Den-mark and is responsible for providing relevant and timely information to DIPD. In case of any changes in the activity plan, the project coordinator is responsible for informing DIPD. DIPD is responsible for informing the consortium of Danish parties.

In Denmark, the consortium meetings will monitor progress at their quarterly meet-ings.

In Ghana, the steering committee will monitor the progress at their meetings every second month.

DIPD will have one monitoring visit to Ghana and will furthermore participate in the outcome harvesting exercise by the end of the project.

There will be one monitoring report following the DIPD template. The report will be drafted by DIPD based on information from CDD and IDEG by the end of 2019.

An end of project report will be produced by the project coordinator latest by De-cember 2020.

IDEG and CDD are to submit a financial report for funds received and utilized each by the end of year 2019, and a final financial report by the end of 2020. The finan-cial report will follow the DIPD template. The project will be audited by the end of the project period.

Tabel 2: Project Reports

Report Responsible Timeline

Narrative monitoring report DIPD December 2019

Financial report IDEG and CDD, separately December 2019

Outcome harvesting exer-cise

Project Coordinator(s) October 2020

Final narrative report Project Coordinator(s) December 2020

Final financial report IDEG and CDD, separately December 2020

F.5. Reviews Have internal reviews been planned? If yes, who will participate?

There will be two review processes during the project: One during the preparatory phase (phase three), and one by the end of project.

First Review: preparing for 2020 activities

The first review process will be an integrated part of the development of the de-tailed activity plan in January 2020, on the precondition that the referendum goes through. During the process a representative from IDEG and CDD will participate in a workshop in Denmark with DIPD and the Danish political parties to review find-ings from the needs assessment and the initial dialogues. This will help inform the activity plan for 2020.

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Second review: outcome harvesting

The second review process will be undertaken by the end of the project period to review lessons learned. As this is a pilot project, these findings will be of great im-portance in informing if and how to take the project forward. The review process will be in the shape of an outcome harvesting exercise.

The outcome harvesting exercise will include a workshop in Ghana, where all stakeholders will participate and identify the most significant changes the project has contributed to, and which expected changes were not seen. Furthermore, the findings will also undergo a verification process where third parties review and verify that the reported outcome were significant and actually contributed to the two project objectives.

Outcome harvesting is a new way of thinking monitoring and evaluation which is much more focused on learning and on gathering information through dialogue rather than reporting in templates.

G. CONTACT INFORMATION

Applicant Danish Institute for parties and Democracy

Postal address Jemtelandsgade 1, 2300 Copenhagen

Telephone +45 38442800

E-mail [email protected]

Contact - name Mathias Parsbæk Skibdal

Contact - phone +4538442801

Contact - email [email protected]

Bank account

Legal responsible

Auditor

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Annex 1: DIPD Global Results FrameworkThe sections marked in orange are for each project to fill out as their own specific results matrix on the particular project – similar to the previous DIPD results matrix with specific ob-jectives, baseline, milestones and end result.

PARTNERSHIP: DIPD in Ghana

Results frameworkOverall Goal –Programme Title

Strengthened democratic culture, political parties and multi-party systems in partners countries

Impact indi-cator

- Full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in politi-cal life for women (SDG 5.5 on gender equality).

- Full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in politi-cal life for young people (below 35 years old).

- Reduced political conflicts, polarization and violence (SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions).

- Inclusive and evidence-based political decision-making.

Tar-get

Year 2020

- 10% increase in the number of seats held by women in national parliaments and local govern-ments.

- 10% increase in the number of seats held by young people in national parliaments and local governments.

- 10% reduction in incidences of politically moti-vated violence around national and local govern-ments elections.

- 10% increase in voters turn-out.- Election campaigns more policy- and issue-

based.

Outcome 1 Representative and accountable political partiesOutcome indi-cator

- Women and youth representation in politics at all lev-els increased in political parties partnering with DIPD on gender and youth.

- All political parties partnering with DIPD are commit-ted, skilled and capacitated to develop politics and communicate with the electorate in an accountable manner.

Target Year 3

2020 - 20% increase in number of women in trusted positions at the organisational level in politi-cal parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

- 20% increase in the number of women candi-dates in national parliaments and for 25% in-crease in the number of women candidates in local governments in the political parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

- 20% increase in the number of young candi-dates in national parliaments and for 25% in-

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crease in the number of young candidates in local governments in the political parties partnering with DIPD on youth.

- Political parties partnering with DIPD have implemented internal guidelines and regula-tions to ensure inclusive policy-making in-volving citizens.

Output 1 Women are active and taking leadership in politicsOutput indica-tor

- Party structures and processes strengthened to en-sure improved gender balance in political parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

- Women expressed an interest and commitment in taking up political office in political parties partner-ing with DIPD on gender.

