E VA LUAT ION R E P OR T 2 02 3

Executive summary
Bangladesh
More balanced reporting: Strengthening a broad
alliance of media actors in Bangladesh

dw-akademie.com

Background
The purpose of DW Akademie’s projectin Bangladesh is to strengthen a broad
alliance of media actors in their capacity
to report independently and critically bytraining media professionals and social
media users (semi-professionals) and engaging them in a constructive dialogue
alongside universities, media outlets, civil society organizations and state actors.
The goal was thus to improve the conditions necessary for producing high-quality and balanced reporting. The main
project partners are the Communicationand Journalism Educators Network (CJEN),
the NGO Article 19, Channel I, Vorer Alo,
United News Bangladesh (UNB) and thefeminist youth organizations Kotha andBonhishikha.
This evaluation covers the project’s thirdcycle ( January 2021 to December 2023).
It aims to gain insights into the management and leadership of the partners andthe DW Akademie team and how they influence the project and its outcomes. Anemphasis lies on the new DW Akademiemethodology that prioritizes adaptive capacity and refines the OECD/DAC criteria
and includes gender and digital engagement as cross-cutting issues. The evaluation was carried out between November
2022 and April 2023.

Project evaluation results
Relevance: In the aftermath of the 2012murder of Sagar Sarwar, a former DW
journalist, in Dhaka and the subsequent
extremely delayed court proceedings, Bangladesh witnessed the ‘exodus’ of several
well-known journalists, bloggers and civilsociety leaders from the country and the ‘coordinated efforts’ of ruling party activists toframe and arrest journalists under the Digital Security Act. These conditions forced
media professionals into an extraordinarylevel of self-censorship to avoid ‘sensitivecontent’ which the government deemed‘uncomfortable.’ The activities designed by
DW Akademie in these shrinking spaces include partnerships with public and private
universities through the CJEN-network toimprove the quality of journalism education, training workshops on fact-checking,social media and gender sensitivity andstrengthening regional media to minimize
the information gap between the educatedurban population and the disadvantaged
rural population. Interactions with the government stakeholders were, however, kept
relatively low key due to sensitivities on allsides. In summary, the project’s relevance
was rated as “comprehensively fulfilled.”
Coherence: There have been continued efforts by DW Akademie to coordinate withother development assistance actors including BBC Media Action, Internews, UNESCO, the Goethe Institute, and the Friedrich
Ebert Foundation and Friedrich Naumann
Foundation for Freedom. In response,
DW Akademie found that its model of continued engagement—which was termed bydifferent institutional partners as ‘extraor-dinary’—is itself somewhat different fromthose deployed by most other development
partners. Most of the DW Akademie’s support came in the form of complementing or
strengthening the efforts of local partners.
The regional media house Vorer Alo received training and support to improve its
digital content. Article 19’s digital literacy
training, supported by DW Akademie, hasbeen a great resource for capacity development targeting young journalists. WhileKotha and Bonishikha developed gender
training content and delivered training anddeveloped Standard Operating Proceduresat media outlets to integrate gender issues
into internal structures. In summary, theproject’s coherence was rated as “overallfulfilled.”
Effectiveness: A majority of the partnerships have started working with beneficiaries in the prescribed manner, and boththe program staff and the partners wereactively completing their planned program
activities. Good progress was made in
the cooperation between the universities
and with media outlets, among all otherplanned outputs through the CJEN platform and ‘media-hubs’ platform. Mediaand information literacy content (an opento-all online course with a certification atthe end) is delivered through an existinge-learning system by Article 19. The project
was designed with a significant emphasison gender equality. Certain activities, including the women fellowship program,
were designed only for female journalists
and female journalism students. Two of
the partner CSOs are led by prominent fe-male civil society leaders. In summary, theproject’s effectiveness was rated as “overallfulfilled.”
Efficiency: DW Akademie Bangladesh’s
human resources arrangement shows theclear intention to keep human resources
cost at a minimum. International experts
were hired only when the situation demanded it; for the most part, local trainers
were hired and integrated into the project.
Most of the objectives were achieved with acertain delay due to the pandemic, as wellas the frequent turnover of staff within ashorter span of time and DW Akademie’s
somewhat lengthy approval processes.
While the effect of movement restrictions
was minimized by switching to virtual delivery, local capacity was increased by converting selected local staff from part-time /consultancy mode to full-time responsibilities. In summary, the project’s efficiency
was rated as “overall fulfilled.”
Impact: It is possible to identify several developmental changes as a result of project
activities. The strengthening of the regional media outlet, Vorer Alo, which caters to
the greater Barishal region through a network of local reporters; the high printing
cost and low unit revenue of newspapers
has constrained its traditional outreach.
Partnership with DW Akademie could eventually increase the number of online users
and widen its advertisement base. Partnerships with Channel I, Article 19 and UNB are
likely to produce a qualitative improvementof news gathering, analyses, team collaboration, technical integration, and overall

quality. After several years of successful
annual events, CJEN is now able to take agreater responsibility in coordinating andmanaging those events. In summary, theproject’s impact was rated as “comprehensively fulfilled.”
Sustainability: Core implementation partners including Channel I, a leading national
broadcaster, and Article 19 are willing andable to continue the activities financed by
DW Akademie. Article 19 Bangladesh andthe South Asia office have already established an online training facility. Channel I
has already established its social commitment, and the partnership with DW Akademie will likely add to the quality of its programming and its level of representation
across diverse platforms. In summary, theproject’s sustainability was rated as “overallfulfilled.”

Selected recommendations– Regional internships: The project should
consider introducing and supportinginternships for journalism students enrolled in regional public universities towork in the media houses concerned.
This could provide both practical instruction to the students and enhancethe digital presence of regional media
houses like Vorer Alo with new ideas andextra hands.
– Support for blended learning: A cost-effective training design should include
both remote and in-person training sessions, where a shorter in-person session
can only be attended once the remotesessions have been successfully completed. This would encourage participants to take the training sessions more
seriously and also enhance the capacityof regional media outlets, who would
greatly benefit from experts based in
Dhaka or abroad.

– Focus on digital journalism: Many key
informants agreed that more could bedone to raise awareness among journalism students about the future of journalism and digital media communications
and they how they can monetize theircontent and expertise by developing
their own niches. This could be communicated through events and seminars
about the future of journalism, in compliance with national laws.

DW Akademie
is Deutsche Welle’s center forinternational media development,journalism training and knowledgetransfer. Our projects strengthen thehuman right to freedom of expression
and unhindered access to information.
DW Akademie empowers peopleworldwide to make independent
decisions based on reliable facts andconstructive dialogue. DW Akademie
is a strategic partner of the German
Federal Ministry for Economic
Coopera­tion and Development. We
also receive funding from the Federal
Foreign Office and the European Union
and are active in approximately 60
developing countries and emerging
economies.

CONTAC T
Dr. Laura Moore
Head Research and Evaluation
laura.moore@dw.com
Berlin, Germany
DWAkademie@dw_akademie
DWAkademie
dw.com/newsletter-registration
dw.com/mediadev

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.