El Salvador Programme 2018 1. Political update 2018In March 2018, Assembly elections take place in El Salvador and in 2019 presidential elections.  The fact that the parties are in campaign mode influences all political developments and debates. This is enforced by the fact that for the first time in history, political parties are organizing internal elections. The two main political parties, FMLN and Arena, are unable to come to agreements about the most important issues affecting the country, the looming fiscal crisis and the situation regarding retirement benefits. Furthermore, there exists a lack of clarity on financing of political parties. The parties are unable or unwilling to be accountable for the money they received for the previous elections and the way the spent it. This fuels debate about political corruption. All this negatively influences the way people feel about political parties and congress. The confidence in these institutions is below 15%. 

The preelectoral time made it difficult for NIMD to advance on some of the issues that we had envisaged in the Multi Annual Plan such as environmental and water Governance and fiscal issues. NIMD also revised the curricula for the Democracy Schools, because participants indicated they could not be available for so many weeks as they were out campaigning.

The Theory of Change for El Salvador that NIMD has formulated continues to be valid. NIMD is showing positive results on building the capacities of underrepresented groups mainly women and youth. NIMD is actively engaging youth to take on an active role in society with the campaign “Become involved”.   Furthermore, it continues to provide technical assistance to advance with a treaty on transboundary water legislation. It has more difficulties with advancing on fiscal reform, regional integration and political party and electoral reform. During meetings with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), they reiterated the importance for politicians to know the fiscal basics. Therefore, NIMD will continue to include this in the Democracy Schools, and assess the possibilities to offer, together with specialized organizations, advanced training for alumni.

The regional meeting on financing of electoral campaigns and related questions in Honduras in August 2017 was a success and showed the participants from El Salvador the importance this issue has in the other countries, thus showing a regional angle.

Interparty dialogue and consensus building continues to be difficult in El Salvador. The two main parties managed to come to agreement on a reform of the pension scheme. At local level, NIMD is supporting a selected number of municipal councils with dialogue skills, as the councils are now multiparty. This is paying off. In the municipalities where NIMD together with others is active, the councils manage to reach agreements. This to the surprise of political analysts who had foreseen a deadlock in local governance. It goes without saying that the multiparty councils are still a very new phenomenon that benefits from continued support. 


2. Problem Analysis & Theory of Change Update (max 2 pages)
The problem analysis for the Northern Triangle of Central America continues to be valid. The three countries suffer from a lack of confidence in political actors. In NIMD’s view, to overcome this crisis, important changes are necessary in the political party system to make it respond to the needs and demands of the population. Furthermore, the countries need more resources to address issues of poverty, education, healthcare, insecurity and employment. The objectives that NIMD formulated in the MAP continue to be valid:
1. Inclusive and representative political party system;
2. Political inclusion of underrepresented groups with a focus on women and youth, including youth- and gender mainstreaming in policy and legislation;
3. Better linkages between politics and regional, national and local level;
4. Enhanced capacity of political parties to deal with environmental issues with a focus on water;
5. Technical assistance and facilitation of dialogue on fiscal reform.

In the region, NIMD is advancing well with objective one and two, building on its experience before the start of the SP. Important regional organizations are based in El Salvador. With its assistance for the Trinational Treaty on Water Basins, El Salvador manages to promote a better integration between regional, national and local politics and shape the strengthening of regional bodies. They make use of the expertise and contacts NIMD acquired during the four years of the Reconstruction programme. Though NIMD is not well placed to facilitate dialogue on fiscal reform (financial organizations are playing that role, as El Salvador has the lowest credit rating), it will continue to play a role in sensitizing (young) politicians on this issue. As the country can only advance on education, security, employment and healthcare if there is sound economic environment.

NIMD continues to support dialogue skills at local level with the multiparty municipal councils. Furthermore, it will also facilitate dialogue between political and civil actors so that they can jointly establish priorities, promote the inclusion of underrepresented groups in politics, and support the lowering of barriers that make their participation difficult at this moment.

At culture level, NIMD supports democratic culture through the democracy schools and other training programmes. 





3. Programme outlook (max 4 pages)

During 2018, NIMD will continue to support dialogue processes at local levels, facilitate the building of networks of youth and Women, and specific thematic networks such as on National Action Plan 1325. 

