External Review of the Civil Society and Human Rights Network

The Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) was formally established in 2004. At this time it received core funding from DANIDA and in 2005, SDC began to support the Network. In 2011, CSHRN is one of many networks and organisations that are predominantly dependent on international funding to promote a collective voice for civil society and the promotion of human rights in Afghanistan. The competition for resources between these organisations is stiff and a general lack of donor funding coordination has exacerbated this issue.

CSHRN has an urban-centric implementing model but it is able to occupy an interesting position within the Afghan state-society context. It has been able to work with both a largely urbanised civil society and with the weak but controlling central Government of Afghanistan (GoA). It has operated not just as a human rights watchdog but at times, as a partner with state officials at the province and national level. This ‘bridging’ role between civil society writ large and the government places the Network at an important nexus between state and society in Afghanistan. It is hoped that CSHRN can consolidate on these linkages in the future to work successfully with duty bearers and rights holders in a conflict sensitive fashion.

The Review Team assessed CSHRN’s operations through a lens of what is ‘good enough’ for the context that CSHRN is operating in. It was concluded that as a priority, the overall monitoring, evaluation and learning system and impact measurement process needs improving. It is proposed that M&E at CSHRN should be undertaken in a mindset that views this as a valuable process for learning and improving internally rather than simply satisfying donor reporting systems. Importantly, CSHRN needs to provide evidence (qualitative, quantitative and anecdotal) to support their reporting to donors and to enhance an internal learning process for the Network.

Lessons from Afghanistan are important not only in the Afghan context but also to programmers and policy-makers who will engage in similar contexts in other countries. The External Review highlights four key areas for donor consideration in regard to future civil society programming:

• Improved coordination among the international donor community and greater consideration to OECD DAC principles of engaging in fragile states;
• Programming at the context and working in the context;
• Linking state-building and civil society support mechanisms;
• The importance of supporting civil society as a process and not a project.