Project: Democratic Dialogue through Media in Sierra Leone
Evaluation Date: March 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Flaws in design and strategy hampered the relevance of the project: lack of explicit engagement with editors/publishers and with relevant high-level institutional actors. These weaknesses were already visible in the project document: the “Situation Analysis” section appropriately identified the needs summarised above, as well as the views of civil society about the media, but did not provide an analysis of the causes of the identified weaknesses. The project document lacked an explicit stakeholder analysis that would have identified the project’s planned level of engagement with each stakeholder, the message directed at them and the engagement techniques to be used. In other words, the project document was built on the assumption that improving journalistic skills in human rights reporting, together with activities such as NGO and community training, would lead to enhanced democratic debate. But there was no explicit description of how these results would derive from the planned activities.

Theme: Media
Project: Rights and freedoms for all in Togo
Evaluation Date: September 2010
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The needs, which the grantee sought to address, are still valid. Any follow-up project should be based on a long-term strategy and on a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of the issues to be addressed. This analysis should take the form of a strategy document. The strategy paper should be developed using a participatory approach.

Theme: Community activism
Project: Human rights and democracy campaign
Evaluation Date: October 2011
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project was part of a well thought-out strategy on governance. The grantee used the project to transition from support to the development of national languages, to an approach based on democratization and the exercise of fundamental rights in development. The project effectively gave shape to this transition – a testimony to the excellent strategic thinking in the organization.

Theme: Rule of law