MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive summary Colombia
Dealing with the aftermath of the conflict: Access to humanrights-related information and sensitive reporting of local
media in Colombia

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Background

Conclusions of the project evaluation

The situation in Colombia in terms of access to information, freedomof the media and freedom of expression was greatly affected by decades of armed conflict between the government, left-wing guerrillas
and other illegal armed groups. The signing of the peace agreement
had given rise to hope, but journalists continue to be frequently harassed and threatened when dealing with sensitive issues. Currently
the ELN, FARC dissidents and other illegal armed groups threaten
and silence alternative and community media in many parts of thecountry. In 2018, Reporters Without Borders ranked Colombia 130th
in its annual World Press Freedom Index.

The project strategy is relevant and extremely important considering the state of the media and freedom of expression and the crucial
value of historical memory. The activities address a key issue in theColombian socio-political context that remains such and regarding
which DW Akademie has a comparative advantage compared toother international cooperation actors in the country. No significant
changes requiring a redefinition of the initial hypothesis on freedomof the press and expression are detected; rather, recent changes incontext make the project in this area even more necessary. Partners also value how the project was able to address specific target
groups, themes and approaches for their local context and work.

DW Akademie focuses on supporting free and transparent media
systems, quality journalism and media and information literacy (MIL)in some 50 developing and emerging countries. DW Akademie’s
project in Colombia supports initiatives that promote the inclusionof diverse experiences in the country’s historical memory, focusing
in particular on the local effects of the peace process. In general,these initiatives are aimed at giving Colombians, mainly victims andpeople in post-conflict areas, access to human rights-related information. To this end, the project works with different implementing
partners and approaches:–– Consejo de Redacción (CdR) to develop training and journalistic
consultancy services in regions affected by armed conflict;–– the community radio station Vokaribe to strengthen the community media sector on the Atlantic coast;–– the University of Antioquia (UdeA) in Medellín, to support the establishment of an academic centre for journalism and historicalmemory, as well as the training of local media and victims of conflict to report on sensitive human rights issues;–– the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC) based in thedepartment of Cauca to promote the creation of a media centre
aimed at increasing media diversity and, in particular, the participation of indigenous minorities in public discourse, and–– FLIP, the Foundation for Press Freedom in Bogotá.
The project was evaluated along the five OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability).
For each criterion, the DW Akademie scoring system was applied. Inaddition, according to DW Akademie policy, three digital questions
were included. Gender was assessed as a cross-cutting topic.
In terms of approach and methodology, the performance evaluation and appreciative inquiry approach was adopted; mixed methods were used through a highly participatory process (desk review,field work in Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla and Cauca), as well asinterviews with the DW Akademie team in Germany and Colombia.
Throughout the process, more than 70 actors were consulted using
different primary data collection methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, in situ observation, etc.).

Relevance: In general, the project is in line with the strategies andobjectives of the implementing partners. However, the project design process was not fully participatory and there was limited familiarity by partners with the project results framework. The design ofthe project and in particular the logic of change and results framework reveal weaknesses in its conception and the application of a
results-based management approach. There is also no evidence ofa systematic inclusion of cross-cutting approaches, in particular regender; however, some unintended gender-specific results havebeen achieved. DW Akademie has an innovative and eye-catching digital strategy (launched after the formulation of the project),which should be accompanied by more support tools so that it canbe systematically operationalized by local partners. The assessmentwith regard to the Relevance criterion is “overall fulfilled”.
Effectiveness: Despite challenges relating to internal policies andprocedures, the project in general shows significant implementationachievements in giving voice to the most marginalized populationgroups in the areas of intervention; results that the planning framework and its goals fail to capture in their fullness. The strong threadof the project’s achievement seems more in line with DW Akademie’s
aims to promote freedom of expression and less with the planned
focus on historical memory, which is also related to the weaknessof the project's theory of change. In general, there is clear evidence
that problems that have arisen over the course of the project havebeen discussed openly, in particular with the country coordinator.
In addition, the project has established ad hoc alliances and collaborations with German organisations and other key actors that havecontributed to the results. However, there is room for improvement
to strengthen, expand and create new partnerships to further benefit the effectiveness of the project. The partnership with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Entwicklungshilfe, AGEH, and the benefit it hasbrought to the project, particularly in Cauca, is generally valued bystakeholders, although the precise definition of responsibilities (andaccountability) between CRIC and AGEH could be clarified further.
The diversity of the project partners represents a great opportunity
for mutual learning; at the same time, it presents challenges in ensuring the comprehensiveness and coherence of the project design
and its implementation. The assessment with regard to the criterionof Effectiveness is “overall fulfilled”.
Efficiency: In order to assess whether the activities have beencost-effective, a broader scope evaluation and greater availabilityof information by the project would have been required, mainly on
overall project financial execution. However, based on the informa-tion available, it is perceived that partners
have achieved significant results with thelimited funds they received.
The achievement of the objectives and expected results in the foreseen timeframeof the project have been hindered by thechallenges related to the governance, procedures and policies of DW Akademie. The
organization's improvement in organizing/
structuring more of its presence in-country and the progress that has been madein a relatively short period of time are valued. However, further progress is needed
to improve efficiency, i.e. through more
decentralization, increased formalizationof its presence in Colombia and greater
delegation of responsibilities (e.g. througha country office). The project benefits fromthe valuable advice and local presence of thecountry coordinator in solving problems.
However, the management and monitoringmechanisms are not formalized enough.
Partners recognize the importance of thecountry team in providing advice and guidance, and solving problems; but more constant and pro-active monitoring and regularfeedback would improve efficient and effective implementation by project partners. DW
Akademie staff has highly specialized expertise to carry out the planned work with theirpartners, which brings the organization its
comparative advantage and added value.
However, strengthening project management skills would improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of the project throughout
its growth. DW Akademie has stood out for
its ability to mobilize experts, build regional (e.g. CEPRAS-CRIC, Open Data project)and national alliances. An important role
has been played by the partners and theirproactive attitude to promoting partnerships among themselves. The project has
achieved results through the mobilization ofinternational and national expertise (including that of project partners in other Latin
American countries) in support of the implementation of grant contracts. In some cases,
these initiatives have been promoted by thehead of the regional team, in others by thecountry coordinator and in multiple cases by
the partners themselves. The assessmentwith regard to the Efficiency criterion is “partially fulfilled”.

