Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary

Namibia andSouthern Africa

Regionalization: Insights from Southern Africa
and the Innovation Initiative

dw-akademie.com

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Namibia and Southern Africa

Background
The Namibia and Southern Africa
program is implemented in Lesotho,
Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, andZimbabwe.The current phase is fromJanuary 2022 to December 2024. It
is designed to strengthen the resilience of information ecosystems inSouthern Africa through improving
innovation capacity, building strong
and stable institutions that take thelead in finding responses to crises
and change and providing comprehensive skills for sustainable journalism, media education and advocacy,
as well as strengthening inclusive
dialogue.
During the course of the implementation, DW Akademie started an
EU-funded project in Namibia: “New
Voices, New Narratives in Public
Policy Discourse.” The training component of this project is also part of
the Southern Africa project fundedby the German Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The EU-funded project was not part ofthis evaluation.
During the project period, the devastating global COVID-19 pandemic
significantly affected media viability(culminating in job losses and closures of media houses), escalated the
production and circulation of false andmisleading information, and accentuated inequalities related to accessto information. This period was alsopunctuated by systemic freedom of
expression violations, heightened
insecurity of journalists, the passingof draconian data protection andcybersecurity laws and the shrinkage

of civic space in Southern Africa.
Furthermore, the financial vulnerabilityof media institutions created a fertile
ground for media capture.
This evaluation sought to assess
the project’s achievements and to
inform strategy development for
the upcoming project cycle (20242026). It was interested in identifying
and documenting the strengths andweaknesses of regional approaches
in comparison to country-focused
approaches. The Innovation Initiativein Southern Africa was the main
subject of the evaluation. However,innovation was not only fosteredthrough the Innovation Initiative, butalso in other project lines — and theevaluation has also looked at this partof DW Akademie’s work. The Southern
Africa projects aim to improve
the resilience of the media sector
through journalistic skills training andnewsroom innovation by strengthening media and journalism training
centres in the region. Through its
media and information literacy work,
DW Akademie is also working with its
partner organizations to equip media
users, especially young people, toresist misinformation and disinformation. DW Akademie is also supportinga coalition of media NGOs to ensure
robust legal frameworks for freedomof expression and solidarity for media
freedom activists through a projectapproach titled “Spaces of Solidarity.”
For the purposes of this evaluation, the focus was on the regional
Innovation Initiative. The Innovation
Initiative seeks to strengthen the ability of media outlets and civil society
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to innovate and thereby promote thefreedom of expression of disadvantaged groups with a focus on vernacular languages. It consists of two
instruments: Idea Development andInnovation Fund Idea development
is concerned with fostering creative
exchange. Through idea workshops
or processes of user-centered design(human-centered design), approaches
and ideas are developed, evaluated,
and refined before they are implemented in various contexts. The
Innovation Fund is about providing
resources for the implementationof prototypes with the help of an
application and selection process
and driving forward practical trials.
Unlike top-down approaches to media
development, the Innovation Initiative
puts target beneficiaries at the centerof the co-creation processes. This is
in line with decolonial media development initiatives which privileges
knowledge and epistemic frames fromthe global South.
The Innovation Initiative was designed
to achieve the following objective(outcome): “The media and civil society are strengthened in their ability toinnovate toward greater freedom of
expression for disadvantaged groups.”
The program for Namibia andSouthern Africa was designed toachieve the following objective (outcome): “Media and civil society organizations strengthen the resilienceof information ecosystems as well as
a diverse and inclusive dialogue inSouthern Africa.”
The project seeks to achieve theseresults through the following outputs
which target the following key areas:
1.A: The media professionals fromSouthern Africa improve theirprofessional skills and capacity
for innovation;

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Namibia and Southern Africa

1.B: Civil society organizations working for freedom of expression
have established structures inSouthern Africa to act strategically together;
1.C: Educational and learning materials on media literacy andfreedom of expression are usedby educational and civil society
organizations.
The evaluation methods included adocument analysis of project documents, in-depth interviews and focus
group discussions with key informants

galvanizing the people of Southern
Africa in response to the threatson free expression in line with thestrategic objectives of ensuring andprotecting their fundamental right tofree expression.

Evaluation
results
Innovation
Initiative
Relevance

The evaluation confirms that the
project’s focus is highly relevant:Capacitating media professionals
from Southern Africa to improvetheir professional skills and capacity for innovation. It is evident thatthe intervention objectives anddesign respond to target beneficiaries and partner needs and priorities. Innovative projects related tojournalism training, and innovation
fellowships were singled out as very
relevant interventions by stakeholders including MISA Malawi, CITE andNamibia Media Trust. This is particularly important for creating a poolof highly skilled media professionals who can produce high quality
information and reporting in theirrespective communities. This was
confirmed through interviews andfocus group discussions in Southernfrom project partners, innovation fellows and trainers in Southern Africa.
The evaluation applied the OECD/
DAC evaluation criteria to formulate
the specific research questions andanalyze the data gathered, with moreemphasis placed on the criteria relevance, coherence and efficiency.

