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Project: Promoting Gender-Sensitive Personal Status Laws in Lebanon
Evaluation Date: September 2022
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Advocacy projects in highly complex contexts require rigorous monitoring to (i) strengthen coalitions and ties despite changes to the positions of stakeholders and changing power dynamics; and to (ii) capture and adapt to the different levels of changes that could occur.

Theme: Women's empowerment, Rule of law
Lebanon   adapt, advocacy, change, collaborate, Coordinate, gender, monitoring, partner, power, reform, relationships, risk, stakeholder, women
Project: Promoting Gender-Sensitive Personal Status Laws in Lebanon
Evaluation Date: September 2022
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

There are important elements that influence the effectiveness of the implementation of an advocacy project other than the technical and financial capacity of the funded organisation. They include:
– The clarity of the organisation’s internal strategy and the consistency of its positioning regarding the project’s objective.
– The credibility of the organisation and its members among CSOs and drivers of change relevant to the intervention.
– The social capital of the organization, which enables it to mobilize key stakeholders and allies in the field.
– The capacity of the organisation to analyse the political context, manage risks, and adapt activities to the situation.

Theme: Women's empowerment, Rule of law
Lebanon   adapt, advocacy, campaign, change, credibility, effectiveness, gender, objective, project objective, reform, results, risk, social capital, strategy, women
Project: Transparency and Public Accountability in Education in Brazil
Evaluation Date: June 2020
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

A project where approximately 90% of human resources are volunteers, entails risks of lack of motivation and commitment. This should be included in the project risk assessment and it must be defined as measures to mitigate these risks.

Theme: Interaction with government
Brazil   commitment, measure, motivation, project design, resources, risk, staff, volunteers
Project: Enabling Women to Participate in Sustainable Water Management in Armenia
Evaluation Date: November 2021
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Without the team’s emergency management skills that have been developed throughout the decades of work at the national and regional levels as epidemiologists, toxicologists, and water and hygiene experts, as well as the donor’s flexibility, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Nagorno Karabakh the project would not have reached its objective and improved the daily lives of the target population. While the staff’s professional and results-oriented performance and UNDEF’s flexible approach allowed to not only deliver the intended outputs but also extend the project’s geographical and demographical scopes, it is generally important to consider various internal and external risk factors as part of a risk mitigation and emergency response strategy to ensure the full achievement of the project’s objective.

Theme: Women's empowerment, Interaction with government
Armenia   COVID-19, donor, environment, expertise, national, objective, outputs, pandemic, project management, regional, results, risk, scope, skills, staff, target, war
Project: Am I Equal in Kosovo Society?
Evaluation Date: July 2018
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Grantees should conduct a pre-project assessment that establishes what the project activities’ inherent risks are (e.g: non-participation, disinterest, feasibility issues) as well as the underlying reasons for said issues in order to mitigate project risks.

Theme: Media
Kosovo   local knowledge, objectives, planning, risk
Project: Fostering Ethical Democracy and Advancing Micro Justice in India
Evaluation Date: September 2018
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

In all projects that involve challenging established power structures, staff members that are most visible in project implementation (‘frontline staff’) face a high risk of personal reprisals. It is essential for grantees to be aware of these risks and take the appropriate measures necessary to protect frontline staff, for example ensuring the backing of a larger organization or having senior management playing a frontline role in project implementation as well.

Theme: Rule of law
India   implementation, local knowledge, partnerships, risk, staff
Project: Strengthening Democracy through Freedom of Expression and Peace Agenda for Journalists in Colombia (Colombia)
Evaluation Date: August 2017
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Projects related to a peace process, or other sensitive volatile context-related projects, may require “thinking the unthinkable”. Be innovative but include relevant mitigation measures in planning from the earliest stage. To ensure innovative and creative thinking processes to identify risks, to challenge received wisdom, and apply flexibility to problem-solving.

Theme: Media
Colombia   conflict, innovation, risk
Project: Youth local councils for civic engagement and social change in Palestine
Evaluation Date: December 2013
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

To allow them to implement their action plans each Youth Local Council (YLC) had a ‘pot’ of USD 5,000 from which they were provided with funds from the grantee against receipts, in line with the financial management training the YLC members had received after their election in Palestine.

Theme: Youth engagement
Palestine   micro projects, risk
Project: Democracy for Women’s Rights in Sindh, Pakistan
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The sustainability of the project has perhaps been compromised by the fact that elections in Pakistan were delayed. Given the prevailing lack of confidence in democratic processes, the failure to be able to exercise the right to vote, which the project participants had been educated about, could eventually compromise the results of the project.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Pakistan   elections, motivation, risk
Project: Developing alternative models of natural resource governance based on indigenous community participation in Aceh
Evaluation Date: July 2016
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The inclusion of baseline data was a good idea, but the survey carried out by the grantee used unrealistic indicators which made it difficult to measure changes and impact. The baseline data did not clearly identify the nature of the Mukims’ weaknesses in dealing with the community, village and local government which resulted in inappropriate activities and ultimately in inadequate appreciation of results.

Theme: Community activism
Indonesia   baseline, data, risk
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