Lessons

The project aimed to expand the awareness of and ability of indigenous groups to use international human rights standards and mechanisms. The project particularly targeted skilled community leaders who could replicate the training courses. Ultimately the grantee sought to build the indigenous peoples’ ability to participate and organize themselves so that they could challenge discrimination and oppression. The training of trainers succeeded in empowering community leaders and increasing their knowledge of international instruments for the defense of their rights, of which they were previously unaware. Methodological and pedagogical support for disseminating human rights knowledge in indigenous communities was, however, not provided and there is no evidence of any analysis being made of the results and lessons learned during the training, which would contributed to the sustainability of the project and the future usefulness of the training documents.

The project facilitated the participation of marginalized and vulnerable groups of citizens in the constitutional reform process in Ghana. This process was initiated by the Ghanaian government when it established a Constitution Review Commission (CRC). The project aimed to consult the country’s marginalized populations on key constitutional issues and considered their recommendations in conjunction with the results of field surveys and thematic research papers. The project organized workshops with participants. On average 21 new relevant recommendations were made by each participant. This improved the quality of submissions - compared to the officially conducted CRC consultations – and prompted various Members of Parliament (MPs) to declare their support. Over 80% of the Constitution Review Commissions’ recommendations were informed by the project’s input, which demonstrates the impact the project had.

The project was related to the establishment in Burundi of a National Consultation Steering Committee (NCSC) made up of government, UN and civil society representatives and tasked with addressing issues of national reconciliation and accountability for past large-scale human rights violations. The overall goal of the project was “to help the NCSC to achieve its mandate and promote transitional justice”

Media, Transparency and Accountability in Albania sought to strengthen the role of the Albanian media to promote transparency and government accountability by 1) investigating and informing citizens on issues of civic concern and corruption, and 2) developing, implementing and enforcing its own ethical and professional standards. The project did help to improve the media’s capacity to investigate and inform citizens on issues of corruption and civic concern, but that the difficulty in airing the shows on national TV, and in particular, national public TV, limited its potential impact, as did the lack of synergies with other anti-corruption or good governance activities. The mix of local and national topics for its reports seemed appropriate as it attracted the interest of both audiences and drew national attention to some of the problems in the local areas.

Increasing Women’s Participation in Politics and Decision Making in Angola targeted the women’s organizations of Angola’s political parties and other platforms that work to promote the political empowerment of women. Participants found the issues addressed by the project interesting and appreciated the participatory methodology, which encouraged interaction among people who in many cases were from different political parties, enabling them to get to know one another. However, the decline of the grantee’s institutional capacity substantially lessened the project’s potential impact.

This project aims to increase the effectiveness and protection of economic, social and cultural rights of local communities and traditional miners in relation to the exploitation of mineral resources, in the DRC. This will be achieved through a legal reform, the popularization of legal texts, awareness raising of local community leaders, of the judiciary and mine administration officials on their rights and obligations; in support of mining diggers rights and the monitoring of human rights related to the exploitation of natural resources.

The project aims to promote the recognition of domestic work as decent work and domestic workers (WDs) contribution to society. 3500 domestic workers reached will be positioned to take individual and collective actions to improve working conditions. Two Associations of existing 61 mutual support groups of the domestic workers will be established to build solidarity and support for each other, develop advocacy strategies and represent themselves with support from PLA in influencing change. This project will also further the participation of female and youth DWs in claiming their rights, accessing services including legal aid and inclusion in decision making in policy, local and national government processes.