Project: Cultivating Democratic Leaders from Marginalized Groups in Thailand
Evaluation Date: December 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

What will be the role and responsibilities of the implementing partners at each stage of the project (and after)? Do they have the capacity to achieve these? If necessary, include capacity building/training of partners into the preliminary stages of project activity. In this case, control remained in the grantee’s office in Bangkok and was not delegated to the regions. As a result, quality control could not be guaranteed without additional personnel being allocated to the project, with resulting additional costs. This structural weakness created a corresponding imbalance between money spent at central level versus the grassroots level.

Theme: Youth engagement
Project: Cultivating Democratic Leaders from Marginalized Groups in Thailand
Evaluation Date: December 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The one potentially new element of the project – the participant survey – did not underpin the activities of the project participants; the issues actually addressed were those that have been the focus of actions in this region for some time and which are the focus of other local projects. Trainees were already engaged in development work in their communities and, once the project ended, continued as before. The project designers would have been more aware of this if they had reviewed existing and earlier practice in this area, and had considered in more depth the way NGOs in the regions work and their funding sources.

Theme: Youth engagement
Project: Cultivating Democratic Leaders from Marginalized Groups in Thailand
Evaluation Date: December 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

When project beneficiaries are marginalized not only by geography and ethnic origin but by mainstream politics and public attitudes, advocacy opens up a political space in which the aspirations and expectations of young people and their communities are more likely to be met. Survey results might have been of interest to the media generally – including international media – and media coverage might have contributed to putting some serious social issues on the political agenda

Theme: Youth engagement