Nearly two-year Program of East Europe Foundation «3D Project: Development Despite Disruption. Resilient civil society in a time of COVID-19 and beyond» has been finished in May 2022. Sociological company Vox Populi Agency has conducted an independent external evaluation of this Program. According to the research, the Program confidently achieved the expected results on the outcome level, despite the beginning of the war, which started at the final stage of Program implementation.

The Program aimed to help NGOs overcome the consequences and negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of civil society, strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations, including the institutional capacity of EEF itself.

Within the Program, innovative methods of development and introduction of digital instruments and civic tech tools were developed; advocacy, communication, and leadership components of CSOs` activity were strengthened.

The external activity of the Program was focused on developing education online courses for organizations, involvement of their representatives in online education, administration of grants and acceleration programs in the field of digital products` development, and conducting the coaching program for leaders of CSOs. The Foundation’s capacity-building activity was related to systematic training and support of the organization’s employees in the introduction of good governance tools in project management, financial, administration and communication spheres.

Participants of the Program – all components without exception – note that participation in the Program activities – training, grant program, acceleration component, and internal Projects (for the Fund’s staff) was effective.

According to the survey within the external evaluation of the representatives of CSOs, that took part in the Program, 93.75% improved their skills in applying innovative tools and knowledge in CSO operations, 94.1% improved their skills in policy analysis, project management, fundraising and budgeting, communication, and advocacy, 68.75% improved access to decision-making at the local level and 82% of CSOs surveyed increased their ability to perform quarantine activities effectively.

In general, all these achievements have strengthened the activity efficiency of organizations and their representatives or helped to become more flexible in the work with a target audience.

The full report and presentation of the final evaluation are available by this link.

The Program «3D Project: Development Despite Disruption. Resilient civil society in a time of COVID-19 and beyond» had been implemented by East Europe Foundation with the financial support of the European Union between October 2020 and May 2022.