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Media

LESSON

Lesson Learned: ICT Empowerment of Women’s Voices in Haiti

In Haiti, as in many low-income countries, IT is under-utilized as a tool to empower rural women.  Making it more accessible strengthens the capacity for action and self-esteem of rural women, who are often victims of triple exclusion: as women, rural and poor.
Project Partner
ActionAid Haiti
Project Description
Considering that 24 per cent of rural women in Haïti are farmers, issues around access to land, management and exploitation of natural resources are hugely important. In both the North and North-East departments where 50 per cent of the population rely on farming activities to live, land issues in can be highly contested and become a source of conflict. To addresses the issues faced by rural Haitian women farmers, UNDEF funded a project focusing on women’s access to ICT. The project was highly effective in both building skills and strengthening the capacity of women to network and lobby for their rights. Through the activities of the project, rural women’s capacities to lobby for results were increased. The use of technology to achieve lobbying outcomes was innovative and efficient, leading to direct benefits in the five target communities. The project was relevant and facilitated the establishment of dialogue between grassroots organizations and local authorities. The implementing agency also efficiently managed high-level outputs remaining within the project plan.
Evaluation Date
May 2018
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The project was output driven. The participants came away with concrete published articles at the end of the process. In addition, the award and competition for best article held in both years of the project, 2015 and 2016, did much to invigorate human rights reporting by participants after the course was over and in a cost effective way.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The training gave a wide understanding of all dimensions of human rights, both civil-political and socio-economic rights. This led to a rich and interesting diversity in articles produced by journalists. While this was interesting some participants had a tendency to equate all human interest stories and criminal acts to human rights stories (for instance, the abduction of a new born baby from a hospital ward by a disturbed individual or a case of a child murdered by a private individual) but without making clear links to the accountability and responsibility of duty bearers.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The training materials and techniques were effective. The training was based on a standardised 57 page training manual covering everything from training techniques through to democracy and human rights issues, the international and local context and laws, human rights mechanisms, the security and responsibility of journalists, defamation, use of social media, and professional skills - preparing, authenticating, cross checking reports, handling sources etc. The training involved a combination of lectures, group work and field visits.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The project was well designed - it targeted 12 of the most marginalized districts in the country, this was a manageable number, and meant that implementation was achieved without the grantee becoming overstretched. While there may have been other ways of designing the project e.g. concentrating resources geographically, or on specific issues or beneficiary groups, the design helped create a foundation for national geographic coverage and visibility and also meant that a wide variety of human rights issues were covered instead of specifics relevant to particular localities only e.g. coastal fisherman or tribal hill communities.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The training itself was well-structured and involved separate training sessions for journalists and CSO/NGO representatives followed by joint sessions of both groups plus editors. The content itself was highly engaging and relevant to participants teaching them about human rights but also building their professional skills; and involving both theoretical and field based training.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The grantee collected rich and interesting data but was let down by not analyzing this data sufficiently to provide evidence of progress. Moreover, the overall M&E system needed more coherence, so that projects are able to measure the same indicators at the beginning and the end to show progress. This could have been done in various ways, for instance, by using the same framework for baseline and endline data collection, or by pre and post training questionnaires.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

The training participants came from key local players  - representatives of national, regional and local media outlets -  mostly from the printed press. The involvement of television, radio, new social media could be increased in future incarnations given the influential role of these media modalities.
Project Partner
News Network
Project Description
This was a well-structured project which laid the foundation for a nationwide network of journalists concerned with human rights issues, particularly in rural marginalized areas. The project was relevant and much needed given the context of human rights abuses and the suppression of the media. It was also appropriate, although there are constraints there is sufficient democratic space for human rights influenced journalism since journalists were able to write about a range of human rights issues and call duty-bearers to account. The project also met its objectives: the skills of journalists in relation to human rights issues have been enhanced, reporting on human rights has increased, and civil society capacity to understand how the media works has improved – though closer engagement between NGOs and the media could be further strengthened.
Evaluation Date
November 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Increased Citizen Dialogue through Strengthened Media in Jordan

Projects conceived, planned, designed, implemented, and monitored in equal partnership with national and local media partners have an increased success rate.  The grantee’s ability to adapt its strategy through careful review of local partners’ feedback was essential for the success of this project.
Project Partner
Journalists for Human Rights
Project Description
The project sought to expand the space for informed public dialogue on human rights issues in Jordan and contribute to building a stronger public culture of respect for human rights. The developed a training manual on how to use data-driven journalism to cover human rights issues and trained a group of journalists to apply these skills in their daily work. The project also aimed to foster a more informed public dialogue on human rights issues through the production of high quality journalism and radio programmes that actively informed and engaged the public on human rights topics. The project also leveraged of new technology tools to provide media with more factual information to produce human rights-oriented stories. The exceeded its targets including the training of 11 senior journalists and 69 students/junior journalists on the use of data-driven journalism and publishing 52 in-depth stories as well as broadcasting 12 radio shows. The project helped consolidate a community of journalists highly engaged in covering human rights-related issues. It also helped in setting higher standards for reporting, encouraging other journalists to adopt similar methodologies and widen the use of data-driven and evidence-based journalism. As such, the project contributed to building a public culture of respect for human rights in Jordan, with a focus on freedom of expression and gender equality.
Evaluation Date
October 2017
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Increased Citizen Dialogue through Strengthened Media in Jordan

A platform allowing journalists to detail the background of their created a consolidated network of like-minded professionals. The project’s “Maidan” platform became a space for journalists, citizen journalists, and engaged individuals to access continuing professional development of contributing to the professionalization of journalism in Jordan and elsewhere.
Project Partner
Journalists for Human Rights
Project Description
The project sought to expand the space for informed public dialogue on human rights issues in Jordan and contribute to building a stronger public culture of respect for human rights. The developed a training manual on how to use data-driven journalism to cover human rights issues and trained a group of journalists to apply these skills in their daily work. The project also aimed to foster a more informed public dialogue on human rights issues through the production of high quality journalism and radio programmes that actively informed and engaged the public on human rights topics. The project also leveraged of new technology tools to provide media with more factual information to produce human rights-oriented stories. The exceeded its targets including the training of 11 senior journalists and 69 students/junior journalists on the use of data-driven journalism and publishing 52 in-depth stories as well as broadcasting 12 radio shows. The project helped consolidate a community of journalists highly engaged in covering human rights-related issues. It also helped in setting higher standards for reporting, encouraging other journalists to adopt similar methodologies and widen the use of data-driven and evidence-based journalism. As such, the project contributed to building a public culture of respect for human rights in Jordan, with a focus on freedom of expression and gender equality.
Evaluation Date
October 2017
Theme
Country