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LESSON

Lesson Learned: Fostering Ethical Democracy and Advancing Micro Justice in India


In order to effectively achieve project goals, grantees must be realistic about their organizational capacity, especially when working in areas and subject matters that are new to their organization. Grantees should call upon the expertise of other organizations with more experience in those fields if possible.


Project Partner
DHAN Foundation
Project Description
This project aims to improve the provision of local democratic services to women, youth and students in disadvantaged communities in 5 regions. It will facilitate capacity development and create an enabling environment for Women Self Help Groups, youth associations and student groups to support their own "democracy action" initiatives. The project also seeks to initiate intensive campaigns on the Right to Information Act, in developing informed citizens. Additionally, the project will develop micro justice initiatives to address problems of infringement of rights; establishing para-legal clinics to facilitate the insurance of citizen rights and entitlements for development.
Evaluation Date
September 2018
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

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.
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: Promoting Good Governance among Tribal Inhabitants in Bangladesh (PROGGATI)

The project used existing networks to establish a project structure. This proved an effective way to reach down to the grass roots level within a relatively short period of time. This allowed for a quick mobilization of the project despite the dispersed nature of the communities. These communities were able link to the local governance officials as many of them had already worked together on other issues.
Project Partner
Green Hill
Project Description
The project aimed to increase the political participation of indigenous (tribal) communities and community based organizations (CBOs) in the Rangamati Hill District of Bangladesh leading to an increase in their demand for more responsive public services and policies. The project set out to do this by increasing the dialogue between formal and traditional forms of local governance. Specifically, the project’s objectives were: enhance the capacities of local government leaders, CBOs and tribal community leaders; enable better coordination between stakeholders; and, promote democratic processes to ensure pro-poor service delivery and resource allocation. Its intended outcomes were: empowered CBOs and alternative community leaders; improved participation by traditional community leaders in the formal governance system; increased women’s participation; more pro-poor gender-sensitive local services; greater trust between the different stakeholders - indigenous inhabitants, Bengalis, CBOs and local government - and regular media reporting on governance issues in the Rangamati Hill District. The project did seem to help resolve small but important issues for the communities, and helped to increase the visibility of the open budget system by promoting its use by its committees. It also seems to have increased the general level of awareness of project participants on governance issues.
Evaluation Date
December 2013
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Constructing Citizenship in San Luis de Potosí

Before the project CSOs in the region worked in isolation. After the project many realized what can be accomplished if they work together—specifically, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the CSO network. Several of the CSOs interviewed considered the mere fact of getting to know one other and learning “who does what” a very positive development. This has fostered solidarity among them, creating connections and enabling them to learn about each other and share services and skills.
Project Partner
Educación y Ciudadanía A.C.
Project Description
The aim of the project was to empower CSOs to promote democracy in Mexico through real and effective civic engagement, the exercise of human rights, and support for political dialogue. The project also sought to encourage the active participation of youth and women in local democracy- and citizenship-building activities to improve their ability to influence policy and impact local governance. The project offered a framework for improving the exercise of citizenship and mobilizing key civil society stakeholders, who realized the role they could play in devising, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating public policies. The training and citizen networking initiatives to increase participation and influence in the public sphere, the preparation of thematic agendas, and the drafting of legislative proposals were important models for democratic practices in a society characterized by civic passivity in the last 10 years. The project beneficiaries as a group were willing to get more directly involved in public affairs and the project has provided them with the tools and publications they need.. However, better links between and organization of the CSOs needs to take place to improve their ability to act in the social and political sphere.
Evaluation Date
April 2013
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Civic Education and Civil Society Empowerment in Remote Areas in Myanmar

Although the grantee lacked a systematic means of monitoring alumni activity, its 40,000 alumni stay closely connected via an alumni association. Although lines of causality are unclear, many programme participants are now more politically active. The grantee should have developed tools to monitor its two category target populations: young educated people, and more mature and experienced individuals.
Project Partner
Myanmar Egress/Network Activities Groups (NAG)
Project Description
The project general objective was to support the development of good governance in Myanmar through civic education and building advocacy skills of civil society. Activities included civic education trainings and township level meetings to support good governance; organization of core leader meetings; training in how to write policy papers to strengthen policy advocacy; and the creation of a website for civil society to exchange experience and knowledge. All quantifiable targets were reached or surpassed, and the participants interviewed spoke highly of the training. The project implementation team overcame significant bureaucratic and logistical obstacles, as well as difficult operating conditions. The project appears to have had a great deal of positive 'knock-on effects’. Although the training program attracted a large number of participants, participation was dictated by informal networks and affinities. The township-level forum did not succeed in soliciting initiatives and brainstorming on regional/local issues. Likewise, the policy papers exhibited significant weaknesses in particular a lack of readers. The website was also not used as an effective tool for knowledge and information sharing by any of the participants interviewed.
Evaluation Date
December 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Electoral Justice Principles for Trust in the Electoral Process in Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone

