Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive SummaryWest Africa

Regionalization: Insights from West Africa
and the Innovation Initiative

dw-akademie.com

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

Ghana

BackgroundIn the West Africa region,
DW Akademie works in Burkina Faso
(BF) (with regional components in
Niger and Mali), Côte d’Ivoire (CI) andGhana. In addition to this, the regional
Innovation Initiative is currently inthe pilot phase in these countries aswell as in Senegal. While the contexts in the countries are different,
they share similar challenges. Many
media in the region are underfunded,and some media owners (politicians)
abuse the media in their own interests. Opportunities for training andqualifications in the sector are still
not sufficient. At the same time, more
and more people are gaining accessto information outside the traditional
media via mobile technologies,
while a large part of these countries’
populations lack a critical approach
to media content. This is accompanied by an increase in different
types of fake news, propaganda andhate speech. Journalists who report
critically are often persecuted andfreedom of expression is generally
restricted in the region. This is particularly true in BF, Mali and Niger,
where the military has seized power.
The economic and social situation in
the region is tense, partly as a resultof the war in Ukraine and the COVID19 pandemic. The region is severely
affected by the consequences ofclimate change. In the Sahel zone, thepopulation is also suffering from thepoor security situation due to terrorism. This creates a breeding groundfor migration towards Europe andmanipulation, which is reflected in
an increasing “anti-Western” attitude
among the population.

The project “Freedom of Expression
and Media Development in Africa”
funded by the German Ministry
for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (BMZ) aims to provide
the population with reliable information to enable people to participate insocial, political and economic discourse and thus contribute to stability,
security, growth and equal opportunities. The funding period runs fromJanuary 2022 to December 2024. The
country projects and the Innovation
Initiative contribute to the overall­project objective.

Burkina Faso
In Burkina Faso, the project with its
regional components in Niger andMali has the overall goal: “Media andcivil society organizations create aregional network and enable the participation of disadvantaged population groups in public discourse.” It has
a journalistic (fact-checking, conflictsensitive journalism, inclusive dialogues) and a MIL component.

Côte d’Ivoire
In Côte d’Ivoire, the project is being
implemented with the intended goal:“Media and civil society organizations
create spaces for critical handlingof information and the reduction ofsocial tensions.” The project has a
MIL component and an innovation for
dialogue component.

2

In Ghana, the project is being implemented with the two components
MIL and investigative journalism.
The intended goal is: “Media NGOs
provide sustainable structures andtraining courses to teach MIL andfact-checking skills to multipliers
and media professionals in orderto strengthen an independent
media sector.”
The aim of the regional project “MIL
Connections” is to strengthen theinnovative capacity of the media andcivil society to promote freedom of
expression for disadvantaged groups.
The West Africa Innovation Initiativeis led by the CI team and is identicalto project line 3 of the CI country
project, which has the aim to build aregional network and produce innovative MIL pilot projects. The participants in the Innovation Initiative
are not the partner organizations but
individuals identified by the partnersof the country projects working in thefield of MIL.
The evaluation is based on
DW Akademie’s standards for evaluations in accordance with the OECD/
DAC criteria. The evaluation focuseson the concept of regionalization(Innovation Initiative) rather than on
the individual country projects. The
criteria assessed for the regional
project were relevance, efficiency andcoherence in relation to the country
projects. The criteria for the country projects were effectiveness andcoherence in relation to the regional
project. The design of the evaluationmeans that the country projects inparticular were not comprehensively
assessed. The evaluation results
provide an insight into the extent towhich the outputs were achieved, theextent to which the indicators reflect
the impact logic and whether they arecoherent with the regional project.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

The evaluation method included
analysis of internal and external documents, collection of data (qualitativeand quantitative) using individualinterviews and questionnaires, visits

to partner organizations, observationsof the evaluators, review of someproject products, and field missions to
Ouagadougou, Abidjan and Accra.

