Mid-term Review of the Diakonia Strategic Peace Building ... - Sida

3 R E S U L T S O F T H E E V A L U A T I O N
have been made towards catholic organisations, including the Catholic Agency
for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Tearfund.
Diakonia participates actively in the ACT-alliance forum in Zimbabwe and
has been selected to be the advocacy focal point for Zimbabwe in the regional
ACT collaboration (mainly to get a buy-in from neighbouring countries in advocacy
initiatives towards the South African Development Community
(SADC) and South Africa as the official mediator/facilitator of the Global Political
Agreement in Zimbabwe).
Diakonia participates in the Zimbabwe platform, hosted by Norwegian Church
Aid, which is a broader coalition of Zimbabwean organisations.
Diakonia is chairing the Core Group for Zimbabwe Council of Churches, despite
not being a funding partner at this time. Diakonia plays an advisory role
and believes that the time spent in this is a strategic investment and makes the
organisation more visible and legitimate in the network.
Diakonia has developed good working relationships with non-faith-based
NGOs working in peace building and gender, such as the Danish Embassy,
PACT, Action Aid, Norwegian Peoples Aid and the Humanist Institute for
Cooperation with Developing Countries (HiVOS).
Diakonia has established a working dialogue with the Fojo Media Institute,
which is managing the Swedish media programme in Zimbabwe. The Diakonia
CR and PO have met their partners and they are currently reflecting on
the best possible form of collaboration between the two programmes. One of
Diakonia’s partners, Silveira House, is doing research on the role of media in
conflict and working for the promotion of peace journalism.
Diakonia has developed good working relationships with the other Swedish
organisations working in Zimbabwe, including Africa Groups (based in Bulawayo),
the Swedish Cooperative Centre as well as Individuell Människohjälp
(based in Mutare). There is no direct collaboration as these organisations are
working in different fields, but they interact and share information on a regular
basis.
Diakonia participates to the Head of Agencies Forum and to the UN security
cluster meetings. The main purpose of Diakonia’s participation is to share security
updates and other information.
Within one year, and this was confirmed by all the external sources of information
that were contacted during the field visit, Diakonia has succeeded to change its attitudes
and behaviour towards the environment in which it works, with positive effects
on the perception of the organisation and its programme on other actors: from being
invisible and almost non-existent in international fora/networks active in Zimbabwe,
the organisation is now perceived as a reliable partner bringing true added-value to
international efforts towards democracy, respect for human rights and peace in the
country.
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