E VA LUAT ION R E P OR T

Executive summary
Colombia | Amazon BasinStrengthening alliances: Together media and civil society
actors in Colombia and the Amazon basin support
discussions on human rights and environmental protection

dw-akademie.com

Background
Colombia is — after Mexico — the mostdangerous country for journalists in Latin America (129th out of 180 countries inthe ROG Index). The danger to journalists
no longer arises exclusively from reporting on political issues, but also from reporting on environmental issues. Freedom of expression, human rights andenvironmental protection are all at risk.
These developments have come to a headin the Amazon region, intertwined withvarious technical limitations, deficits injournalistic skills and a lack of cooperation in journalistic production, reflecting
an urgent need for the continued professionalization and strengthening of media
and civil society actors. The DW Akademie project (2020-22) examined in thisevaluation focuses on these challenges,
by targeting journalists in the countriesof the Amazon basin and environmental
and human rights activists. The project’s
objective is strengthening the alliance ofactors from the media, academia and civilsociety to promote a discussion on humanrights violations and environmental protection in Colombia and the countries of
the Amazon basin. As per to the project
proposal, the project’s objectives are to
be realized through four project strands,
and involves four implementing partners: Consejo de Redacción in Colombia(a non-governmental organization thatencompasses more than one hundredjournalists engaged in various kinds ofjournalism, including investigative journalism); Coordinadora de Medios Comunitarios Populares y Educativos del Ecuador(a network of community media outlets);
Hacemos Memoria at the Universidad deAntioquia (which works in Colombia tojournalistically come to terms with human rights violations in the context of the­Colombian civil war); and Vokaribe Radio(a community radio station broadcastingin the Colombian city of Barranquilla).

In addition, there are two cooperation
partners, the Consejo Regional Indígenadel Cauca (CRIC) in Colombia and Servindiin Peru. They were integrated into the implementation of the project and are therefore also included in the evaluation in linewith the project partners.
The purpose of this evaluation is to consider the achievements of the project inlight of OECD/DAC criteria and with thepurpose of promoting of institutional
learning. The evaluation started in November 2021 and ended with the submission of the final evaluation report in April
2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it
was not possible for the external evaluator to travel to the project region. The survey phase of the evaluation was conducted with the help of a co-evaluator on site,
partly remotely and in direct contact. The
evaluation design follows a mixed-methods approach.

Project evaluation resultsRelevance: The selection of implementing partners and cooperation partners
as well as the strategic objectives wasseen as positive and purposeful by allinterviewees. The involvement of the implementing partners in the elaborationof the project design was exemplary. The
definition and involvement of the target
groups was of variable levels of success.
Since the project started during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, numerous adjustments had to be made. While the issue of gender was neglected as part ofthe project, the urban/rural divide wasactively considered. Stakeholders weremixed in their assessments of the “project alliance,” with positions ranging from“too heterogeneous and conceptually
too open” to a “successful cooperation”
between the stakeholders. In sum, theproject’s relevance can be assessed as
barely “overall fulfilled.”
Coherence: The interviewees confirm
that the implemented measures werelargely complementary. It must be n­ otedthat there are no redundancies andbroader discussions allowed for a numberof synergies. The stakeholder mapping

was not completed in sufficiently comprehensive or structured manner. Embedding the results in the project design
would have improved the project. Overall, however, the project’s coherence canbe rated as “overall fulfilled.”
Effectiveness: There is a very professional monitoring system in place, andthe defined indicators require sophisticated methods of measurement. The
M&E documentation and other reports
reveal that almost all planned activities
were carried out. The regional focus
works well: the implementing partners
mentioned the many “micro-alliances”
that were established. Furthermore, theorganizational consultancy provided tothe implementing partners by DW Akademie was very much appreciated. Impact
logic: The project objective was formulated at the outcome level, whereas theassociated indicators were formulated
at the use of output level, thus making
their relationship to the objective somewhat unclear. The outputs are described
coherently, but it is not always clear how
they contribute to the objective. For theindicators used to define the outputs,

the question arises whether the effort
involved justifies the knowledge gained.
The project’s effectiveness can be rated
as “overall fulfilled.”
Efficiency: The processes in the project
are efficient to the extent that the objectives were or can be largely carried out
within the available time frame. Some
implementing partners criticized the factthat the increase in staff at DW Akademie
in Colombia has not made certain processes faster, simpler or more efficient.
Decision-making processes at the DW
Akademie are perceived as slow and partly intransparent. Communication within the project is described as open andtrusting. Apart from the pandemic, themany changes in roles and responsibilities between and within the implementing partners and DW Akademie wereperceived as hindering clear communication. Not all partners are clear about thevarious individual responsibilities of thelocal and German DW Akademie team.
While the flexibility of the alliance andthe mutual support of the implementing
partners was praised, a lack of steering
capacity and unclear responsibilities inthe alliance were also noted. Due to theshifting framework conditions in thelight of the pandemic, the impression
arises that the alliance is too large, too
diverse and too disparate for efficientmanagement. The cooperation with theDW Akademie project administration israted as good overall. The implementingpartners consider the resources allocated to be sufficient but would like to see
the inclusion of overheads to encouragea more stable organizational performance. Cost efficiency arises from thefact that trainers and consultants arecontracted almost exclusively from theregion; there were also certain pandemic-related cost savings. The cost efficiency of a project is significantly influenced
by the structure of its staffing expenditures. A head count gives the impression
that, at a minimum, a review of the ratioof personnel to operational costs would
be useful. Overall, the efficiency of theproject in terms of criteria fulfillment isclassified as “partially fulfilled.”
Impact: Almost all interview partners
point out the importance of learningfrom each other in the context of a very
diverse group of implementing partners.
Bilateral alliances contributed to deeper
exchange of experiences and learning
processes. The regional focus has enabled the partners to shift their perspectives on certain issues. The development of criteria to measure the qualityof journalistic outputs initiated a wider
reflection of one’s own work. The issueof climate change was successfully introduced and integrated. The digitalizationof work at all levels due to the pandemic
also triggered a push toward digitalization in the Amazon region. Finally, many
participants
implemented
learning
outcomes in their practical work. Mostof the evaluation results show that theproject’s impact can be rated as “overallfulfilled.”

Sustainability: Innovative and collaborative forms of journalistic work are likely
to continue after the end of the project.
The same applies to the new workshop
formats developed in the area of continuing education. The pandemic allowed forthe “discovery” of the power of audio-visual formats for community media. It canbe assumed that these learning processes will be integrated and cemented infuture activities. There are concerns thatthe alliance did not produce any self-sustaining activities. In this context, theorganizational consultancy provided by
DW Akademie is an important signpost
for the implementing partners in theirattempts to achieve greater financial independence. The project has thus also
increased the organizational strength ofthe various partners. Overall, the project’s sustainability can be considered as“overall fulfilled.”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.