MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive summary Moldova
Critical perspectives on media content:
Media and Information Literacy in Moldova

dw-akademie.com

Background
The objectives of the external evaluation were to assess the performance of the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) project inMoldova against key parameters, including the project's relevance,effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and its strengths
and weaknesses, to provide DW Akademie and its implementing
partners with a professional assessment of achievements and toadvance recommendations for future similar actions.
The project evaluation was guided by the OECD/DAC criteria. The
sampling framework consulted during the field mission included 91
project stakeholders representing: children, teachers, youth media
producers, implementing partners, DW Akademie project team, authors of media literacy manuals, DW Akademie country coordinatorsin Georgia and Ukraine, and representatives of: MoE, German Embassy, and other media literacy actors.

Conclusions of the project evaluation
Relevance: The evaluation concluded that the project is highly relevant in the national context of Moldova and it is in line with the mission of DW Akademie and with the strategic priorities of the BMZ.
It involved the requisite thematic state and non-state actors (MoE,primary and secondary schools, State Pedagogical University “IonCreanga” and key implementing partners IJC, CMT and BAS TV). An
analysis of the relevance shows that the initial intervention logic of
the project was consistent and coherent, i.e. there is logic between
the planned activities and expected results. The project is measurable with a set of performance indicators and targets. However, theproject design mostly incorporated quantitative indicators and lessqualitative ones. The “digital aspects” were not reflected in the project design, but were actively mainstreamed in the project implementation and reporting. The criterion Relevance therefore is rated as“overall fulfilled”.
Effectiveness: DW Akademie and its implementation partners fulfilled the commitments assumed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the MoE. Thus, MIL is integrated in the Moldovan educational system, particularly in the primary and secondary
levels, and is one of the 17 optional disciplines. The desk review andthe field mission consultations with the schoolchildren, both younger and older, revealed that they have increased their media literacy
levels and have expanded their media knowledge and skills as a result of the practical projects and hands-on lessons and workshops
delivered by the teachers and the implementing partners. The project also strengthened the media literacy of the young people from
Chisinau, although there is no available information on the extent towhich the disadvantaged or people from remote areas benefitted
from the project. This represents a failing of design and data collection aspects rather than performance-related ones and should betackled in the future.

The hackathon proved to be a good platform for launching the startup MIL ideas. It raised great interest, bringing together about 40
participants who benefitted from a unique experience and learned
new, innovative approaches on media production shared by Moldovan and German media producers and experts.
As for the youth media production, it represents one of the key
strengths of the MIL Project, likewise the Media Literacy disciplinein schools. The young people from Chisinau and Basarabeasca
overachieved the target (40) and produced 63 youth TV programsin Romanian and Russian, broadcast nationwide via public service
broadcasters — a great illustration of their active involvement in
the initiatives for the promotion of media literacy. The project did
not plan and the young people were not involved in monitoring
and assessing the effects of their TV programs on the audience,
which represents a potential development intervention for thenext phase.
The project established and maintained systematic communication and information sharing with the key national implementation
partners, but communication and information sharing with theinternational development stakeholders presents a mixed picture.
On the one hand, the project cooperated with Internews on thehackathon and on TTTs (train-the-trainers) for MIL teachers; on theother hand, it seems to have been insufficient and in the future amore consistent interaction is needed. Overall, the Effectivenesscriterion is assessed as “comprehensively fulfilled”.
Efficiency: The findings show that the project was implemented
according to the initial schedule, without significant delays. The expertise and financial resources invested for the key project interventions were adequate and mostly sufficient in terms of reaching theplanned results of the project. The Efficiency criterion is assessed as“overall fulfilled”.
Impact: Generally, the impact level performance requires moretime, and coherent and consistent interventions, and therefore it is
too soon to be able to assess with any accuracy the long-term results. However, given the findings of the evaluation, it can be preliminarily concluded that the project contributed to the enabling of its
main target group — young people and children from Moldova — toadequately assess media information by increasing their media literacy levels. Alongside children and young people, adults also increased also their overall media literacy, particularly Moldovan MIL
teachers, as a result of seminars and didactical materials deliveredby the project. The support for youth media production, promotionof MIL, the international expertize delivered by the project and capacity strengthening for project partners increased the visibilityof MIL in Moldova, energized the young people and boosted theirparticipation in the media literacy initiatives. They also positively impacted the “modus operandi” of both implementing partners (CMTand BAS TV) and improved the quality of media output, e.g. YouthTV Programs.

Two actions were identified as having generated the highest impact:1) The Trolless application — a digital tool tohelp identify fake, i.e. troll profiles on Facebook and isolate disinformation sources, developed by a group of young social activists
from Moldova and supported by the project through the hackathon — which raised
public interest in the country, generated areaction within Government and led to theremoval of 68 Facebook accounts, 28 pages
and eight Instagram accounts by the Facebook Corporation; and2) Mainstreaming MIL as an optional discipline in the education system at primary andsecondary levels and in the State Pedagogical University “Ion Creanga” as mandatory
modular topics within the different disciplines.
Both project achievements have significant
transformational potential via their impact
on a great number of children, youth, andcurrent and future teachers. The questionthat remains open is: How many schools,teachers, parents and young people will
select the available optional MIL discipline?
The Impact is rated as “overall fulfilled”.
Sustainability: In terms of the likelihood ofsustaining the benefits of the project, theevaluation concluded that, generally, thesustainability prospects of the project’sachievements are very good. The project

was geared towards influencing the existing education policy of the country by mainstreaming media literacy. The media literacy curriculum developed by the projectexperts and approved by the MoE derives
its long-lasting sustainability prospects
from the fact that it was introduced as anoptional discipline for an undefined periodof time. The same is valid in the case of themainstreamed media literacy topics in theeducational curricula of the Pedagogical
University. The policy sustainability is also
illustrated in terms of political will of the national education policy maker.
In terms of institutional and financial sustainability, the institutional development actions, e.g. provision of TV equipment, TTTs
and tailored MIL training, strengthened thethematic capacity of the implementation
partners; they learned interactive methods of teaching media literacy, improved
media literacy production and promotion
and developed a thematic webpage. Theseachievements have some promising sustainability prospects, not least because they
led to the identification of new partnerships
and the development of follow-up projects
as mentioned in the final evaluation report.
The Sustainability criterion is rated as “comprehensively fulfilled”.

DW Akademie

is Deutsche Welle’s center forinternational media development.
As a strategic partner of the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and 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 Officeand the European Union — in approximately 50 developing and emerging
countries.

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