Lesson Browser | Lessons Learned

Home
Lesson Browser
About
Feedback
UNDEF

Project: Safeguarding the Rights of Transgender & Intersex Communities in Pakistan
Evaluation Date: March 2024
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Effective institutionalization of a technology driven initiative in government departments requires an assessment of their capacity and readiness. Technical and capacity support may be provided to ensure smooth transfer and successful adoption of technology. In the present project, an App developed to report human rights incidents and violations was handed off without prior assessment to a public office unprepared for ensuring its maintenance and use.

Theme: Rule of law

Pakistan analysis, application, beneficiaries, beneficiary, digital, expertise, knowledge, outputs, ownership, project design, resources, results, strategy, sustainability, sustainable, tools

Project: Support for Elections in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
Evaluation Date: August 2021
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Measuring the acquisition of knowledge is just one component, it is also important to try and measure, or show, how that knowledge is applied in practice.

Theme: Electoral Processes

Nigeria assess, determine, evaluate, impact, monitor, practical application, quality control, teach, training

Project: Support for Elections in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
Evaluation Date: August 2021
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

There is an important distinction between a better understanding of an issue and a change in behaviour as a result. Just because a voter knows that vote buying is illegal, for example, does not mean they will refrain from doing it.

Theme: Electoral Processes

Nigeria application, attitude, elections, Electoral, impact, knowledge, measure, practice, rules, theory

Project: Strengthening Grassroots Women’s Groups to Promote and Protect Civic Space in Uganda
Evaluation Date: July 2023
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

It is incorrect to just assume that what people learn from training will then be applied in practice. There is another step in supporting them to feel confident to start believing and acting on what they now know and this needs to be better captured in project designs, such as through sub-granted small projects, to ensure that outputs contribute to the achievement of outcomes.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Uganda application, approach, capacity, impact, knowledge, micro, motivate, motivation, participants, practical, process, project design, results, steps, training

Project: Empowering Rural Communities in Bhutan through Mass Media
Evaluation Date: December 2022
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

As digital technologies take hold, two ways media-community audience engagement will only become richer and more complex. New technology can upset the methodology and content of any capacity-building programme approved and designed by the grantee. Therefore, there is a need to remain alert about new technology and devise innovative forms of audience research online and offline.

Theme: Interaction with government, Media

Bhutan adapt, app, application, approach, audience, capacity, community, content, digital, engagement, innovation, journalism, method, project design, social media, training

Project: Empowering Rural Communities in Bhutan through Mass Media
Evaluation Date: December 2022
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Mentoring as a model for capacity building has worked. It was found during the interviews that most of the trainees had learned techniques and applied new skills in reporting and engaging with audiences. After the trainings, the Mentors therefore continued to guide and teach the participants on subjects not covered during the trainings like techniques of editing and content packaging, self-censorship and other technical and editorial skills.

Theme: Interaction with government, Media

Bhutan application, applied skills, apply, audience, capacity, censor, content, editor, journalism, knowledge, media, mentor, project design, radio, skills, sustainability, sustainable, training

Project: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes
Evaluation Date: August 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

To promote the actual application of human rights in Honduras, a debate should be organised to improve links between the actions achieved for and with women -their community-based organisations and networks – and the actions intended to strengthen the institutional mechanisms that guarantee their rights. The aim would be to get local authorities to sustainably integrate a pro-woman agenda both in terms of political representation and municipal budgeting. Democratic participation is fragile and currently depends on the willingness of the authority in power. But this willingness could be replaced by a framework of legitimate and lasting good governance.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Honduras authority, budget, institutions

Project: Tunisia - Meta Evaluation Report
Evaluation Date: May 2021
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

In addition to UNDEF’s already existing procedures and practices, grantees should be encouraged to build deeper synergies between project components for coherence, and trust among participants and stakeholders through the application of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) criteria for their and partners’ activities. This is especially critical for projects in which grantees provide capacity development opportunities and sub-grants to local partners around project cycle management. This can alleviate risks related to potential delays in proposed timeframes, without compromising the overall timeline of the project and its objective.

Theme: Electoral Processes, Women's empowerment, Community activism, Rule of law, Youth engagement, Interaction with government, Media, Tools for knowledge

Tunisia activity, adjustment, challenge, correct, indicators, measure, monitoring, performance, relationship, results framework, risk mitigation, schedule, timing

Project: Promoting Good Governance among Tribal Inhabitants in Bangladesh (PROGGATI)
Evaluation Date: December 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project adopted a one-size-fits all approach to its activities. However, the needs and capacities of the different stakeholders and participants were vastly different. A programme better tailored to these different actors might have yielded better results. Similarly the training could have included a component to ensure application of the knowledge acquired during the programme to the participants’ everyday work would have had more impact.

Theme: Community activism

Bangladesh stakeholder

Project: Grassroots Gender Accountability in Uganda
Evaluation Date: April 2014
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Visibly empowered district and sub-county councillors expressed with pride their new influence on the gender-sensitive application of laws, policies and local budgets. Former women MP trainees proudly cooperated across party lines on priority issues of Ugandan women in parliamentary committees. The project’s most remarkable achievement wasthe newly introduced legal requirement that future drafts of the country’s annual budget need to be certified as gender sensitive prior to parliamentary approval.

Theme: Interaction with government

Uganda gender, network, policy

Subscribe to UNDEF Newsletter

Privacy Policy
Terms of Use