MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive summary Burkina Faso
Empowering rural populations: Community radiosand conflict-sensitive reporting in Burkina Faso

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Background
The landlocked country Burkina Faso is part of the Sahel region andone of the poorest countries in the world. According to the United
Nations Human Development Index 2016, the country ranks 185 outof 188 countries. By contrast, Reporters without Borders considers
Burkina Faso one of the top places in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms ofmedia pluralism (ranked 42 out of 180 in 2017). However, insufficientequipment in the media sector and training and education deficits
are major limiting factors, with the result that large parts of the rural population, in particular, have only limited access to their right toinformation on public affairs. In accordance with the socio-economic structure, radio is the most important information medium, eventhough the use of the Internet is steadily increasing.
Against this background, DW Akademie's media project in Burkina
Faso (2015-2018) focuses on improving the quality of journalism andincreasing the media offer in rural areas. Citizen journalists are supported in four community radios to develop participatory and gender-sensitive program formats (objective 3). Together with the journalistic network Réseau d'Initiatives de Journalistes (RIJ), the topic of'conflict-sensitive journalism (CSJ)' is expanded. A regional component
involves networking with colleagues in the neighbouring states Nigerand Mali on cross-border issues (objective 2). At the macro level, theNational Press Center (CNP-NZ) is assisted in conducting studies on
the freedom of the press (objective 4). Finally, the Journalism Facultyof the University of Ouagadougou is advised on a more practice-oriented curriculum (objective 1). The evaluation focuses on objectives
2 and 3.
The objective of the present external evaluation is to constructively
assess the project results after the first funding phase in order toincorporate learning experiences into the development of the next
project proposal. The report is based on the OECD/DAC criteria anda mixed-methods approach is applied, including document and literature analysis as well as interviews with project managers, partners
and local target groups. For the DAC criteria a rating system with a5-point scale is used: 1) comprehensively fulfilled, 2) generally fulfilled, 3) partially fulfilled, 4) minimally fulfilled and 5) not fulfilled
at all.
In addition, for the first time in the Africa evaluations key questions
were asked, which explicitly focus on digital aspects of the projects:

D1) Digital collaboration, D2) Digital relevance, D3) Digital securityand D5) Digital scaling. For these digital questions, no assessment
was required, but only a section in the report with an inventory and, ifappropriate, recommendations.

Conclusions of the project evaluation
In Ouagadougou, three terrorist attacks against 'Western' targets
have taken place over the last two years, shattering the self-understanding of the population as a tolerant and peace-loving country.
As a result, the framework conditions have become aggravated inwhat was an already fragile situation during the project phase. Since
the fight against migration causes has become increasingly important in German development cooperation over the same period, therelevance of the media project has increased even further. In order
to avoid slipping into the league of fragile states, the stabilizationof the situation in Burkina Faso therefore has a special urgency.
The media project in Burkina Faso is also highly relevant for the DWAkademie. At present it is the only francophone long-term projectin Sub-Saharan Africa, from where the regional approach could beexpanded in the future. Hence the relevance criteria has been rated
as "comprehensively fulfilled" for the BMZ, the DW Akademie, thestate of Burkina Faso and the project partners.
An evaluation of the internal monitoring system of DW Akademie
WebMo shows that at the beginning of 2018 a number of the activities planned have already been realized and most of the others canbe reached by the end of the year according to the country manager.
Due to the high degree of achievement of project objectives 2, 3 and4, the effectiveness of the project has been rated as "comprehensively fulfilled".
The activities were cost-effective and proportionate, as the objectives could be achieved with a relatively small budget per partner
and a lean project team. Working with a dedicated local project coordinator is considered by the Burkina team to be the optimal solution after three years of project experience. The same applies to thedecision to engage in training measures in rural areas. The progressachieved in the partner community radios is remarkable, and train
the trainer-courses on CSJ and Mobile Reporting are investments inlocal capacity building. Communication processes and project documentation within the Burkina team in Bonn are considered exemplary as well. For problems occurring with the financial administration asolution-oriented approach is followed. As aresult, the efficiency of the project has been
rated as "comprehensively fulfilled".
The evaluation has shown that impacts canbe achieved for the target groups via community radios, if the project succeeds to professionally set up the stations’ management.
On the program side, participative access to
the listener clubs leads to increased participation in the public discourse at the village
level. For a needs-oriented adaptation of theprogram formats, the conducted audiencestudies have proven to be very effective.
The topics CSJ and Mobile Reporting have
only been implemented with the RIJ since2016, supplemented by train the trainer-courses for the best participants. Trainings and material production form the basis for further dissemination of both topics
in the next project phase to increase thequality of reporting. For the regional component, the greatest potential for transnational networking is seen in the completely
revised internet-based exchange platform“Pax-Sahel".
Overall, first positive impacts of the measures were visible for all project partners
and their target groups, and potential forstrengthening and broadening the effects

was identified. Therefore, the criterion impact is rated as "generally fulfilled".

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The selected community radios are sustainably strengthened by combining a professionalization of the management side withtraining measures on the operational side,outside the studio and involving the listeners. The link to the village communities and,thus, the sustainable anchoring of the community radios are the listener clubs. These
are facilitated by the editorial team and local
correspondents or, for interested villages
who do not have listener clubs yet, supported in their founding. Sustainable structures
are also strengthened with the focus on
project partners who share DW Akademie's
understanding of sustainable cooperation.
Since the project concept is consistently designed to build sustainable structures, thesustainability of the project has been rated
as "comprehensively fulfilled".

is Germany’s leading organization
for media development and Deutsche
Welle’s center of excellence foreducation and knowledge transfer.

Possibilities of complementarity with thetwo major German development programsof GIZ and EIRENE were sought from the beginning and included in the project concept.
In the project implementation phase, synergy effects could unfold. Therefore, the coordination and cooperation with other stakeholders has been rated as "comprehensivelyfulfilled".

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Contact

Dr. Jan Lublinski
Head Research and Evaluation
jan.lublinski@dw.com
53113 BonnGermany

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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.