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LESSON

Lesson Learned: Creating an Inclusive Policy and Legal System, Protecting Elderly People’s Fundamental Rights in Indonesia

The grantee organization LBH Apik and its local chapters are well-established grassroots organizations with internal systems and procedures in place. Building good rapport with local stakeholders was one of the key strengths of LBH Apik and a good strategy to secure commitment and can be continued in future programmes.

Project Partner
Indonesian Legal Aid Association for Women
Project Description
The aim of this project is to improve protection mechanisms and policies regarding basic rights and public services to the elderly. Three local partners, each located in one of the three targeted provinces will help complete the project. The project will collect data to close the evidence gap, raise public awareness, and enhance capacity building of the elderly and paralegals as they advocate to improve elderly programs and legal and public services at village and community levels. The project will include a strong gender focus by prioritizing women as paralegals and recipients of legal services.
Evaluation Date
January 2023
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Media to Promote Inclusive Democracy in Mali

The project applied a “three-pronged approach” (involving the participation of government institutions (state services), media, and CSOs) which proved to be highly effective in breaking down barriers, forming new networks, and improving access to human rights and essential services in a highly unstable environment.
Project Partner
Journalists for Human Rights
Project Description
This two-year project aims at strengthening media to play a role in fostering an effective, inclusive and transparent democracy in Mali. Based on field assessments of media outlets and CSOs, the project will build the capacity of media to report on good governance and human rights issues, break the financial dependency on political sponsorship through training on business skills and greater sector accountability, and help journalists and civil society actors to work together on data projects.
Evaluation Date
January 2023
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Gender-Sensitive Personal Status Laws in Lebanon

Advocacy projects in highly complex contexts require rigorous monitoring to (i) strengthen coalitions and ties despite changes to the positions of stakeholders and changing power dynamics; and to (ii) capture and adapt to the different levels of changes that could occur.
Project Partner
KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation
Project Description
This project aims to strengthen advocacy efforts towards a gender-sensitive civil personal status law in Lebanon. It will build capacity in civil society; create a coalition of a range of actors; engage the media; educate and inform the public; and increase pressure on political parties to take action on the draft law currently being reviewed by a committee in parliament. It will build a strong foundation for a well-informed, consistent national campaign to change the current law, which threatens democracy and human rights, in particular the rights of women, children, and marginalized groups, as well as increasing political pressure on lawmakers. Project activities will also incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence.
Evaluation Date
September 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Gender-Sensitive Personal Status Laws in Lebanon

External coherence and synergy between the organisation’s different projects/interventions require a minimum of formal and systematic coordination such as the collaboration that took place with a feminist platform in the case of this project.
Project Partner
KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation
Project Description
This project aims to strengthen advocacy efforts towards a gender-sensitive civil personal status law in Lebanon. It will build capacity in civil society; create a coalition of a range of actors; engage the media; educate and inform the public; and increase pressure on political parties to take action on the draft law currently being reviewed by a committee in parliament. It will build a strong foundation for a well-informed, consistent national campaign to change the current law, which threatens democracy and human rights, in particular the rights of women, children, and marginalized groups, as well as increasing political pressure on lawmakers. Project activities will also incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence.
Evaluation Date
September 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Participatory Governance and the Rule of Law in South Kivu

The choice of grantees, with a "niche" contribution in complex contexts and with a high capacity for access seems key for any other initiative supported by UNDEF. In this, the choice of the grantee as a partner in setting up the project was the main reason for the success of this project; their knowledge of the geographical area covered by the project, their deep, longstanding relation with the institutional and civil society actors, their outreach to actors located in the most remote areas and their sound financial and technical skills were indeed factors leading to a successful implementation of the project, maximising its impact.
Project Partner
CARITAS DEVELOPPEMENT BUKAVU
Project Description
In a context characterized by the recurrence of violations of human rights and freedoms, the project aims to respond to the major problem, identified by the Protection Cluster, which is "attacks on the right to life, dignity and freedom. "integrity of the person". This will be done through reactive, corrective and constructive actions, with technical support to the local Volunteer and Volunteer Community-CLOC Local Organizing Committees. This support includes: (1) Capacity building through training for members of these community structures and local authorities on the protection, promotion of human rights and community mediation, and on the reduction of human rights violations.(2) Technical and material support for advocacy, awareness-raising and mediation actions aimed at strengthening collaboration between the civilian population and local civil and military authorities and (3) easy access for victims to appropriate care services.
Evaluation Date
January 2022
Theme
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Support for Elections in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Radio remains a key medium for reaching out to, and engaging with, communities in the state in a cost-effective way.
Project Partner
Stakeholder Democracy Network
Project Description
Elections in Nigeria, and especially in its oil-producing Niger Delta states, have in the past been disputed and given rise to violence. One of these states, Bayelsa, is due to choose a new governor in 2020 in what is expected to be a hotly contested election. The project seeks to minimize the risk of dispute and help to ensure the election is free, fair, and credible. It will support the Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission to train staff engaged to oversee polling in at-risk areas in the procedures necessary to do so effectively. It will support the creation of a database to register party political agents in three areas, reducing the risk of unidentifiable persons engaging in illegal political activity. Activities will also include voter education across the target areas, aiming to reach 1,350 citizens in workshops and 170,000 via a public campaign, seeking to inform citizens on how to prevent votes from being stolen or manipulated.
Evaluation Date
August 2021
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening CSO Engagement with Defence Institutions to Reduce Corruption and Strengthen Accountability in Mali

