Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary

East Africa

Regionalization: Insights from Eastern Africa
and the Innovation Initiative

dw-akademie.com

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary East Africa

BackgroundIn the East African region, journalists and the media face significant
challenges. These include a lack ofaccess to a practice-oriented andprofessional journalistic qualificationand thus the lack of competences
to practice a high-quality standard
journalism as well as safety concerns(both online and offline) for male andfemale journalists. Additionally, challenges arise from misinformation anddisinformation (including disinformation campaigns from foreign actors),
the economic viability of media
structures, the substantial influenceof governments and religious entities
on freedom of expression, and active
repression and punishment of independent voices by governments. They
are also faced with a lack of publictrust in the media. Technologicaldevelopments have also brought
about major changes in the media
and in the way, people consume
information. The rise of connectivity
and use of social media are forcing
the media to renew themselves andjournalists to acquire new journalisticpractices to meet the growing needsof the populations whether in terms ofcontent or formats. Although digitaltechnology opens new approaches toinformation and knowledge, regionaland national disparities exist. Mostof the target populations are still
unable to fully exercise their right tofreedom of expression and their rightto access to information. This particularly affects rural populations, women,and young people. Overcoming thesechallenges must include, among otheraspects, improving the representation of women and young people inthe media and supporting accessto reliable, independent and qualityinformation that meets people’s aspirations, needs and expectations.
The objectives and priorities ofthe projects funded by the German
Ministry for Economic Cooperationand Development (BMZ) in East Africa
are as follows:(Grand Wave Consortium), which
offers its members services andadvocates for their interests.
– Establishment of a pool of media
viability consultants who can support Kenyan media in the development of sustainable businessmodels and the establishment ofquality journalism.
– With partner Code for Africa, support for media houses in the establishment of fact-checking centers.
– Support of an alumni network offormer DW Akademie training participants (minor project line).

Uganda with regional
components
Objective

Ethiopia
Objective

The Ethiopian media sector isstrengthened by establishing journalistic quality standards and by initiating a dialogue on key social issues
between the media, civil society andother reform actors.

Approach– Journalistic training program
developed with the partner Mersa
Media Institute and institutionallyanchored there.
– Implementation of an innovative
multimedia dialogue format especially for and with young people.

Kenya
Objective

Media houses in Kenya are economically viable to provide young people
and women in particular with (digital)
reliable, relevant information.

Approach– Support for the establishment of anassociation for local radio stations
2

Media professionals, activists andinnovators in Uganda and the East
African region are putting the concerns of vulnerable groups (especiallypeople in rural areas and women) on
the public agenda.

Approach– Country component Uganda(“Uplifting Community Voices”):– Strengthening local reporting– Promoting community dialogues
on public service issues initiatedby media professionals with civilsociety and decision-makers.
– Regional component in Tanzania(“Mind the Gap”): Combating online
gender-based violence.
– Regional component in Uganda,Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia(Innovation Initiative “(Re)ClaimingSpaces”): Improving rural women’s
access to relevant information andparticipation in social discourses
through innovative and co-creatively developed approaches.
The evaluation is the third evaluation
cycle for the projects under review,
except for Ethiopia, for which it was
the first evaluation. The previous

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary East Africa

evaluations were per country andapplied all six OECD-DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, coherence,effectiveness, efficiency, impact andsustainability). This evaluation effort,
however, used a regional approachand for greater focus, assessed theprojects only on selected evaluation
criteria, namely:– Country projects (without regionalcomponents) were assessedin terms of relevance andeffectiveness.
– The regional components wereassessed in terms of relevance,coherence, and efficiency.

The relevance of the projects has
been fully confirmed in all countries.
DW Akademie has invested in analyses, research and longer-term partnerships. These assets are highly valuedby partners in the different countries
and enable this level of relevance.

EffectivenessOverall, in terms of effectiveness,
all projects are on track to achieve
or even exceed the targeted resultsby the end of the implementation
period. The effectiveness criterion for the Ethiopia and Kenya­projects was overall fulfilled; forthe Uganda project and its regional
components it was comprehensively fulfilled. Important elements
for the high-­quality results are theimplementation competence of theDW Akademie project teams, theexcellent knowledge of the country
context and the selection of suitable partners. During the interviewson site, the partners mentioned

The evaluation included a mission
to Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda andused a mix of qualitative methods(desk review, online and face-to-faceinterviews). The results of the evaluation were discussed in an onlinechange workshop.

structural problems, but this has led
to additional work. In Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania, the projects emerged
from earlier projects, which makes
cooperation more predictable forthe partners.

Evaluation
results
Relevance

Methodological approach

The well-thought-out piloting andscaling-up approach of the regional
components justifies the very good
assessment of their efficiency.

the following positive points inparticular:– DW Akademie’s expertise in organizational development and supportingchange makers over the long-term;– Its holistic approach to media
development;– The quality of its instruments andmethods (e.g. Human-CenteredDesign, J-Sprint);– The focus on quality rather thanvolume;– The level of commitment of solution-oriented teams, and the qualityof communication with partners
who often feel free to express­constructive criticism.

Efficiency

The relatively slow contractual­management and the bureaucratic,
sometimes, cumbersome administrative processes are negative
salient points on which partners
are unanimous. The project teams
have tried to compensate for these3

Coherence

Regarding the coherence of theregional components: Even though
they were not designed with theintention of strong integration withthe country projects, there is a certain
degree of complementarity with theother project lines due to the relationships and synergies with actors inexisting and past projects.

