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.

Although women and youth have gained significant rights in the democratic system, they are still marginalized by tradition and culture. The 2014 presidential elections were also a critical benchmark in Afghanistan’s democratic transition as they marked the first transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another. A credible election with good participation was critical for the continued stability of its political system. The use of radio to diffuse information was particularly relevant given Afghanistan’s difficult terrain and the rural nature of much of its population, who rely primarily on radio for information.

The 2014 presidential elections were a critical benchmark in Afghanistan’s democratic transition as they marked the first transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another. A credible election with good participation was critical for the continued stability of its political system. The use of radio to diffuse information was particularly relevant given Afghanistan’s difficult terrain and the rural nature of much of its population, who rely primarily on radio for information.

Public service announcements and other civic education materials should be grounded in the Afghan national context. Focus on constructive information and target the campaign to achieve specific results to help listeners understand the situation, know what they need to do, and manage their post-electoral expectations. It should be clear that elections are only one part of the democratization process and cannot generate change by themselves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.