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Project: Engaging civil society and youth in public policy dialogue in North Africa
Evaluation Date: September 2015
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project’s third outcome, the establishment of a regional advocacy network, was not achieved. The young participants were more engaged with designing and implementing specific projects at local level. This left them with little time or resources to engage in participatory policy development and broader advocacy. This reveals that some aspects of the training’s design – notably on advocacy campaigning and on cross-border networking – were not addressed in sufficient detail.

Theme: Youth engagement

Morocco, Tunisia advocacy, resources

Project: Strengthening Somali Media Capacity for Democracy and Human Rights
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The promotion of the role of the media and freedom of expression should have been the object of advocacy activities beyond the workshops. The grantee did conduct some advocacy activities, but these were not part of the UNDEF-funded project and addressed mainly the international community. Any follow-up project should include an advocacy dimension directed at government and local authorities, and should consider ways in which training sessions can be followed-up to further support participating journalists, for example through the use of social networks.

Theme: Media

Somalia advocacy, follow-up, impact, journalism

Project: Civil Society Empowerment in Advocacy and Policy Development in Vietnam
Evaluation Date: June 2014
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project design demonstrated an appreciation of the gaps in CSO’s understanding of what could be accomplished through public advocacy, and of how to organize advocacy work in Vietnam. The blend of training and support for focused advocacy projects, funded by small grants, with hands-on support from the grantee’s team, amounted to an imaginative strategy for capacity development.

Theme: Community activism

Viet Nam advocacy, training

Project: Empowered Civil Society Addressing the Democratic Needs of Rural Women in Myanmar
Evaluation Date: January 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

It was hoped that engagement with local authorities on the part of newly capacitated groups would lead to policy advocacy. This was overly ambitious, and assumed that political reforms in Myanmar would move sufficiently towards autonomy for local authorities. The advocacy engaged in during the project concerned very specific administrative and livelihood issues, such as calls for household registration and national identity documents, road building and land allocation.

Theme: Community activism

Myanmar advocacy, ambition, reform

Project: Strengthening Civil Society and Developing Independent Media in Africa
Evaluation Date: March 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

A related design flaw was that insufficient attention was devoted to awareness raising and advocacy activities, which should have underpinned the achievement of the objective concerning greater representation of socially disadvantaged people. Any new project that aims at reinforcing the democratic representation of poor and marginalized people in the street paper context should include an explicit public awareness and advocacy strategy. This strategy should address specific target audiences, such as municipal government and elected officials.

Theme: Media

Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia advocacy, media, poverty

Project: Civic Involvement for Transparency and Accountability in Kosovo
Evaluation Date: August 2015
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The emphasis on advocacy built on the experience participants had gained in monitoring, reporting and community engagement. It focused on enabling the CSOs to identify the most pressing issues, to conduct further research, and to identify practical options through which the problem might be addressed. Policy briefs were produced to a set format, and these formed the basis for an advocacy process, during which the CSOs were often accompanied by the grantee in key meetings.

Theme: Rule of law

Kosovo advocacy, monitoring, policy

Project: Citizen Journalists for Free and Fair Elections in Georgia
Evaluation Date: April 2014
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

It is important to conduct systematic analysis and to synthesize information that can be used by advocacy and electoral observation groups to improve the electoral process. In this project no links were made with advocacy or other groups in Georgia who could use the project’s information to promote electoral reform. Some of its efforts also worked in parallel to other efforts done in the sector.

Theme: Media

Georgia advocacy, collaborate

Project: Strengthening Advocacy Capacity of Civil Society in The Gambia
Evaluation Date: December 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The grantee provided very useful, tangible and instrumental services which contributed to the project’s sustainability. The advocacy strategy framework developed very helpfully outlined the process of organising an advocacy campaign. It was very user friendly and explained clearly in a step by step practical way what needed to be done.

Theme: Community activism

Gambia advocacy, learning

Project: Initiative to Build Social Movements in Sierra Leone
Evaluation Date: May 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project could have been more effective by providing support to existing advocacy engagements by the participants (CSO and CSO platforms) platforms on the issues that were identified during the training sessions. Project funds could have been set aside for this purpose, which would have provided platform managers with an incentive to develop and implement strategies for engagement with relevant decision-makers. As it was, the platform leaders who became aware of needs and opportunities for advocacy were often unable to address these, due to lack of resources.

Theme: Community activism

Sierra Leone advocacy, training

Project: Civil Society Empowerment in Advocacy and Policy Development in Vietnam
Evaluation Date: June 2014
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project funded 15 CSO small advocacy initiatives, implemented by 14 CSO partners. In most cases, the CSOs supplemented the $1,000 awarded by securing additional resources from government and donor funds. Designed and implemented with guidance and advice from the grantee, the projects were generally successful in delivering advocacy initiatives which engaged government officials and made progress towards the solution of specific issues.

Theme: Community activism

Viet Nam advocacy, grants, policy

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