Furthermore, NIMD will follow up on the recommendation for political party and electoral reform that came out of a conference the EMB organized on this issue. Together with the Central American Regional Integration System (SICA0, NIMD supports with technical assistance the progress son transboundary water basins. It will assess the possibility to work more closely with SICA to Exchange best practises and include regional integration in Capacity building programmes.
  
Intervention at system, actor and culture level takes place in the following way:


Political system
a) Political and electoral reform further strengthen the representation of democratic organization. 
- Facilitate dialogue between youth of political parties and between youth of civil and political society.
- Support multiactor platforms on relevant topics (Regarding the implementation of the National Action Plan of UN resolution 1325).
- Deliver input and expertise on democratic system reform 

Intermediate indicator: % participation by key stakeholder representatives (civic and political actors) in the dialogue initiative.

b) The political system offers channels for effective lobby and advocacy. Through:
- Technical assistance for political actors (political parties, governance subsecretary, COMURES, ISDEM and Grupo Gestor por los Concejos Municipales Plurales) to come towards joint proposals for electoral reform especially regarding multiparty municipal councils. 

Intermediate indicator: Level of cooperation between actors (political and civic).

c) Increased level of coordination between democratic actors at supra national, national and local level. NIMD’s intervention consists of:
- Facilitation of dialogue between political and civil society (CEICOM and others) actors on the Treaty on crossborder basins.
- Facilitation of an interparty and intersectorial dialogue platform to jointly formulate policy proposals. 

Intermediate indicator: # of ongoing NIMD supported dialogue initiatives.

Political actor
NIMD formulates the following results for actor level: 

Political actors develop proposals regarding Political and Electoral Reform (including women´s political participation), Fiscal Reform and Reform of environmental and water. Support for lobby activities of CEICOM and other CSO's for a Treaty on transborder basins.
- Technical assistance to the Environmental Commission of Congress to analyse and discuss the various Water Law proposals.

Intermediate indicator: % participation by key stakeholder representatives (civic and political actors) in the dialogue initiative.

a) Increased dialogue capacity of political actors. 
To obtain these results, NIMD will:                     
- Provide dialogue and negotiation training for the political and civil society youth (within the Democracy School).
- Actively participate and coordinate in the working commission (Comisión Coordinadora Interinstitucional o CCI) that was established in support of the Multiparty Municipal Councils (Governance Subsecretary, ISDEM, COMURES, UNDP, FUNDEMUCA, AECID y NIMD). 

Intermediate indicator: # of political actors who have been trained on the importance of CS dialogue. 

- Assistance and technical support to enhance gender equity in politics. Capacity building Women candidates and MPS elect.
- Capacity building of political parties and civil society on political reform regarding digital democracy 

Intermediate indicator: # of representatives (male/female) of political actors who have been trained in the use of oversight instruments.

b) Increased organizational capacity of NIMD El Salvador. 
This is foreseen through the following interventions:
- Strengthening office capacity and skills through training and capacity building.
- Identify fundraising opportunities and prepare proposals.
- Drafting of manual for internal oversight and human resources.
- Exchange of experiences and development of knowledge tools.

Intermediate indicator: % execution of capacity development plans. 

Political culture
The following results are defined: 

a) Increased awareness of the importance of coordination between national and supranational level to address the Central American challenges. Through: 
- Technical assistance and support for the activities proposed by the interparty youth network and the youth network of political and civil society. Both networks were formed by alumni of the Democracy School
- Awareness raising activities on relevant topics with ES Alumni (Central American Integration, transparency, accountability etc.)
- Dialogue and cooperation platform on relevant topics with TN-CA DS Alumni ( "bootcamp"  exchange with alumni from Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador.)

Intermediate indicator: # of ongoing NIMD supported dialogue initiatives.

b) Internalization of democratic norms and values by political actors. Through: 
- Training through Democracy Schools on democratic knowledge, values and skills 
- Exchange of experiences and development of knowledge tools (systematization EFD).

Intermediate indicator: # of representatives (male/female) of political actors have participated in democratic values oriented training activities (e.g. democracy schools). 

Gender and inclusion will be approached as a cross cutting theme at the system, actor and culture level. Political actors are defined as the combined main target group of the Strategic Partnership: - (representatives of) political parties - politicians - (Members of) Parliament and its Committees - Other elected representatives at local levels. NIMD will primarily focus on political parties.