Project: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights
Evaluation Date: November 2017
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project was well designed – it targeted 12 of the most marginalized districts in the country, this was a manageable number, and meant that implementation was achieved without the grantee becoming overstretched. While there may have been other ways of designing the project e.g. concentrating resources geographically, or on specific issues or beneficiary groups, the design helped create a foundation for national geographic coverage and visibility and also meant that a wide variety of human rights issues were covered instead of specifics relevant to particular localities only e.g. coastal fisherman or tribal hill communities.

Theme: Media
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: Coalition against Poverty: Oil Revenue under Public Oversight
Evaluation Date: April 2013
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

From a programme theory or design perspective, the project’s unrealistically high ambition was demonstrated in its expectation of behaviour change. The project aimed to change behaviour on three fronts: national and international extractive industry business interests; civil society; and local government. Some frustrations or disappointment could have been mitigated by reviewing the scope and scale of activities so that they were more appropriately matched to the problem analysis and by setting achievable goals and targets informed by better programme theory.

Theme: Community activism