Giving young people a voice:
Youth media in the Palestinian Territories
Evaluation Report | Executive SummaryPalestinian Territories

03 /2017

Background
Young people in the Palestinian Territories are rarely involved in the social and political dialogues. There is a lack of
relevant and attractive communication platforms, especiallyfor young women, where they can openly discuss age-specificproblems. The established Palestinian media landscape does
not provide any opportunities here. It is restricted by theongoing conflict with Israel, but also polarized and systematically excludes taboo topics such as corruption, drug abuse,unemployment, or forced marriages, which are particularlyrelevant for young people. In addition there is the unstablesecurity situation for (citizen) journalists.
The objective of the DW Akademie project in the Palestinian Territories (2014 – 2016) was therefore to enable youngpeople between the age of 13 and 29 to actively participate andinfluence political, economic, social, and cultural processes
through the media.
The project focused on three levels: In Jerusalem, theDW Akademie supported the youth organization PalVisionin the development of the interactive community online
platform Qudscom by young people for young people andtrained amongst others students as citizen journalists. To
enable young people to better deal with the media and reflect on them critically the youth organization Pyalara wasstrengthened with the introduction of the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) concept at 10 pilot schools. In addition,
the local radio station Nisaa was supported with the creationand production of programs especially for (young) women.
The objective of this external evaluation is to provide a constructive assessment of the project results after the completion of the first funding phase in order to allow lessons
learned to be incorporated into the development of future
strategies. The evaluation is based on OECD/DAC criteria andconsists of a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods,
including the analysis of internally collected data and interviews with project partners and management in the field.

DW Akademie | Palestinian Territories

Conclusions
The community online platform Qudscom together withthe established media classes at 10 pilot schools within theframework of the project ‘Speak Up’ have opened a space foryoung people where their opinions can be expressed freely.
Both offers are regularly used by the target groups. The success of the project is also due to the many years of experienceof the local partners in the field of media and/or youth, andtheir strong interest in the elimination of core problems ofyoung people. The cooperation with a well-known youthorganization is also advantageous in the area of safety ofthe participants. Thus, the DAC criterion relevance has been
met both in terms of solution competency of the partners,
as well as concerning the needs of the target groups.
The project managers of DW Akademie attest all three project partners an efficient use of the funds made available,
therefore the DAC criterion efficiency is judged as fulfilled.
The evaluation shows that project objectives have beenachieved to a high degree or can be achieved by the endof the project. However, since the high number of indicators has in some phases hampered the data collection andproject steering and individual indicators stay behind thetarget values, the DAC criterion effectiveness is considered‘partially achieved’ in the overall assessment.
All stakeholders confirmed the positive effects of the measures for the target groups. The introduction of MIL as a topdown approach has been anchored as a bottom-up approach.
The concept is currently developed further by the project
partners in order to create sustainable local and regional
structures. Extending the MIL activities from West Bank
to Gaza increased the range beyond the core region. The
participants attest the measures positive effects beyond theprofessional learner’s success for their personality development and conflict resolution abilities.
Perhaps the most important impact is the fact that manysmall success stories have emerged within the frameworkof the project, which create hope in an environment thatis characterized by negative news and in which the youth
mostly feels abandoned and powerless. The solution-oriented
approach supports young people with conflict management
strategies and thus contributes to their empowerment. The
basic democratic decision-making processes in the Qudscom
editorial team are perceived by the participants as practiced
democracy. The criterion impact, particularly with regard tostrengthening the target groups, was therefore fully met.

2An overall assessment of the DAC criterion sustainability is
not possible due to the short duration of the project. However,
the assessment of ownership of all three project partners
is positive.
The project partners attest the DW Akademie team a highdegree of professionalism and appreciate the partnership approach. In a politically heated environment, it is particularly
acknowledged that the DW Akademie has no political agenda
and is committed to sustainable structures. The degree ofinnovation in the project was high, as all three partners haveintroduced measures that were new to them. However, theestablishment of efficient management structures was adifficult process, but ultimately successful. Against this background the quality of management has been assessed assuccessful.