Africa. The objective of the entire
project as stipulated in output 1.B — toassist civil society organizations
working for freedom of expression
to establish structures in Southern
Africa — is also relevant with potential to push back against rising casesof harassment and arrests of humanrights defenders, journalists, andbloggers. DW Akademie has strengthened regional collaboration in theareas of advocacy, journalism, andmedia literacy. The establishment of
the “Spaces of Solidarity” is a gamechanger, which in the long run islikely to promote regional cross-thematic cooperation on issues such as
freedom of expression, digital rights,
the safety of journalists and shrinkage of the civic space. This initiative
is timely given the gap in regional
solidarity gap left by the closure of
MISA regional office, which was basedin Namibia. Although it has since been
resuscitated under the leadership ofMisa Zimbabwe, the recent creationof “Spaces of Solidarity” provides anorganic platform for mobilizing and3With regards to output 1.C — to ensurethat educational and learning materials on media literacy and freedom of
expression are used by educationaland civil society organizations, thereis evidence that the MIL Content
hub is already providing educational
materials for CSOs in the region. The
African MILE initiative is still at an
early stage but there is potential thatin future it will contribute to more
CSOs engaging in MIL and freedomof expression advocacy through MIL
content/approaches. It is clear fromthis evaluation that a strong and relevant MIL ecosystem has been established. For instance, in Namibia, MiLLi*
trained or upskilled around 160 facilitators (multipliers) in 2022 and 2023.
Through youth projects (facilitated bythese multipliers) MiLLi* reached 524(young) people in Namibia. Thus, thisapproach to tackling misinformationand disinformation through pre-bunking is highly relevant and commendable, especially in resource-constrained environments. There iscooperation around the African MILE
(where DW Akademie is the convener)
and MiLLi* is one of the most active
participants. The African MILE (MIL
Exchange) has brought together 11organizations from Southern Africa
to collaborate and share educational

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Namibia and Southern Africa

material on MIL. Although it was
mentioned that during the pandemic, MiLLi* ran a specific course
on WhatsApp where young people
were exposed to fact-checking skills,
there is need to continue to ramp up
such efforts given that platforms like
WhatsApp and Telegram are fertile
grounds for false and misleading
information. A lot of the skills young
people learn with MiLLi* and the Hub
apply also to disinformation circulating on WhatsApp. In the next project
cycle, more action could be taken
to capacitate young people to deal
with synthetic content, deep fakes,
and AI-powered disinformation. The
relevance criterion is rated as “comprehensively fulfilled.”

Efficiency

The regional project is efficientin terms of input-output relations(time, expertise, human and financial resources) when compared tosingle country projects. The regional
approach is efficiently delivering
the intended results in comparison
to in-country approaches. Throughonline and hybrid training workshops
and conferences, the regional journalism education has managed to enable
media professionals from Southern
Africa to improve their professional
skills and capacity for innovation ina cost-effective manner. This has
allowed the project to circumventthe structural impediments broughtby the COVID-19 pandemic, such associal distancing and limited travel
between countries. The evaluation
found that concerns were raisedaround regional travel logistics,
tedious reporting requirements andthe short-term (3-6 months) nature ofinnovation fellowships. Although the
project itself takes three years, shortterm innovation fellowships were
singled out for failing to guarantee
project sustainability. More could bedone to streamline the processing oftime sheets for grant contracts withlong-term partners. Notwithstanding
these recommendations, the regional
measures have allowed DW Akademie
to deliver results in a timely manner.
The efficiency criterion is rated as“overall fulfilled.”

Country p­ rojectand regional
components
EffectivenessThe project seeks to achieve progresswith regards to the strengthening of
the media and civil society in theirability to innovate toward greater freedom of expression for disadvantaged
groups. Output 1.A relates to ensuring that media professionals fromSouthern Africa improve their professional skills and capacity for innovation. This entails providing journalists
with a portfolio of needs-based
training modules that they need to
produce quality media content. Thishas been largely achieved through theroll-out of innovation fellowships aswell as the co-creation of more than
15 training modules on a wide rangeof topics. The development of training
modules has also led to a productive
exchange between partner organizations in Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe,
Lesotho, Zambia, Botswana and South
Africa on innovation, and quality standards. The project outputs are highly
likely to be achieved by the end of the
project. Given the progress registeredso far, the planned outcome is likely
to be met. Key informants indicatethat the regionalized approaches
have been highly effective in terms
of promoting journalism education,
media literacy and advocacy. In thenext project cycle, a lot can be done
to streamline/incorporate gender,
sexual orientation, and other stratification variables in the targeting of
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beneficiaries of innovation fellowships. The effectiveness criterion is
rated as “comprehensively fulfilled.”

