Lessons

Integrating project activities with existing municipality initiatives involving youth has proven to be a successful strategy for ensuring project sustainability. In addition to creating new dialogue spaces between municipal authorities and youth, this project leveraged existing platforms, such as annual meetings with the local councilors, to include youth consultation in the municipal annual activity plans. This approach fostered stronger youth participation following the project capacity-building activities.

The project has highlighted the receptiveness of municipal governance structures to the voices of young people. It is, therefore, opportune to invest in initiatives that actively incorporate youth perspectives into the development of public policies concerning youth affairs.

The inclusion of political parties in the development and planning of activities during the project design phase could have further enriched the initiative's relevance and ensured a broader and more inclusive platform for youth participation in Mozambique's democratic development processes. In this project, specific activities aimed at encouraging youth involvement in political parties resulted in eighty-nine percent of the project beneficiaries registering with political parties. However, the potential for even greater youth involvement in political activities could have been realized by involving political party representatives in the design of tailored activities to promote active participation and enhance engagement in party-related initiatives.

Community radio debates have proven to be a powerful tool for amplifying the voices of youth within social and political spheres. In this project, radio debates, led by project beneficiaries, drew significant audience engagement, as indicated by the influx of phone calls received during broadcasts. This interaction facilitated meaningful dialogue among youth and boosted the self-confidence of project beneficiaries.

The challenges posed by an unexpected event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, underscored the importance of fostering strong connections with project stakeholders, adaptability, and proactive engagement. In this case, faced with a lockdown and the inability to conduct planned activities, the project successfully maintained its course, sustained stakeholder engagement, and capitalized on unforeseen opportunities to achieve enhanced outcomes.

Connected, aware and empowered CSOs and Human Rights Defenders can become a strong catalyst for change at the grassroots level in order to promote local action aimed at promoting transgender persons’ rights. In this case, the engagement provided them a chance to liaise and establish a link with government officials and departments which continued beyond the project.

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.

Meaningful and transformative change to safeguard rights of transgender community is possible through legislative action. Creating adequate legal frameworks and making justice work for transgender community requires rigorous policy advocacy and extensive engagement with policy and law makers. In this case, while the grantee took a number of initiatives including legal and policy review as well as development of a draft law on Transgender Rights, it met with limited success to generate ownership to steer the legal reform process due to limited engagement with parliamentarians and policy makers.

While working on promoting rights of the transgender community, it is important to focus equally on demand creation through activities enhancing the rights awareness of the community focused on by the project, along with strengthening institutional capacity of public sector institutions for inclusive service delivery.

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.