Lessons learned
The learning experiences of the DW Akademie team withPalVision relate in particular to the initial phase of the project. In crises and conflict regions, clear criteria for interventions in the field of citizen journalism should be definedalready at the beginning of the project because of the unpredictable political situation. Sufficient time should also
be allowed to clarify roles and expectations. In order to giveyoung citizen journalists a voice in the media, the willingness must be there to transfer editorial control to the teamof citizen journalists within the framework of clearly defined
ethical standards.
In the cooperation with Pyalara an important lesson learned
can be drawn that the understanding and implementationof the MIL-concept took more time than expected and required a high willingness to change on the multipliers’ side.
Furthermore, existing loads on the teachers as mediators
between school management and target groups should beconsidered more seriously.
For Radio Nisaa the positive conclusion could be drawn
from the pupils’ radio program that young people can betrusted a lot in editorial environments when responsibility
is transferred to them.

3Recommendations

PyalaraGeneral

11. I f a pilot project is expanded, the framework conditions
that have proven to be beneficial during the pilot phaseshould be discussed in detail, such as the intensive supervision of the Pyalara trainers, the use of the psychosocial
intervention team, but also the support provided by DW
Akademie.

1.

 he DW-internal web-based monitoring system WebMoT
is a useful tool for collecting and controlling indicators.
It should, however, be re-examined for access rights forevaluations.

2. A
 t the beginning of the cooperation with a new project
partner, an on-site introduction on financial management should be considered by a DW-internal expert fromthe administration department.
3. W
 hen handing over a joint project to the project partner,
it should be considered whether the DW Akademie cancontinue to provide support, in the form of a back-up
function for crisis situations or through regular exchange.
4. P roject partners should try to establish contacts withjournalists in the country who are willing to engage involunteer media projects with young people.
5. T
 o increase the scope of the measures, the existing formats should be checked for their complementary potential by means of an e-learning component.
6. I n order to contribute to the interregional disseminationand networking of the MIL concept, the establishmentof a ‘MIL Learning Community’ should be considered.
7.

 n international exchange between DW Akademie’s MIL
Aprojects around the world should be expanded and promoted (English/Arabic).

PalVision
8. I n order to expand the users of Qudscom, contacts withinformal youth initiatives in Jerusalem should be established.
9. Q udscom should increasingly be mentioned in othermedia to become better known. The social media could
also be used for this, the potential of which has not yet
been exhausted.
10. The editorial team should define more clearly whichtarget groups they would like to address with which topic
portfolio for a next funding phase.

12. I n the institutionalization process of the MIL concept,Pyalara should insist that the responsibilities for implementation in the Ministry of Education are clearly stated.
13. P yalara should develop a concept of how, in a next project phase, teachers can be better integrated into theimplementation of the MIL strategy.
14. S ince common summer camps for boys and girls cannot
be implemented for cultural reasons, they could takeplace in parallel and allow a subtle approach by common(media) tasks of boys and girls.
15. The Pyalara team should acquire new teaching and learning methods in the digital field. This opens up the possibility for young people to use their media knowledge
beyond the traditional school media formats. This also
extends Pyalara’s prospects for future project applications.

Radio Nisaa
16.		 W hen a comparable project is repeated, better preparation of the pupils with at least three preparatory
meetings should take place: the choice of the topic,
the discussion of the contributions, and the concrete
preparation of the program.
17.		 T he media students, who act as trainers of the students,
should be more closely interlinked with professional
reporters so that they can act as multipliers in a local
network after the end of the project.
18.		 I n the context of a follow-up project it should be considered to extend it to male teenagers, so that they also
can collect radio experience and exchange their very
specific school problems.

DW Akademie
DW Akademie is Germany’s leading organization for media development and Deutsche Welle’s center of excellence foreducation and knowledge transfer. As a strategic partner of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment we strengthen the universal human rights of free expression, education, and access to information.

Contact
ContactDr.
Jan Lublinski
Dr. Jan
Lublinski,ResearchHead
ResearchandHead
Evaluation
and Akademie
Evaluation, DW Akademie
DW
jan.lublinski@dw.com

DW Akademie
53110 Bonn, Germany

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