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

Lesson Learned:

A part of the project entailed translating sections of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network website into Swahili. But there was already more than a decade’s worth of good materials developed in the region in local languages that could have been uploaded to ACE. Before investing in this effort, a needs assessment should have been done to see if the lack of ACE-type material in Swahili was a major constraint to the achievement of the project’s intended outcomes and to determine which topics, if any, should be translated.

Theme: Community activism

Kenya language, translation

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

Lesson Learned:

A part of the project entailed translating sections of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network website into Swahili to increase access to voter education. However, the Swahili site ended up not generating much traffic. Part of the reason was the lack of publicity and outreach. Another was the lack of relevance for local CSO’s in Kenya. All of the Kenyans interviewed said they would rather access technical information in English because Swahili did not have the technical vocabulary needed.

Theme: Community activism

Kenya language, Swahili, technical

Project: Appui à la participation politique et citoyenne de la femme dans le processus démocratique au Burundi
Evaluation Date: November 2011
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The theoretical content of the training sessions, which were carried out almost exclusively in French even though women in rural zones rarely speak anything other than Kirundi, meant that the needs of the beneficiaries could not be efficiently met.

Theme: Women's empowerment

Burundi language, relevance

Project: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan
Evaluation Date: March 2015
Report: [report link]

Lesson Learned:

The grantee made efforts to provide balanced programming in its round tables and reporting in Afghanistan, but this was offset by the predominate use of Pashto in some media products and a focus on problems rather than solutions in many of the media products. Ensuring language balance was especially important as the campaigns became polarized along ethnic lines, and to avoid marginalizing the majority Dari speaking population from the project and its benefits.

Theme: Media

Afghanistan language, materials

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

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