goals

When significant events threaten to alter the course or delivery of a project, as well as having the flexibility to extend in time it may also be beneficial to review Results Frameworks and adjust objectives and target indicators. Risk management should not shy away from worst case scenarios (who would have thought that after so much effort in Chile to draft a new Constitution during 2021-2023, there would be so little to show for it?).

Project designers and managers should always be alive to what is ultimately achievable – and limit scope and ambition accordingly. The scope of the project was very broad, with many activities and actors to cover, and challenging to manage. The UNDEF partner admits they were “carried away by the enthusiasm” of the first constitutional reform process, following the social protests of 2019. The project did not necessarily suffer as a consequence, but it placed strain on delivery.

The inclusion of political parties in the development and planning of activities during the project design phase could have further enriched the initiative's relevance and ensured a broader and more inclusive platform for youth participation in Mozambique's democratic development processes. In this project, specific activities aimed at encouraging youth involvement in political parties resulted in eighty-nine percent of the project beneficiaries registering with political parties. However, the potential for even greater youth involvement in political activities could have been realized by involving political party representatives in the design of tailored activities to promote active participation and enhance engagement in party-related initiatives.

Connected, aware and empowered CSOs and Human Rights Defenders can become a strong catalyst for change at the grassroots level in order to promote local action aimed at promoting transgender persons’ rights. In this case, the engagement provided them a chance to liaise and establish a link with government officials and departments which continued beyond the project.

Meaningful and transformative change to safeguard rights of transgender community is possible through legislative action. Creating adequate legal frameworks and making justice work for transgender community requires rigorous policy advocacy and extensive engagement with policy and law makers. In this case, while the grantee took a number of initiatives including legal and policy review as well as development of a draft law on Transgender Rights, it met with limited success to generate ownership to steer the legal reform process due to limited engagement with parliamentarians and policy makers.

In order to be effective, public awareness raising campaigns need to be more targeted and focused. The content should be developed in local language, keeping in view the general literacy level. It should also be evaluated to assess efficacy and impact. In this case the grantee developed them in English and published them without translation which limited their efficacy and outreach.

Project design processes must carefully think through the outputs required for outcomes to be achieved and be realistic in what transformation training can bring in a relatively short period of time to a political party, which is not just a technical entity, but a political body. One training on LGBTQI+ issues for a political party is unlikely to trigger significant policy or legal changes in a two-year period.

Engagement with, and mapping of, prospective national institutional stakeholders in advance of a project taking place is critical to ensuring that the activities proposed align with their interests and priorities and are feasible in the timeframes proposed.

It is vital to document and present evidence of how a project meets target indicators in the delivery of its activities both for internal learning but also to be able to demonstrate effectiveness and impact in a robust and comprehensive way. This requires a dedicated person in charge of monitoring, evaluating, and learning.

This project has demonstrated that even in the complex and difficult context of Palestine, setting realistic objectives in terms of the number of beneficiaries and communities of intervention, and adopting a pragmatic approach that includes relevant and useful activities such as training and community services, can engage different target groups, regardless of their political affiliations and sensitivities, and generate impact at both the individual and community levels.