MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive Summary Kenya
Journalists and citizens: Dealing with social conflicts inhighly populated areas

dw-akademie.com

Background
Kenya is a country of considerable inequality, with a relatively high Gini coefficientand concentration of wealth. The current
government regards independent media
as a threat. Restrictive laws, oppressive
practices and policing make life difficult forjournalists. The World Press Freedom index
ranks Kenya at 103 out of 180 countries,
down from 71 in 2013. Political polarisationand ethnic conflicts further aggravate andcomplicate the situation, and there has
been a notable rise in hate speech, in deliberate disinformation, and in propaganda
campaigns. Social media, and the Internet generally, play a growing role in social
communication and media.
The current DW Akademie Kenya Projectruns from 2019 to 2021. The ultimate target
group are disadvantaged groups: young
people, women, farmers, fishermen, andsmall traders. The project focuses especially on selected areas west of Nairobi, up tothe border with Uganda, and the coastal
region, which have generally lower levels ofeconomic development and higher unemployment (especially among women), often
due to long-standing ethnic discrimination.
The intermediate target groups are media
professionals from local media houses,
including editors, anchors and journalists.
The specific outcome sought is: “Localmedia outlets are more resilient to hatespeech and disinformation, as well as economic challenges”.
The project strategy focuses on three areas:A) embedding capacities, designing
tools, enhancing exchanges and building“investigative research teams in ruralareas” to enable media houses to tacklepropaganda, misinformation and disinformation in a sustained manner;B) improving financial sustainability andhence journalistic independence througha pool of highly-skilled consultants tobuild media viability,C) building a consortium of media outlets, creating opportunities for themto cooperate in generating income andsharing resources, and through targeted lobbying to promote a more positive
legal and economic framework withnational and district governments.
The Project has four lines (key partners inbrackets):– Line A supports an emerging consortium of radio stations (Grand Wave Consortium: GWC), enabling networking
among journalists (through the DW
Akademie Alumni Kenya: DAK), ongoingtraining for freelance journalists in relevant emerging topics (Kenya Correspondents Association: KCA), and providing
story ideas, research tips and resourcesin good governance to journalists andoutlets (through Reporting on Good Governance in Kenya: RoGGKenya).
– Line B focuses on building the pool ofMedia Viability Consultants (MVCs);– Line C builds in-house capacities acrossdifferent media types to tackle misinformation and disinformation in a ’media eco-system’, including encouraging
exchanges; and is also dedicated tocreating a shared mechanism for in-depth
digital investigation; (Code for Africa:CfA),– Line D is a recently developed exploration of supporting Pan – African
DW Akademie alumni exchanges.
The intention of the evaluation is to help
focus the activities of the project up until
its conclusion at the end of 2021. Further,it should provide guidance in designing
any future phase of the project. More generally, it aims to enhance mutual learningof project partners and stakeholders, DW
Akademie, and the donor, The Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development(BMZ) . The methodology included extensive documentary analysis, a targetedsurvey and 22 key informant interviews.
The basis of assessment comprised theOECD/DAC criteria as they have been
adapted by DW Akademie.

Conclusions of the project evaluation
Relevance: The evaluation confirms thatthe project’s focus is highly relevant:enhancing media houses’ viability, in a way,translates into staff professionalism andcommitment (and not merely, for instance,
into greater returns for owners). This is aprerequisite for producing reliable quality
information and reporting for individuals
and communities. Tackling misinformationand disinformation directly at their sourceis highly relevant, and timely, to enhancing media professionalism in Kenya. Thiscan be done by preventing the circulationof inaccurate and false information andcorrecting it after circulation, and by identifying sources of more widespread andegregious cases of deliberate falsification.
The objective and main lines of actions of
the project are, therefore, highly relevant.

Furthermore, the introduction of digitalsolutions to problems identified, and thewider inclusion of interventions relevant
to digital media, are strong points of theproject.
Overall, the project is very relevant to thecontext in Kenya. Some further actions
could have been taken to further reinforce
the focus on the ultimate beneficiaries
during the current project cycle, such as
the inclusion of community stations orreinforcing the impact of listener groups.
Overall, the criterion Relevance is rated as“comprehensively fulfilled”.
Coherence: The project brief is limitedin the extent to which it outlines how
the project plans to be coherent with thesector more widely, including with other
donors and major sector actors. However,its design and implementation do show agood understanding of sector dynamics
and of the actions of other key actors in themedia sector in Kenya.
The project achieves synergy and coherence with the goals of a key partner, CfA,and generates considerable additional
value for its investment in tools and processes to tackle disinformation and misinformation. It is also clear that the emerging
media Consortium, GWC, is driven by theexpressed ideas and needs of the partners.
The thematic training and capacity building delivered by KCA is designed to alignclosely both with the aims of the association and with the needs of journalists