- Women capacitated in Knowledge, Attitudes and Be-haviour (KAB) in political parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

Target Year 3

2020 - Internal political party regulations and guide-lines became more enabling for women tak-ing an active role in party politics in political parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

- Active women wings established in political parties partnering with DIPD on gender.

- A significant number of women from political parties partnering with DIPD on gender par-ticipated in political mentoring and leader-ship trainings.

- A significant number of women from political parties partnering with DIPD on gender be-came more assertive in internal party meet-ings and in public meetings.

Project Title

…..

Project Objec-tive

…

Base-line

Year 2017

Mile-stones

Year 1

2018

Mile-stones

Year 2

2019

Result - Target

Year 3

2020

Output 2 Youth are active and taking leadership in politicsOutput indica-tor

- Party structures and processes strengthened to en-sure an improved age balance in political parties partnering with DIPD on youth.

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- Young people took up political office in political par-ties partnering with DIPD on youth.

- Young people capacitated in Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour (KAB) political parties partnering with DIPD on youth.

Target Year 3

2020 - Internal political party regulations and guide-lines became more enabling for young people taking an active role in party politics in all political parties partnering with DIPD on youth.

- Active youth wing/clubs established in the political parties partnering with DIPD on youth.

- A significant number of young people from political parties partnering with DIPD on youth participated in political mentoring and leadership trainings.

Project title

…

Project objec-tiveBase-line

Year 2017

Mile-stones

Year 1

2018

Mile-stones

Year 2

2019

Result - Target

Year 3

2020

Output 3 Political parties are committed, skilled and capaci-tated to develop politics and communicate with the electorate in an accountable manner

Output indica-tor

- Increased capacity of politicians and political party functionaries to develop policies and communicate with the citizens in all political parties partnering with DIPD.- Policy output and communication increased in all politi-cal parties partnering with DIPD on this objective.- Policy influence improved in all political parties part-nering with DIPD on this objective- Policy accountability mechanisms established in all po-litical parties partnering with DIPD on this objective- Increased local level outreach in all political parties partnering with DIPD on this objective

Target Year 3

2020 - A critical mass of politicians and political party functionaries (including high ranking

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leaders) have participated in trainings of transparency and accountability in politics.

- Internal regulations, procedures and guide-lines for improved inclusiveness and account-ability introduced in all political parties part-nering with DIPD.

- Constituencies (including local and rural con-stituencies) are actively involved in develop-ing political manifestos and policy initiatives in all political parties partnering with DIPD.

Project title and country

Strengthening Local Multiparty Democracy in Ghana

Project objec-tive

Overall Objective 2: Strengthened representa-tion and pluralism at local level through decen-tralized, representative and democratic small and big political parties


2.1 Smaller political parties develop their capac-ity and effectively play a role at local level gover-nance

2.2. The big parties are more inclusive and de-centralized

Base-line

Year 2017 N/A

Mile-stones

Year 1

2018 N/A

Mile-stones

Year 2

2019 N/A

Result - Target

Year 3

2020 Small parties have improved internal capacity and structures in place (membership base, fundraising, mobilization) Small parties work together and have divided district strongholds between them NDC and NPP local branches in selected dis-tricts have localized campaigns

Outcome 2 Multiparty dialogue and cooperation in a multi-party system is strengthened

Outcome indi-cator

- Joint reform initiatives taken in various policy sectors (e.g. reform of the electoral commission, joint state-ments on how to avoid political violence during elec-tions).

Target Year 3

2020 - At least one joint initiative is taken per year in the period to ensure a transparent, ac-countable and non-violent political culture in the country.

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Outputs 1 Political parties interact in multiparty dialoguesOutput indica-tor

- Dialogue practiced continuously.- Party platforms formalised.

Target Year 3

2020 - Political parties, which have committed to di-alogue meet on a regular basis and interact in a collaborative manner.

- Institutionalisation of the dialogue platforms and consolidation (MOU, Statutes, funding

Project title and country

Strengthening Local Multiparty Democracy in Ghana

Project objec-tive

Overall objective 1: Political parties work to-gether through dialogue to create an enabling environment for meaningful local democracy and development in Ghana

Base-line

Year 2017 N/A

Mile-stones

Year 1

2018 N/A

Mile-stones

Year 2

2019 Bilateral meetings held with all the political par-ties One multiparty dialogue held with all political parties

Result - Target

Year 3

2020 At least four multiparty dialogues are heldAll political parties express support to local gov-ernance reforms At least two reform suggestions have been agreed to

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Documents

ANSØGNINGSSKEMA:€¦ · Web viewDIPD Multi-Party Project: Ghana 2019-2020. Application for. multiparty cooperation p. roject. template. Annex 3B – October 2017. BM 50 20/06/2019