Civil Society Assistance Program Quarterly ReportCitizen Agenda with 196 individuals (117 women, 79 men) in Quito, Guayaquil and Loja in October 21, and December 1 and 10. o Obtained

Civil Society Assistance Program

Quarterly Report

Report Period: October 1 – December 31, 2015

Delivered to: USAID

Implementer: Counterpart International Cooperative Agreement Number: AID-OAA-LA-14-00011

2345 Crystal Drive Suite 301

Arlington, VA 22202, USA

Ecuador Civil Society Assistance Program 2 AID-OAA-LA-14-00011 Quarterly Report: October – December, 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 2

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... 4

II. POLITICAL CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................. 8

III. ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................... 11

IV. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................................. 12

OBJECTIVE 2: CIVIL SOCIETY FOSTERS DIVERSE PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENT ................................ 20

OBJECTIVE 3: INCREASED ABILITY OF CSOS TO OPERATE COHESIVELY AND EFFECTIVELY ...................... 26

V. MONITORING AND EVALUATION ...................................................................................................... 34

VI. ACCOMPLISHMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 35

VII. BEST PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES............................................................................................. 35

VIII. EXPENSES.............................................................................................................................................. 36

IX. NEXT QUARTER PRIORITIES .............................................................................................................. 36

List of Attachments Attachment 1 Technical Report of adjustments to virtual platform structure and development of educational tools (FARO) Attachment 2 Power Point presentation of revised educational model. (FARO)

Attachment 3 Knowledge evaluation scores for municipal authorities (FARO) Attachment 4 Change Project Submission Guide (FARO) Attachments 5-6 Summaries of 20 projects submitted and 12 pre-selected projects

(FARO) Attachment 7 Grant Committee Technical Report (FARO) Attachment 8 Newsletter 2 structure proposal (FARO) Attachments 9-11 Invitation, agenda and Accountability Report (FARO) Attachment 12 Quito Workshop systematization (PC) Attachment 13 Guayaquil Workshop systematization. (PC) Attachment 14 Loja Workshop systematization. (PC) Attachment 15 First National Work Group meeting systematization (PC) Attachment 16 Democracy Code reform proposal (PC) Attachment 17 Press Release – Democracy Code proposal (PC)

Attachment 18 Press Release – Constitutional Reforms (PC) Attachment 19 Media coverage – Pacto Ético workshops (PC) Attachment 20 OD Training Program – Bulletin, Schedule, Description (ESQUEL) Attachment 21 Participants roster, Quito and Guayaquil training course (ESQUEL) Attachment 22 Module 0 evaluation and recommendations Quito and Guayaquil (ESQUEL) Attachment 23 FUTPEN selection process (ESQUEL) Attachment 24 Strategic Thinking Workshops and Action Plans Inputs (ESQUEL) Attachment 25 Monitoring and Evaluation matrix, second quarter (Counterpart) Attachment 26 Organizational Development results document (FARO)


List of Acronyms

AROG Association of Guayaquil NGOs (Spanish acronym for Asociacion Red

ONGs de Guayaquil) CEOSC Confederation of Ecuadorian CSOs (Spanish acronym Confederación

Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil) CLIC Latin American Center for Collective Intelligence CNE National Electoral Council (Spanish acronym for Consejo

Nacional Electoral) CSA Civil Society Assistance Program CSO Civil Society Organizations ESQUEL Fundación Esquel EVA Virtual Learning Environment FARO Grupo FARO FLACSO Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences (Spanish acronym for Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) GCSS Global Civil Society Strengthening GNT National Work Group (Spanish acronym for Grupo Nacional de Trabajo) GOE Government of Ecuador GP Promoters Group (Spanish acronym Grupo Promotor) LGBTI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex LWA Leaders with Associates M&E Monitoring and Evaluation NGO Non-Governmental Organization

OD Organizational Development

PC Participación Ciudadana PI Advocacy Plans (Spanish acronym Planes de Incidencia)

PMEP Monitoring and Evaluation Plan PY Program Year SENPLADES National Secretariat of Planning (Spanish acronym Secretaría Nacional de

Planificación) TA Technical Assistance USAID United States Agency for International Development


I. Executive Summary

Civil Society Assistance (CSA) is a three-year program financed by USAID under the Global Civil Society Strengthening (GCSS) Leader with Associates (LWA) Agreement. The objective of the CSA Program is to support, strengthen and sustain the critical work of civil society organizations (CSOs) in their efforts to develop a wide base of participation and citizen linkage with national and local governments. This objective is supported by three integrated programmatic objectives: 1) Strengthen civil society’s commitment to promote transparency and accountability at the national and municipal level; 2) Expand citizen oversight of government activities at the central and municipal levels as allowed by Ecuadorian legislation, including the provision of objective and verifiable information regarding government performance, and; 3) Strengthen the technical and financial capacity of CSOs in their efforts to establish mutual support networks and examples of transparency and accountability under a restrictive environment.

The program is jointly implemented by three Ecuadorian civil society organizations: GRUPO FARO (FARO), PARTICIPACION CIUDADANA (PC), and FUNDACION ESQUEL (Esquel). These organizations were selected based on their subject matter expertise, leadership, and past work experience with USAID and other donors.

This report covers the first quarter (October-December, 2015) of the CSA Program in Program Year (PY) 2 of implementation. During this quarter, partner organizations have achieved important milestones in the development of training courses, technical assistance and citizen dialogues. Some of the accomplishments of this period include:

• FARO

o Finalized adjustments to the Innovaccion Training program, including switching the online learning platform from UTPL’s server to FARO’s server for PY2 in November. FARO also expanded the content in the training program’s Introductory Module to include additional interactive tools, guidelines, user- friendly information, and follow-up mechanisms including alerts for on-line delivery of assignments, etc.

o Reviewed and finalized the design of PY2’s online training modules for CSOs and municipal officials through methodological adjustments and the development of content to incorporate more educational resources into these modules in December. These adjustments were identified as a result of participant feedback from PY1’s implementation of the Innovaccion program and have been incorporated into the program for the second training cycle beginning in March 2016.

o Finalized the analysis of the post-training evaluations measuring participants’ increased knowledge following the PY1 training course on October. Results from the evaluation demonstrated that participants’ knowledge of concepts, tools and strategies in topics such as Gender Mainstreaming, Accountability and Citizen Participation, Local Planning, and Local Management increased by 25% on average (please see Annex 3 for the evaluation report).

o Presented the Third CSO Collective Accountability Report (corresponding to CSOs’ operation in 2013-2014) in 3 cities of the country: Quito on October 27th, Tena on November 18th, and Portoviejo on November 20th. The report tracks and analyzes self-reported data from participating CSOs, including data on their main


activities, sources of funding, sector of work, beneficiaries, etc. In these dissemination events, 92 people attended.

o Led the reactivation of the Confederation of Ecuadorian CSOs’ (Spanish acronym CEOSC) Legal Commission - formed by distinguished lawyers from member organizations across Ecuador - to work on a proposal and strategies to promote a new and/or improved legal framework for CSOs. This Commission met 3 times during this period (October 19, 28, and November 19), analyzed the current CSO legal framework, and defined preliminary strategies and actions.

o Established a Project Selection Committee to select 7 small development projects from 20 proposals in the launch of FARO’s small grants program. These small grants are intended to create synergy between CSOs and Municipal officials through the sponsorship of small local/municipal development projects such as the establishment of citizen participation mechanisms for at-risk populations in the coastal municipality of Santa Elena; and the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Andean municipality of Antonio Ante including its citizen participation area. The projects will be implemented in PY2 – all 25 participants of the Municipal Strengthening training and 32 participants of the CSO strengthening training were eligible to apply, of these 57 individuals 20 proposals were submitted to FARO by the closing date of October 15. 12 proposals were shortlisted on November 23 and 7 selected for funding on December 1st by the grant selection committee for award.

• PC o Held Pacto Etico discussion sessions with CSOs, universities, youth, community

leaders from ethnic minority populations, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) organizations to develop the Democratic Citizen Agenda with 196 individuals (117 women, 79 men) in Quito, Guayaquil and Loja in October 21, and December 1 and 10.

o Obtained commitments from 14 experts1 to form the National Work Group (GNT) and participate actively in the Pacto Ético initiative on November 24. The GNT completed a preliminary identification of 3 topics that will be the focus of the White Papers to be produced in PY2. These three topics came directly from the Pacto Etico initiative and were the most often mentioned issues in the dialogue, they are:

▪ Recommendations for restoring Rule of Law,

▪ Adequate Electoral Systems to generate effective democracy, and

▪ Integration of Ecuador into the international arena.

The GNT also exchanged ideas for the distribution and dissemination of the White Papers and the Democratic Citizen Agenda including targeted outreach to media outlets, holding the group sessions in various cities, as opposed to only Quito, incorporating opinion leaders into discussions.

o Finalized Democracy Code reform proposals with input from Promoters Group members by the end of October and presented the reforms to the National Assembly and the National Electoral Council on November 9. In an effort to widen

1 GNT members are experts in different areas of Democracy including Human Rights, Electoral Systems, Freedom of Speech, Gender, Justice, as well as experts on Economy and Trade.


the scope of understanding amongst Ecuadorian citizens, PC also released a statement in the press and to all individuals/organizations/institutions in their network/contact database with their proposed reforms on November 11 (please see Annex 17 for more information).

While the Assembly did not incorporate any reforms to the Democracy Code in 20152, the process of gathering inputs and developing the proposals were valuable lesson for PC and will be instrumental in developing future policy advocacy agenda. The biggest take away from this process was that the government was not interested in public discourse for promoting changes in the implementation of the 2017 national elections. The National Assembly started the discussion of reform bills to the Code in December allowing no time for discourse or advocacy. In the future Counterpart will work with PC to generate more public awareness even if that awareness does not lead to legislative action – bringing the public into the forefront of the discussion may have an impact if it can generate large scale public outcry.

o Continued traction on their awareness raising campaign entitled “With the Right Values in Mind” (“Con los Valores Bien Puestos”) through the production and broadcasting of a promotional song and video entitled “I Want a Transparent Country” (please see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-xEw1Isl2Q] for the video).

o Public information and indirect beneficiaries - The Pacto Ético initiative was widely discussed by PC through its online newsletter Ciudadania Informada (Informed Citizenship), which had over 16,000 visitors this quarter, and in PC’s and Pacto Etico’s social media (Facebook and Twitter) accounts with an average of 1,600 weekly visits to Facebook and 2,450 followers in Twitter.

