Policy paper

Annex A: Summary of stakeholder interviews

Published 7 March 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

The stakeholders listed below were interviewed at least once by the lead reviewer or members of the review team; many had more regular engagement through the project.

Summary of stakeholder interviews

Westminster Foundation for Democracy

Board of Governors:

• Chair

• Former Vice-Chair

• Chair of People Committee

• Chair of Audit & Risk Committee

• drop-in session with other Governors

Senior Leadership Team:

• Chief Executive

• Director of Operations

• Director of Policy and Programmes

• Director of Quality and Innovation

• Finance Director

• Head of Business Development

• People and Culture Director

• Regional Director, Europe and Central Asia

• Regional Director, Africa

Westminster Foundation for Democracy country office and regional teams

• Senior Programme Manager

• Uganda, Country Director

• Indonesia, Country Representative

Political party office representatives

• Conservative Programme Lead

• Labour Programme Lead

• SNP Programme Lead

• Multi-Party Office Programme Lead

Parliament

• Senior Committee Specialist, International Policy

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

• Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, responsible for Open Societies and Human Rights

• Second Permanent Under-Secretary

Sponsor Team (Democratic Governance and Media Freedom Department, Development and Open Societies Directorate)

• Director for Development and Open Societies

• Head of Department

• Deputy Head of Department

• Democratic Governance Policy Advisor

• Policy & Programme Officer

• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Advisor

Former Sponsor Team and Westminster Foundation for Democracy leads:

• Former Director

• Former leads for WFD x 3 (FCO)

• Former leads for WFD x 2 (DFID)

Democratic Governance Centre of Expertise (CoE)

• Head of CoE

Arm’s Length Bodies (ALB) Hub:

• Deputy Director; Deputy Head of Team; ALB hub team

Western Balkans Department

• Western Balkans Programme Unit: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Advisor, Programme Manager, Programme Officer

Gender & Equalities Department

• Policy Advisor

Information & Digital Directorate

• Chief Digital and Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer

FCDO Posts

• Western Balkans (Tirana, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Skopje Belgrade, Pristina) – Deputy Heads of Mission, Political and Programme staff

• Uganda – Governance Advisor and Political Counsellor

• Indonesia – 1st Secretary Climate Change & Carbon Policy, Political Officer, Programme Officer

• The Gambia – High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner

Representatives from comparable international partner organisations:

• Executive Director of EPD
• Secretary-General of International IDEA

Further to these interviews, the lead reviewer and review team observed:

• a People Committee meeting
• an Audit and Risk Assurance Committee meeting
• a Board of Governors meeting
• a Quarterly FCDO-WFD meeting

Emerging conclusions were tested with an informal Challenge Panel (membership below), and with senior leads in WFD, the sponsor team, and the ALB Hub. The Challenge Panel comprised an FCDO Non-Executive Director, a Strategy Directorate Deputy Director, a former Head of Mission with experience working with WFD, and a Non-Executive Director from another FCDO ALB.