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engagement

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Vulnerable People through Internet: E-Learning Initiative for Young Migrant Workers in China

Student participants seem to have learned a great deal about the experience of migrant worker life in China. Around 30 students became thoroughly engaged and met frequently. Once the training was completed, the students who remained involved pursued two lines of activity: to work with CSO partners in support groups to assist workers groups with effective use of social media, and, secondly, to assist the grantee with running the web-site dedicated to young migrant workers.
Project Partner
ICO Institute for Social Agenda
Project Description
The project succeeded in meeting its targets in its final phase, including the development of 20 proposals and petitions by young migrant workers and CSOs working with them, concerning desired improvements in working and living conditions. Of these, eight described practical initiatives or small projects. Each of the eight was awarded a small grant to implement the plans proposed. While some students gained valuable experience, many of those involved lacked the commitment to taking an active role in support of the young migrant workers. Further, the role assigned to the students in “assisting young migrant workers using social media” was vague, and they lacked guidance on what to do and how to do it. In addition, the students, as well as the academic coordinators and the CSO representatives interviewed, all commented on the wide social gap between students and the young workers, which made communication difficult.
Evaluation Date
April 2015
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Youth as Agents of Democratic Change through Knowledge and Information Acquisition and Exchange in Laos

Bio-diversity and indigenous knowledge topics (local customs and traditions) have made their way into the education curriculum of primary schools in more provinces and are taught by more teachers than expected in Laos.
Project Partner
Participatory Development Training Center
Project Description
The project enhanced the technical capacity of youth group leaders to introduce rights-based development knowledge. It also supported leadership development, and therefore was a relevant effort to involve youth in democratic and participatory processes regarding the management and use of natural resources. In addition, trained teachers of 17 primary schools from 6 provinces developed locally relevant curricula introducing indigenous knowledge. Given the political and administrative realities, the identification of bio-diversity issues and general development challenges, rather than direct democracy issues, represented smart approaches to support participation in environmental policy formulation by youth. The youth’s field-work identified about 30 different bio-diversity themes and general development challenges, and subsequently suggestions were made related to farming practices, but also to the need to preserve local culture and traditions. In view of the appreciation expressed by central and provincial representatives, evaluators are of the view that the project effectively contributed to improved consideration of local and biodiversity knowledge in local community development processes.
Evaluation Date
June 2014
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Youth local councils for civic engagement and social change in Palestine

The young people in Palestine were very aware that they cannot continue to serve as youth councillors past the age limit set by the project (16 – 22 years) but have clear ideas of how they can both support younger people taking on the youth councillor role and also continue to participate as trainers and mentors.
Project Partner
Almawrid Teacher Development Centre
Project Description
The project focused on the creation of Youth Local Councils (YLC) in six villages in the West Bank – two in the north, two in the central area and two further south. All the young people in these villages were mobilized to register to vote in the YLC elections and underwent training in citizenship, democracy and electoral processes. Families, municipal councils, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community members were involved in the campaign meetings or in overseeing the elections. The YLCs then received further training in the skills they would need in order to ‘govern’ effectively: negotiation, leadership, conducting meetings, fundraising, strategic planning and community action. They consulted with their youth constituents, the municipal council and community members, to devise a plan of action to contribute to their communities’ needs, and subsequently undertook a wide range of cultural and social activities, ranging from computer classes for other young people to the painting and renovation of school buildings.
Evaluation Date
December 2013
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Development Pacts: An accountability tool in the hands of local communities in Kyrgyzstan

By being more aware of the responsibilities of local government in Kyrgyzstan individuals involved in the project engage actively to identify the most pressing local service needs. Reducing the gap between demand for and supply of public services has increased the public’s satisfaction with local service delivery
Project Partner
Transparency International Kyrgyzstan
Project Description
The project motivated both the local population and local government in Kyrgyzstan to jointly assess community needs and to jointly prioritize actions addressing the most pressing concerns within the limits of available resources. The approach of putting a monitoring system in place was implemented by Voluntary Citizen Committees (VCCs), as well as by local authorities. Having generated 16 project-driven and 37 beneficiary-driven Development Pacts (DP), of which most have already produced tangible results, the grantee significantly contributed to an improved responsiveness of local authorities in Kyrgyzstan to citizens’ concerns.
Evaluation Date
November 2013
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing the Capacity for Inclusive Local Governance through Synergies and Sustainable Linkages between Communities and Government in North Afghanistan

What is required is a very long-term engagement to build the necessary capacities. For efforts to support democratic development and an active and dynamic civil society in Afghanistan, prospects of sustainability are yet more limited.
Project Partner
ACTED
Project Description
Enhancing the Capacity for Inclusive Local Governance in Northern Afghanistan was generally effective as a training project, but its overall design was not well-aligned with the overall objectives specified. The project made a difference for the trainees who benefited from the course provided, but did not contribute much to the institutional results linked to enhancing inclusive local governance. The grantee was a well-known international NGO. This was strength in some ways, but may have been a weakness in others. The project design had a “generic” quality to it, suggesting a lack of attention to the specific needs in the project sites that were addressed. Further, the lack of engagement with the project by ACTED Kabul at a management level, along with the absence of decentralization of decision-making to the local level, undermined project effectiveness.
Evaluation Date
April 2013
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Civic Education and Civil Society Empowerment in Remote Areas in Myanmar

The township-level forums provided a space for free discussion, rather than a structured half-day session with solid results leading to a potential action plan and capacity to formulate initial issues for future policy papers. Participants were asked to state their mission, vision and goals, but no concrete deliverables or written action plans were produced. Much of the impetus built up during the training session was lost at the very moment where it would have been appropriate to draw up a concrete action plan. Also, there was no systematic support to the participants after the forums.