• ESQUEL

o Finalized the design of its organizational strengthening Training Program under its Latin American Center for Collective Intelligence (acronym in Spanish CLIC) called ESQUELCLIC. This quarter Esquel also defined the elements that will distinguish CLIC from other similar programs, namely that CLIC will: (a) Build learning and practice communities with participant CSOs; (b) Promote collaborative work to create collective intelligence; (c) Provide training with a theory of change approach applied to CSO performance; (d) Develop critical management models that allow CSOs to reinforce their organizational and advocacy capabilities; and (e) Incorporate innovative tools that allow CSOs to develop a higher coherence level between their internal organization and external activity.

o Launched the first training course under the CSA program (this will be the foundation of the newly developed ESQUELCLIC for further information please see Objective 3 below) called “Development of Critical Management Models for Social Change” on November 11 in Quito and November 26 in Guayaquil. This five course training series began with an introductory training which launched the session and explained the online training framework, and 4 course modules focusing on [subject a, b, c, d]. A total of 75 participants (31 men, 44 women)

2 The assembly stated time limitation as the main factor to not include the reforms in the 2017 electoral process, with Ecuadorian law requiring approval of reforms occur 1 year prior to the electoral process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-xEw1Isl2Q


representing 58 CSOs from Quito and Guayaquil enrolled in the introductory online course, and 66 individuals (24 men, 42 women) participated in 4 in-person workshops where Esquel staff presented the course contents and demonstrated how to use them live.

o Completed the five remaining Strategic Thinking Workshops (begun last quarter) with the following beneficiary CSOs in order to build Organizational Development (OD) Action Plans CSO Advocacy Plans to be finalized in February. To date, all 10 CSOs have OD Action plans and Advocacy in place.

o As part of its CSO strengthening objectives, Esquel conducted 7 videoconferences on the following topics this quarter: 1) Peace and non-violence culture, 2) Perspectives regarding collaborative advocacy, 3) Masculinities, 4) Perspectives of a world without wars, 5) Indigenous women rights, 6) Triple Bottom Line model: a tool for innovative organizations, and 7) Advocacy tools from an appreciative inquiry approach. A total of with 3223 participants logged into to view the videoconferences..

Counterpart

One of the main results of Counterpart’s Organizational Development (OD) Assessments with our three subpartners was a need for Advocacy training. As such, Counterpart proposed a two-phased approach to Advocacy. In Phase 1 the partners were given an overview of advocacy approaches and methodologies that could be flowed down to their subpartner organizations. In Phase 2 the three CSA subpartners will go through in-depth and individual skill building and advocacy trainings tailored to each partner’s individual need.

In December, Counterpart implemented Phase 1 through the deployment of an international Advocacy expert. The Advocacy training was conducted on December 2 and 3 and was followed by individual technical assistance (TA) to each of the 3 partner organization on advocacy strategies and tools and included practical exercises and discussions about the strategies presently being implemented by partner organizations. In addition to these training sessions, Counterpart provided additional sources of information, documents and materials employed by Counterpart and other organizations throughout the world. In February, recommendations to the 3 organizations will be expanded in more detail via a TA report currently being developed by the specialist. This report will feed into Counterpart’s Phase 2 Advocacy Training plan.

Given the incredibly tense environment under which Ecuador is currently operating – both in a political and economic sense (please see Section II Political Context for more information) – Counterpart sees an opportunity for Civil Society to expand their participation in the overall political and economic climate. In this context, and considering both the challenges and the opportunities that CSOs may face, the importance of the CSA Program is once again highlighted by offering CSOs spaces and strategies for dialogue, and reinforcing their capacities to participate, in a more effective manner, in democratic and local development processes.

3 The counting of the 322 participants is based on the automatic data that Esquel’s web software provides as the host of the video conference – note however that no formal registration was required to participate.


II. Political Context

During the last quarter of calendar year 2015 the economic crisis in Ecuador intensified and social and political tensions continued amidst the last phase of the constitutional reform approval process.

While the Ecuadorian Government insists that the country is not yet in economic crisis or recession, stating rather that the country faces a “process of economic deceleration” and that the economic model has proved to be successful through the 9 years of this administration, Ecuador’s economy continued deteriorating and faces an evident fiscal deficit. During 2015, the Government increased foreign debt in 31.6% compared to the debt level of 2014,4 and in the present quarter has experienced delays in transferring financial resources to the municipal officials, as well as in payments to suppliers and contractors5. Additionally, constant announcements about layoffs in different sectors (public and private)6 generated concerns among the population7. Additionally, banks reduced lending activity8, exports decreased, bank deposits and liquidity declined, and projects at different levels of the government, especially in local governments were not initiated, as municipalities will see their budgets cut by 12% in 2016.

External factors that had an adverse effect on the economic crisis throughout 2015 were the decrease in international oil prices, the appreciation of the U.S. dollar, and devaluation of the currencies in neighboring countries. The price of the oil barrel continued its downward trend during the quarter, closing at $37.049 on December 31, 2015, for the WTI (West Texas Intermediate), which is the referential oil type for oil produced and traded by Ecuador. In October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated Ecuador’s annual growth for 2015 at -0.6% and projected growth for 2016 at only 0.1%10. Ecuador’s country risk indicator reached 1,213 on December 211, which shows a significant upward trend not only compared against years passed but in comparison to neighboring countries. In addition to these external factors, several economic analysts attribute the crisis to the economic model implemented by the Government12 and the inadequate use of fiscal resources in previous years, with funding going towards infrastructure and large scale projects and significant increases in the hiring of public servants.

In the political arena, several events have occurred during this period, most notably the approval of the President’s constitutional reforms by the National Assembly and the subsequent Citizen rallies that were held in response to this approval. Chief amongst the concerns with the constitutional reforms are the control of the government of information, and the ability for any elected official to be reelected for life. This last reform is doubly interesting in light of the announcement by President Correa stating that he himself will not participate in the 2017 elections and will further block the possibility of elected officials who have served two consecutive terms to

4 http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/01/12/nota/4427946/deuda-externa-subio-316-alcanza-16913-millones 5 http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/12/13/nota/5293905/correa-pide-paciencia-hasta-enero-pagos 6 Note on “Uvica TV”: Ecuador layoffs go from 7.5% to 30.7%. http://www.ubicatv.com/ecuador-despidos-van-desde-el-75-hasta-el-307/ 7 Note on “Noticias ABC”, Ecuadornoticias: Concern among CABLEVISIÓN employees due to massive layoffs. http://ecuador.noticiasabc.com/2015/10/26/preocupacion-en-trabajadores-de-cablevision-por-despidos-masivos/ 8 http://expreso.ec/expreso/plantillas/nota.aspx?idart=8649617&idcat=38269&tipo=2 9 http://contenido.bce.fin.ec/resumen_ticker.php?ticker_value=petroleo 10 http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/10/07/nota/5170223/fmi-estima-que-ecuador-no-creceria-este-anio 11 Central Bank publication 12 http://www.ecuadorenvivo.com/economia/85-sp-651/40395-es-urgente-cambiar-de-modelo-economico-sostiene-analista-economico.html#.Vo_llPkrLIV http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/economia-ecuador-crisis-walterspurrier.html

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/01/12/nota/4427946/deuda-externa-subio-316-alcanza-16913-millones

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/12/13/nota/5293905/correa-pide-paciencia-hasta-enero-pagos

http://www.ubicatv.com/ecuador-despidos-van-desde-el-75-hasta-el-307/

http://www.ubicatv.com/ecuador-despidos-van-desde-el-75-hasta-el-307/

http://ecuador.noticiasabc.com/2015/10/26/preocupacion-en-trabajadores-de-cablevision-por-despidos-masivos/

http://expreso.ec/expreso/plantillas/nota.aspx?idart=8649617&idcat=38269&tipo=2

http://contenido.bce.fin.ec/resumen_ticker.php?ticker_value=petroleo

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/10/07/nota/5170223/fmi-estima-que-ecuador-no-creceria-este-anio

http://www.ecuadorenvivo.com/economia/85-sp-651/40395-es-urgente-cambiar-de-modelo-economico-sostiene-analista-economico.html#.Vo_llPkrLIV

http://www.ecuadorenvivo.com/economia/85-sp-651/40395-es-urgente-cambiar-de-modelo-economico-sostiene-analista-economico.html#.Vo_llPkrLIV

http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/economia-ecuador-crisis-walterspurrier.html


run in the 2017 elections. According to President Correa, his rationale for disallowing these officials to run for public office in 2017 is that he believes that the congressmen and women responsible for this legislative change should not stand to personally benefit from the legislation13. One notable political analyst states that this caveat was President Correa’s way to make the “indecent unlimited term proposal somehow more decent”14.

After several demonstrations on the streets and the uncertainty around the final outcome of the constitutional reform package submitted by the ruling party, on December 3 the Assembly approved the package of reforms with some modifications to the original text15. During the process of deliberation and approval, a series of rallies unfolded nationwide16 (which resulted in excessive use of force by police and several demonstrators arrested), intensifying in October and supported both by sectors in favor of the reforms including government allies, youth groups, members of the ruling party. The main sectors that challenged the proposal17 included social and indigenous groups, professional associations, and political actors that considered that the reforms affected fundamental democratic principles, labor, freedom of press, and other citizen rights; and the need for citizens to be consulted on the reforms through a Popular Referendum as opposed to approving them via the legislature. An opinion poll conducted in October18 concluded that 82% of the population wanted a referendum for the approval of the reforms and only 7% agreed to these changes made through the Assembly.