Coherence

Whilst there is evidence of compatibility between the Innovation
Initiative and other project lines
in Southern Africa, there is a needto reinforce internal and external
coherence through addressing thesynergies and interlinkages between
the regional activities and country-focused approaches. Suffice tosay that DW Akademie engages inregional project lines with strong
anchors in countries. Apart from theInnovative Initiative, other projectlines like advocacy, media informationand literacy and journalism education
have regional components which arecomplemented by country-focused
implementations. Thus, regional
project lines and country-focused
approaches complement each otherin complex and richer ways throughrelationship building, sharing ofexpertise and resources and networking. Overall, synergies and interlinkages between different project lines
have the biggest potential for internaland external coherence. More canbe done to strengthen links between
country-focused approaches andregional project lines. This will foster
harmonization and coordination ofregional and in-country approaches.
In this way, DW Akademie will be able
to add value to the media development agenda in the region whilst
avoiding duplication of effort. Thereis a need to ensure the relevance ofthe regional project for the target
groups through increased participation of project partners in the project
design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The roll-out ofinnovation fellowships, which is a key
component of the Innovation Initiative,
could be better aligned with otherproject lines like journalism education,
media literacy and advocacy. This will

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Namibia and Southern Africa

ensure that an innovative and resilient information and media ecosystem is nurtured with the potential towithstand political repression. The
evaluation concludes that the otherproject lines are partially coherent
with the regional Innovation Initiative.
To achieve seamless synergy andinterlinkages between the regional
project lines and country-focused
approaches, there is a need to adopt
an ecosystem approach to media
development in Southern Africa. In
this case, innovation as a cross cutting theme can easily be integrated in
the journalism, advocacy and media

information and literacy programs.
This will ensure that internal andexternal coherence are prioritizedin the design and implementation ofprojects in the future. The coherence
criterion is rated as “overall fulfilled.”

Selected lessons learned
1.

The Innovation Initiative isefficient in terms of input-output relations (staff, and otherresources) when compared tosingle country projects.

2. The project has managed to

introduce new methodologies to
DW Akademie’s portfolio throughworking with calls for applicationand fellowships as well as thepractice of co-creation.

3. The Innovation Initiative should
prioritize local context andcultural dynamics. This entails

ensuring that the regional
project lines are sensitive tothe socio-political and culturaldynamics in the region.

4. Local and regional conferences

and workshops should consider
digital divide and participation
inequalities.

5. An ecosystem approach to theregional Innovation Initiative
cannot be overemphasized.
This entails approaching
media development projects
as constitutive of various parts

interacting with the broadersocial environment.

6. Project sustainability should beembedded in DW Akademie’s
grant contracts and short-term
media support.

7.

The project has shown great
adaptive capacity throughreacting to needs and emerging trends in the ecosystem
which is crucial in the current
environment.

Selected recommendations
1.

The Project Brief of the regional
Innovation Initiative could be
strengthened through adopting
an ecosystem approach where
issues like the media viability
and sustainability, media law andpolicy reforms, journalism professionalism, skills development
and training, liberalization of the
airwaves and community radio
stations, safety and security ofjournalists, digital rights andmedia literacy are foregrounded.

2. In preparation for the newfunding cycle, there is a needto ensure that long-term andshort-term partners are consulted extensively with regards
to effective and efficient waysof implementing the regional
Innovation Initiative. This isparticularly important when it
comes to innovation fellowships.
This could entail consulting theselection panel, trainers, andmentors. This is not to suggest

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that in the previous project
phase there was no consultation. In the current phase,
DW Akademie consulted various
stakeholders on the topics for
the Innovation Initiative. In these
discussions, the jury in the innovation labs was also consulted.

3. With regards to the developmentof training modules in a regional
approach, there is also a need toconstitute a Program Advisory

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Namibia and Southern Africa

Council made up of educators,
experienced editors and journalists and media innovators in thetarget countries.

4. The regional Innovation Initiative

implementation stage needs tobe creatively established.

6. Although the African MILE

provides the most logical andsustainable vehicle for regionalizing MIL materials in Southern
Africa, the usage of the materials
has largely been confined to
Lesotho, Namibia, and Zambia.
There is need to ensure thatthese materials are popularizedin other countries like Botswana,
Malawi, and Zimbabwe.

could be coherently synchronized with other project lines
to ensure efficiency and effectiveness amongst the intended
target groups.

5. Consolidating the innovation

labs concept so that it goesbeyond Idea Development andInnovation Fund is highly recommended. A sustainable mentorship program after the idea

7.

More effort is required to ensurethat MiLLi* becomes financially sustainable to stand on

its feet without over-relying on
DW Akademie for operational
expenses.

8. A blended approach to regional

workshops and conferences
is recommended. However,in-country workshops shouldemphasize in-person attendance.

9. The Spaces of Solidarity ini-

tiative should be reinforced sothat leadership development
and mentorship become more
pronounced.

DW Akademie
is Deutsche Welle’s center for international media development, journalism
training and knowledge transfer. Our projects strengthen the human right tofreedom of expression and unhindered access to information. DW Akademie
empowers people worldwide to make independent decisions based on reliablefacts and constructive dialogue.
DW Akademie is a strategic partner of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development. We also receive funding fromthe Federal Foreign Office and the European Union and are active in around70 developing countries and emerging economies.

Contact
Dr. Laura Moore
Head of Research and Evaluation
laura.moore@dw.com
dwakademie
dw_akademie
DWAkademie

The objective of the external evaluation is to provide a constructive assessment of the project results. It does not necessarily align with the­perspective and planning of DW Akademie. Nevertheless, all findings were discussed in order to allow lessons learned to be incorporated into
the development of future strategies.