This article by Fernanda Buril is published by Democracy Digest. Here is an excerpt:

Donors and implementers of international development programs increasingly emphasize the goal of self-reliance: working with local partners in a way that builds capacity and ensures sustained results toward a country’s development agenda and eventually eliminates the need for foreign assistance, says Fernanda Buril, a Research Specialist at the Center for Applied Research and Learning at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Assessing sustainably of the outcomes of assistance programs is not, however, an easy task.  Impact evaluations that can rigorously capture long-term outcomes are rare as they are time consuming, costly and difficult to execute, she observes. So IFES revisited 25 years of democracy assistance programs in post-conflict countries, consulting 88 local participants and 28 program implementers, including members of electoral commissions, civil society organizations or political parties who participated in programs with the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS).

Among the conclusions….

Read the full article here.