City-Community Challenge Fund (C3): Interim External Evaluation Report

The City-Community Challenge Fund (C3F) programme is a Department for
International Development (DFID) initiative being piloted over two years in Zambia
and Uganda. The goal of the pilot is to assist organisations of the urban poor and their
representative local authorities to undertake localised poverty eradication initiatives,
through the provision of resources for small-scale innovative activities of broad
community benefit. DFID has recommended an extension of the pilot programme of a
further year and the first aim of this interim evaluation report is to address this
recommendation. A second aim is to assess the viability of Challenge Funds, and
more specifically the C3F methodology, as a mechanism for development agencies to
reach and empower the poor, within the context of direct budget support, sector-wide
approaches and rights-based governance. Third, the evaluation seeks to assess C3F
against the efficiency and process indicators established for the external evaluation,
and those outcome indicators related to social and political assets under the modified
livelihoods framework.