Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary

Displacement
and Crisis
Preparedness© MdAminul – stock.adobe.com

Refugee media: Improving communication andresilience in displacement contexts in Africa

dw-akademie.com

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Displacement and Crisis Preparedness

Background
Africa is heavily affected by conflicts, natural disasters and complex­crises — and therefore by displacement. According to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), 110 million people worldwide had fled or been displaced inJune 2023, almost a third of them in
sub-Saharan Africa. Most of them areminors. The consequences of climatechange, the COVID-19 pandemic
and the war in Ukraine have further
increased the pressure on vulnerable
groups in many places.
Refugees and internally displaced
persons in Kakuma (Kenya), Gambella(Ethiopia), Kigoma (Tanzania), Uganda
and Burkina Faso usually have noaccess to reliable information and are
not involved in decision-making processes to deal with the crises affecting them. For many of those affected,
radio, print or online media are notavailable. This makes it difficult forthem to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Local journalists
find it difficult to get into the refugee
camps. If they do, they usually publish
their content in languages that thoseaffected do not understand.
DW Akademie’s regional ­project“Displacement and Crisis Pre­
paredness,” funded by the German
Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ), is being
implemented over a period of three
years from January 2022 to December
2024 in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia,
Uganda and Burkina Faso. The evaluation took place in the final year of
the project. Two project lines serve

the objective of providing people
affected by displacement with better
access to relevant information andenabling their participation in decision-making in order to better copewith the crises that affect them.
In project line A, the project establishes target group-oriented andcontext-specific communication,
information and dialogue services inand around camps and settlements
for refugees and internally displaced persons in Kenya, Tanzania,
Ethiopia, Uganda and Burkina Faso.
DW Akademie trains residents to
prepare information in languages
that the target groups understandand to disseminate it through accessible channels. The local project
teams collect feedback from thoseaffected and pass it on to humanitarian organizations so that they can
optimize their services. By improving
access to information and dialogue,
people affected by displacement
have better opportunities to participate in the design of support services in their living environment. In
the crisis preparedness project line(B), the project has created a digitalcrisis risk assessment tool for comparative analyses of the situationdifferent countries. DW Akademie
has created a media landscapeguide for Kenya and will support theestablishment of a national network
for the coordination of crisis communication in Malawi. The evaluation
includes organizations in Kenya,
Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia withwhich DW Akademie works as project
implementing or cooperation partner.
2

The evaluation is based on
DW Akademie’s standards for planning and conducting evaluations inaccordance with the OECD/DAC
criteria. The aim was to gain additional information for DW Akademie
from the evaluations that would be
helpful for the strategy developmentof follow-up projects. The development of the specific questions within
the framework of the OECD/DAC criteria was based on the prioritizationof the evaluation carried out by the
project team. A range of qualitativeand quantitative methods were used
to evaluate the project. In order toprovide robust evidence of results, atheory-based approach (e.g. contribution analysis) was chosen for theevaluation.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Displacement and Crisis Preparedness

EffectivenessProject­evaluation
results
Relevance

The project’s objective is “People
affected by displacement have better
access to relevant information andcan participate in decision-making toaddress the crises affecting them.”
This is in line with the objectives andguidelines of the BMZ and the implementing organization (DW Akademie)
and with international and national
norms and standards to which
German development cooperation iscommitted. The development measure aims to solve the core problems
that are of developmental significance for the target groups. The final
beneficiaries are people affected byforced displacement. The objectiveof the project corresponds to thegreatest need, but also the greatest
potential for change in the strategic
field of social participation. Various
stakeholders described the highrelevance of the project for the target
groups through the development ofmulti-directional communication. The
project makes an important contribution to gender equality by addressing
and implementing gender aspects
with partners and target groups. The
relevance of the regional approachfor the target groups became clear
through the regional manifestationof displacement, the multi-ethnicity
in the camps and the influence thatcrises in the different countries haveon each other. The relevance criterion
is rated as “comprehensively fulfilled.”