Some of the 15 topics approved and their potential impact according to several analysts are: (a) Modification to the referendum legislation, restricting local governments and infringing citizen rights to present initiatives for referendum, (b) General Accounting Office’s competencies, which will limit this Office to ensure that State’s objectives are being met by all public sector institutions, (c) Modifications of municipal competencies in areas such as health and education, which will leave as a sole competency of the State the planning, development and maintenance of physical infrastructure and equipment for health and education, (d) Declare communication as a public service, which could affect private communication media, (e) Changes in labor policy, which would limit the ability of public servants to generate collective labor agreements, (f) Expand the role of the Armed Forces in internal security, which could affect the competencies of other institutions such as the police force, and (g) Re-election of authorities, which allows that all elected authorities can run again for the same office after the 2017 elections. The approved reforms were published in the Official Registry on 12/21, just in time for the Christmas Holiday which in turn provided for days of official government closure, and divided attentions all of which resulted in a less than optimal understanding of the reforms upon publication. After publication there is a one-month timeframe for the presentation of claims of unconstitutionality to the Constitutional Court. By January 21st a total of 5 groups and/or individuals had presented requests to withdraw the reforms. The petitioners included labor organizations and social movements, association of retirees, opposition parties and legislative

13 http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/11/14/nota/5237946/correa-legisladores-podrian-no-ser-postulantes-2017 14 http://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/2015/12/04/nota/5277288/transitoria-reeleccion-indefinida-2

15 Newspaper “El Tiempo” from Cuenca: With 100 votes Assembly approves constitutional reform proposal, http://www.eltiempo.com.ec/noticias-cuenca/173087-con-100-votos-asamblea-aprueba-propuesta-de-enmiendas-constitucionales/ 16 http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/11/26/nota/5263245/seguidores-ap-responden-marcha-sectores-laborales 17 Note on Magazine “Vistazo”: Protests and celebration after approval of reforms. http://www.vistazo.com/seccion/pais/protestas-y-festejos-tras-aprobacion-de-enmiendas 18 http://www.cedatos.com.ec/detalles_noticia.php?Id=220

http://www.eltiempo.com.ec/noticias-cuenca/173087-con-100-votos-asamblea-aprueba-propuesta-de-enmiendas-constitucionales/

http://www.eltiempo.com.ec/noticias-cuenca/173087-con-100-votos-asamblea-aprueba-propuesta-de-enmiendas-constitucionales/

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2015/11/26/nota/5263245/seguidores-ap-responden-marcha-sectores-laborales

http://www.vistazo.com/seccion/pais/protestas-y-festejos-tras-aprobacion-de-enmiendas


members, and even the Comptroller General. The Court has now 30 days to admit the demands, after which it would call petitioners to a hearing for the presentation of the arguments, and a final resolution on the approval or rejection of the claims. Petitioners have expressed not being optimistic to a favorable resolution by the Court. On November 19 the President announced that he will not participate in the 2017 elections19 due to “political considerations” and that the reform proposal for indefinite re-election will not benefit current elected officials with more than one period. This was finally ratified with the inclusion and approval by the Assembly of a transitory article in the constitutional reforms, stating that the reform related to indefinite re-election will be effective on May 24, 2017 and thus will not benefit current elected authorities20, including the President and legislators who have been in office for two consecutive terms. Subsequent to the approval of the reforms, the President made an informal announcement that he will be sending to the Assembly a new set of constitutional reforms21 to continue amending errors in the Constitution and re-submitting the Inheritance Law and the Capital Gains Law22 that were temporarily withdrawn in the previous quarter. In early January President Correa and the ruling party leadership discussed its political strategy and agenda for 2016 including the potential new package of constitutional reforms announced by the President in December and announced that the new constitutional reforms would follow the same procedure in terms of approval through the National Assembly, as opposed to popular referendum. It also announced that the ruling party will conduct a series of dialogues (similar to those for the National Dialogue for Equality and Justice) to collect inputs from citizens and discuss potential reforms to the constitution. The GOE expects the new package of amendments to be presented to the Assembly by March. As for the National Dialogue for Equality and Justice led by the Government, and which was at the center of the political discussion during the last quarter, it was maintained in this period but with less intensity. To some opinion leaders, the Dialogue did not address items of interest to the population, and appeared to be used to mitigate specific circumstances23. As such, social tensions are still present and it is anticipated that street protests will continue to be a resource utilized throughout 2016. Political and economic factors continue to erode the Government’s and the President’s acceptance ratings24. According to the survey company CEDATOS25, on December 30 the

19 http://radioequinoccio.com/inicio/item/5943-presidente-no-sera-candidato-a-la-presidencia-en-2017.html 20 Note on “Metro Ecuador”: These legislators will not be elegible to participate in 2017 elections. http://www.metroecuador.com.ec/noticias/estos-son-los-asambleistas-que-no-podran-participar-en-reeleccion/rUrokp---zqwkFMFkvKqQ/ 21 Note on newspaper “El Comercio”: Correa plans to introduce a new set of Constitunial reforms. http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/correa-paquete-enmiendas-constitucion-ecuador.html 22 In June 2015 the government submitted, to the General Assembly, two bills deemed ‘urgent’ in economic terms; these two bills are the Law for Wealth Redistribution, also known as the Inheritance Law (“Ley de Herencias”), which increases tax to inherited wealth to 47.5%; and the Law for Capital Gains, which increases the amount of revenue from capital gains that goes to the government. Both laws were “temporarily withdrawn” as these were severely rejected by citizens and caused major protests throughout the country. 23 http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/dialogos-frenar-marchas-gobierno-ecuador.html 24 Note on Ecuadorinmediato. Minister admits negative impact on government perception, although not significant http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=164721&umt=secretario_pais_admite_que_ha_existido_desgaste_en_gobierno_pero_aclara_que_es_minimo 25 http://www.ecuavisa.com/articulo/noticias/actualidad/124985-rafael-correa-cierra-ano-aprobacion-credibilidad-baja-

segun

http://radioequinoccio.com/inicio/item/5943-presidente-no-sera-candidato-a-la-presidencia-en-2017.html

http://www.metroecuador.com.ec/noticias/estos-son-los-asambleistas-que-no-podran-participar-en-reeleccion/rUrokp---zqwkFMFkvKqQ/

http://www.metroecuador.com.ec/noticias/estos-son-los-asambleistas-que-no-podran-participar-en-reeleccion/rUrokp---zqwkFMFkvKqQ/

http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/correa-paquete-enmiendas-constitucion-ecuador.html

http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/dialogos-frenar-marchas-gobierno-ecuador.html

http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=164721&umt=secretario_pais_admite_que_ha_existido_desgaste_en_gobierno_pero_aclara_que_es_minimo

http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=164721&umt=secretario_pais_admite_que_ha_existido_desgaste_en_gobierno_pero_aclara_que_es_minimo

http://www.ecuavisa.com/articulo/noticias/actualidad/124985-rafael-correa-cierra-ano-aprobacion-credibilidad-baja-segun

http://www.ecuavisa.com/articulo/noticias/actualidad/124985-rafael-correa-cierra-ano-aprobacion-credibilidad-baja-segun


President’s approval rating had fallen 19 points during 2015 (from 60% to 41%). Additionally, 60% of respondents considered that the country is going in the wrong direction. Considering the present situation and the perspectives for 2016, the country’s economic, political and social environments will face increasing challenges. In addition to this, 2016 is a pre-electoral year with permanent political noise and intensification of Ecuadorian society fragmentation. In the short term, for civil society in general and the CSA Program in particular, intensification of the crisis is a source of both risk and opportunity. The risk for CSOs is related to their ability to securing funding and therefore remain sustainable. The economic outlook for the country is complex and it will be no different for this sector, meaning that funding opportunities are further diminished. The Government’s quest to increase its popularity ratings by facing opponents that dissent policies or criticize actions is also a risk for CSOs, especially those working to strengthen civil society and promote democracy. On the other hand, opportunities for CSOs involve the creativity that crisis periods bring about, including CSOs looking for and developing new ways to be productive and sustainable while remaining true to their mission. Additionally, the drafting and related discussion of new constitutional reforms, together with the continuity of the National Dialogue announced by the Government, will create a space to expand on civil society participation in these processes. In both scenarios, the CSA Program will be a fundamental channel to promote key topics for democracy and to move forward in the dialogue and create linkages between CSOs and the public sector.

III. Analysis

During this quarter, partner organizations have successfully completed several dialogues, trainings and assistance activities, and have also reflected on important learnings from the first year of program implementation to be considered for PY2 implementation.

• FARO evaluated the results of the first 4 training modules for municipal authorities conducted during the first year, refined the design of its online learning platform, and completed the fine-tuning of the modules for the training that will start in the second quarter. Additionally, FARO promoted reflection and analysis of civil society transparency through the initiative CSO Collective Accountability (third in the series) in 3 cities of the country. Additionally, it re-activated its Legal Commission and defined strategies to work on a new legal framework for the sector.

• PC conducted 3 provincial workshops with 196 participants in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil and Loja. With these events, PC started the series of 9 local dialogues for the development of the Democratic Citizen Agenda to be presented to candidates and political parties participating in the 2017 national elections. PC also conducted the first National Work Group meeting with 11 out of the 14 members, who identified preliminary topics for the White Papers to be distributed to the population and key stakeholders.

• Esquel started the implementation of the Training Program for CSO Strengthening with the course “Development of Critical Management Models” with 75 participants representing 58 CSOs from Quito and Guayaquil and conducted Module 0 online and through 4 in-person sessions with 66 participants. Additionally, it provided TA to 10 beneficiary CSOs through Strategic Thinking Workshops and the improvement of advocacy plans. Additionally, Esquel


supported CSO strengthening through 7 video-conferences on several topics including Advocacy and the Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Model registering 322 participants.

These activities, as well as reflection on the accomplishments during the first year of the Program, provide the necessary learning and the conditions to reinforce the implementation of activities planned for the upcoming quarter.

IV. Summary of Activities

Technical Assistance and Advocacy Training. One of the main results of Counterpart’s Organizational Development (OD) Assessments was a need for Advocacy related training for all three implementing partners. As such, Counterpart proposed a two-phased approach to Advocacy. In Phase 1 the partners were given an overview of advocacy approaches and methodologies that could be flowed down to their subpartner organizations. In Phase 2 the three CSA partners will go through in-depth and individual skill building and advocacy trainings tailored to each partner’s individual need.

In December, Counterpart implemented Phase 1 through the deployment of an international Advocacy expert. The Advocacy training was conducted on December 2-3 and 14 staff participated in the training including technical, communications, and monitoring and evaluation staff. This training included practical exercises and discussions about the strategies presently being implemented by partner organizations, as well as provided additional sources of information, documents and materials employed by Counterpart and other organizations throughout the world. In January the consultant will submit a report with her recommendations for future efforts – this report will be the basis of the TA for Phase 2.

Grants Manual. Counterpart’s Grants Manual is a comprehensive guide to grant making and monitoring and was shared with our three partners. They in turn consolidated their individual manuals in a coordinated effort to utilize one standard manual for all grants under the CSA program. This consolidated manual is currently under review by Counterpart’s Grants and Contracts team as is the subaward itself. Both documents should be finalized early next quarter in time for the March administration of small grants by both FARO and Esquel.