Evaluation
results
Innovation
Initiative
Relevance

The goal and approach of theInnovation Initiative are in line withthe objectives of the donor BMZ
and the implementing organization
DW Akademie. The focus on MIL/EMI
aims to empower the population to
distinguish verified information fromdifferent types of fake news and/or
hate speech and to make people’s
voices heard. This is particularly
important for disadvantaged groups(young people, women, IDPs, disabled
people) in order to participate in political, social and economic decisions.
In view of the political upheavals in
the region and the threat of terrorism, MIL helps to reduce the risk ofmanipulation of the population andtherefore to contribute to stability anddemocracy. As MIL is a transnational
topic, products and approaches canbe developed to be used throughout
the region. The assessment of the criterion relevance is “comprehensively
fulfilled.”

Coherence

The regional Innovation Initiative is led
by the Côte d’Ivoire team. The managers of the other country teams are
informed about the initiative and kept
up to date on an ongoing basis. There
are synergies between the Innovation
Initiative and the country projects, particularly in the area of knowledge sharing and contacts, as both can be usedmutually in the Innovation Initiativeand in the country projects. However,the partner organizations and the
local DW Akademie project responsible were not generally included in the
Innovation Initiative. The participantsin the Innovation Initiative were individuals selected by the partner organization. The leaders of the regional
project declared that knowledge wasshared with the partner organizationaccording to what the participants of
the regional project said. However,it was not systematically tracked
whether the participants transferred
the knowledge they gained to theorganization or which knowledge theytransferred and in what quality. Thosepartner organizations not working in
MIL were not officially informed about
the Innovation Initiative, which led toconfusion. During the introduction of3

the participative approach HumanCentred Design little attention was
paid to assessing potential side
effects, for example, in situations whentrained participants meet cooperation
partners who tend to behave hierarchically. The idea of the Innovation
Initiative did not come from the stakeholders or from the population in the
countries themselves, it was requested
by BMZ and proposed by the higher
management of DW Akademie. The
assessment of the coherence criterion
for the Innovation Initiative is “partially
fulfilled.”

Efficiency

As the Innovation Initiative is a pilot
project, a great deal of administrationand communication by DW Akademie
was required to create the five new
products. Workshops with participants from several countries are
cost-intensive, as flights have to be
paid for in addition to accommodation and meals. Furthermore, costs fortranslators were incurred because theparticipants came from francophone
and anglophone countries and theirlanguage skills were not sufficient tocommunicate. At the time of the evaluation, it was unclear whether, how,where and with what effort the fivepilot products will be implemented.
However, adapting the products foreach country’s context and language
and maintaining the network will
incur additional costs. The potential
strength of the regional approach liesin the five newly created products,
the possible long-term duration of
the now established network and in
the possibility of finding common
solutions for similar problems andimplementing these, adapted to theDW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

respective context in the individual
countries (scaling). There are no
estimates of the costs for productadaptations or maintaining the network. It is advisable to think about aqualitative cost-benefit analysis thattakes into account sustainability andmonitors the impact level in order tomeasure the benefits and estimate
the impact of the project. The assessment of the efficiency criterion is“partially fulfilled.”

Country ­projectand regional
components
Burkina Faso
EffectivenessOf the project’s total of eight indicators, four will not be fully achieved.
The reasons for this are budget limits
due to increasing prices and costs.
The consequences of the COVID-19
pandemic and the war in Ukraine
had a generally negative impact
on costs. In addition, the security
situation (terrorism) and the political situation following the military
coup in Burkina Faso are extremely
challenging. On the positive side, theevaluation notes the establishmentof the well-regarded fact-checking center Fasocheck, the positive
outcome of dialogue initiatives of thecommunity radios and the productionof MIL modules for disadvantaged
people. The high level of commitment shown by most stakeholders
and the high degree of flexibility on
the part of the partner organizations,the DW Akademie representatives in
the country and the project management team in Germany facilitated thecooperation. The project management team points out one especially
positive side effect. Following theinclusive dialogue events hosted
by the community radio stations in
the IDP camps, projects were set up
which foster cooperation between
IDPs and the local population.
Nevertheless, stronger monitoring of
the country project’s impact level isneeded in order to better understandits long-term impact. A hurdle within
the project is DW Akademie’s challenging administration, which leads
to frustration among many stakeholders. The indicators of the project
are merely quantitative and do notgive much insight into the qualityof the products/activities or the
project’s overall impact. The assessment of the effectiveness criterion is“­partially fulfilled.”

