MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation Report
Executive summary Mongolia
Management and Leadership: Analyzing project partners’
capacities and collaboration with DW Akademie

dw-akademie.com

Background
Freedom of opinion and access to information are threatened in Mongolia, above
all by the linkages between — and interdependence of — politics, business, and themedia. The ownership structure of media
houses is largely non-transparent. Corruption and political pressure lead to “censorship-like” effects and affect journalists inthe form of self-censorship and restrictionof journalistic freedom. As a result, the interests of the population can only be represented by the media to a limited extent.
False information and propaganda threaten the required fairness in the June 2020
election in Mongolia, especially in view ofthe fact that social media are of outstanding relevance in Mongolia.
The BMZ-funded project of DW Akademie
in Mongolia aims to strengthen the independence of journalists’ reporting fromparticular political and economic interestsin the period 2018–2020. To this end, it pursues the project lines Investigative Journalism, Media Self-Regulation and Media Legislation. The project goal (outcome) of thecountry project in Mongolia is: “Mongolian
journalists are sustainably strengthenedin the independence of their reporting(from particular political and economic interests)”. As part of the Asia regional
program, the country project contributes
to a common regional overall objective (atimpact level): “Disadvantaged populationgroups, especially in rural areas, receiverelevant information, exercise their rights
in a digital media world and participate
responsibly in shaping social and politicalprocesses”. In cooperation with the Press
Institute of Mongolia (PIM), journalists
are to be qualified to publish investigative
research and to test innovative businessmodels in favor of financial independence.
Together with the Mongolian Media Council (MCM), media self-regulation is to beconsolidated and media independence
promoted. In cooperation with MCM andPIM, the population will be sensitized tothe importance of media independence ina democratically constituted society. In addition, legal experts of DW Akademie advise on international standards of media
legislation. Working groups are advised,
which are to be involved in upcoming legislative processes in the sense of media independence.

The evaluation focuses on the quality ofmanagement (Management and Leadership Performance — M&L). It includes a
critical analysis of DW Akademie’s project
management and the performance of theproject partners on site, the strengths andweaknesses of the cooperation between
DW Akademie and partners, and the prerequisites for a culture of mutual learning.
The aim of the evaluation is to gain new insights into how DW Akademie can support
its partners even better and how it canachieve a joint impact with them. During
the kick-off workshop on December 6,
2019 in Berlin, the Press Institute (PIM) andthe Media Council (MCM), as the relevant
project partners for the cooperation in theproject lines, were selected as organizations in the M&L evaluation. Furthermore,
the newly founded Mongolian Centre forInvestigative Journalism (MCIR) was included due to its role in the long-term
project activity “Fact Check Mongolia”. The
field phase included a visit to Mongolia
from February 9–15, 2020.

Conclusions of the project evaluation
Below are overall conclusions regarding the evaluation criteria,
averaging all three partner scores:
DAC Criterion(average of allassessments)

Numeric
value,
average

Assessment

Explanation

Relevance

4.7

Comprehensively
fulfilled

All findings of the evaluation showthat the criterion has been met.

Effectiveness

4.7

Comprehen­sively
fulfilled

All findings of the evaluation showthat the criterion has been met.

Efficiency

4.0

Overall fulfilled

Most findings of the evaluation showthat the criterion has been met.

Impact3.3

Partially fulfilled

Regarding performance, the findingsof the evaluation are ambivalent.

Sustainability

4.3Overall fulfilled

Most findings of the evaluation showthat the criterion has been met.

Overall Assessment:
The evaluation shows good to very goodresults of the assessments of the project
partners with regard to their M&L performance and the cooperation with DW
Akademie. Only with regard to the criterion“impact” does the overall overview show
an average score of 3.3 (out of 5). Looking
at the individual partners’ assessments, itbecomes clear that this result is due to thefact that in all three organizations — despite
their different stages of organizational development — there is a need to introduce
appropriate management tools and processes, especially in the areas of communication (internal and external) and conflict
prevention and resolution. Digital instruments are only used to some extent in M&L.
All project partners (to varying degrees)
face the task of securing their financial independence in the medium term — and thus
also their (journalistic) independence. Thistask is clearly recognized and the search forsolutions is being driven in different directions depending on the project partners.

It should be emphasized that all project
partners were rated in the highest categories (dark/light green) with regard to thecriteria “relevance” and “effectiveness” (inthe M&L context) in the course of the evaluation, and that this good performanceis also attributed by the project partners
themselves to their cooperation withDW Akademie.
The cooperation with DW Akademie israted as very good by all project partners
according to all criteria. Especially the cooperation with the country management
and the trainers and consultants is highly praised, but there are shortcomings
in the processes of project administration and knowledge management. Apartfrom that, they see their organization asvery value-oriented and name as specificstrengths the willingness to cooperate,
constancy of cooperation, reliability andthe high level of ownership.

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 50
developing countries and emerging
economies.

CONTAC TDr. Laura Moore
Head Research and Evaluation
laura.moore@dw.com
Berlin, Germany
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
the development of future strategies.