Objective 1: Civil Society Promotes Transparency and Accountability at National and Municipal Levels

Learning Platform. During this quarter FARO’s technical team, module instructors and IT staff responsible for the development of the online platform worked jointly to make adjustments and improvements to the Innovaccion training platform. These adjustments were conducted to incorporate lessons learned from the PY1 training in the presentation and structure of the modules and in an effort to encourage participation. Furthermore, FARO added new content to incorporate real-world situations, reinforcing collaboration and creative thinking amongst participants. These revisions were conducted after group working sessions were held in October (6, 8, and 28) and November (11,13, and 16) with the technical team. Discussion in these sessions included lessons learned as well as the development of new course content (see below for further details).

On October 13 Counterpart also facilitated an information sharing session between FARO and Esquel such that Esquel could learn from FARO as Esquel develops it’s online training platform. For more information, see Attachment 1: Technical Report of adjustments to virtual platform structure and development of educational tools.


CSO Training Modules. In the working group sessions described above, the technical teams reviewed course content for usability, practicality, and relevance. As a result of this session the instructors developed content to incorporate other teaching resources into the modules, such as questions about required readings, graphs, alerts for on-time delivery of assignments, games as learning aids, etc. Simple tools for active and constant participation were also introduced. These adjustments not only improved the presentation and comprehension of the existing modules, but also challenged instructors to think of creative ways to engage with their students. FARO conducted an instructors’ workshop to develop educational tools for the Innovaccion program on November 11, 2015.

An additional result of this workshop was improved technological design of the information included in the platform modules to make it more user-friendly, innovative and easy to use and access. Attachment 2 includes the Power Point presentation of the revised educational model.

To promote PY2 of the Innovaccion Training program, FARO visited local governments and CSOs in several provinces of the Sierra region on December 14 and 15; including the cities of Sigchos, Latacunga, Salcedo, Riobamba, Guano and Colta, as well as the provincial government of Chimborazo and the National Council of Parochial Governments in Ecuador (Spanish acronym CONAGOPARE) based in Chimborazo.

Municipal Officials Training Modules. As part of the Innovaccion training program, FARO simultaneously adjusted modules for the municipal officials’ training when conducting their updates to the learning platform and CSO training modules. The same level of attention to detail went into improving the modules as described above. Specifically, for municipal officials a greater emphasis was placed on the development of computer skills, since it is an area where they seem to be particularly challenged – based on PY1 findings and feedback.

Another conclusion from PY1 is the difficulty faced by many CSOs in working with local governments located far away from their province. For PY2, and in response to this challenge, FARO will identify geographical zones with the greatest potential for collaboration between CSOs and Municipal authorities to enhance the development of joint projects.

Evaluation of Courses for Municipal Officials. A total of 25 municipal officials (15 men, 10 women) from 17 cities throughout the country participated in the courses completed in late September 2015. This program included 4 online modules: (1) Gender Mainstreaming, (2) Accountability and Citizen Participation, (3) Local Planning and (4) Local Management. As Table 1 demonstrates, attendance variation between the modules within the range of 4 to 7, with the highest attendance on record at 25 attendees for Module 1 and lowest attendance at 17 attendees for Module 4.

Table 1: Number of Participants by Gender


Despite the fact that the number of male participants (53%) is greater than the number of women (47%) it is important to mention that women showed more consistency in attendance throughout the training process, since there was only 1 woman absent in Module 3.

FARO conducted a pre and post-test to evaluate participant learning as a result of their course. Results show an average knowledge increase of 25% across modules with the biggest increase in understanding coming from the Gender Mainstreaming module (see Table 2 below). Attachment 3 shows the results of initial and final knowledge evaluation for each one of the modules implemented, as well as the report that establishes the participants’ increase in knowledge as a result of the training.

Table 2: Knowledge Increase

Source Grupo Faro

Additionally, FARO conducted a participant satisfaction survey based on the participants’ perception on training content quality, training facilitation quality and effectiveness of the material utilized. FARO received an 80.5% satisfaction rating. The participants’ comments were positive and the main suggestion for improvement was to incorporate in person workshops to share experiences and knowledge.

Despite the success achieved through this course, FARO and Counterpart had originally anticipated a knowledge increase of 30%. This was not achieved due to:

• Lack of interest. FARO found that in many cases the Municipal authorities that were initially approached to participate in the training delegated other officials to represent the municipality by attending the training course. This may have contributed to these municipal officials lack of focus/concentration on the training course materials.

Participants Men Women

I. Gender Approach Mainstreaming 25 15 10

II. Accountability and Citizen Participation 21 11 10

20 11 9

IV.Plan Management and Projects 17 7 10

83 44 39

53.0% 47.0%

III.Local Planning

Modules

Module% Knowledge

increment

Gender Approach Mainstreaming 42

Citizen Participation 19

Transparency and Accountability 18

Project Management 21

PERCENTAGE OF KNOWLEDGE

INCREMENT 25


• Lack of understanding. Many municipal officials lack the knowledge of how to use and make the most of online learning platforms. This training method requires discipline and self-organization on the part of the participant in order to take advantage of the learning and apply it to their daily activities; however, if the participant does not adapt to the online methodology, motivation diminishes and training does not yield the expected results. To address this situation FARO expanded and adjusted the Introductory Module to teach users better how to operate the platform as well as to use its information and learning tools.

• Lack of access. Municipalities’ access to internet services is not adequate and their computer equipment is obsolete, which affects the delivery of an online course and results in a lack of motivation and delays in conveying information.

The most important lesson learned from PY1 is that in spite of the program being online, municipal officials (and even CSOs representatives) in Ecuador still require some degree of classroom training to reinforce knowledge. The in-person workshops that FARO conducted throughout PY1 allowed for greater interaction among participants, the sharing of experiences, and the clarification of concepts. However, the original design of the training program did not account for in-person training sessions and FARO added these on an in ad-hoc basis as the need became apparent with their participants. In PY2 these in person sessions will become a more permanent and structured part of the course since FARO is looking for funds from others donors.

FARO sought economic support from other donors to augment the work being done by CSA and through this funding, On October 2015 FARO held in-person workshops on Public Policy Management in Quito (October 3), Ambato (October 20), Ibarra (October 21) and Guayaquil (October 29). The total number workshops participants were 129 (70 men, 59 women), of which 46 were municipal officials, 11 came from CSOs, and 6 came from academia (additionally at least 10 were participants of the Innovaccion Training Program). These additional workshops were strategically valuable for CSA because they reinforced FARO’s attention to the municipal officials’ needs and provided a networking opportunity to FARO building interest in the Innovaccion training program for PY2.

Establishment of a Grant Selection Committee. In October the Grant Fund Selection Committee was established to evaluate the 12 shortlisted proposals that were generated after the close of the FY 1 training.

The individuals selected are:

• One representative from the CEOSC, Fundación Hermano Miguel – Dr. Nelson Oviedo, expert in project design and evaluation.

• One representative from the Innovaccion instructors’ team, Economist. Patricio Silva, FLACSO Project Director

• One representative from the implementing organization, Grupo FARO – Adriana Arellano, Research Director

• One representative from Counterpart as an observer

Individuals were selected based on their understanding of the civil society context, their subject matter expertise and their willingness to participate. These individuals are all highly respected in


their fields and are able to provide impartial but well researched/understood analysis of the proposals. Reception of Change Projects. As a culminating effort of the Innovacción training program for CSOs and municipal officials are invited to present to FARO a proposal for the development of a “change project” to be presented at the end of the program. In order to facilitate these proposals FARO developed a Project Guide at the beginning of the training program that established a set of guidelines to develop the change project. This guide provided training participants with an outline for the proposal noting that they should include a proposal justification, project description, target population, objectives, methodology and strategies for implementation, viability and sustainability, and a monitoring and evaluation plan (for more information please see Attachment 4: Change Projects Submission Guide.) 20 project proposals, 10 from CSOs and 10 from municipal officials26, were received on October 15, 2015 and were first reviewed by instructors, who requested adjustments and motivated participants to comply with the requirements established in the Guide (please see Attachment 5 for a full list of proposals). The instructors then evaluated the 20 proposals against established criteria to shortlist 12 which were passed on to the Grantee Selection Committee. Evaluation and Selection of Projects. The 12 shortlisted proposals were delivered to the Grant Selection Committee for review, evaluation and scoring (please see Attachment 6 for a full evaluation of the 6 shortlisted proposals). The methodology used to score each project proposal involved a 3-stage evaluation process. First each committee member conducted an individual review and scoring of each project, evaluating the project summary and also the complete set of project documentation. Second, Committee members held working sessions on November 11 and 23 to analyze, review and discuss individual scores and reach consensus were differences surfaced. Finally, a matrix with the best scoring projects was agreed to and developed by committee members in a final working session held on December 1. Attachment 7 includes the Technical Report from the Grant Selection Committee detailing the process undertaken and establishing the ranking of the proposals, based on the established criteria, quality and innovation of ideas proposed. The total points a project could receive was 48 point and it was evaluated on relevance, efficiency, efficacy, impact, viability and consistency. Table 3 outlines both the individual and average received by each change project as a result of the Grant Selection Committee evaluation. As can be seen, the highest score received was 43 out of 48 points, and the lowest score received was 24 out of 48 points.

26 While Municipal Officials were the intended beneficiary of the proposal design workshop and training platform they will not be the beneficiary of the grant. One of the requirements for grant funding is that a municipal official must work in coordination with a CSO (the inverse is applied to CSOs – they must include in their proposal a municipal official) and the CSO will then be given the grant funds.


Table 3: SCORE SHEET (CSOs are marked Pink and Municipal Officials in blue)

Table 4 reflects the final ranking of the initiatives selected for funding where lower scores represent better evaluations – 1 being the highest and 6 the lowest.

It is also important to mention that one of the participants submitted a well-prepared project to be implemented with the CEOSC; Since one of the Committee’s member comes from CEOSC, the Committee decided to prioritize other projects to avoid a conflict of interest.