in more remote areas. The DAK Chapter,though supported in its actions, is clearly
self-motivating and has an impressive volunteer base driving all its actions.
RoGGKenya is a possible exception here.
Created with support from DW Akademie
and as a consortium of national and international NGOs and CSOs based in Kenya,
the level of commitment of partners appears to be wavering, although it was notpossible to determine the reasons why.
Thus, the evaluation concludes that, with
one possible exception, the DW Akademie
project is fully coherent with dynamics
within the sector and has developed significant synergies with key partners. Overall,the criterion Coherence is rated as “comprehensively fulfilled”.
Effectiveness: The achievement of the
project’s core objective requires significant progress in two key areas: i) enhancing economic viability of the media houses,and ii) building their capacity to deal withhate speech, misinformation and disinformation. The project has encounteredobstacles and externally driven delays (notably the Covid pandemic) but has, nevertheless, made significant progress acrossboth these objectives.
The GWC has been legally registered andpotential institutional structures andguidelines have been drafted. It now faces
the critical task of developing a strong consensus on both its short and medium-term
objectives and how it is to operate in termsof staffing. The evidence indicates thatthe level of commitment of members will
enable it to achieve this. Despite unavoidable delays, it may well begin to generate
financial benefits for members before theproject ends, although achieving financial
viability is its biggest challenge and mustremain paramount before additional roles
can develop.
The pool of media managers (MVCs) has
been fully trained and prepared, despite
internal and external delays, and the curriculum appears to be highly relevant. The
media house training will get underway
soon; proof of concept, and a final revisionof the package are on target.

The creation of an active network of research teams tackling misinformationand disinformation has proven a complex
task. Fact-check desks have been successfully established in media houses and thetraining has been completed. In several
cases new and successful content is being
designed around them, though the extentof engagement between them is limited.
The iLab desk is operating within the CfA,
and is building bridges to larger media
partners, though developing internal capacity is slow.
The DAK chapter is making good progressinstitutionally. Through its members andits wider activities, notably the virtual conference in 2020, it reaches a wide audience.
KCA is successfully delivering its training.
Consortium partners of RoGGKenya, however, seem to be poorly motivated. The
criterion Effectiveness is rated as “overallfulfilled”.
Efficiency: Overall, the project is efficient.
Local experts play an appropriate rolein delivery, with just a few isolated complaints about quality. Local project andcontract partners are being cultivated andsupported.
A few financial and bureaucratic issues
also emerged. Several partners would liketo see a dedicated local project office witha local team, believing it would add to efficiency and effectiveness. Overall, the response to Covid-19, though not all delays
were unavoidable, was efficient. The criterion Efficiency is rated as “overall fulfilled”.
Impact: Progress towards impact has
been good; enhanced by a strong senseof partner ownership, a strong focus on
actual partners’ and sectoral needs, andhigh-quality outputs overall. Indicators
focus on intermediate targets, and thefigures and qualitative examples suggestthat these are being fulfilled overall, andimpact on the final beneficiaries can beinferred. Duplication of good practice isalready underway in Fact Check Desks andiLab, and the MVC package is also being
partly replicated. The criterion Impact israted as “overall fulfilled”.

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 people
worldwide to make independent
decisions based on reliable facts andconstructive dialogue. DW Akademie isa 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

Sustainability: The Fact Check and iLab
work of CfA are likely to be sustained within CfA’s ongoing tool set, even without
project support. Fact Check Desks withpartners are also likely to continue in atleast some cases, and the skills renewed,
under the condition that they are embedded within content production and output.
There is little indication yet of a network
emerging among them. The DAK chapter
has a secure base of volunteers, and its
enhanced institutional basis may lead tosome form of income generation in thefuture. Some of activities are sustainablewith modest funding from the donor to
support the outputs. The GWC members
display a high level of ownership and commitment that will underpin its potential
to reach a first indication of sustainability
before the project ends.
The MVCs, too, have a good basis in thecurriculum and training provided, but anassessment of the sustainability of thelearning among the first round of media organisations trained will be criticalto the proof of concept. This is essential
before the end of this project cycle. To
develop and implement a package that
MVCs can implement more widely in thesector that goes beyond this will be a later
step, further down the road. The criterion
Sustainability is rated as “overall fulfilled”.

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.