Lessons learned
about regional
approaches
Today, DW Akademie’s projects inEast Africa are generally based on acountry logic. Shared challenges inthe various countries make it worthwhile to reflect on the usefulness ofregional approaches.
The evaluation shows that the current
high-quality results are largely due

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary East Africa

to good knowledge of the country
context, close partner relationships
and strong local implementation of
the projects with project staff on
the ground. This applies equally to
projects that are formulated from acountry or regional perspective.
The implementation of regional
approaches is often more cumbersome
and complex in terms of coordination, logistics, contract management,
dealing with language barriers, managing partner relationships, high-quality
local implementation and much more.
Creating synergies between countries
and partners does not happen by itself.
It therefore often requires a greater
investment of resources.

DW Akademie needs to define firstwhat it means by a regional approach.
In an intuitive and unstructured way,certain initiatives (sharing of knowledge, approaches and tools), networking with partners at a regional level,deploying and adapting approaches
that have worked in one country toanother etc., already show forms ofcollaboration beyond the geographicalperimeters of each country.
Based on the potential identified in
the various projects, three main avenues could be explored:– Rolling out what has worked in one
country to other countries in thesame region and sometimes scaling
up the concepts;– Formulating and deploying new
projects on a regional scale, with astrong commitment to coherence
and coordination;– Supporting DW Akademie partners
in their vision of implementing projects in more than one country.
Each of these avenues will requireinternal organization of teams, coordination and communication processes,
budgetary and financial decisions(amounts, breakdown, tools used),management of challenges in terms oftime management (project duration),adjustments of certain administrative
tools and processes, and definition ofpartnership strategies.

Selected recommendations
Overarching topics

1.

DW Akademie has helped tobring partner organizationsto a certain level of maturity.
DW Akademie should now reachthe “next level” of partnership with some partners – i.e.
consider them more as equal,
strategic partners with whom it
jointly seeks the acquisition of
third-party funding and designs
and implements projects.

2. One of DW Akademie’s

strong points is to structurally
strengthen organizations in themedia sector. Furthermore, it has
effective methods and project
management tools, especially forco-creative processes with partners. DW Akademie should use
this expertise to work together

with other media development
actors who do not have thesame expertise.

3. Activity-based funding alone

does not strengthen media
houses’ viability. DW Akademie
should allocate part of its
budget for direct structural­support, aiding long-term viability. This includes funding equipment for revenue generation orco-funding rent, salaries, andboard meetings.

4. The administrative support

functions of DW Akademie haveinternal procedures which arecumbersome, complex and slow.
This situation is compensatedfor by project teams, which adds
to the workload and pressure
on these teams. DW Akademie

4needs to fundamentally review
and improve these internal
processes to make them more
efficient and less time consuming, so that the teams are nolonger the adjustment variables
for these dysfunctions.

5. DW Akademie should design

a repository for knowledge
exchange to record approaches,
methods, project designs, learning experiences and contacts
from its projects implemented
in various countries and makethem available beyond theorganization.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary East Africa

Regional approaches
in general

6. DW Akademie should internallyagree on definitions for regionalapproaches. For each definition,
it should clarify the objective,
conditions favoring a regional
over a country approach, and theimplications for staffing, steering
structure, and the physical location of the regional team.

7.

A successful regional project
depends on effective local
implementation with local partners, requiring strong coordination between regional and country project teams. DW Akademie
should define responsibilities
and align workload with the budget. Processes for communication, steering, contract management, and financing should bereviewed and adjusted if needed.
Additionally, adequate time forinternal team building and partner coordination is essential.

Country project Ethiopia

8. Considering the successfulorganizational development of
its partner Mersa Media Institute(MMI), which is recognized as areference point in the Ethiopian
media sector, DW Akademie
should diversify its partners andapply its organizational development approach to other media
organizations or CSOs in Ethiopia.

skills among media associations to support the formation ofmedia coalitions.

10. If additional funding can be

secured for the coming years,
the project line on Media andJournalism Education (MJE)should be continued, considering the practical recommendations participants gave asfeedback.

Country project Kenya

11. Given the strong demand frommedia houses for such support
in media viability, the pool of
trained media viability consultants should be deployed very
ambitiously in Kenya and theEast African region.

12. DW Akademie should support

the introduction of the innovative concepts for journalism andnewsrooms jointly developedwith Code for Africa to variousorganizations, beyond Kenya.

13. Building on the dynamic of theKenyan Alumni network, it could
be a good idea to extend thisnetwork to anglophone Africa
and bring together competentmedia practitioners.

9. In the context of a highly polar-

ized media sector and theopenness of Ethiopian authorities to engage in dialogue withthe media, DW Akademie shouldengage in developing advocacy

5Country project Uganda
without regional
components

14. Uplifting Community Voices

is a very valuable (relevant andeffective) project that should
be continued and expanded toother regions in Uganda.

Regional components
located in the Uganda
project

15. The regional project Mind theGap has addressed major andrelevant issues in East Africa, andthe pilot in Tanzania has beenvery successful. DW Akademie
should therefore scale this­project at a regional level.

16. The Innovation Initiative “(Re)Claiming Spaces” has potential
but would need further support.
DW Akademie should therefore
identify stakeholders willing andable to co-finance and jointly
implement the next editions of
the Innovation Initiative.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary East Africa

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.

ContactDr. 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.