Nbr CSO/GAD PROJECT NAME P1 P2 P3 Average

2 FADLES Promotion of productive entrepreneurship 38 30 36 35

3 FDHI

Strengthening of civil society organizations and their

association capacity for promotion, exercise and defense of

human rights

24 20 28 24

4 CEOSC Development of productive capabilities 46.5 36 46 43

5 FENODIS Development of productive capabilities 45.5 38 31 38

6 PRIDEC Ocupational center PRIDEC for indidviduals with disabilities 44.5 30 40 38

8 SIGCHOS Increase Citizen Participation in Sigchos 44.5 31 41 39

9ANTONIO

ANTEInstitutional strengthening plan 44.5 37 41 41

10GONZALO

PIZARRO

Organization and strengthening of Citizen Participation

System and participative planning 40.5 33 42 39

11 PIÑAS

Improve participation of vulnerable groups in the

identification and definition of local public policy though

inclusion of these groups in the use of new technologies

28 36 30 31

12 STA. ELENAImplementation of process-driven citizen participation

mechanisms 33.5 42 41 39

CSO

GAD

SCORING TABLE

3032

1 FEPAPDEM

Formation and strengthening of pre-associations of families

with intelectual disability members in the province of

Guayas

41 41 34

7 IBARRA

Development and execution of a training program in

production and commercialization for entrepreneurs in

Ibarra cantón

29 30

39


Table 4: Winning Projects

Execution of Change Projects. In December Counterpart review each of the 7 projects selected and made recommendations to be considered prior to implementation, including technical and financial adjustments, to guarantee the effective implementation of the projects. In January 2016 FARO will verify the status of each organization selected for project execution prior to proceeding with grant agreement execution and verification of supporting documentation.

Second CSO Newsletter. This newsletter has become an instrument for active communication with CSOs, and a channel to disseminate activities, actions and topics of interest that reflect the work and mission of the organizations. During this period, the structure for the second issue of the newsletter was developed around the central topic of Citizen Participation. This is a topic of great interest and expectation in the country since more than 12 rallies took place during 2015 to defend rights in a difficult political and economic context. Presently, the Editorial Board is reviewing the structure for the second issue of the newsletter to be published in the next period. Attachment 8: Newsletter 2 structure proposal.

Promoting the CSO Enabling Environment and Transparency. FARO, along with the CEOSC, is working to promote civil society transparency through a series of activities including the CSO Collective Accountability initiative, which makes visible the contribution of CSOs to democracy not only through projects for at-risk populations but also in public-private partnership processes aimed at strengthening local development.

Related to this initiative, on October 27 FARO presented Third CSO Collective Accountability Report at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, with 21 CSOs, 17 CSOs in Portoviejo and 13 CSOs in Tena participating along with representatives from the public sector and academia. The report analyzes operating trends amongst 60 CSOs on their performance in the year 2013-2014. While it shows that CSOs have directly and/or indirectly benefitted approximately 2.3 million

CSO/GAD PROJECT TITLE Average Position

CEOSC* Development of productive capabilities 43 1

FEPAPDEM

Formation and strengthening of pre-associations of families

with intelectual disability members in the province of

Guayas

39 2

FENODIS Development of productive capabilities 38 3

PRIDEC Ocupational center PRIDEC for indidviduals with disabilities 38 4

ANTONIO

ANTEInstitutional strengthening plan 41 1

GONZALO

PIZARRO

Organization and strengthening of Citizen Participation

System and participative planning 39 2

STA. ELENAImplementation of process-driven citizen participation

mechanisms 39 3

SIGCHOS Increase Citizen Participation in Sigchos 39 4

*CEOSC obtained funding, therefore i t i s excluded from al location of resources

WINNING PROJECTS


people in Ecuador, it also shows a sharp decline in Civil Society as a whole as compared to the year 2012-2013. In 2012, 102 CSOs were included in the report and were fully functional entities. Of these 102 only 60 were still viable organizations in 201327. See Attachments 9, 10, and 11 with the invitation, agenda and Accountability Report: Building Public Interest by Civil Society

Presentation of the Third CSO Collective Accountability Report. In parallel, the CEOSC’s National Steering Committee has promoted the presentation of the Third CSO Collective Accountability Report in other provinces of the country, a mechanism that not only promotes the work of the Confederation, but also creates a space linking other organizations and national networks. On November 18 and 20, the Third CSO Collective Accountability Report for 2013-2014 was presented in the cities of Tena and Portoviejo at the offices of the Committee for Women’s Human Rights (in Spanish Comité de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres) in Tena and at Manabí’s Network of Weavers (in Spanish Red de Tejedora).

Participants in the Third CSO Collective Accountability Report presentation – Quito, October 27, 2015.

Analysis of CSO Legal Framework. The CEOSC’s National Steering Committee has also created a Legal Commission this quarter – formed by distinguished lawyers from member organizations. The Legal Commission will generate a legal framework that contributes to an enabling environment for CSOs – either as amendments to the current legal framework or in better understanding how the current legal framework can be accurately implemented. Members of the Legal Committee have met on 3 occasions (October 19 and 28, and November 19) to conduct a political and legal analysis. This analysis will be presented to potential legislative and executive-branch candidates in the February 2017 elections.

As part of this strategy, the CEOSC will continue its efforts to promote synergy between government officials. To that end, on December 15, CEOSC representatives met with the acting Ministry or the National Secretary of Policy Management to follow-up on the idea of forming a

27 More information about this report is available in the following link:

http://www.confederacionecuatorianaosc.org/confederacion/sites/default/files/Tercer-Informe-Rendicion-Colectiva-de-Cuentas.pdf




working group of civil society and government officials to review existing legislation and discuss its efficacy.

Additionally, CEOSC representatives requested that the Ministry suspend the previously established deadline (December 20) for CSO registration per Decree 739. The Ministry agreed with CEOSC that the deadline is an issue but he has not respond yet to this request officially.

During this period, Counterpart also supported CEOSC through technical assistance provided by our STTA for Advocacy, Victoria Amato. Ms. Amato analyzed CEOSC’s mission and objectives and held a meeting with CEOSC members on December 9, 2015 to create and implement an advocacy strategy.

Objective 2: Civil Society Fosters Diverse Participation and Engagement

Development of the Democratic Citizen Agenda. PC, initiated the citizen dialogue series this quarter holding 3 of the 9 total workshops to promote and discuss priority democracy issues28 identified under the Pacto Etico initiative in PY1 at the local level. These workshops are aimed at discussing and gathering citizen input for the development of the Democratic Agenda to be presented to candidates in the 2017 elections. PC invited members of the Promoters Group to be actively involved in the organization and facilitation of the workshops occurring in their home cities. Workshops included the participation of citizens, CSOs and other organizations such as neighborhoods, trade unions, student associations and other entities29. Participation from public officers was almost nil, despite the invitations made to national government representatives such as the Citizen Participation Council within each province, the Ombudsman’s Office, and Municipal Citizen Participation offices in each location. PC will continue to invite public officials in the remaining provinces and strengthen follow-up actions to invitations and increased promotion of their participation. After every workshop, PC summarizes the results of the roundtable discussions and conclusions reached by participants. During the fourth quarter of PY2, once the series of 9 workshops scheduled under the Pacto Ético initiative is complete, PC and the Promoters Group will develop the Democratic Agenda incorporating the inputs generated by citizens throughout the country. Counterpart representatives have attended each of the sessions and noted that while the dialogue is generally quite robust PC could benefit from a more formal/standardized facilitation strategy to encourage more fruitful discussion. This has been noted to PC and is a particular priority for Counterpart in deploying our next STTA. Workshops were conducted in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, and Loja, with a brief summary of outcomes provided below:

Quito Workshop

28 Urgent topics: 1. Democracy Strengthening, Rule of Law and Institutional Structure, 2. Transparency, 3. Freedom of Association, Political Participation, Citizen Participation and Social Control to State’s Performance, 4. Human Rights and Priority Groups’ Rights 29 Demonstrated by the events’ registration logs.


Quito Workshop Participants – October 21, 2015

The Quito workshop was conducted on October 21 with 51 participants (35 women, 16 men), representing 25 organizations including CSOs, universities, CBOs, and others. Despite the fact that PC invited 250 participants, the actual number of attendees was far less than expected. PC believes that in the country’s capital, Quito sees a high influx of CSO and citizen engagement workshops, so many in fact that the supply outweighs the public’s demand, leading to lower rates of participation in each event. Additionally, on the date of PC’s first dialogue workshop for Pacto Etico, the government conducted an official event presenting the results of the first phase of the dialogues led by SENPLADES, which affected attendance to the workshop. The workshop started with a presentation of the workshop’s objectives, the methodology to be used, and a screening of the Pacto Ético video and song. Additionally, PC presented an overview of the Pacto Ético’s initiative and how the four urgent democracy topics up for discussion in the workshop were selected by the Promoters Group. Participants were divided in 7 working groups with each group assigned a facilitator (5 from PC and 2 from the Promoters Group). Once all groups finalized their discussion of the 4 topics, each group presented their concussions and recommendations in a plenary. During November PC summarized the discussions and recommendations coming out of the Quito workshop (see Attachment 12). Some of the recommendations and inputs are presented in Table 5 at the end of this section.

Guayaquil Workshop

Guayaquil Workshop Participants – December 1, 2015

The Guayaquil workshop was conducted on December 1 with 104 participants (55 women, 49 men) and a wide representation from different sectors of civil society including students, retirees,


LGBTI groups, afro-descendants, teachers, former public officials and citizens from Guayaquil and nearby cantones (Daule, El Empalme, Balzar and Samborondón). After the presentation of workshop objectives, methodology, and the Pacto Ético song and video, participants were divided in 10 working groups. Four CSO members of the Promoters Group (Observatorio de Justicia, Foro de la Juventud, Afroamérica XXI and the Asociacion Red de Organizaciones del Guayas -AROG-) were directly involved in the organization and facilitation of this workshop.

During December, PC summarized the discussions and recommendations resulting from the Guayaquil workshop (see Attachment 13). Some of the recommendations and inputs are presented in Table 5 at the end of this section. Loja Workshop

Loja Workshop Participants – December 10, 2015

The Loja workshop was conducted on December 10 with 41 participants (27 women, 14 men). Despite the fact that more than 200 invitations were made and followed up on, the City of Loja festivities – which started on December 7 – might have affected attendance as well as other scheduled events for the celebration of Human Rights Day. Despite the reduced number of attendees, leaders of networks and professional trade groups such as education, chambers of commerce and youth groups were represented. For this workshop members of the Promoters Group (CAJE, Coordinadora Política de Mujeres) participated in the presentation of workshop objectives, methodology to be used, the explanation on the process to arrive at the 4 urgent topics, and the closure of the workshop. Participants were divided in 4 working groups and facilitators selected by the Promoters Group’s organizations assisted with the group discussions. The active participation of the PG members in Loja, as well as the leadership and key contacts of CAJE’s Director was essential to ensure the participation of local leaders from the various sectors including the private sector, media, and education sectors. In addition, his closing message contributed to promote visible excitement on the Pacto Initiative and desire to continue to be involved in the dialogue with candidates and Democracy Agenda promotion. During the third week of December PC summarized the workshop discussions and recommendations (see Attachment 14). Some of the recommendations and inputs are presented in Table 5 below.