Project Partner
Myanmar Egress/Network Activities Groups (NAG)
Project Description
The project general objective was to support the development of good governance in Myanmar through civic education and building advocacy skills of civil society. Activities included civic education trainings and township level meetings to support good governance; organization of core leader meetings; training in how to write policy papers to strengthen policy advocacy; and the creation of a website for civil society to exchange experience and knowledge. All quantifiable targets were reached or surpassed, and the participants interviewed spoke highly of the training. The project implementation team overcame significant bureaucratic and logistical obstacles, as well as difficult operating conditions. The project appears to have had a great deal of positive 'knock-on effects’. Although the training program attracted a large number of participants, participation was dictated by informal networks and affinities. The township-level forum did not succeed in soliciting initiatives and brainstorming on regional/local issues. Likewise, the policy papers exhibited significant weaknesses in particular a lack of readers. The website was also not used as an effective tool for knowledge and information sharing by any of the participants interviewed.
Evaluation Date
December 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Creation of Women's Parliament in Azerbaijan

A lesson learned from the Women’s Forum – a predecessor of the woman’s parliament - was the need for a coordinated media outreach strategy. However, this lesson was not systematically incorporated into the design of the Women’s Parliament. As a result the women’s parliament was not fully effective in gaining recognition among the female population of Azerbaijan.
Project Partner
Women’s Association for Rational Development
Project Description
The overall purpose of the project was to address gender inequality and improve the situation of women’s rights in Azerbaijan. The establishment of the first Women’s Parliament (WP) – a symbolic model of alternative parliament with the focus on gender equality– served as a vehicle for achieving this goal. The Women’s Parliament was expected to result in four specific project outcomes: opening a discussion space for raising gender-specific issues; enhancing gender equality advocacy; strengthening civil society by facilitating women’s participation; raising awareness of national and international stakeholders on women’s issues. The direct beneficiaries of the project were members of the Women’s Parliament. Indirectly, the project aimed to benefit the female population of Azerbaijan.
Evaluation Date
July 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Human Rights Education for the Police

Although the line authority for higher education in Kazakhstan did not veto the objectives nor the timeline for activities during the project's initial consultations, whether human rights training will become a mandatory discipline for Kazakhstan's police academies was still vague at the time of the evaluation. The grantee should have maintained an ongoing communication and coordination with the Ministry of Education to secure its approval.
Project Partner
Kazakh International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law
Project Description
Aiming to improve human rights protection of citizens in Kazakhstan, the project developed a human rights education course for introduction into the curricula of Kazakh institutions training future police officers. The project involved training staff involved in educating police recruits. Outputs aimed to ensure that graduates from this human rights training programme exercise their functions taking into account international human rights standards. However, the project's ultimate impact - the mandatory introduction of human rights training into the police academies' curriculum - remained unachieved.
Evaluation Date
May 2012
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Civil society advocating for quality education & healthcare in Mexico

The project exceeded its targets concerning the number of participants and municipalities it worked in. Several participants attributed this to the inclusion of “local leaders” as project promoters. They felt this gave credibility and increased relevance of the project activities. It also attracted local media which recognized the importance of the messages, and which provided free coverage of events and air time for the public information campaigns.
Project Partner
Rostros y Voces FDS, A.C.
Project Description
The project sought to strengthen the collective voice and action of civil society in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Hidalgo and Guerrero. The focus was on increasing the ability of local CSOs and women, indigenous groups and youth to demand equitable and quality public education and healthcare services through strengthening the ability of CSOs to train, inform, and raise awareness of these rights, and giving opportunities for them to advocate for these services as a basic human right. The use of local level CSOs was an effective approach to implement community-based activities, but the lack of an integrated programme between the states and national level limited its usefulness and potential impact. The use of a diagnostic to develop training and an agenda for action was a good technique, but required more focus on issues of voice and civic participation which were the main objectives of the project. The project strengthened advocacy efforts for more equitable health and education services in its targeted areas in Chiapas, Hidalgo and Guerrero. In particular, it increased individual knowledge, capacity and leadership among participating CSOs and community members. However, the extent of results is unknown due to the lack of outcome data. Changes are likely to be sustainable at the level of personal empowerment and relationships built with some public officials and the agenda provides CSOs with some of the key health and education issues to raise with officials in the future.
Evaluation Date
February 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Gender Equality and Equity - Follow Up to CEDAW and Romani women

The training curricula and methodologies for delivering the training were very effective in the case of both the youth empowerment initiative and the preparation of young women activists to undertake field research on the situation of Roma women in local communities. The grantee may have discovered a niche for itself in training young people as a means to supporting their engagement with the public realm.
Project Partner
Roma Center Skopje
Project Description
The project had two primary audiences: Roma women’s NGOs and young Roma women activists. There were three additional audiences: local government officials; young people, Roma and non-Roma; and, officials of Roma political parties. This focus sought to address in a practical way the weakness of Roma civil society organizations, and particularly those led by, and working for, Roma women, in undertaking advocacy on behalf of their own people. The grantee accomplished a great deal with the small amount of funds provided. It built on the strategic plan developed for 2008-2010, and its earlier project “Implementation of CEDAW for Romani Women”, as well as follow-up initiatives (2005-2008). Through an extremely careful allocation of funds to different areas of activity, the organization was able to undertake a long list of activities and, thus, achieve its own objective. Yet, from an external perspective, it is apparent that there were insufficient funds for some activities, where follow-up was badly needed.
Evaluation Date
November 2011