Impact: Due to the limited scope of thisevaluation and general challenges in measuring impact, it has not been possible tocollect sufficiently solid information to givea clear answer in terms of impact that fulfills
the rigor required in an evaluation process.
The only indicator present does not provide
sufficiently reliable information. Despite theattempts made, the project does not have aclear baseline, nor a monitoring and evaluation system with indicators allowing themeasurement of changes in behavior and/or perception of its beneficiaries in a statistically reliable manner. The very nature of
the project and the complexity of measuring
the processes it aims to effect also contribute to this. However, the information-gathering process reveals promising signs interms of a possible future impact. For example, focus group participants reported
real empowerment through their Vokaribe
radio programs, being able to highlight theirconcerns and making the community morefamiliar with their lives. Young people andvictims participating in the intervention ofUdeA's “Hacemos Memoria” recognizedchanges in their behavior towards historicalmemory. On the other hand, signs of change
can be identified in the investigative journalism practices of the participants involved incapacity building at the CdR. Based on thedifficulty of assessing this criterion, the assessment with regard to Impact must be described as “partially fulfilled”.
Sustainability: The project has contributed to capacity building of its implementing
partners, who show a high level of ownership. Implementing partners recognize that
their capacities have improved thanks to thework of DW Akademie. In general, the project's effort to promote financial sustainability of implementing partners is notable; however, this line of work was not standardized
and should be strengthened. The project
has mechanisms to generate informationfrom implementing partners, but increased
systematization of promising practices andlessons learned would improve the possibility of replicating successful approaches
and experiences, as well as the visibility ofthe project’s activities. The project does nothave a clear exit strategy for its interventions. Although internal reflection on exit
strategies has been encouraged for a newphase of the project, no standardized criteria
for sustainability and an exit strategy to help
finalize the work with a partner were identified. In terms of scaling-up and replicability,
there are some experiences that have been
pointed out by partners and/or identified by
the evaluator with potential for growth or
replication in other contexts e.g. in UdeA’s
work with victims of the armed conflict in
Antioquia, where victims themselves selected the issues to be addressed, defined andco-created their own story, and produced itin cooperation with local media. Additionally, in Barranquilla, the opportunity to voice
to their own history/rights through a radio
program was a key empowerment engine
for the different human rights organizations, and stakeholders involved identified
themselves as part of the same platform, allinterested in following it up. The assessmentwith regard to the Sustainability criterion is“partially fulfilled”.

DW Akademie

is Deutsche Welle’s center forinternational media development.
As a strategic partner of the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperationand Development (BMZ), DW Akademie
carries out media development projects that strengthen the human rightto freedom of opinion and promote
free access to information.
DW Akademie also works on projects
funded by the German Foreign Oﬃce
and the European Union — in approximately 50 developing and emerging
countries.

Contact

Dr. Jan Lublinski
Head Research and Evaluation
jan.lublinski@dw.com
53113 Bonn
Germany
DWAkademie@dw_akademie
youtube.com/DWAkademie
dw-akademie.com

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 thedevelopment of future strategies.