Table 5: Input and Recommendations from Quito, Guayaquil and Loja Workshops

Democracy Strengthening, Rule of Law and Institutional Structure

✓ Need to take steps to address the lack of institutional structure and separation of powers, such as National Electoral Council and the Judiciary function.

✓ Need to empower citizens not only on ethical values, but also on civic values and citizen rights, and increase access to public information.

✓ Reject Constitutional reforms and request a referendum for any modification to be done to the Constitution.

✓ Recommend that the selection of authorities to the Citizen Participation and Social Control Council be done through elections.

✓ Demand law enforcement by justice institutions, respect of the Constitution by the GOE, and guarantees for true and independent justice.

✓ Need to have civic campaigns that allow citizens to be informed about the political, social and economic situation in the country, and to participate in the design and execution of public policies.

✓ Recommend non-compulsory voting. ✓ Recommend mandatory classes on democracy studies at educational institutions to promote political

education and nurture future leadership. ✓ Recommend constant training on democracy topics and socialize urgent topics in all sectors to

empower the population.

✓ Need to ensure change of leadership at different levels of the government to establish real

participation and respect for democracy.

Transparency ✓ Require that elected authorities’ accountability measures are accessible to all citizens. ✓ Recommend elimination of Citizen Participation and Social Control Council. ✓ Recommend reforms to the Citizen Participation Law through a transparency campaign and an anti-

corruption agenda to be proposed to candidates. ✓ Repeal the Communications Law and draft legislation in accordance to international agreements on

freedom of speech and Human Rights. ✓ Require that control and oversight measures are implemented for all expenditures by authorities. ✓ Require to have access to dialogue and diversity spaces where debate on citizens’ demands related

to government actions can take place. ✓ Promote independent citizen oversight committees, not under control by the State, as an anti-

corruption instrument. ✓ Request true electoral control with mechanisms such as electoral observers to have transparent

elections. ✓ Require that elected officials’ work plans be more effective, with monitoring and evaluation by

citizens. ✓ Demand clear electoral processes, with electoral observers, review and clean-up of the voters’

registry and an audit to the National Electoral Council. ✓ Demand that public officers’ requirements for running for office or working in the public sector stress

experience and knowledge.

Freedom of Association, Political Participation, Citizen participation and Social Control to State’s Performance

✓ Recommend to repeal Executive Decrees Nbr. 16 and Nbr. 739 and generate a different mechanism that promotes freedom of association.

✓ Need to reinforce citizen participation and social control mechanisms and follow up on government actions and implementation of international treaties.

✓ Need to strengthen trade groups and civil society to have real impact on decision making by political actors.

✓ Propose creation or reform to existing mechanisms for citizen participation as well as reinforcing citizen oversight committees and “Empty Chair” (mechanism by which citizens may participate at the city council sessions and vote on decisions.


✓ Propose reduction in bureaucracy. ✓ Promote public policies that guarantee and promote participation.

Human Rights and Priority Groups’ Rights ✓ Need that vulnerable populations’ rights such as those of the LGBTI population (as an example) are

visualized and respected. ✓ Require public policies that guarantee equality on civil rights for LGBTI population as well as their

rights related to employment, health, education, housing and identity. ✓ Propose to form a National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights. ✓ Recommend education on Human Rights and Ethics starting at the family level, the educational

system and groups of experts willing to educate the population as a whole. ✓ Require non-discrimination policies and true inclusion for priority groups with emphasis on the afro-

descendant community. ✓ Request that the right to mobility is guaranteed. ✓ Need to consider local needs and those of priority groups and increase funding to the protection and

implementation of rights among these groups. ✓ Need information campaigns on social networks and digital media to expand citizens’ knowledge

about human rights. ✓ Require political programs on gender equality.

✓ Require health and education programs addressed to vulnerable populations so that their rights are not only guaranteed but also contextualized.

Strengthening the Promoters Group. PC has continued building the capacity of members of this network through their participation in the Pacto Ético initiative. Prior to the provincial workshops mentioned above, PC conducted preparatory sessions where – in addition to the coordination of logistics – workshop methodology was discussed and facilitation skills reinforced for Promoters Group participants and volunteers assisting in the development of the workshops.

For the Quito workshop, this session was held on October 14 with 9 participants, including PC personnel (6 men, 3 women). For the Guayaquil workshop, the preparatory session was held on November 10 with 7 participants (5 men, 2 women). Lastly, the preparatory session in Loja took place on December 9 with 6 participants (3 men, 3 women).

As mentioned above, Counterpart has noted that a more strident facilitation training may be necessary and while our technical team on the ground has provided information to facilitate that training we believe that a formal STTA will be greatly beneficial for PC and the Promoters Group and plan to deploy one in the coming quarter.

First National Work Group Meeting. After PC’s Board of Directors selected the GNT members at the end of last quarter and defined guidelines for its methodology of operation, the GNT held its first meeting on November 26 in Quito. A total of 11 out of the 14 members were present, with 3 members out of the country. A specialist on dialogue topics was the moderator of the meeting and PC’s Director facilitated. The objectives of this meeting were: (a) Present the Pacto Ético initiative to the GNT, (b) Explain to attendees the methodology of operation to be used by the GNT, (c) Define the topics that this group will work on, and (d) Introduce members to each other to initiate a dialogue process. One of the group’s members (the economics expert) presented an analysis on the country’s economic situation with the objective of establishing a contextual basis for group discussion and presented probable future scenarios.


The group confirmed its fundamental role as providing analyses of key aspects of Ecuadorian democracy to promote an effective, solid and inclusive Rule of Law. Group members emphasized the need to have distinct voices that truly reflect the population and are included in the White Papers to be developed. They also agreed that it is required to promote strategic ideas that would enhance citizen thinking on key democratic issues and made a commitment to provide applicable inputs for the production of the White Papers. They believe that the main objective of the White Papers is to educate the population as a whole and thus the need for promotion and ample distribution to all citizens. Participants identified 4 possible topics for the White Papers:

• Recommendations for restoring Rule of Law including Independent Justice as an essential element to achieve this goal.

• Adequate Electoral Systems to generate effective democracyIntegration of the country to the international arena

Additionally, the GNT agreed to give priority during this fiscal year first to the topic of Justice and then to the topic of Electoral processes. Both topics are related to the first of the urgent topics identified by the Promoters Group for the Democratic Agenda: Democracy Strengthening, Rule of Law and Institutional Structure. One of the GNT members committed to send an initial analysis document on both priority topics. Additional details about this meeting can be found on Attachment 15, GNT Meeting Systematization. Legal Reforms. After sharing with members of the Promoters Group the proposal to reform the Democracy Code, PC received and incorporated contributions from 2 of the group’s members. The rest of the group members expressed their agreement with the proposal. On November 9, PC delivered the proposal (Attachment 16) to the National Assembly and the National Electoral Council (Spanish acronym CNE). Additionally, on November 11, PC distributed a press release on the proposed reform to communication media and their contacts (Attachment 17). The Assembly received a total of 11 proposals to reform this law, including the proposals from CNE and PC. On December 10, the Assembly publically informed that reforms to the Democracy Code announced in prior months will not be implemented due to lack of time30. While this decision temporarily blocks the possibility of introducing reforms for 2017 elections, it does not preclude that electoral issues and potential modifications to the political system be part of the political agenda, and that political actors and citizen organizations advocate on these issues with the objective of collecting inputs to be used in upcoming electoral reform processes31. During this period PC continued monitoring the constitutional reform proposal made by the ruling party. On November 18, it distributed a press release to media and contacts insisting on the institutional position of requesting a referendum for modifications to the Constitution. See Attachment 18. “With the Right Values in Mind” Campaign. At the end of September producers and musicians were hired to develop the promotional song for the Pacto Ético initiative and production was finalized in October. The song was introduced publicly at the first Quito workshop on October 21 (see above) and was very well received by all attendees. It is a 4-minute song with a positive

30 Note on Newspaper “La Hora” There will be no reforms to the Electoral Law in February 2017. http://lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/1101893251 31 It should be pointed out that after the electoral process of 2017, sectional elections will be held on 2019.

http://lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/1101893251


message and can be found at the following YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-

xEw1Isl2Q. Additionally, this communications product was presented at the Guayaquil and Loja workshops in December, in the working sessions of the National Work Group, and in the advocacy training workshop conducted by the international consultant under contract by Counterpart. The song will be broadcast in public and private media, with planning underway for specific dates and places. PC has also continued distributing information about the Pacto Ético initiative (including press releases) through its social networks. In the 3 cities where provincial workshops have been held, news media representatives have been present and have published information about the initiative. (See Attachment 19 Media Coverage Pacto Ético Workshops)

Interviews with: Jose Luis Ojeda (Promoters Group) Loja, December 10, 2015 and

Ruth Hidalgo (PC Director) Quito, December 1, 2015

The Pacto Etico initiative was also promoted in PC’s online newsletter Ciudadania Informada, which had over 16,000 visitors, and in PC’s and Pacto Etico’s social media (Facebook and Twitter) accounts with an average of 1,600 weekly visits to FB and 2,450 followers in Twitter.

Objective 3: Increased Ability of CSOs to Operate Cohesively and Effectively

CSO Strengthening Online Training Program. Esquel as part of its own organizational sustainability approach will be utilizing the trainings built under CSA and through other programs and housing them in what they are calling the Latin American Center for Collective Intelligence (Spanish acronym CLIC). This online portal will be a repository for all trainings created by Esquel and will be ‘shoppable’ by regional and national CSOs in need of organizational strengthening. these online courses, videoconferences and blogs, will be augmented by Esquel’s staff and their ability to consult on various issues of relevance to the regional/national CSO. ESQUELCLIC will be housed on Esquel’s Virtual Learning Platform (Spanish acronym EVA), and currently contains the training modules proposed in the CSA Project to be implemented this year, called “Development of Critical Management Models for Social Change.”

For the development of the ESQUELCLIC training program modules, the following parameters were developed for theoretical framework:




• Form learning and practice communities32 with the CSOs participating in the program.

• Promote collaborative work to create collective intelligence.

• Train with a theory of change approach applied to CSO performance

• Develop critical management modules that allow CSOs to strengthen organizational and advocacy capacities.

• Incorporate innovative tools that allow CSOs to develop an improved coherence level between their internal organization and the external activity.

