Project: For a More Vigilant Civil Society in Morocco
Evaluation Date: May 2016
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Participants in Morocco unanimously underlined the relevance of the themes selected for the training sessions and the seminars and praised the quality of the teaching, as well as the trainers’ participatory and practical methodology. Content and form of the workshops were adapted to the socio-cultural specificities and took into account the limitations of the participants.

Theme: Rule of law
Project: Empowering Vulnerable People through Internet: E-Learning Initiative for Young Migrant Workers in China
Evaluation Date: April 2015
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project was built around the contribution that social media and E-Learning, through the project web-site, might make to connecting workers to each other and a wider world of knowledge, ideas and practical possibilities, to help them to change their lives for the better. Unfortunately, it was found that young workers were not familiar with computers, had limited access to them, and little time or inclination to work on E-Learning courses. Inexpensive smart phones are favoured by young migrant workers as their tool for communication. However, the phones are used for social purposes and entertainment and have limited capacity for downloading large files. This limited to a considerable degree the relevance of project strategy in this sphere.

Theme: Tools for knowledge
Project: Civil Sector Capacity Building Initiative in Kazakhstan
Evaluation Date: March 2016
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The usefulness of the training for the accountability coaches – who were then intended to train NGOs in various regions of Kazakhstan – was mixed. Responses varied depending on the level of interest and knowledge of the participants. The training should have been more grounded in the wider development context so as to ensure that it built on existing efforts, demonstrated a good understanding of its intended beneficiaries and targeted NGOs that lack accountability.

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

The training in Ethiopia covered issues such as identification of human rights violations and of applicable legislation and international standards. The training sessions fully met participants’ expectations and requirements of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. Trainers took a very practical approach and followed up with a hands-on coaching session on the preparation of the first National Status Report on the implementation of international standards ratified by Ethiopia. The report drafting task was directly within the scope of work of training participants.

Theme: Rule of law
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
Project: Strengthening the Political Participation of Communities of Former Slaves
Evaluation Date: January 2015
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The training sessions and literacy activities in Mauritania were rather academic and poorly linked to the practical concerns of the targeted communities. The lack of knowledge on how to put in practice existing legal provisions against slavery reduced the overall effectiveness of the project.
The project would have benefited from a better combination between theory and practice by delivering more practical training to clarify how to apply existing legal provisions against the practice of slavery.

UNDEF/ Mauritania
Theme: Community activism