Afghanistan

Project: Raising Awareness about Women's Social, Political and Economic Rights in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: April 2014
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The Project Document indicated the intention to conduct activities in 15 of 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces, situated in all four geographic regions of the country. In mounting such an ambitious effort, the grantee reduced the prospects for achieving results through a scattering of activities in locations throughout the country. It is apparent that the grantee failed to appreciate the scale of the risk it was taking on. Beyond this, weak integration of activities by project management, and a failure by the grantee to collaborate closely with its implementing partners, limited both the effectiveness and the impact of the project.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Afghanistan   , ,
Project: Citizens' Platform for Democratic Debates & Dialogues in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: December 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Staff departures once the project in Afghanistan ended drained away some of the capacity developed through the project cycle. Mistakes or gaps were not corrected in the review step and gave evidence of poor organizational arrangements. Research materials of low quality were approved and therefore shaped all shows and debates, leading to suboptimal performance by moderators and participants, which reduced the efficiency and impact of the democratic debates in Afghanistan. The grantee had no internal control or assessment mechanisms to measure progress or impact on desired social change. Although the project used emails and phone calls from the audience, including suggestions for show material, these were not analyzed or incorporated into review of the program’s effectiveness with respect to organizational or project objectives.

Theme: Media
Afghanistan   ,
Project: Citizens' Platform for Democratic Debates & Dialogues in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: December 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Limited evidence obtained from baseline research compromised the general objective of the project. This meant that the project design showed a poor understanding of the broad project context and political landscape which led to missed learning opportunities, and failure to map stakeholders and to allocate resources optimally. Duplication of efforts of other actors in Afghanistan wasted the grantee’s opportunity to complement other media democracy effects.

Theme: Media
Afghanistan   ,
Project: Citizens' Platform for Democratic Debates & Dialogues in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: December 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Limited evidence obtained from baseline research compromised the general objective of the project. This meant that the project design showed a poor understanding of the broad project context and political landscape which led to missed learning opportunities, and failure to map stakeholders and to allocate resources optimally. Duplication of efforts of other actors in Afghanistan wasted the grantee’s opportunity to complement other media democracy effects.

Theme: Media
Afghanistan   ,
Project: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: March 2015
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The grantee also felt the electoral stalemate in Afghanistan after the second round interrupted the project. The people were very despondent and this gave the grantee a limited audience. At this point they were unsure how to proceed. Their products from this time reflected this mood. However, these types of political crises are the time to engage even more vigorously in the type of activities foreseen by the project, to focus citizen and candidate attention on the benefits in remaining with the democratic process, in letting the audit system work out its findings and in helping to reinforce the credibility of the ultimate resolution. This is much more efficient- and effective- in terms of project outcomes than waiting for a crisis to resolve.

Theme: Media
Afghanistan   , , ,