At the end of 2024, Catalystas Consulting was commissioned to undertake the final evaluation of a multi-year global initiative focused on strengthening dialogue between civil society organizations (CSOs) and public development finance institutions. The initiative represented the first large-scale project of its kind for the commissioning organization, a global NGO coordinating a network of more than 20,000 civil society organizations worldwide.
The project was designed to advance people-centered, rights-based approaches to development finance at a time of growing global pressures, including inflation, climate instability, and shrinking civic space. Its core ambition was to bridge long-standing gaps between grassroots civil society actors and public development banks, ensuring that financing policies and practices more effectively reflected principles of equity, transparency, and accountability. Implemented over a three-year period (2022–2025), the initiative combined global advocacy with regional and national engagement. It sought to strengthen CSO capacity to engage with public development finance institutions, foster coordinated advocacy across regions, and elevate the voices of marginalized and grassroots communities within international policy dialogues. The project operated through a self-organized civil society coordination mechanism that provided a structured platform for collective advocacy and policy engagement at the global level.
Catalystas was engaged to conduct a final evaluation assessing the initiative’s relevance, effectiveness, integration of cross-cutting themes, advocacy outcomes, and sustainability. The evaluation was designed not only to measure results, but also to generate strategic learning to inform future programming and resource mobilization.
A multilingual evaluation team designed and implemented a blended methodology anchored in Most Significant Change (MSC), complemented by qualitative and quantitative analysis. The assignment included primary data collection, synthesis of findings into a comprehensive evaluation report, presentation of results to key stakeholders, and the development of anonymized case studies highlighting the initiative’s most impactful areas of work.
Catalystas applied a tailored, multi-method evaluation framework aligned with the initiative’s advocacy and capacity-building objectives. The evaluation included:
A desk review of more than 80 project documents, including program reports, advocacy materials, strategies, and communications products.
The design and administration of multilingual surveys targeting participating CSOs and consortium members.
Key informant interviews and thematic focus group discussions with civil society actors and representatives of public development finance institutions across multiple regions.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of organizational survey responses, assessing changes in capacity, coordination, and engagement with development finance institutions.
The evaluation identified several areas of strong performance alongside structural challenges common to global advocacy initiatives.
Capacity and Coordination:
CSOs reported strengthened understanding of public development finance institutions and improved ability to engage in policy dialogue. More than 90% of surveyed organizations indicated enhanced collaboration and more strategic engagement with public finance actors as a result of the initiative’s workshops, toolkits, and coordination mechanisms.
Advocacy and Representation:
The initiative succeeded in increasing grassroots representation within high-level policy spaces, including the participation of historically marginalized groups in global development finance dialogues. Stakeholders highlighted this as a significant shift from previous engagement models that often excluded local and community-level perspectives.
Challenges and Gaps:
The evaluation also identified constraints related to limited financial and human resources, which affected follow-up activities and continuity. While gender equity and environmental considerations were well integrated, youth engagement remained less developed, pointing to an area for future strategic investment.
Sustainability Considerations:
Stakeholders emphasized the importance of localized partnerships, institutional memory, and diversified funding to sustain advocacy efforts, particularly in contexts affected by staff turnover and political volatility.
This evaluation extended beyond outcome measurement to support strategic reflection and learning. By applying an intersectional and equity-focused analytical lens, Catalystas ensured that differences in participation, influence, and benefit across regions and stakeholder groups were explicitly examined. Ethical data collection practices, including the anonymization of sensitive responses, were central to the approach and reinforced trust with participants.
The evaluation provided the commissioning organization with concrete insights to refine its engagement strategies, strengthen sustainability, and position the initiative for future funding and scale. More broadly, the case demonstrates how coordinated civil society action—when supported by structured dialogue and strategic capacity-building—can influence development finance agendas, even within complex and unequal global systems.
Through this assignment, Catalystas supported a global network of civil society actors to consolidate learning, strengthen their collective voice, and continue advancing more inclusive and rights-based approaches to development finance.
Amélie is a French-Canadian strategic development consultant with over 15 years of international experience on all continents, with the past six years focused on Asia Pacific and East Africa. Former social entrepreneur, regional NGO exec, researcher and lawyer-by-trade among other titles; she is a diverse professional currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. Amélie has worked in consulting on and off for 11 years across a range of industries and sectors, and has notably provided multiple market penetration and M&E analysis services, as well as risk assessments on the topics of forced labor and child labor in supply chains in Africa and in Asia.
Amélie completed her law degree in Quebec, Canada, and holds a Masters in International Law gained in Beijing, China. She has worked with organizations including the Thomson Reuters Foundation as Asia Pacific Manager (2019-2021), where she managed a portfolio of 250+ human rights research and advisory projects, prior to which she co-founded a social enterprise in the renewable energy sector in Rwanda, on the border of the DRC.
Amélie is proud to dedicate her time to driving social change through economic development and sustainable growth projects concretely in Southeast Asia and East Africa, and globally virtually. Amelie loves travelling, eating, and getting out of her comfort zone.
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