Lesson Browser | Lessons Learned

Home
Lesson Browser
About
Feedback
UNDEF

Project: Strengthening women’s empowerment in municipal government
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Consultation among implementing partners at project design stage and application of a less theoretical approach to project design might have mitigated the external risks threatening the delivery of the project.
It is vital to assess external risks and develop risk management plans for all projects at design stage. Depending on location, consider: the potential for natural disaster; political change, instability or hurdles; the capacity of partner organizations; and possible access restrictions on intended participants.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Fiji, Kirbati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu design, risk

Project: JOINT Contribution to Strengthen and Expand Democracy in Mozambique
Evaluation Date: June 2014
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project would have benefited significantly from a more rigorous design, including a more specific analysis of the conditions that need to be achieved to fulfill planned outcomes. Specific activities should have been built in, such as an advocacy and media strategy. Training sessions and workshops should have been repeated and followed up. The project would have been more effective if the grantee had ensured more ownership of the project design by partner NGOs.

Theme: Community activism

Mozambique collaboration, design, media, strategy

Project: Developing alternative models of natural resource governance based on indigenous community participation in Aceh
Evaluation Date: July 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Strategic weaknesses in the project’s design and needs assessment undermined the project’s relevance. The project did not capture the contextual information needed for project implementation and therefore the issues faced by Mukims were not adequately addressed during the design and implementation phases. As a consequence, activities were not related to priority issues.

Theme: Community activism

Indonesia design, needs, relevance

Project: Enhancing the Functional Protection of Human Rights in Ethiopia
Evaluation Date: May 2012
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project suffered from insufficient risk analysis and mitigation. The original design failed to identify the challenging political environment in which the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was operating. Solid project design should plan for scenarios related to each identified risk, and develop mitigation approaches to ensure that core objectives can be met.

Theme: Rule of law

Ethiopia design, risk

Project: Promoting democratic dialogue and social cohesion in the Western region of Côte d'Ivoire
Evaluation Date: January 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project design phase did not sufficiently involve the communities and CSOs who were partners. The project could have also benefited from more technical expertise in the design of some of the micro-projects, to help ensure their success. The project duration was only 18 months (a three-month extension was eventually granted), was probably too short in view of its ambitious objective.

Theme: Community activism

Côte d'Ivoire design, scope

Project: Helping Teenagers to Transform their Communities in Ukraine
Evaluation Date: September 2020
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Simplicity is key: design simple yet clear guidelines for all competition stages and provide extensive training to all teenage and adult beneficiaries early in the project if they design a progressive competition.

Theme: Youth engagement

Ukraine beneficiaries, competition, guidelines, project design, training, youth

Project: Democracy Academy for Young Adults in El Salvador
Evaluation Date: March 2023
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Project design should focus on the detailed definitions of Global Objective, Specific Objectives, Actions, Indicators (at outcome and output level), Baseline and Targets. As it stands, the project definition lacked a clear project design matrix; overall and specific objectives and outputs were missing; outcome indicators were missing (outcome indicators were in fact output indicators), and outputs were not defined. Lastly, no sources of information/means of verification were formulated.

Theme: Youth engagement, Interaction with government

El Salvador baseline, indicator, measure, monitoring, objectives, outcome, outputs, project design, results, results framework

Project: Assessing Democracy Assistance
Evaluation Date: September 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

All funders in the development assistance field, whether government agencies or private foundations, have shied away from funding research. The result was a cleavage between research as it would more traditionally be considered in the social, political and (more recent and largely Anglo-American) policy sciences, and programme design and implementation.

Theme: Tools for knowledge

Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) academic, design, research

Project: Enlarging the Social Base for Democracy and the Rule of Law in Egypt
Evaluation Date: April 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Because of strong and inclusive design and effective facilitation, at the workshop level, even groups comprised of very diverse and sometimes deeply opposed political interests were able to learn and work together. This project demonstrated that in Egypt a politically inclusive approach at the grass-roots level can succeed.

Theme: Rule of law

Egypt design, inclusion

Project: Active democracy and political participation of tribal communities in the Indian Himalayas
Evaluation Date: October 2012
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project was coherent, gender-appropriate and highly relevant to the needs of the beneficiaries living in the Himalaya region. The design of this project within a broader strategic planning and programming process also led to the individual actions being well designed and relevant.

Theme: Tools for knowledge

India design, needs

Subscribe to UNDEF Newsletter

Privacy Policy
Terms of Use