Project: Empowering Communities to participate in Local Governance
Evaluation Date: April 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The lack of clear separation between Local Action Group initiatives and technical assistance provided by the grantee was a concern. This points to a lack of strategic orientation within the grantee organization, and potentially undermines the sustainability of the groups as they struggle without the support of the grantee and reduced access to alternative sources of information and consultation.

Theme: Community activism
Project: Civil society advocating for quality education & healthcare in Mexico
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project’s decentralized nature allowed the three CSO partners to adapt the project to their own local context during implementation. In some aspects, this increased the relevance for the participating CSOs as well their participants. Formalize relationships between subgrantees and their implementers with a written agreement that clearly articulates the roles and responsibilities of each, the project purpose, timelines, targets and performance indicator and reporting requirements even if this is only to be done verbally.

Theme: Tools for knowledge
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Outside of a few main service contracts, most of the supervision, reporting and contracting was informal. This resulted in the project not having readily available information on its activities, outputs, contracting or expenditures, and its financial and programmatic reports were not submitted to UNDEF in a timely manner. This delayed release of the second tranche of project funding, pushing back activities and requiring a time extension to complete the project in Albania.

Theme: Media
Project: Empowering people through citizens’ journalism in Albania
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Outside of a few main service contracts, most of the supervision, reporting and contracting was informal. This resulted in the project not having readily available information on its activities, outputs, contracting or expenditures, and its financial and programmatic reports were not submitted to UNDEF in a timely manner. This delayed release of the second tranche of project funding, pushing back activities and requiring a time extension to complete the project in Albania.

Theme: Media