Figure 1

ESQUELCLIC Theoretical Framework

Based on the criteria and theoretical framework both shown above, the training program will give CSOs the ability to create change-based management models, considering the alignment of values and principles from the organization’s mission and vision. This alignment will allow CSOs to be better positioned to implement their activities based on the distinctive elements of their activity.

Training modules that will be included in the Critical Management Model Program are the following:

Figure 2

ESQUELCLIC Online Modules

32 Esquel defines “learning and practice communities” as spaces integrated by different groups of individuals sharing a common interest, a set of problems or passion about an issue, and want to expand their knowledge and experience in the area through a continuous interaction that strengthens their relationship.

Theory of Change

Critical Management

Alignment to

Principles

Internal Coherence

Concept

Alignment to Context

Connection Concept


After the training content was developed the Esquel team tailored these modules specifically for the online platform. As mentioned earlier, Esquel made use of FARO’s lessons learned from their online training program to input into the design of the platform. Esquel use the Moodle program for their platform’s design, which allows better content management and the ability to have a number of collaborative activities such as forums, wikis, blogs and messaging. Additionally, the system generates electronic mail reminders prior to any of the scheduled activities such as assignments, evaluations, forums, chats and videoconferences. Annex 20: Critical Management Program information, methodology and modules content.

Esquel created an ESQUELCLIC website that delineates information about the training program, including its approach, methodology and course content. This website includes the possibility of online enrollment and has additional information useful to CSOs, the website can be found at the following web link: www.esquelclic.org

Launch, Promotion and Implementation of the Training Program. A series of activities were scheduled for promoting the program in November, 2015. Esquel invited an international expert in organizational development, Laurent Ogel, to promote interest among CSOs on the topics to be covered in the training program. As part of this process meetings were held with CEOSC members, and professors to explore ways of mutual collaboration in promotion the online training program. Additionally, Mr. Ogel conducted a workshop on the Triple Bottom Line Model with beneficiary CSOs from the CSA Program and other Esquel initiatives. The workshop was successful in developing relationships among these organizations, especially considering that many work in similar fields and can support each other. The workshop had 17 participants from CSOs (for the gender breakdown of attendees to all Esquel’s activities please see Table 6 below).

The Quito launch of ESQUELCLIC took place on November 11, 2015 with 34 attendees from 21 organizations, as well as representatives from international organizations, such as Counterpart, Partners for Democratic Change and Mexico’s Instituto 17 de Estudios Críticos. Esquel’s 12 beneficiary organizations in the CSA program were also present at the event. Esquel presented the training program and an analysis of the civil society outlook in Ecuador currently along with Esquel’s approach to face this situation.

On November 26, the Guayaquil launch event for the training program was held at Casa Grande University. Again, the training program was presented, including its methodology and participation requirements. The event was supported by AROG, a regional network that coordinates Guayas province CSOs and had 21 participants representing 18 CSOs.

Table 5 below summarizes the activities performed in relation to the launch of ESQUELCLIC and the number of participants.

Table 6: Events and Number of Participants in the Launch of the Online Course

Module 0: Introduction to

critical management and on-line plataform

1: Collaborative Advocacy

2: Management of Sustainability

3: Program Management

4 and 5: Organizational

communication and cyberactivism

http://www.esquelclic.org/


Activity Number of

participants Number of

CSOs Gender

Breakdown

Meeting with Esquel team and Laurent Ogel. Topic: agenda and projections for alliances to strengthen ESQUELCLIC program

5 2 F: 3

M: 2

Meeting with CSOs and the Confederation of Civil Society Organizations. Conference for presentation of PRAXXIS Triple Bottom Line Model, promoted in Ecuador by ESQUELCLIC.

8 6

F: 5

M: 3

Lunch with representatives of Instituto 17, Beatriz Miranda; PRAXXIS, Laurent Ogel and Luis Chow and Bridget O’Loughlin from Partners for Democratic Change.

9 4

F: 4

M: 5

Esquel internal workshop for the development of strategic tree

9 1 F: 5

M: 4

Videoconference with organizations and private foundations about the Triple Bottom Line workshop

14 11

F: 10

M: 4

Working session at Esquel to discuss new courses with PRAXXIS

5 1 F: 2

M: 3

Workshop about strategic tree and Triple Bottom Line with 17 civil society organizations members of ESQUELCLIC.

17 17

F: 12

M: 5

Launch of ESQUELCLIC in Quito 34 21 F: 21

M: 13

Dinner with international guests for networking and relationship building in the context of the Program and the on-line course.

7 4

F: 4

M: 3

Launch of ESQUELCLIC In Guayaquil 21 18 F: 15

M: 6

In addition to the launch events for ESQUELCLIC, Esquel promoted the program through its social networks and e-mails to all contacts in Esquel’s CSO database.

The registration process for the training program started on November 12 and as of November 29, sixty-nine individuals (23 men, 46 women) representing 36 CSOs in Quito and Guayaquil have registered for the training. Also of note is that Esquel has opened up the training course for its own junior staff – this is an excellent professional development opportunity and clearly demonstrates Esquel’s ethos. Attachment 21 includes the list of participants in Quito and Guayaquil.

Finally, on November 30, 2015, the training program started with the Introductory Module (Module 0), which was administered during the month of December so that participants could gain familiarity with the use of the online platform and the tools available in each module. This online module was complemented by in-person workshops to reinforce computer skills required to


complete the training course. In Quito 3 different date options were offered and in Guayaquil 1 date was offered. This activity was not initially considered in the work plan, but considering the experience shared by FARO on the need for participants to be proficient in how to use the learning platform, Esquel decided to implement in-person workshops, which did not represent an additional expense since this activity was scheduled to coincide with TA trips to Guayaquil.

Table 6 summarizes the number and type of participants in each of the 4 in-person workshops that were offered to participants.

Table 7: Participants for Module 0

Meeting Date Number of CSOs

Number of Participants

Number of Men

Number of Women

Module 0 – Group 1 Quito

November 30 5 6 5 1


December 01 14 19 6 13

Module 0 – Group 1 Guayaquil

December 08 23 27 9 18


December 12 10 14 4 10

TOTAL 52 66 24 42

Once Module 0 was completed, Esquel reviewed the evaluations of participants from both the Quito and the Guayaquil workshops, and made the necessary adjustments to online course delivery for the other modules. The feedback asked for the clarification of concepts, a more comprehensible explanation about the conceptual framework, and a more timely publication of the timeline and schedule of activities for each module. To address these issues Esquel adjusted participant’s online guides providing more detailed information about the courses and introduce more concept explanations in the online training modules. A summary matrix of recommendations from Module 0 is included in Attachment 22.

Additionally, during this period the activities related to the launch of ESQUELCLIC were also useful in connecting Esquel with networks and CSOs that will be part of the second level of technical assistance (to a total of 38 CSOs). These activities allowed Esquel to establish trust and relationships that contribute to their participation in the in-person courses to take place in Quito and Guayaquil as part of the CSO strengthening training program.

Technical Assistance to Beneficiaries CSOs. During this period Esquel provided TA to the Beneficiary CSOs in the form of videoconferences on advocacy topics and organizational development, support to the CSOs’ in further developing/refining their OD action plans and advocacy action plans. Esquel conducted one on one meetings with all 10 CSOs over the course of this quarter and last quarter to fully formulate these plans and ensure effective implementation in anticipation of their small grants (to be released next quarter).

Figure 3 Esquel’s Technical Assistance Mechanism


Video Conferences: The videoconference format designed in the previous quarter was very successful and generated interest and attracted users from a host of countries such as Mexico, Argentina and Spain. This type of activity is a very important step in it gives the CSA Program and ESQUELCLIC activities visibility among Latin American CSOs. Additionally, it gives CSA beneficiary organizations access to content and experiences at both the national and international levels.

A summary of videoconferences conducted this quarter is presented in Table 7 below.

Table 8: Videoconferences

# Topic Expert Date

# of participants

in video-conference

Link Conclusions and

recommendations

1 Peace culture and non-violence

Patricia Naggi

October 16, 2015

67

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/353-videoconferencia-sobre-cultura-de-paz-y-no-violencia.html

• It is important to consider the different types of

violence that CSOs will work on.

• CSOs need to analyze internally the ways the

different types of violence unfold and how this affects their work.

2

Perspectives on collaborative advocacy

Pablo Lumerman

October 20, 2015

32

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/354-video-conferencia-sobre-perspectivas-relativas-a-la-incidencia-colaborativa.html

• Advocacy perspective requires a clear mapping of stakeholders to develop

collaborative strategies

• Collaborative advocacy recognizes the existence of conflicts. CSO need to be able to identify conflicts

to arrive to collaborative solutions whenever possible.



















3 Masculinities Leonardo García

October 22, 2015

63

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/355-videoconferencia-sobre-%E2%80%9Cmasculinidades%E2%80%9D.html

• Management systems might not recognize how the Patriarchal system affects their leadership

internally.

• Moving forward to the recognition of new masculinities is to identify that within CSOs men

maintain control in decision making.

4 Perspective of a world without wars

Rafael de la Rubia

October 27, 2015

13

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/356-videoconferencia-cultura-de-paz-y-no-violencia-activa-la-perspectiva-de-%E2%80%9Cmundo-sin-guerras%E2%80%9D.html

• It is important to generate networks articulated in topics such as non-

violence and cases such as the world march demonstrate a worldwide

concern for peace.

• Violence is not a topic related to a country, region

or the world as a whole. It is an everyday matter in people’s lives and in CSOs

‘everyday activities which is why work needs to be done in this area.

5 Indigenous women’s rights.

Rosy Laura Castellanos

October 29, 2015

28

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/358-videoconferencia-sobre-derechos-de-las-mujeres-ind%C3%ADgenas.html

• Include an approach that recognizes intercultural

approaches are very important for CSOs.

• Indigenous women have multiple levels of vulnerability that need to

be recognized by CSOs.

6

Triple Bottom Line mode: a tool for innovative organizations

Laurent Ogel

November 10, 2015

98

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/360-videoconferencia-sobre-el-%E2%80%9Cmodelo-de-triple-balance-una-herramienta-para-empresas-innovadoras%E2%80%9D.html

• CSOs need to incorporate tools that allow them not

only measure economic results, but also the social and environmental impact

derived from their actions.

• Triple Bottom Line is an important alternative to establish the value from actions, since integrates in

a single instrument different dimensions which are based in considering

individuals as the central focus of CSOs’ actions.

7

Advocacy tools from an appreciative standpoint

Victoria Amato

December 08, 2015

21

http://www.esquel.org.ec/esquel-en-vivo/371-herramientas-para-incidencia-desde-un-enfoque-apreciativo.html

• It is important to have a plan for advocacy.

