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

Lesson Learned:

The adaptation strategy to the COVID-19 pandemic was key for the project success. In this regard, a strategy aimed at adapting methods to changing, external circumstances (natural, pandemic and/or geopolitical), going beyond the risks inherent to the project’s internal design, and defining the actions and measures to be to be taken should such potential changes materialize should also continue to be considered systematically in all UNDEF projects.

Theme: Electoral Processes, Youth engagement, Interaction with government

El Salvador adaptation, adjust, approach, challenge, complex, mitigate, mitigation, monitoring, plan, planning, project design, project management, response, strategy, unexpected

Project: Creating an Inclusive Policy and Legal System, Protecting Elderly People’s Fundamental Rights in Indonesia
Evaluation Date: January 2023
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The elderly project should be a source of learning for both UNDEF and the grantee organization LBH Apik, since both parties have not dealt exclusively with elderly before. In a short project such as this (especially with an unexpected challenge like the pandemic), the Donor and Implementing Agency should conduct more frequently periodical pause and reflection to assess direction, progress, challenges, and lessons learnt in order to be able to manage the project adaptively. Ideally this is done every quarter. Sessions for the purpose of learning need to be intentionally planned from the outset. It is unclear whether programmatic learning is being performed from the bottom to the top, and vice versa. It is useful however to cohesively provide a picture on the differences and similarities, and what worked and what did not work.

Theme: Electoral Processes, Rule of law

Indonesia adapt, adjust, analysis, Coordinate, decision making, elder, elderly, goals, issue, learn, lesson, measure, monitoring, plan, planning, problem, project design, project management, quality control, results, target

Project: Citizens: empowering local communities, improving local governance
Evaluation Date: March 2023
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The case of the grantee Zimam demonstrated that even though the organisation did not have a significant track record, the quality of the project proposal submitted by the grantee’s finance team could demonstrate their capability to manage funds. Indeed, UNDEF showed audacity and open-mindedness in agreeing to fund this young organisation.

Theme: Youth engagement, Interaction with government

Palestine approach, commitment, credibility, expertise, finance, fund, grassroots, project design, project management, proposal

Project: Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals in the Arab Civil Society Agenda
Evaluation Date: December 2018
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Monitoring the progress of SDG implementation in the Arab region (and other regions where there is a lack of reliable/accurate data and access to information) would be more effective through the use of qualitative rather than quantitiative information. Since national statistics are highly unreliable and access to information is limited, work on SDGs has been more successful when the focus is on qualitative policy reform or when the work is highly localized to areas where statistics are reliable and information is accessible.

Theme: Interaction with government

Arab States Access, project design, project strategy, statistics

Project: Jeunesse et participation électorale au Burkina Faso
Evaluation Date: May 2022
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Grantees need to be disciplined in their monitoring and reporting, making best use of the comprehensive guidance available on the UNDEF website. Grantees should feel free to suggest to UNDEF alternative baselines, target indicators and means of verification if data collection against initially planned Results Frameworks proves more difficult than expected or impossible.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Burkina Faso baseline, data, impact, indicator, measure, monitor, plan, project design, project management, report, results, target

Project: Democratic Dialogue through Media in Sierra Leone
Evaluation Date: March 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

Flaws in design and strategy hampered the relevance of the project: lack of explicit engagement with editors/publishers and with relevant high-level institutional actors. These weaknesses were already visible in the project document: the “Situation Analysis” section appropriately identified the needs summarised above, as well as the views of civil society about the media, but did not provide an analysis of the causes of the identified weaknesses. The project document lacked an explicit stakeholder analysis that would have identified the project’s planned level of engagement with each stakeholder, the message directed at them and the engagement techniques to be used. In other words, the project document was built on the assumption that improving journalistic skills in human rights reporting, together with activities such as NGO and community training, would lead to enhanced democratic debate. But there was no explicit description of how these results would derive from the planned activities.

Theme: Media

Sierra Leone planning, project design, stakeholder, strategy

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

Lesson Learned:

The project was conceived as a comprehensive capacity development project with an approach involving participants into the development of replication strategies and the development of common actions and strategies in traditional and non-traditional communication spaces. However, during its implementation, the project has mainly been an academic endeavour, with a rather classic approach to capacity development methodologies and systems. In this project, as designed, the components of socialisation by the students as well as the engagement with public authorities should have remained a priority, and practical, on-the-job training approaches should have been privileged as originally foreseen. If these practical aspects are not considered a priority, a more standardized approach to capacity development should be followed at the project design stage.

UDF-17-783-ELS

Theme: Youth engagement, Interaction with government

El Salvador academia, approach, capacity, effective, engagement, government, multiply, participation, practice, project design, strategy, training, youth

Project: The National Campaign towards Muslim Family Law Reform (MFL Campaign) in Malaysia
Evaluation Date: March 2016
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

There was logic to the sequencing of the activities in the project design, but the project itself was implemented as a series of activities and would have benefited from being delivered as more integrated and cohesive programme, with adequate follow up, needs based trainings and the use of other developmental approaches.. Factors included the intermittent nature of project implementation, lack of follow up with most workshop participants, and the focus on achieving activity outputs more than on creating a surge in popular support for Muslim Family Law law based on Islamic principles of justice and equality.

Theme: Rule of law

Malaysia coherence, project design

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

Lesson Learned:

Raising expectations of young people and then leaving them unmet because there is no follow-up is bad practice. Building sustainability into actions that depend on a group that is by nature evolving and likely to move on is also difficult. Consulting young people and involving them in project design, monitoring and evaluation may help. Set up “buddy” systems where more senior/experienced/older youth agreed to mentor younger people not yet of an age to participate in the project formally.

Theme: Youth engagement

Thailand participation, project design, sustainability, youth

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