Organisational performance reviews are part of Norad’s quality assurance of its cooperation with civil society organisations. NPA’s main strategy for its international work is to support popular organisations that work to influence government towards the fulfillment of democratic rights and a just distribution of power and resources in society. The purpose of this review was to look at how this takes effect in one selected country context, Rwanda, and to explore the results of NPA’s support. The review found that NPA’s programme for strengthening civil society in Rwanda was highly relevant and strategic, with great potential to make a big difference to the capacity of civil society organisations to engage in public policy dialogue. The programmatic approach applied in Rwanda, with targeted support for development of long term strategies and work plans to selected civil society actors at national and local level, was seen as one of the factors explaining the success of the program.