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engagement

LESSON

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

The grantee had offices and active projects in the three target provinces in Afghanistan, and recruited its staff from the region. Drawing on its experience, the grantee began the project with careful and thorough consultations with major stakeholders. This enabled the project to obtain strong local buy-in and support for its activities in all its target districts, as well as in the three provincial capitals.
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
October 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Democratic Dialogue through Media in Sierra Leone

Placing the media at the centre of a dialogue process with government, civil society and citizens was overambitious because the project was not designed to address the government and other state institutions. The project had the means and methodologies to address the media and NGOs but was relatively ill-prepared to address government officials and elected Members of the Sierra Leone Parliament.
Project Partner
Journalists for Human Rights
Project Description
The project aimed to build capacity of local media in Sierra Leone to facilitate a national dialogue among civil society, government and citizens. It targeted primary beneficiaries that included: journalists from radio and print media who were awarded fellowships and trained in investigative journalism through production and publishing human right stories; NGO grantees; and local communities targeted through forums and workshops to increase public knowledge on the role of the media in human rights protection and promotion. The project responded to a need for improved democratic dialogue, and correctly identified the need for enhanced democratic debate as a precondition for entrenching democratic values and policies in post-war Sierra Leone. It also correctly identified the media as a key player, both as a space to “host” that debate and as a provider of substantive information. However the project's relevance was reduced by its failure formally to engage with editors/publishers and with relevant high-level institutional actors. The project document lacked a complete analysis of the stakeholders, their respective needs and the various messages that should be addressed to them. Nevertheless, the project contributed to establishing a critical mass of journalists aware of human rights reporting and of the challenges of balanced political reporting.
Evaluation Date
March 2011
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Training citizens on law and on institutional dialogue in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The grantee’s long-term engagement with the police and the judiciary in the Democratic Republic of Congo contributed to the project’s success, as it helped to overcome resistance to activities such as human rights awareness raising campaigns in police and military camps, and the organization of open days in courts.
Project Partner
RCN Justice & Démocratie
Project Description
The project aimed to enhance the legitimacy of the judicial system in order to reinforce democratic processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Specifically, the project was designed to improve the legal knowledge and sense of responsibility on the part of civil society actors by raising awareness of human rights among citizens and by improving trust between citizens and judicial institutions, as well as better liaison between judicial actors and civil society. The beneficiaries included the population of two municipalities in suburban Kinshasa, as well as families of military and police personnel housed in camps in the area; police officers, prosecutors and judges; and a group of trained NGO resource persons. The project was based on a sound strategy, which identified explicitly the institutional weaknesses that were to be addressed, and proposed realistic steps to address them. The training sessions for NGO resource persons and the seminars bringing together civil society, police and members of the judiciary were implemented to a particularly high standard, as they were both innovative in their field, and carried out with appropriate levels of skills and monitoring.
Evaluation Date
January 2011
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Female and Youth Domestic Workers in Uganda

Door to door engagements may be the most time consuming and expensive way of doing engagement, but for this face-to-face interaction is the most effective outreach approach.
Project Partner
Platform for Labour Action
Project Description
The project aims to promote the recognition of domestic work as decent work and domestic workers (WDs) contribution to society. 3500 domestic workers reached will be positioned to take individual and collective actions to improve working conditions. Two Associations of existing 61 mutual support groups of the domestic workers will be established to build solidarity and support for each other, develop advocacy strategies and represent themselves with support from PLA in influencing change. This project will also further the participation of female and youth DWs in claiming their rights, accessing services including legal aid and inclusion in decision making in policy, local and national government processes.
Theme
Country