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Media

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

Most activities started late- after the first electoral or second electoral round. Investigative reports were not broadcast until months after they were written, and few participants appeared to have heard them broadcast or read them as articles published in the two magazines in Afghanistan.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The grantee made efforts to provide balanced programming in its round tables and reporting in Afghanistan, but this was offset by the predominate use of Pashto in some media products and a focus on problems rather than solutions in many of the media products. Ensuring language balance was especially important as the campaigns became polarized along ethnic lines, and to avoid marginalizing the majority Dari speaking population from the project and its benefits.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

There was a large turnover of project managers considering the short duration of the project. This likely contributed to delays in implementation and the lack of programmatic synergies between the different project elements.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The grantee intended to engage with local civil society organizations and its radio network to develop a new system of reporting that would be informed by youth and women’s voice and monitoring efforts, and produced public awareness messages to increase their targeted groups’ understanding of the Afghan democratic context. This was extremely relevant to the needs of the Afghan electoral and democratization processes. Although women and youth have gained significant rights in the democratic system, they are still marginalized by tradition and culture.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The project might have had more significant results than were visible to the evaluation team, but it is not possible to know as monitoring results beyond outputs were not tracked. Grantees should also ensure projects have a monitoring and evaluation system in place that uses appropriate indicators, tracks project performance and collects baseline and impact information so that the outcomes of project activities can be captured as well as their outputs. This information not only helps track project performance but can help better target content for public service announcements, reporting, round tables and workshops.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The grantee used primarily its own reporters and staff to implement the project so any experience and knowledge gained under the project would remain with them. The grantee continues to use some of the civil society groups or information or as participants in some of its programming.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The project budget was not consistent with the project’s intended outcomes. To achieve those higher level results, much more focus needed to be given to the civil society elements of the project design and to the content of the media products. The budget had a heavy emphasis on the development of media products. Only 10 percent was allocated for the more programmatic elements of building a civil society in Afghanistan - journalist network, mentoring, training and workshops.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan

The grantee also felt the electoral stalemate in Afghanistan after the second round interrupted the project. The people were very despondent and this gave the grantee a limited audience. At this point they were unsure how to proceed. Their products from this time reflected this mood. However, these types of political crises are the time to engage even more vigorously in the type of activities foreseen by the project, to focus citizen and candidate attention on the benefits in remaining with the democratic process, in letting the audit system work out its findings and in helping to reinforce the credibility of the ultimate resolution. This is much more efficient- and effective- in terms of project outcomes than waiting for a crisis to resolve.
Project Partner
Development Humanitarian Services Afghanistan / The Killid Group
Project Description
Involving women and youth CSOs in strengthening democratic debate and public news media around elections in Afghanistan sought to strengthen the voice of civil society and foster sustainable democratic practices within Afghanistan by generating a deeper public debate among women and youth groups around the 2014 presidential electoral process. The project lost relevance however in implementation. Only a few activities were done in the pre-electoral period and only a portion of the intended CSO-journalist elements were done. In addition, the predominate use of Pashto in the round tables and reporting, narrowed its relevance to the two-thirds of the country that use Dari.
Evaluation Date
March 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Media and art as catalysts for free speech and access to information in Jordan

There were concerns about the sustainability of the project’s outcomes as well as the sustainability of the grantee itself. The grantee’s institutional funding model is project-focused and no serious consideration seems to have been given to diversifying funding sources or raising income in other ways. Without project funding, there are many ‘down times’ that lead the volunteers becoming disillusioned and websites become dated.
Project Partner
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists
Project Description
The aim of the project was to engage talented young artists and journalists, and encourage them to use new forms of art in promoting change and advocating for free speech and media freedom as a cornerstone of democracy. The project had three primary outcomes: an increase in media coverage on human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information by trained young journalists; an increase in the engagement of young people in human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information through artistic activities/products by young artists; and raised awareness of young people of human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information by end-2013. The project assumed that enhancing the understanding and skills of the young journalists and artists participating in training, writing/performing and networking will have a multiplier effect. Participants joined an already established network called ‘Freedom Messengers’. The project also included public events and an advocacy campaign that were intended to build public support for the Freedom Messengers and thus create pressure for change. Additionally, the project included the further development of an existing on-line observatory and the creation of a web presence for the Freedom Messengers. The evaluation found that in the implementation of the project the specific press/information-related focus was lost. Consequently there a mismatch between the activities undertaken and the specific objectives set.
Evaluation Date
January 2015
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Media and art as catalysts for free speech and access to information in Jordan

The project had no impact in terms of advocating for freedom of speech and press freedom because the focus of the project shifted to other areas of activity such as the observatory website. Further, the design of the project did not sufficiently take into account that the obstacles to free speech and freedom of expression are also systemic and intricately linked to reactions to the political and social challenges currently facing the country in particular the influx of refugees as a result of conflicts in the region.

Project Partner
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists
Project Description
The aim of the project was to engage talented young artists and journalists, and encourage them to use new forms of art in promoting change and advocating for free speech and media freedom as a cornerstone of democracy. The project had three primary outcomes: an increase in media coverage on human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information by trained young journalists; an increase in the engagement of young people in human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information through artistic activities/products by young artists; and raised awareness of young people of human rights, media freedom, free speech and the right of access to information by end-2013. The project assumed that enhancing the understanding and skills of the young journalists and artists participating in training, writing/performing and networking will have a multiplier effect. Participants joined an already established network called ‘Freedom Messengers’. The project also included public events and an advocacy campaign that were intended to build public support for the Freedom Messengers and thus create pressure for change. Additionally, the project included the further development of an existing on-line observatory and the creation of a web presence for the Freedom Messengers. The evaluation found that in the implementation of the project the specific press/information-related focus was lost. Consequently there a mismatch between the activities undertaken and the specific objectives set.
Evaluation Date
January 2015
Theme
Country