Albania

Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Outside of a few main service contracts, most of the supervision, reporting and contracting was informal. This resulted in the project not having readily available information on its activities, outputs, contracting or expenditures, and its financial and programmatic reports were not submitted to UNDEF in a timely manner. This delayed release of the second tranche of project funding, pushing back activities and requiring a time extension to complete the project in Albania.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Outside of a few main service contracts, most of the supervision, reporting and contracting was informal. This resulted in the project not having readily available information on its activities, outputs, contracting or expenditures, and its financial and programmatic reports were not submitted to UNDEF in a timely manner. This delayed release of the second tranche of project funding, pushing back activities and requiring a time extension to complete the project in Albania.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project did not develop synergies with other efforts in the sector, which included another UNDEF-funded media project and a youth radio funded by other donors in Albania. It had training programmes on investigatory journalism and professional standards, and produced broadcasts on issues of community and national importance with which this project could have linked to exchange programming and training opportunities. There was also Radio Aktive, an independent radio funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundation run by the NGO Mjaff. It was intended to provide citizens a voice and raise awareness on civic and social issues. It aired daily reports from youth, including journalism students from the University of Tirana who served as reporters. It also created an online radio portal “Radiostation.”16 UNICEF also funded “Speak Out” (TROC) which supported younger students in Albania to produce a weekly show broadcast on the national public TV station. It trained youth in reporting and supplied technical equipment to 11 bureaus across Albania. They produced 150 reports giving the youth perspective on a broad range of issues.

Theme: Media
Albania   , ,
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Although risks were accurately identified, there was no alternative strategy developed as a fall back, specifically regarding the continued participation of the University of Tirana as an implementing partner and the ability to obtain a broadcast license for a campus station. As these were the basis for the project, the implementation plan needed to be reworked and new partners found well after the project had started. But the campus radio at Elbasan was not used as the hub for the project and project efforts were then split between Tirana and Elbasan and the YouRadio web portal equipment placed in the IRIOM office.

Theme: Media
Albania   , ,
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The University of Elbasan thought association with the project helped increase the value of their communications programme as it provided activities for students that they could not afford on the school’s budget. This gave their school an edge over other universities which they said already attracted students from all over Albania in addition to students from the region (such as Kosovo and Montenegro). The Marlin Barleti University hopes that being the recipient of the project radio equipment and YouRadio portal will do the same for it. Both universities spoke of incorporating aspects of the project’s training manual and on community radio into their communications curriculum. If this is done, then the principles expressed in the training will be replicated in classes to come.

Theme: Media
Albania   , ,
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project objectives and activities were relevant given the difficulties of youth and civil society organizations in Albania to access the media, voice their opinion or raise social issues. Although the Albanian media is free, mainstream media requires payment for airtime that NGOs cannot afford, and it has shown a general lack of interest in covering social issues as part of the news. Organizations were extremely interested in obtaining access to media, especially if it was free of charge and could reach a national audience as was intended with the university radio in Tirana. Participating youth were interested in citizen journalism and reporting on social issues.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,
Project: Media, Transparency and Accountability in Albania
Evaluation Date: September 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Albania is the only country in Europe without audience monitoring, and the outlets now sell advertising time based on anecdotal information.  A more realistic set of indicators could have tracked more closely the actual impact of the project– such as changes to government practices or policies, the number of persons held accountable for reports aired, and numbers of outlets adopting a full formal system of employment.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,
Project: Media, Transparency and Accountability in Albania
Evaluation Date: September 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The Journalist Union’s activities to increase its membership were effective as they were linked to something tangible– the issuing of a membership card which had value to journalists. The card was provided as a receipt for the payment of dues which provided the Union with some income. However, most journalists seemed to have interpreted this as a one-time requirement, and did not see the need during interviews to pay dues on a regular basis. The number of members increased from 480 in 2008 to 790 in 2010. There were 870 members by the time of the evaluation. The union’s regional offices did not appear to be open, but they still had representatives for the offices who managed the Union activities in their areas and who convened meetings when needed.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,
Project: Media, Transparency and Accountability in Albania
Evaluation Date: September 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The grantee mastered the reporting and production aspects of the project activities, but its biggest challenge was finding a market for its products. This was illustrated repeatedly by stations pulling out because of political or advertiser pressure. Perhaps linkages with a strong enterprise are necessary to ensure a platform to broadcast such shows and to be able to withstand the subsequent political pressure.

Theme: Media
Albania   ,