A number of persons interviewed, including some of the participants in the Bali and Ghana conferences, questioned the relevance of the group of individuals that the grantee referred to as the “Electoral Integrity Group” (EIG). They felt the association of these individuals, who were senior current and former election commissioners and justice, gave weight to the effort, but that more than ‘big names’ were needed for this type of an effort.
Project Partner
Tiri-Making Integrity Work
Project Description
The Electoral Justice Principles for Trust in the Electoral Process project sought to raise the integrity standard of the electoral processes in Africa by addressing the relations between the key electoral justice institutions and their relevance and accessibility to the electorate. Its main objectives were to: produce a set of electoral justice principles drafted by a group of chief justices and senior electoral and political leaders from Africa and other continents; and support the implementation of these principles in two African countries. Its intended outcomes were to increase trust in electoral justice authorities; reduce violence related to electoral dispute settlements, and to have political parties, candidates and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the pilot implementation country able to claim, advocate and defend rights for public integrity consultations. The project undertook minimal consultations with the large and dynamic electoral assistance sector and missed opportunities to tap its experience, explore collaboration and develop synergies with other efforts, such as the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security that promote the integrity of elections. The norms themselves were not disseminated as planned so awareness of them is extremely limited and they were not endorsed by any international organization as anticipated. Most of those interviewed felt the principles needed wider consultations and did not have the weight required to make significant changes. The project was not Africa-specific and African involvement was limited primarily to the launch in Ghana and the APEJ-SL. The principles and guidelines were global in scope, and were not tailored to Sierra Leone for the pilot. It also focused on general electoral integrity issues and lacked a clear focus on electoral justice and how specifically this could be achieved through the creation of a steering committee.
Evaluation Date
September 2012
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Best Practices for Women´s Participation in Democracy at Local Levels (Argentina)

The project empowered women leaders by bolstering their leadership skills, and the organizations and venues in which they worked. Prioritizing the local level as the intervention area helped put the issue on the provincial agenda. The project enabled the beneficiaries to learn about each other and forged ties among women leaders of social and community initiatives in different jurisdictions.
Project Partner
Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género (ELA)
Project Description
The project tackled the issue of women’s political participation from a broader, more inclusive perspective, moving beyond the national level to analyze developments in the provinces and municipalities. This approach responded to the unmet needs and challenges of the Argentine context, and led to greater equality in real terms and improved women’s participation in society and politics at the local level. The project strategy focused on consolidating and advancing a new view and understanding of the essential role of women leaders in social and policy-making bodies in Argentina. It pursued two main objectives: (a) to promote women’s leadership in civil society by identifying and sharing relevant experiences in leadership-building with this group at the local level; and (b) to provide tools for improving women leaders’ ability to promote the issues on their agenda through advocacy with national and local government agencies.  At the technical and institutional levels, the project yielded results that will support the continuity and replication of its initiatives.
Evaluation Date
April 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Dialogue for Inclusive Constitution

The grantee seemed to have missed the opportunity to convince the project's former beneficiaries of the importance of continued dialogue, negotiation and networking to ensure sustainability. Since the Constitutional Assembly in Nepal failed and, taking into account the project's long-term objective to establish a mutually shared vision of Nepal's future form of governance, the project's former beneficiaries could have played a lasting key role in further disseminating relevant knowledge and information, in particular at the grass-roots level.
Project Partner
National Coalition Against Racial Discrimination
Project Description
This project aimed to improve the situation of Nepal's historically marginalized and indigenous Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi groups. The project was undertaken to correspond with the schedule of the country's Constituent Assembly (CA), which was entrusted with the development of a new constitution for Nepal. It developed coalitions among the country's marginalized groups, in order to increase receptiveness of political parties to Dalit and indigenous issues and to reflect them in the new constitution. The grantee made a deliberate effort to provide the marginalized group representatives and those involved in the drafting of the constitution high quality information about issues related to constitutional processes and examples of federalist practice in other countries. Although the Constituent Assembly dissolved without completing its mission, the extent to which the alternative constitution, the project's central output, has contributed to preliminary constitutional drafts of the Constituent Assembly‘s thematic committees demonstrate the project's impact.
Evaluation Date
February 2012
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening the Leadership of Women in Local Democracy – Gram Panchayats (Village Councils in India)

The project created federations among the women representatives. While this was not funded by the UNDEF project, these networks will contribute to the project’s sustainability. The women involved repeatedly mentioned to evaluators their expectations from the federations, saying that their work could benefit from exchange and cooperation among elected women representatives, in order to identify solutions to similar issues occurring across their village councils.

Project Partner
The Hunger Project - India
Project Description
The project aimed to strengthen the leadership of women elected into Gram Panchayats (Village Councils) in the state of Rajasthan. Project activities were undertaken pre- and post-elections. Pre-election the activities involved championing the women candidates. Post-election the project focused on helping women fulfill their roles and responsibilities as elected women representatives (EWRs). A pre-election campaign focused on the dissemination of simplified, complete and accurate information. The goal of this information was to counter various myths and misunderstandings that were used to discourage prospective women candidates. Campaign materials were well researched and created with great care, taking into account local needs and conditions. Following the elections, residential leadership workshops instilled confidence, self-respect, dignity and solidarity among the women representatives.
Evaluation Date
September 2011
Country