Action Program for the involvement of religious leaders and community opinion leaders in promoting democracy and sustaining peace in Togo

The grantee should have established structures to ensure that weaknesses and difficulties encountered will be avoided in the future. In particular the organization should ensure that financial controls check payments for administrative appropriateness and also in terms of their relevance to project objectives. In addition, project strategy and design should be coordinated with other non-governmental organizations working on human rights and democracy.

The results of the project in Togo were significantly less than planned for in the budget. It is clear that the project enabled the grantee to rent and furnish premises and to pay its staff for 24 months. In addition, the vast majority linked their participation in the existence of financial compensation. The project did therefore not meet the criterion of sustainability.

In terms of familiarization with human rights and democracy, the project may have had a positive impact among the community and religious leaders who participated in the training sessions in Togo. It was, however, impossible to identify specific impacts of the project activities on the wider target groups of parish and community members. The same applies to women leaders: those who participated in training may have benefitted in terms of knowledge, but the project managers could not identify specific changes in women’s participation in public affairs that could have been attributable to the project.

Planned activities were mostly undertaken and the training and some published materials were of good quality. The vague strategy and the lack of professionalism of those responsible for its implementation have ultimately made the project less effective than it could have been.