Coherence

The evaluation was mainly focused on
the coherence between the regional
and the country project. Therefore, thestatements in the chapter Innovation
Initiative/coherence also apply here.
Seven participants from Burkina Faso
and its regional component took partin the Innovation Initiative and were
therefore involved in the exchange ofknowledge and creation of the network. In BF, the product “caravane del’espoir” was piloted, which is aimed
at MIL sensitizing of IDPs. The experience gained with the regional component of the BF country project could
be helpful for the further design of theInnovation Initiative. This requires thepartner organizations to be structurally involved. The assessment of thecoherence criterion for Burkina Faso
is “partially fulfilled.”Côte d’Ivoire
EffectivenessOf the project’s 11 indicators, one
indicator will not be fully achieved.
The reasons for this are the rise incosts and high inflation which arepartly caused by the consequences of4

the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The number of dialogue events had
to be reduced due to the increase incosts. However, more participants
than expected attended the individual
events, meaning that more participants were sensitized than initiallyassumed. All in all, one can note thatthe objectives of the MIL component
are fulfilled. The activities of thecomponent “Innovation for dialogue”
will most probably also be fulfilledby the end of the year with a focus
on dialogues about sensitive topics
and dialogues with and for women.
Participants reported that the dialogue activities worked to increase
their self-confidence and helped themto express their needs. The assessment of the effectiveness criterion for
Côte d’Ivoire is “overall fulfilled.”

Coherence

The evaluation was mainly focused on
the coherence between the regional
and the country project. Therefore, thestatements in the chapter Innovation
Initiative/coherence also apply here.
Four participants from CI were represented at the Innovation Initiative
and were able to take part in theknowledge exchange. In addition, twoco-trainers were trained in the participative methodology Human Centred
Design. They took over the training
independently during the project’s
three workshops and were coached
by DW Akademie’s consultant. The
products “EMI Lab” (sensitizationof young people in politics and civilsociety) and “Cin’EMI” (analysis offilms regarding fake news and disinformation) were piloted in CI. On
the level of the country project, theabove-mentioned challenges concerning DW Akademie’s administration have a negative influence on theprinciple of equal partnership. The
assessment of the coherence criterion
Côte d’Ivoire is “partially fulfilled.”DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

Ghana
EffectivenessOf the project’s total of seven indicators, one indicator will not be fulfilled.
The reasons for this are increased
costs/high inflation due to the consequences of the pandemic and the war
in Ukraine, and the fact that for one
specific activity (data lab) the expertise and the technical capacity are
currently not fully available in Ghana.
On the positive side, the evaluation
notes the successful establishmentof the investigative journalism initiative “The Fourth Estate, “which ishosted by the Media Foundation forWest Africa (MFWA). Furthermore, thepartner organization Penplusbytes
could be strengthened in terms oforganizational development whichfacilitates its core work, sensitizationin the MIL sector. The high level ofcommitment and the high degree of
flexibility of the partner organizations
and DW Akademie’s representatives
in the country and the management
team in Germany effectively facilitate
the cooperation. The assessment of
the effectiveness criterion Ghana is“overall fulfilled.”

Coherence

The evaluation was mainly focusedon the coherence between theregional and the country project.
Therefore, the statements in thechapter Innovation Initiative/coherence also apply here. Four participants from Ghana were involved in
the Innovation Initiative and wereable to take part in the knowledge
exchange. According to many
participants, the MIL knowledge ofcolleagues from Ghana was moreadvanced than that of other participants. This is understandable, asGhana uses a higher proportion ofits budget for MIL than BF and CI.
The product “MIL in special schools”
was piloted in Ghana (module forthose with impaired hearing). In theworking group for this product, theparticipants from Ghana remained
among themselves, which meant
the aspect of intercultural exchange
was reduced.
Although the partner organization
MFWA is not yet integrated in theregional project, it is worth considering whether its longtime experience
with international cooperation can be
included in the further planning of theInnovation Initiative. The assessmentof the coherence criterion Ghana is“partially fulfilled.”

