MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive summary Ghana
Management and leadership: Analyzing project partners’
capacities and collaboration with DW Akademie

dw-akademie.com

Background
Ghana is one of the few countries inWestern Africa to have managed to establish a reasonably stable democracy (ranked
59th out of 167 countries in The Economist
Intelligence Unit's Democracy.) This is also
reflected in the relative freedom of themedia (30th place in the ROG Index 2021).
However, there are also repeated reports
from Ghana about harassment and intimidation of media representatives. Lack ofresearch, paid journalism and bias alsocharacterize reporting in Ghana. One thirdof all media outlets are state – owned orbelong to government – affiliated entrepreneurs. All of this makes it clear as towhy it is vital to work with actors in themedia and civil society to develop their
qualifications and media – related knowledge.
The DW Akademie project that is examinedin this evaluation focuses on the above
challenges. The project correspondswith DW Akademie’s strategic fields ofqualification and participation in society.

The main target groups are journalists,
young media users, representatives of
the authorities and civil society actors invarious regions of Ghana. The project objective, at outcome level, is: “The population in
selected parts of Ghana can access a better
range of media to obtain fact-based information and participate in public dialogue.”According to the project application andthree amendments, the project objective
will be achieved through three project
strands at the output level.
Output 1A: Media professionals from threeproject areas successfully complete newly
developed training courses at NAFTI.
Output 1B: Multipliers are empowered tostrengthen young people in critical thinking and use of media offers.

The project works with three project
partners and a number of cooperation
partners. For the evaluation, all threeproject partners were interviewed:– National Film and Television Institute(NAFTI)– Penplusbytes (PPB)– Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
In the wake of the COVID – 19 pandemic,
project work in Ghana naturally had tobe adjusted. Ghana had the third highest Corona infection figures in Africa inmid – 2020. With lockdown, contactrestrictions and various precautionary
measures, some activities could not be
implemented as planned. Some of thesewere postponed, but on a larger scale they
were “digitally adapted”.

Output 1C: Districts in selected administrative areas provide media and citizens
with better access to information.

Conclusions of the project evaluation
The objectives of this evaluation are:
1. Provide clarity on the management
and leadership performance of theproject partners. 2. Promote learning
among the organizations involved. Consequently, the focus of this evaluation isto analyze performance in the areas ofmanagement and leadership and how thesecontributed to the outcome of the project.
To this end, the DAC criteria for assessing
performance were implemented throughguiding questions.

Much of the project planning has alreadybeen implemented, despite challenges
posed by the COVID – 19 pandemic. The
assessment of the criteria Relevance,Coherence and Effectiveness in relation tomanagement and leadership performancereflect this, with relevance and coherence
rated as ‘comprehensively fulfilled’ andeffectiveness rated as ‘overall fulfilled’. Interventions that were carried out were ofstrategic importance and were not coveredby other actors within the media landscape.

Consequently, the focus of this evaluation
is to analyze performance in the areas ofmanagement and leadership and how thesecontributed to the outcome of the project.
To this end, the DAC criteria for assessing
performance were implemented throughguiding questions.

With such a diverse group of project
partners, it is difficult to reach all – encompassing conclusions. However, it can be said
that Efficiency was rated the lowest of all
criteria — ‘partially fulfilled’. For all project
partners, it is a challenge to increase
efficiency in their processes.

The most critical areas are the use
ofadapted
projectmanagement
software,centralizedadministrative
processes and knowledge – management.
DW Akademie should provide focused
support through a follow – up project.
With regard to the dimensions of Impact
and Sustainability, there is a need to workon organizational culture, as well as strategies, structures and processes within the
project partners’ organizations. While atleast two of the three organizations arerelatively well positioned in this respect,they should still develop a sensitive andinstitutionalized approach to topics suchas hierarchy and delegation, participationand transparency, as well as innovationand conflict – culture. Both Impact andSustainability were rated as ‘overall fulfilled’.

Average of all evaluations in the rating system
DAC criterion

Numericvalue,
averageAssessment

Comments

Relevance

4.6

Comprehensively
fulfilled

All results of the evaluation prove thatthe criterion has been met.

Coherence

5.0

Comprehensivelyfulfilled

All results of the evaluation prove thatthe criterion has been met.

Effectiveness

4.0

Overall fulfilled

Most results of the evaluation showthat the criterion has been met.

Efficiency

3.3

Partially fulfilled

The results do not show a clear
indication of whether or not the criterion has been met.

Impact3.6

Overall fulfilled

Most results from the evaluation
show that the criterion has been met.

Sustainability

4.0Overall fulfilled

Most results from the evaluation
show that the criterion has been met.

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 TDr. 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.