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Project: Lao Encouraging and Applying Democracy for Civil Society (LEAD)
Evaluation Date: September 2012
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Direct and indirect beneficiaries expressed their need to have continued access to reference materials and that not all of these have been made available in Lao language. Reference materials used in trainings and workshops should have been consistently available in local language and the grantee could have uploaded all the training materials onto the project website so that they could be used more widely.

Theme: Community activism

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

Lesson Learned:

Although written in English, Village Budget Club members found the budget monitoring and service tracking manual easy to use, because (i) English-speaking training facilitators were recruited from within the local community to address possible language and literacy issues; and (ii) at trainee stage, monitors teamed up in pairs comprising of one English speaker, thus enabling easy reference to the manual as and when needed

Theme: Interaction with government

Uganda community, language, relevance

Project: Creative Communication of the Nigerian Budget
Evaluation Date: July 2018
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

High levels of illiteracy and limited English language skills amongst community members – especially women – created communication challenges. The printing of budget summary materials in English-only may have restricted access to most community members. To reach a wider audience translate budget data into local languages for key publications.

Theme: Media

Nigeria language, literacy, outreach

Project: Citizens' Platform for Democratic Debates & Dialogues in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: December 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Some debate participants reported that the language used was too technical and theoretical for an ordinary person to understand. Analysis of materials confirms that in some areas of Afghanistan, Western-oriented democratic terminology and usage likely to be too abstract or insufficiently explained was used.

Theme: Media

Afghanistan language

Project: Access to Justice and Human Rights Education (Rwanda)
Evaluation Date: September 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project could have further developed the printed support material and continued distributing it to paralegals so that it could be replicated and assimilated into other ongoing activities. The material should have been more didactic while maintaining a flexible format. The material should have been written in the local language with a more manageable length using clear examples and visual illustrations.

Theme: Rule of law

Rwanda language, materials, training

Project: Expanding and Fortifying Local Democracy through the People’s Council in the Philippines
Evaluation Date: January 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The project’s training programme was implemented, for the most part, by experienced external consultants. While the sequence of workshops addressed a comprehensive list of topics, there were some problems. In particular, the use of only English-language training materials for a population, particularly at barangay level, which had a limited knowledge of particularly written English.

Theme: Community activism

Philippines language, training

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

Lesson Learned:

In order to be effective, public awareness raising campaigns need to be more targeted and focused. The content should be developed in local language, keeping in view the general literacy level. It should also be evaluated to assess efficacy and impact. In this case the grantee developed them in English and published them without translation which limited their efficacy and outreach.

Theme: Rule of law

Pakistan advocacy, audience, beneficiaries, beneficiary, community, goals, media, message, messaging, mother language, outputs, project design, publication, quality control, relevance, relevant, results

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

Lesson Learned:

For training to resonate and be most impactful, they need to be delivered in a setting and format that appeals to participants. Ensuring that they are conducted in the language participants are most familiar with and in an interactive and engaging format can aid with comprehension and ultimately impact.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Uganda adapt, approach, beneficiaries, context, effective, engagement, interaction, knowledge, language, motivate, motivation, needs, participation, planning, project design, results, structure, tools, training

Project: Empowering Female and Youth Domestic Workers in Uganda
Evaluation Date: September 2020
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Language barriers can be a challenge for engagement with Domestic Workers, producing material in local languages – written and crucially audio – is key for generating knowledge.

Theme: Rule of law

Uganda engagement, knowledge, language

Project: Strengthening Governance and Democratization Processes in Kenya and the East and Central Africa Region
Evaluation Date: November 2013
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

While developing an electoral knowledge resource in Swahili seemed to be a good use of resources, this was not the case since there was no demonstrated need for this resource in Swahili and the targeted beneficiaries were not made aware that the website and translations existed. Use statistics of the website were low and none of the Kenyans interviewed outside of the grantee knew the translations existed. The Kenyans interviewed said they relied on English technical material because Swahili is still a developing language and does not have the technical vocabulary.

Theme: Community activism

Kenya elections, language, Swahili, translation

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