Lessons learned
about regional
approaches
Regional approaches are useful for
responding to strategic challenges
if the challenges in the countries
involved are similar and/or if theaim is to contribute to international
understanding. Both conditions are
met in the West Africa region. The
relevance of a regional approach forthe participants can be increased bycreating a solid network and ensuring
its continuity even after the end of
the project. When planning a regional
project, sustainability and impact
should be considered from the outset,
which requires long-term monitoringwith quality criteria. A regional project should be discussed and jointly
planned with the partner organizations, their cooperation partners andfocus groups from the population at
an early stage. It follows from these
considerations that the partner organizations should be involved in theregional project. Furthermore, a hybrid
management of the project shouldbe established, including members of
DW Akademie in the country and inGermany. Strengthening the network
5

requires long-term, intensive support
for the participants and face-to-facemeetings, especially if the participants speak different languages.
This involves relatively high costs fororganization, traveling and translation.
Further costs are incurred because
the products have to be adapted tothe conditions in the individual countries. In order to assess the potential
efficiency gains through scalability,
it would make sense to consider acost-benefit analysis of a qualitative
nature. Should DW Akademie abandon specific in-country projects infavor of the regional approach due tobudget limits, a fair transition strategy has to be elaborated with theconcerned stakeholders.

DW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

Selected lessons learned
1.

If the partner organizations are
not structurally involved in theregional project, they tend to
identify less with the project (low“ownership”).

2. Different languages represent an
obstacle for regional projects,
especially on an interpersonallevel. In order to overcome this,
it is necessary to work carefully
and with competent translatorsor to find participants who speak
a common local language.

3. Personal meetings are important 5. On the level of country ­projects:
in order to build a strong network that forms the basis for aregional approach. Cooperation
with online tools only is notenough to consolidate relationships in the long term.

The rigid and challenging
administrative requirements of
DW Akademie considerably slow
down the work of the partner organizations and lead tofrustration among the partners
about their (financial) dependence on DW Akademie.

4. Developed products must be

adapted to local conditions if
they are to be used in different
countries. If disadvantaged
groups and people outside thecities in particular are to bereached, there should also be avariety of modules which can beoffered in local languages andfor non-literate people.

Selected recommendations
1.

Partner organizations that are not
involved in the regional project
should still be informed about
the project and it should be
explained to them why they are
not involved. One option could bea regular newsletter with updates
about the regional project.

2. Partner organizations, theircooperation partners and target
groups should be involved at
an early stage in the planningand development of the visionand objectives of a regional
project. Existing structures at
DW Akademie and the partnerorganization should be built
upon.

3. Hybrid project management isrecommended. The administration team should consist ofmembers of DW Akademie in
Germany and members of the
DW Akademie representatives in
the countries, with clear sharing
responsibilities.

4. Long-term monitoring, possibly

participants during the project
phase, or earning opportunities
for the partner organizations, sothat the stakeholders themselves
can finance the continued existence of the network after theend of the project.

6. To ensure coherence, participa-

tory learning methods should
not only be taught and applied in
the workshops, but also adhered
to in the daily work of theregional and country ­projects
in general.

in cooperation with specialists,should be planned from theoutset. This is essential in order
to assess the impact.

5. A strategy for sustainability

should be developed. Personal
relationships in the network
should be fostered and job
opportunities, ideally permanent, should be created for the6

7.

DW Akademie should lobby the
BMZ to simplify administrative
procedures and communicate
the needs of the partner organization to the BMZ. LobbyingDW Akademie Evaluation Report 2024 | Executive Summary West Africa

work should also be carried out
to ensure that projects in the
African context are planned for
longer periods.

8. All documents that the part-ner organizations have to workwith for the administration of
DW Akademie should be madeavailable in French for the francophone countries.

9. As is the case in the pilot project,
the choice of topics for regional
projects should be important inall participating countries, andthe products must be adapted toregional conditions before they
are implemented.

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.