The project required a complex but clearly delineated division of labour and responsibilities between an external Civil Society Organisation and a country based Implementing Partner. This was well presented in the Project Document and was well managed during the course of the project, with the Implementing Partner providing local knowledge and relationships, and the Civil Society Organisation providing technical subject-matter expertise and links with the wider donor and international communities.
Project Partner
Transparency International UK
Project Description
The project was implemented by Transparency International – Defense and Security (as Implementing Agency) and the Cercle de Réflexion et d’Information pour la Consolidation de la Démocratie au Mali (CRI-2002, as Implementing Partner), from April 2018 to December 2019. The project benefited from a UNDEF grant of USD 187,000 and sought to reduce the risk of corruption in the Malian defense and security sector. It included a mix of capacity-building, advocacy and research work in order to build civil society’s ability to advocate for accountability and transparency in the defense sector, and to open a space for them to do so. Strengthening links between civil society and defense institutions and the democratic bodies charged with oversight of defense was an integral part of the approach.
Evaluation Date
February 2021
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening CSO Engagement with Defence Institutions to Reduce Corruption and Strengthen Accountability in Mali

Creating trust with the government was key in a political environment that has been predominantly closed and opaque. The grantee and implementing partner met with the competent authorities to introduce the project and its approach, and later shared results with officials and representatives of the authorities to create positive engagement and bolster trust.
Project Partner
Transparency International UK
Project Description
The project was implemented by Transparency International – Defense and Security (as Implementing Agency) and the Cercle de Réflexion et d’Information pour la Consolidation de la Démocratie au Mali (CRI-2002, as Implementing Partner), from April 2018 to December 2019. The project benefited from a UNDEF grant of USD 187,000 and sought to reduce the risk of corruption in the Malian defense and security sector. It included a mix of capacity-building, advocacy and research work in order to build civil society’s ability to advocate for accountability and transparency in the defense sector, and to open a space for them to do so. Strengthening links between civil society and defense institutions and the democratic bodies charged with oversight of defense was an integral part of the approach.
Evaluation Date
February 2021
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Transparency and Public Accountability in Education in Brazil

When the accomplishment of specific outcomes is contingent on the collaboration of an external party, such as the governmental authorities, it is essential to make additional efforts setting up partnerships from the onset of the Project. UNDEF (or United Nations Country Team) may play an important role in meeting directly the country local or Federal authorities at the beginning of the project.
Project Partner
Transparencia Brasil
Project Description
The project works to improve access to education in Brazil, by tackling mismanagement in construction of schools; empowering civil society groups to pressure local and federal government official for more accountability; building a network of local monitoring organizations; gathering robust information on problems in several phases of construction and delivery, presented in semi-annual reports to Federal Government and media; holding a final conference on lessons learned and how to redesign policies for effective monitoring and control with the help of local civil society organizations.
Evaluation Date
June 2020
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Democratic Participation Among Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico

The project was part of the grantee’ wider development strategy; thus, the project was built on processes already under way, capitalizing on their strong points. The technical personnel involved in the different activities all shared the same vision, objectives, and analysis criteria. The majority of them had been working as a team for years, which enabled them to develop good relations with beneficiaries and State entities and gain their trust.
Project Partner
Servicios del Pueblo Mixe
Project Description
The project sought to empower indigenous people from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through jurisdictional resolutions or agreements, the project worked to reduce the number of conflicts between the indigenous legal system, on the one hand, and the state legal system, on the other, seeking to establish precedents for harmonizing the two systems. The project’s intervention was very timely and highly relevant, given the recent changes in the legal framework, especially the passage of subsidiary legislation and a new energy policy. It provided legal assistance and representation before jurisdictional, judicial, and administrative bodies in the State of Oaxaca. Politically, the project made it possible to include the indigenous peoples’ perspective and expectations in the Constitutional Reform proposal for Oaxaca. The project’s support for empowering indigenous women’s groups had a major impact on the lives of the beneficiaries as well as the development and improvement of institutional and democratic life in the State of Oaxaca.
Evaluation Date
May 2014
Country