management

The general objective of the project was to reinforce the voice and influence of civil society in West and Central Africa to improve access to water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH). While the project addressed clearly defined needs for reinforcing capacity of WASH platforms and the platforms’ presence in consultation processes, its design did not sufficiently emphasize the needs for organizational capacity building, gender concerns in the consultation processes, and exchanges of information among participating platforms on issues of lobbying strategy. Achievements were adequate, especially in view of the vast geographical area covered by the project and the fact that the budgets devolved to each country were relatively limited. In terms of direct impact the project contributed to making attitudes within civil society organizations evolve towards a greater understanding of WASH access as a human right.

Working with women’s community-based organizations and municipal authorities the project aimed to enhance the social and economic rights of women in Niger by supporting Gender Responsive Budgeting. Integrating a gender perspective into all steps of the municipal budget process, the project focused on improving the capacity of women to advocate municipalities to shape local budgetary policies which consider their health, education and water sanitation concerns. The project’s strategy of working directly with women community based organization members and municipal officials brought activities closer to beneficiaries in the five targeted municipalities of Niger. This approach was highly relevant to women as a beneficiary group, which for most part, rarely has a voice in public affairs and limited access to political decision-making processes.

The goal of the project was the objective was to build a strong coalition to ensure the efficient management, conservation and protection of the Lake Lanao Watershed Reservation – through democratic processes involving community integration and the introduction of partnerships, pre-consultation, capacity building, the promotion of micro-projects, and monitoring of policy implementation. The design of the project’s training methodology was appropriate to introduce the basic concept of ecology, best management practices, and to raise awareness of applicable environmental laws, rules and regulations. The project contributed to the joint elaboration and adoption of environmental action plans, as well as supporting policies and ordinances on watershed, fisheries and solid waste management. Print and radio media outputs also facilitated the wider public’s key role in the protection of the environment and to empower individual citizens to participate in the enforcement of environmental laws. The grantee managed to work with the full range of different political, religious and social leaders in the Lanao Lake Watershed Reservation. This was reported by the beneficiaries as an unparalleled achievement.

The project aimed to address needs of the Gabonese youth to participate in electoral processes. The project had three components: social mobilization – including motivating young people to participate and engage in politics; strengthening the leadership of youth – including integrating young people in the spheres of influence within their local area; and advocacy which aimed to stablish local forums for young leaders in democracy. The project encountered some challenges including education strikes, and the refusal of some educational leaders to let young people participate. Despite the difficulties encountered, the grantee's efforts still resulted in some remarkable results. The project was particularly successful in encouraging school and university students to speak their mind. The evaluators were also impressed by the variety of communication products, such as educational materials and publications, both in digital version in hard copy, as well as by the quality of professionally produced advertising spots and by the discussions broadcasted on television.

The overall objective of the project was to reinforce community dialogue and participatory democracy in the Western part of Cote d’Ivoire, with a view to enhancing social cohesion and the enhancement of democratic values at local level. To achieve this objective, the project had three outputs: Civil society organizations (CSOs) and the authorities are better equipped to use community support techniques; CSO’s providing support to communities on the management of conflicts; and enhanced involvement of local communities in development initiatives. The project was remarkably relevant, in that it correctly identified the lack of social cohesion as a major risk for conflict returning to the target areas. The project developed strategies and activities that specifically addressed the needs of the local communities and those of the CSOs working with them. However, the project design phase did not sufficiently involve the communities and CSOs, and the project should have involved more technical experts.

The project had the overall development goal of facilitating the recognition and replication of the Peoples Council in the country as a democratization mechanism in local governance. The immediate project objective was to establish, expand and institutionalize the Peoples Council in 21 barangays in the city and six municipalities in the Metro Naga area. In Naga City, the People’s Council proved itself as an effective mechanism for public participation, particularly for representatives of poor and other vulnerable groups. The project’s initiative to replicate the success of the Naga City People’s council was a relevant contribution to the broader aim of enhancing local democracy in the Philippines. The project had mixed success in achieving its targets and encountered some major disappointments in reaching the goal of institutionalizing the People’s Council in the 27 target local government areas. However, the People’s Councils were officially recognized in the case of four of the six municipal people’s councils, but only in five of the 21 barangay people’s councils. Despite this, grantee cannot be faulted on its effort to achieve the project goals, and, given the scope of what the project sought to achieve, a great deal was accomplished.

The project had the overall development goal of facilitating the recognition and replication of the Peoples Council in the country as a democratization mechanism in local governance. The immediate project objective was to establish, expand and institutionalize the Peoples Council in 21 barangays in the city and six municipalities in the Metro Naga area. In Naga City, the People’s Council proved itself as an effective mechanism for public participation, particularly for representatives of poor and other vulnerable groups. The project’s initiative to replicate the success of the Naga City People’s council was a relevant contribution to the broader aim of enhancing local democracy in the Philippines. The project had mixed success in achieving its targets and encountered some major disappointments in reaching the goal of institutionalizing the People’s Council in the 27 target local government areas. However, the People’s Councils were officially recognized in the case of four of the six municipal people’s councils, but only in five of the 21 barangay people’s councils. Despite this, grantee cannot be faulted on its effort to achieve the project goals, and, given the scope of what the project sought to achieve, a great deal was accomplished.

The project aimed to address the problem of weak local civil society organizations [CSOs] and the general lack of collaboration between private and public development stakeholders in Yemen. Specifically, the project sought to improve the capacity of local CSOs and strengthen partnerships between local CSOs and the government at the local and national levels in order to effectively address emergencies and respond to humanitarian situations. The project was implemented in four governorates of Yemen (Sana’a, Aden, Hadramawt and Hudaydah ) and in three pilot pilot districts (Ghayl Ba Wazir in Hadramawt, Al Boreqah in Aden, and Al Mansuriyah in Hudaydah), while advocacy at national level was conducted with the authorities in Sana’a. The project was very relevant, in that it identified genuine needs at community level and in terms of civil society capacity building and took a two-pronged approach (that was appropriate to the situation in Yemen. The project could not have anticipated the near-failure of central government that Yemen has experienced since 2014. However the project strategy of working with local authorities and civil society stakeholders at community level was relevant to the reinforcement of local governance, irrespective of the national political situation. Some significant groundwork has been carried out in this respect, which may bear fruit if a functional government is re-established.

The project succeeded in meeting its targets in its final phase, including the development of 20 proposals and petitions by young migrant workers and CSOs working with them, concerning desired improvements in working and living conditions. Of these, eight described practical initiatives or small projects. Each of the eight was awarded a small grant to implement the plans proposed. While some students gained valuable experience, many of those involved lacked the commitment to taking an active role in support of the young migrant workers. Further, the role assigned to the students in “assisting young migrant workers using social media” was vague, and they lacked guidance on what to do and how to do it. In addition, the students, as well as the academic coordinators and the CSO representatives interviewed, all commented on the wide social gap between students and the young workers, which made communication difficult.

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.