Burundi

The grantee did not differentiate between political leaders and elected members when targeting participants. All elected members are not always political leaders and vice versa. The grantee did not take into account the pyramidal structure of political parties in Burundi in which only few people decide for all members. Interviewees’ comments showed that beneficiaries do not consider themselves as autonomous political actors who can activate internal changes within their own political parties. The change of beneficiaries’ perceptions is essentially individual opinions, which are not able to have an impact on political parties’ practices.

The project strategy assessed the needs of municipal elected councillors’ through a survey. Based on this the project undertook trainings, meetings, and debates amongst political leaders and Parliamentarians. The project also translated the Electoral Code into Kirundi from French to make it more accessible to citizens. This activity was not foreseen in the project document. The project aimed to propose improvements to the electoral code however, the electoral code was already modified by the authorities and agreed political parties when the project started.

This project was focused on the preparations for the general election planned for 2015 in Burundi. This project was implemented in the 13 municipalities of the capital of the country, Bujumbura and it targeted its municipal elected councilors, political parties’ leaders and Parliamentarians.

The project would have benefitted from making use of knowledge gained during the training and research activities. This could have encouraged all actors to use the research and knowledge acquired as reference material in order to develop party practices at the Burundian national level. This could have reinforced declarations made by political party leaders before and after elections, and to give a sense of responsibility to grassroots communities with regard to the importance of their role when it comes to applying the acquired knowledge.

In view of the time and the human resources which were allocated to this project, it would have been important for the grantee to adjust the number of planned activities and to focus on a coherent, qualitative process, within which the activities would have complemented one another. Similarly the activities should have been implemented in such a way to establish a clearer relationship between national and local level.

The project was closely linked to the 2010 electoral challenges in Burundi to encourage women to vote and to stand for election. The election process, with a mandatory quota of 30% female representatives within institutions, was an important lever to generate collective awareness among all these leaders and shapers of opinion. This project also went beyond the elections by suggesting the creation of a National Forum for dialogue, allowing women leaders to overcome political differences and to exchange ideas on priorities to be implemented in order to improve the living conditions of Burundian women.

The grantee was unaware of the impact the political parties have on the alleged independence of candidates, representatives and leaders in the administration. The evaluation revealed that the true impact of women leaders within the political parties relied mainly on co-operation and loyalty to leading figures.

The theoretical content of the training sessions, which were carried out almost exclusively in French even though women in rural zones rarely speak anything other than Kirundi, meant that the needs of the beneficiaries could not be efficiently met.

The National Forum remains merely a well-intentioned document, and there is no environment for political dialogue between women leaders from across the board. None of the project elements led to the drafting of a policy promoting women. The signing and ratification of a legislative text remain wishful thinking. The report written by female observers was not circulated. The documentary that was made in four of the Northern provinces has never been shown and remains to this day in a desk drawer in the association.

During the elections, Burundian civil society actors coordinated among themselves, to make their voice more credible and coherent when dealing with public authorities. However, the grantee isolated itself from the activities being undertaken by the platform of these CSOs, considerably weakening the relevance of the project as a whole.