Coherence

The regional measures are closely
coordinated with the activities of
DW Akademie in the individual
countries of the region (internal
coherence). The project measures arecompatible with those of internationalorganizations that work primarily
in a humanitarian context, and thecoordination and cooperation mechanisms that have been set up function excellently (external coherence).
Cooperation with the UNHCR in
particular is described by all actors
involved as very good and is seen
as complementary and irreplaceable for the work of the humanitarianorganizations with the target groups.
Without exception, all actors involved
described the collaboration as very
efficient and effective and described
it as an opportunity to provide theaffected target groups with better
access to relevant information and topromote their own initiative in developing solutions. In this way, a highdegree of alignment between theobjectives of the partner organizations and the project can be achieved.
The coherence criterion is rated as“comprehensively fulfilled.”
3

It is expected that the target valuesof the indicators at outcome andoutput level will largely be achievedby the end of the project term. Theinternal factors that influence theachievement of objectives include a
coherent strategy, a professional andhighly motivated project team as well
as experienced and reliable project
partners. Based on information needs
analyses in the previous project, theproject was able to develop target
group and problem-oriented offers
and proposed solutions. External
factors include the political contexts in the countries and the region,and the effects of global crises (e.g.
consequences of climate change,
war in Ukraine). As part of the ­project,considerations are continuously
being made together with the partnerorganizations as to which approaches
could be continued, expanded anddeveloped (e.g. implementation of
the MIL concept, expansion of the
feedback mechanism). The topic
of crisis prevention is considered
to have great potential and a very
promising future. Unintended effects
are not ­systematically recorded in
the project’s M&E processes, but the
do-no-harm approach is pursued to
avoid negative effects. Participatory
approaches are used intensively incooperation with the project partners and other local partners and arehighly valued by the partners. The
different needs of women and men
were considered in the selection of
instruments and their implementation.
The effectiveness criterion is rated as“overall fulfilled.”

Efficiency

The targets will be achieved within
the planned timeframe (by December2024). The efficiency gains of theregional project compared to ­projects
in individual countries can be
attributed to various factors. These
include the project team’s high level

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Displacement and Crisis Preparednessof technical expertise in the fieldof displacement and migration, theregional orientation, which follows thenature of the displacement context(cross-border and caused by regional
conflicts), and regional expertise tounderstand the context and work ina target group-oriented manner. The
members of the project team complement each other’s expertise andconstantly exchange informationand experiences. Approaches andprocedures are similar in the different countries; experiences can beeasily transferred and adapted, andknowledge is transferred efficiently.
The crisis preparedness project linewith the development of the analysis
tool has a high regional significanceand the potential to be used in a wide
variety of conflict areas. The monitoring concept is described by all project
partners as efficient and participatory,
and M&E is seen as a joint task witha good division of responsibilities
and tasks. The DW Akademie project

can be confirmed as highly cost-efficient with careful use of resources.
The efficiency criterion is rated as“­comprehensively fulfilled.”

Impact

The impact of the regional project isdemonstrable or can be expected at
all levels (regional, national, local).
The practical work with the partnerorganizations and the cooperation
with humanitarian organizations has an
impact at local level in all participating countries. At national and regional
level, the project acts more strongly
as a media development organization
and achieves impacts through advice
in the advocacy sector. The regional
approach makes it possible to successfully establish concepts structurally. This helps to convince more andmore stakeholders of the importanceof information and communication
work in the context of displacement
and ultimately to achieve a greater say
for refugees and internally displaced

Results ofregional
approaches
Using the example of the regional
displacement and crisis preparedness
project, the evaluation concludes that
regional approaches are useful andtargeted to respond to the strategic
and substantive challenges in the
East Africa and Burkina Faso region.

