Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, and Vidar Helgesen, Secretary-General of International IDEA, at the workshop on international party assistance, 23 January 2007 in Stockholm.
Party assistance has been part of international cooperation since the 1950s. Since then it has expanded steadily, both in terms of funding and the number of actors involved. Nonetheless, party assistance lacks coherent standards and principles for determining what projects should achieve, how appropriate activities can be identified, and how their impact can be measured.
In January 2007, International IDEA and the UN Development Programme brought together some seventy experts and practitioners at a workshop in Stockholm to assess the state of multiparty systems and the effectiveness of international party assistance. Participants came from donor agencies, assistance providers and assistance partners.
On 27 November 2007, International IDEA launched its policy paper on Effective Party Assistance at an international workshop in Ottawa. More then one hundred international experts attended, again representing the three stakeholder groups of donors, assistance providers and assistance partners. The event was supported by the Government of Canada.
The policy paper calls for the party assistance community to develop joint principles for project needs assessment, monitoring of implementation and impact evaluation. Such principles would make activities more effective and efficient. Indirect measurement tools are necessary to overcome the difficulties of impact measurement in democracy assistance.
Party assistance needs to focus on the functions that political parties fulfill in a democratic system. The basic functions for political parties are: to develop consistent policies and government programmes; to pick up demands from society and bundle them; to recruit, select and train people for positions in the executive and legislature; and to oversee and control government.
The policy paper is available in English, Spanish and French.
