Evaluation Matrix for Political Parties in the Jordan Context

Voting turnout and seats won are probably the most important indicator of a party’s overall strength. However, they do not provide a detailed and comprehensive diagnosis of weaknesses and strengths. In its mission to provide targeted technical support for parties around the world, The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), and in particular the Jordan office, have sought to create a tool that would be used to evaluate multiple aspects of political parties, and can be used by parties themselves or other actors such as researchers and/or donor organizations to establish a clear picture of the status-quo of political parties in a given country. The tool was made in a flexible manner to enable it to be amended as needed per different countries’ profiles, and is not dedicated to be used as a rigid tool rather than a guide for stakeholders interested in conducting an evaluation of political parties. Moreover, the tool still has its own limitations that are yet to be overcome. The matrix was originally created as part of an attempt to assess parties’ effectiveness and measure the feasibility of working with them (rate of return on activities implemented).