Regional exchange, comparison andtransfer opportunities make regional
projects more effective and increase
their relevance for the target groups.
The regional approach enables a
response to current conflicts andhumanitarian emergencies that4

persons through the implementationof the concepts. Based on a wealthof anecdotal evidence (examples andsuccess stories) collected in interviews
and FGDs with all participants, as wellas annual and evaluation reports fromthe partners and feedback from thetarget groups, the evaluation concludes that the project has contributed
to impacts that enable better accessto information and the development of
personal initiative and have a positive
influence on the living conditions of
the beneficiaries. Impact measurementwith regard to overarching development goals is not very pronounced
in the project’s monitoring system,
but trends can be recognized andareas identified in which the projectcontributes to medium and shortterm impacts, and relevant projectcontributions at the beneficiary levelcan be plausibly assumed. Particularattention is paid to vulnerable population groups. The impact criterion isassessed as “overall fulfilled.”

are not limited to local contexts. In
regional projects in the context ofdisplacement, the focus is on knowledge transfer and the establishmentof communication structures rather
than the development of sustainable structures. The division of work
areas between humanitarian actors,
the DW Akademie project and local
project partners as implementers
increases the efficiency of the measure in terms of the use of funds.
Efficiency gains can also be attributed
to the personnel structure of theregional project. Regional projects
are particularly relevant for the target
groups, as information about services
in the country of residence is vitalfor them, but they also need to be
informed about the situation in theircountries of origin and cross-border
movements to be able to make decisions, such as whether to return.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Displacement and Crisis Preparedness

Selected lessons learned
1.

The disadvantage of women,
girls and other vulnerable groups(such as people with disabilities)
due to socio-cultural factors
can be observed in the various
refugee communities, but also
in the host communities. The­project has firmly anchored gender and vulnerability aspects in
its strategy and implementation
concepts. The project’s strategy
and implementation are a good
example of how particularly vulnerable groups can be supported
and gender equality promotedeven in crisis situations and in anenvironment characterized byhumanitarian support.

2. The project complements andsupports the initiative of the participating target groups, including the partner organizations, toa high degree. DW Akademie has
gained the necessary experience
to support project partners insetting up information programs.
This is the lever for promoting
constructive dialogue between
refugees, host communities andsupporters.

3. The regional project works at

the interface between media
development and humanitarian
support. This gives it uniqueselling points. Numbers of refugees and displaced persons are
increasing, and the needs anddemand are high. The regional
project has developed customized methods and instruments
and has a great deal of potential to respond to these needs.
Accordingly, the scope of the
project (but also of other similar
projects) could be expanded andcharacterize a new business areafor DW Akademie.

4. The topic of crisis preparedness

has a promising future and is a
new field at DW Akademie. The
associated tool was piloted by
the project and has the potential
to offer benefits for many projects and users. The results of thecrisis-specific analyses could be
used in various crisis scenarios.

Selected recommendations
1.

The evaluator recommends
paying more attention to impact
monitoring and qualitative
aspects in the M&E processes.
This should go hand in hand withsensitizing the M&E experts at
the implementing partners (asthey usually have direct accessto the data and results). Casestudies, personal stories andgood examples can illustrateproject successes and increase
the visibility of the project.

2. In the next phase of the project,

up-to-date information needs
analyses should be prepared forall participating countries. The
existing analyses are already five

years old and no analysis has
yet been prepared for Uganda.
Up-to-date analyses provide asound basis for target group-­oriented implementation.

3. In cooperation with UNHCR, astronger commitment to arriving
refugees in the arrival centers of
the camps would be possible/
necessary to enable them tointegrate quickly. A corresponding pilot project was developedand implemented in Kakuma,
Kenya, and could be expanded
regionally.

5

4. Numerous stakeholders fromthe partner organizations andtarget groups consider a stronger regional exchange between
the participating countries tobe effective for their regionally oriented work. Information
events, exchange platforms
and project visits to the otherteams are considered suitablefor exchanging experiences andinformation, learning from good
examples and discussing solutions together.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary Displacement and Crisis Preparedness

DW Akademie
is Deutsche Welle’s center for international media development, journalism
training and knowledge transfer. Our projects strengthen the human right tofreedom of expression and unhindered access to information. DW Akademie
empowers people worldwide to make independent decisions based on reliablefacts and constructive dialogue.
DW Akademie is a strategic partner of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development. We also receive funding fromthe Federal Foreign Office and the European Union and are active in around70 developing countries and emerging economies.

Contact
Dr. Laura Moore
Head of Research and Evaluation
laura.moore@dw.com
dwakademie
dw_akademie
DWAkademie

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.