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Lessons

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Civil Society Across Borders to Develop Democracy

The extent to which cross-border ties between Ukraine and Moldova were maintained could have been enhanced by a better sustainability strategy to build the knowledge and experience sharing that took place as part of the project. The sustainability relies on the website. However the website of the project could have been better designed to become a forum for keeping in touch and fostering twinning arrangements.
Project Partner
Euclid Network
Project Description
The project’s goal was to increase the capacity of NGOs in Moldova and Ukraine to network among themselves to enhance their advocacy skills and to improve the functioning of existing mechanisms for engagement between civil society and governments. The project resulted in a range of concrete initiatives, both at the local level and at the level of improved NGO representation in national policy making. Concrete impacts ranged from promoting the participation of blind voters to making amendments to the new law on associations in Ukraine and the human rights action plan in Moldova.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

The project led to greater representation of women in decision making processes in the geographic areas covered by the project. The Women's Network in the municipalities contributed to enhancing participation and also played a role in setting a municipal policy agenda and carrying out social audits. The project also succeeded in mobilizing community based organizations and women's networks in extremely challenging socio-economic conditions of exclusion and extreme.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

Despite the coup d’état in Honduras, the project built up and maintained ‘spaces for visibility on women's issues'. Thus the project strengthened women's knowledge of their rights and their capabilities to defend and exercise these rights. It also provided women with a privileged place to participate in politics. The project therefore greatly contributed to the empowerment of women in a socio-political context that was characterised by the weakening, instability and lack of legitimacy of the spaces for democratic participation.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

The grantee was a large international NGO. Its decision to implement this project with local partners reflected a collective strategic approach, centred on inter-institutional alliances and synergies. The local implementing partners involved succeeded in harmonising their strategic criteria and complementarity in the thematic and geographic areas of intervention.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

One of the grantee’s implementation partners perpetrated significant fraud and had to be excluded from the project. Thanks to the solvency of the grantee, its organisation was able to find appropriate solutions to respond to these situations: using its own funds, it paid out an amount equivalent to the fraud in order to guarantee the implementation of the activities that had been initially planned. Financial and technical follow-up procedures were developed to ensure transparency in the management and to guarantee a good level of efficiency. Moreover, the grantee provided support and reinforcement of the capabilities of its implementation partners in financial and technical areas as well as in managing human resources.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

The project outcomes were too ambitious to be met completely, especially when considering the limitations that resulted from the changes in the political context in Honduras during the first year of the project's implementation (coup d’état, June 2009).
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

Project follow-up should have included applied research. The goal of such research would be to analyse critically and comparatively the various experiences and advances encountered by the project. This exercise should identify, in the context of a fragile democracy, the modalities and the possible alternatives for optimising women’s empowerment and guaranteeing as much as possible the application of the legal framework, as well as following up and carrying out the recommended support or judicial measures.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society and Women to Engage in Policy Processes

To promote the actual application of human rights in Honduras, a debate should be organised to improve links between the actions achieved for and with women -their community-based organisations and networks – and the actions intended to strengthen the institutional mechanisms that guarantee their rights. The aim would be to get local authorities to sustainably integrate a pro-woman agenda both in terms of political representation and municipal budgeting. Democratic participation is fragile and currently depends on the willingness of the authority in power. But this willingness could be replaced by a framework of legitimate and lasting good governance.
Project Partner
Oxfam Great Britain
Project Description
The project’s objective was to promote a new socio-political culture in Honduras that recognizes equal participation of women in democratic governance at the local, regional and national levels. The project prioritized women in rural living in extreme poverty. The target women had very few educational opportunities and had rarely participated in politics and in decision-making. The goal of the project was: to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of full and equal women's participation in decision-making processes and equal access to justice; to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations to influence policy processes; and to institutionalize a Women’s Network at the local level. The project explicitly aimed to integrate the gender approach across all three outcomes.
Evaluation Date
August 2011
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening the capacities of Magistrates

This initiative was the first of its kind by the grantee in Niger. Although the grantee did not put in place measures to ensure sustainability, it successfully raised awareness among the magistracy of the necessity to communicate with stakeholders external to the judiciary. The project prompted beneficiaries to create the association of investigating judges in Niger (AMPN), whose mission it will be to provide similar, additional training for magistrates.
Project Partner
Syndicat Autonome des Magistrats du Niger
Project Description
The project organized training for judges and activities to create discussion among magistrates on the adoption of the Ethical and Deontological Code in Niger. The project objectives were: to improve the capacity of investigating judges, prosecuting attorneys and state prosecutors to fight economic and financial crimes related to public finance; to increase the magistracy body’s knowledge of the Ethical and Deontological Code’s principles; and to establish a network of specialised judges to fight economic and financial crimes related to public finance. These thematic areas, such as the fight against economic and financial crimes and the raising of moral standards among the magistracy, were relevant for the country in terms of building judicial transparency. While the training and awareness-raising activities aimed to improve the functioning of justice and at improving ethics, the project’s design was not based on a thorough screening of available information about the main issues faced by judges, and also lacked a clear methodological approach.
Evaluation Date
July 2011
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening the capacities of Magistrates

The project’s overall conceptual framework did not properly connect the goal of re-establishing citizens’ trust in justice in Niger with the actual activities carried out since the activities were focused only on the magistrates themselves and not the wider population or local or traditional leaders.
Project Partner
Syndicat Autonome des Magistrats du Niger
Project Description
The project organized training for judges and activities to create discussion among magistrates on the adoption of the Ethical and Deontological Code in Niger. The project objectives were: to improve the capacity of investigating judges, prosecuting attorneys and state prosecutors to fight economic and financial crimes related to public finance; to increase the magistracy body’s knowledge of the Ethical and Deontological Code’s principles; and to establish a network of specialised judges to fight economic and financial crimes related to public finance. These thematic areas, such as the fight against economic and financial crimes and the raising of moral standards among the magistracy, were relevant for the country in terms of building judicial transparency. While the training and awareness-raising activities aimed to improve the functioning of justice and at improving ethics, the project’s design was not based on a thorough screening of available information about the main issues faced by judges, and also lacked a clear methodological approach.
Evaluation Date
July 2011
Theme
Country