• Advocacy requires an optimistic and appreciative approach that recognizes

and motivates change.

Selection of 12 Beneficiary Organizations: This quarter 2 of the 12 originally selected CSOs were dropped from the program and upon their ouster Esquel immediately began a limited-release RFA to find their replacements.


















































The first organization to be replaced was Red Trans El Oro, this organization was determined to be a subnetwork partner of Red Pacto Trans – unfortunately Red Pacto Trans is also a beneficiary organization under the CSA program. Esquel decided that rather than supporting two organizations from the same network it would be more beneficial to civil society in Ecuador to choose another organization and thereby have a greater reach when these organizations flow down their learnings from the CSA program. On [date] Esquel received an application from Fundación Trans Peninsulares (FUTPEN) that they considered to be highly relevant to the CSA program objectives and FUTPEN was subsequently selected as the 11 th organization. Attachment 23 describes the selection process that was conducted to select FUTPEN.

The second organization to be replaced was Fundación Mujeres Trabajadoras del Hogar. In the midst of developing OD action plans with Fundacion Mujeres allegations arose to its viability as a partner not only for USAID but also for Esquel. As such a new limited release competition process was initiated with selection results expected in January, 2016.

Esquel aims to have both new CSO back on schedule with the rest of the CSOs by the end of February – they will conduct a rapid OD assessment and quickly follow that with a strategic thinking and action planning workshop as soon as selection is completed.

Strategic Thinking Workshops and Organizational Development Plans: As reported in the previous quarter once OD assessment sessions were conducted Esquel conducted strategic thinking workshops with each organization to reinforce the strategic alignment of CSOs participating in the program with their own institutional values and principles and those of the program. This quarter Esquel finalized the workshops with the remaining 5 CSOs and will continue to conduct the workshops with the additional two organizations once selection is completed. Attachment 24 includes the strategic thinking workshops and action plans inputs.

Table 9 below provides logistical details of each workshop.

Table 9: Strategic Thinking Workshops

# CSO Date

Number of participants and gender breakdowns

1 La Comunidad para el Desarrollo Humano September 19, 2015 7 (F:4 - M:3)

2 Juventud Obrera Cristiana September 20, 2015 11 (F:6 - M:5)

3 Aso. Mujeres Trabajadoras Remuneradas Hogar

September 21, 2015 19 (F:19 - M:0)

4 Paz y Esperanza September 24, 2015 8 (F:5 - M:3)

5 Aso. Mujeres Progresistas September 26, 2015 19 (F:17 - M:2)

6 Alianza Igualitaria September 22, 2015 16 (F:12- M:4)

7 Pacto Trans October 10, 2015 12 (F:8 – M:4)

8 Sol de Primavera October 13, 2015 14 (F:9 – M:5)

9 Alas de Colibrí October 15, 2015 13 (F:7 – M:6)

10 ACDEMOCRACIA October 19, 2015 4 (F:4 – M:0)

As a result of both the OD assessment sessions conducted and strategic thinking workshops, all 10 of the current beneficiary CSOs have developed their OD action plans that includes their strategies and actions in the long term (5 years).


Once each organization developed its OD plan, Esquel directed its TA to the development of one-year work plans for each one of the beneficiary CSOs to assist in the definition of priorities and organize activities in the short term. The development of these work plans has also allowed Esquel to identify particular TA and training needs for each of the CSOs. At the present time, 3 organizations’ work plans are complete: Comunidad para el Desarrollo Humano, Sol de Primavera, and Alas de Colibrí. The rest of the organizations are completing their scheduling of activities and it is expected that at the end of January, 2016 the work plans for the current 10 beneficiary CSOs will be complete and implementation of the plans will begin as soon as grants are awarded in the coming quarter.

Advocacy Action Plans and Implementation: Esquel has been providing TA to the beneficiary CSO in the implementation of their Advocacy Action Plans throughout the quarter. This TA has been augmented by Counterpart through Counterpart’s technical review of each Action Plan, support provided by the deployment of Phase 1 Advocacy trainer Victoria Amato, who provided trainings to all the beneficiary CSOs through two videoconferences. This training will be followed be an in depth report on advocacy initiatives and the provision of tools to use in advocacy interventions.

Esquel further contracted Pablo Lumerma to speak to the CSOs on the development of collaborative advocacy, and shared success stories from other countries to provide an experiential learning opportunity for the CSOs.

According to the Project’s second year work plan, Esquel will submit the completed Action Plan for implementation in January 2016. These action plans will be carried out in tandem with the OD action plans and the CSOs will be supported by the provision of small grants to be released next quarter.

V. Monitoring and Evaluation

During this period Counterpart reviewed and provided inputs to an updated PMEP that USAID proposed with common indicators for the 3 USAID Implementing Partners working in Ecuador. New indicators were added for which Counterpart is drafting PIRs and defining targets in January.

See attached PMEP table including indicators and results for the first quarter of the second year of implementation of CSA Program (Attachment 25). Some of the main indicators that were met this quarter include:

• CCI 2 – Number of Networks Strengthened. The CEOSC network was strengthened through the process of preparing their members for the provision of accountability data and issuance of the report. In addition, regular TA was provided by FARO and CPI for the reestablishment of CEOSC's legal commission.

• CCI 4 - Number of programs (CSA Partners) that get a rating of “satisfactory” or higher on partner/grantee satisfaction survey. FARO's Training Program obtained an overall satisfaction score of 80.5%.

• CCI 1 - Number of People Trained. A total of 106 individuals were trained through Esquel’s workshops on Strategic Thinking and Training Program's Module 0 on Critical Management Approach and Use of On-line Training Platform.


• SP2.2 - Number of people who have completed USG assisted civic education programs (F-indicator). 196 individuals (117 women and 79 men) attended PC's provincial workshops on the Pacto Etico's democracy dialogue series.

VI. Accomplishments

This quarter’s main programmatic achievements include:

Objective 1

• CSO and Local Government Capacity Strengthening Program Innovaccion. FARO completed the online training program for CSOs and Municipal Officials and worked this quarter to further develop the curriculum and execution of the courses. This quarter also saw the initiation of the small development program grants. Finally,

Objective 2

• Citizen Democratic Agenda. PC was able to promote the active participation of 196 individuals (117 women, 79 men) representing CSOs, universities, neighborhoods and cantones in 3 provinces of Quito, Guayaquil and Loja to discuss and provide over 60 recommendations and inputs for the Citizen Democratic Agenda that will be delivered to presidential and legislative candidates and political parties in late 2016.

• Commitment by the National Work Group to participate actively in the Pacto Ético initiative and develop technical inputs as well as White papers in topics which are fundamental for Ecuadorian Democracy.

Objective 3

• Esquel successfully conducted 7 videoconferences to support CSOs’ OD and Sustainability efforts with 32233 participants, including CSO representatives and officials, as well as professionals from the private sector and academia. Overall, Esquel has developed an attractive and effective model for organizing and delivering these activities for the civil society sector at the international level (Hispanic audience) as shown by the origin (Spain, Argentina, and Mexico) of various participants that connect to these activities. This model can be expanded to promote various themes of the CSA Program and provide key information to strengthen the civil society sector.

VII. Best Practices and Challenges

Particular best practices and challenges identified under the program components are as follows:

Objective 1

• The main challenge faced by FARO was to adapt the content of the training courses in order to cover actual on-the-ground public management processes and practices, so that participating local governments and CSOs would be prepared to effectively contribute to

33 The counting of the 322 participants is based on the automatic data that Esquel’s web software provides as the host of the video conference – note however that no formal registration was required to participate.


public policy. FARO considers the joint analysis and discussion amongst CSOs and municipalities a good practice on how to best implement citizen participation, gender perspective, and transparency in local governance. Municipalities need to understand how to incorporate these issues into daily local management and CSOs need to understand how local governance management works so that CSO proposals contribute more effectively to the incorporation of these issues into public policies.

Objective 2

• PC found that a good practice during this period was to respect the individual dynamics and working models of members of the Promoters Group in participating in the coordination and conduction of the provincial workshops. This helped PC strengthen the commitment of the group members to the Pacto Etico initiative while also empower these CSO members, and also allowed PC to effectively coordinate the first round of the Dialogue series in provinces. Additionally, PC maintained the Promoters Group’s interest by sharing information about the initiative and other activities, sending bulletins prepared for each activity as well as social network publications, and conducting follow-up telephone calls on a regular basis.

Objective 3

• Esquel’s main challenge confronted throughout this period and expected for the remainder of PY2 is the analytical capacity that is needed to respond to the diverse models and management systems of the beneficiaries CSOs. The individual management and development processes of each beneficiary CSO define the TA and support levels that are needed. This requires respect, flexibility and adaptation of assistance to local realities of each CSO.

VIII. Expenses

As of December 31, 2015 the total amount of incurred expenses was USD $ 1,010,369.40 from the total committed.

IX. Next Quarter Priorities

General

• Provide technical assistance and training in OD to partner organizations.

Objective 1

• Promote the Innovacción Training Program among CSOs and municipal officials.

• Sign sub-grant agreements and start execution of municipal officials’ and CSOs’ change proposals.

• Produce the second issue of the CSO Newsletter.

• Develop an analysis matrix of the CSO regulatory framework.

• Develop an advocacy strategy for the CEOSC.

Objective 2


• Conduct 4 provincial workshops at Ibarra, Machala, Ambato, and Manabi to collect inputs that contribute to the development of the Citizen Democratic Agenda.

• Arrange the second meeting of the GNT and move forward in the production of the first White Paper.

• Follow up with members of Promoters Group for submission of inputs related to the Communications Law proposal.

• Expand the diffusion of the promotional song and video of the Pacto Ético initiative.

Objective 3

• Develop the remaining modules of the online CSO strengthening training program, ESQUELCLIC.

• Consolidate the group of 12 beneficiary CSOs in January, 2016 and apply a contingency plan that enables the 2 new organizations to reach the same level as the other 10 beneficiary CSOs for project execution. Develop in-person courses to complement online training program. It is anticipated that these workshops will be designed during the month of January, 2016, to be conducted during February, 2016.

• Provide technical assistance and accompaniment on OD needs and advocacy initiatives proposed by beneficiary CSOs.

• Sign sub-granting agreements with beneficiary CSOs

Documents

Civil Society Assistance Program Quarterly ReportCitizen Agenda with 196 individuals (117 women, 79 men) in Quito, Guayaquil and Loja in October 21, and December 1 and 10. o Obtained