Skip to main content

marginalized

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Women’s participation in political change processes not only enhances gender equality, but it also makes a positive contribution to local development outcomes. The present project experience clearly demonstrates the transformative impact of women’s inclusion in local development in the shape of a number of local needs-based infrastructure schemes undertaken by the Women Musahar Empowerment Forums in their Municipalities.

Project Name
Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal
Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Report
evaluation_udf-19-859-nep_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2024
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Nepal
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

The project experience clearly indicates that in order to be impactful, the project design should involve multidimensional approaches that address both the practical and structural challenges, ranging from individual capacity gaps to overall gender discrimination and institutionalized exclusion, which constrain women’s voice, decision-making and leadership. In the present case, the Implementing Partner was successful in maintaining a dual focus on promoting women’s political participation through building women’s capacity and awareness of their rights and connecting them to key decision-making processes on the one hand and engaging with the Musahar community, particularly men, to address gender discrimination through sensitization sessions.

Project Name
Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal
Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Report
evaluation_udf-19-859-nep_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2024
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Nepal
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Advocating for Community Radio in Zimbabwe

Human rights education remains a pertinent area for intervention in Zimbabwe, and community radio is a critical tool for pursuing this noble cause. The Zimbabwean government takes advantage of limited rights knowledge among marginalized communities for political expedience.
Project Name
Advocating for Community Radio in Zimbabwe
Project Partner
Amnesty International Zimbabwe
Project Description
The project will advocate for licensing community radio institutions in Zimbabwe. This will be achieved by means of: (a) coordinated civil society stakeholders and citizens advocacy and petitioning the Government and its related institutions through a united and strong effort; (b) policy and regulatory review and reform of community broadcasting and the process required for licensing; and (c) developing the capacity of 10 target community radio institutions (CRIs) for licensing.
Report
zimbabwe-udf-16-702-zim_evaluation_report_0.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2020
Theme
Media
Country
Zimbabwe
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Helping Teenagers to Transform their Communities in Ukraine

Evaluate the overall environment to identify and focus on the most vulnerable and underserved direct beneficiaries who live in small, rural areas.
Project Name
Helping Teenagers to Transform their Communities in Ukraine
Project Description
The project aims to foster civic participation of young people in Ukraine by training them to become responsible and pro-active citizens. The central activity of the project is a non-formal civic education training program in four stages that will train teenagers to become "Junior Agents of Change" in four pilot cities. Trained Junior Agents of Change will implement development projects aiming for the transformation of their social environment and the development of their communities.
Report
udf-16-730-ukr_evaluation_report_0.pdf
Evaluation Date
September 2020
Theme
Youth engagement
Country
Ukraine
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowerment of Shanty Towns’ Settlers through Democratic Spaces

Having acquired skills in organizing, participation, problem solving, and the search for solutions, the shanty town residents came to understand the importance of engagement and the role they should play in community development. The transfer of knowledge and skills not only raised capacity, but also launched a social dialogue among marginalized people, who have become more articulate about their needs.

 

Project Name
Empowerment of Shanty Towns’ Settlers through Democratic Spaces
Project Partner
Un Techo Para mi País
Project Description
Aiming to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations in marginalized areas and to put self-promotion processes in motion, the project’s goal was to enable these beneficiaries to take charge of their own affairs and to know and demand their rights. The grantee created permanent community centres and promoted community development through specific micro projects to mobilize and train teams of volunteers, and to strengthen the community centres’ capacity to organize and dialogue with local decision-making bodies. The beneficiaries greatly appreciated the project’s assistance on the ground. The volunteers’ continuous presence heightened the populations’ motivation and engagement. Several factors contributed to the project’s effectiveness: country action plans suited to local realities; the formation of well-trained teams of volunteers; the strong mobilization and participation of settlers in the activities; the financing of projects proposed by the target populations to improve their living conditions; and the quality of the local support provided by the teams of volunteers.
Report
UDF-RCL-08-270-ER-1.pdf
Evaluation Date
September 2011
Theme
Community activism
Country
Peru
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Cultivating Democratic Leaders from Marginalized Groups in Thailand

An unanticipated outcome of the project was the impact on young people of being brought together from the four different regions. The opportunity to move outside their own area of concern and experience differences and similarities among other young people was mentioned by several participants as the most memorable aspect of the project.
Project Name
Cultivating Democratic Leaders from Marginalized Groups in Thailand
Project Partner
The Asia Foundation
Project Description
The project was designed to engage young people from marginalized populations in four regions of Thailand, to empower them to voice their needs, access their rights, participate in political processes, and improve their lives and communities. The grantee set out to create new leaders among young people to lead actions in the disenfranchised communities. While the project supported the implementing partners financially and to a lesser extent with expertise, it did not demonstrate significant added-value in the area of democratic development. The trainees were by and large already engaged in development work in their communities and, once the project ended, the partners and the young people continued as before. The project designers would have been more aware of this, and potentially had a chance to rethink the relevance of the design, if they had reviewed existing and earlier practice in this area, and had considered in more depth the way NGOs in the regions work and from where they get their funding. The project fell into the trap of becoming, essentially, a short-term provider of funds.
Report
UDF-THA-07-185-ER-1.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2010
Theme
Youth engagement
Country
Thailand