Project Completion Report: Information and Education Communication Campaign For Advocacy in the Disability Sector of Uganda

In 2001, the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), in conjunction with Leonard Cheshire International, Radio for Development (RfD), and Action on Disability and Development (ADD), initiated a 22-month radio-based public education campaign to increase awareness of disability issues in Uganda.

To determine project indicators, exercises were conducted at with stakeholders at the inception of the project. They include:

• More effective mobilisation by people with disabilities (PWDs) to get resources from sub county level
• Sub-county councils are releasing resources to PWDs/disabled peoples' organisations (DPOs) more readily and regularly
• PWDs are approaching service providers with greater awareness at various levels
• Communities are demonstrating greater collaboration with PWDs/DPOs on development activities

The evaluation highlights various delays and constraints that necessitated flexibility in terms of the timing, scope, and design of some programme components. Examples of these changes include operation of the 15 radio listening clubs (RCLs) at a sub-county rather than local level, and production of 200 instead of 500 multimedia kits. Some of these circumstances reflected fact that the local partner, NUDIPU, and its sub-contractors had never carried out work of this scale and kind; others concerned NUDIPU's priorities and obligations at the sub-county level.

Partnership is a central theme in this project evaluation. NUDIPU worked in a management, implementation, and implementation role alongside personnel from RFD and LCI; this was a strategy for exposing staff to systems to build capacity to design and implement media-based public education campaigns. To support the community advocacy component of the programme (use of multimedia kits for training by NGOs under the NUDIPU umbrella), NUDIPU headed a Design Team that drew in a range of key stakeholders to monitor, advise, and support the implementation of the project. By creating a number of staffing and management needs, the radio project served as a focal point for long-term capacity building at NUDIPU (the positions were integrated into the organisation's structure). ADD contributed to the design of the project, particularly given its experience in rights-based approaches.

Following a detailed project analysis, a performance analysis is presented. Achievement ratings are provided on a scale from 1 (highest) to 6 (lowest):

• Sustainability: overall rating = 6
  
  • Goal: increased participation of PWDs in all levels of society. Rating: 6 (participation is still to be demonstrated at levels above sub-county council)
  • Purpose: increase the awareness in communities of rights and responsibilities regarding the disabled through a media-based campaign. Rating: 3 (feedback from listeners and the pretest to kits has provided anecdotal evidence)
• Key Outputs: overall rating = 1
  
  • Training to build capacity within NUDIPU in advocacy. Rating: 2 (interventions were conducted but the changes in the PRO job description means it is not clear how his role will be absorbed)
  • Network of radio listening clubs. Rating: 1 (inclusion of NUDIPU sub-county councils appears to have strengthened the internalisation of RLCs in the disability sector)
  • Radio series. Rating: 1 (30 episodes aired in 3 languages (on Radio Uganda) is beyond projections as set out in the proposal)
  • Advocacy in the community training modules' developed frameworks. Rating: 2 (while the multimedia kits number only 200 and do not include a video, the extensive training of trainers (TOT) and testing has increased reported satisfaction among the Design Team)
• Inputs/Activities: overall rating = adequate
  
  • Appropriateness (quality): good (there were many adjustments to the design of interventions to respond to social context or institutional framework but this flexibility was important)
  • Sufficiency (quantity): good (there was a general notion that the radio programmes should have run for more than 30 weeks to allow more familiarity for producers and audience)
  • Efficiency (timeliness): poor (as indicated previously, the project was subject to a number of delays as a result of circumstances affecting one or more partners)

Lessons learned are detailed at the project, sector, and development practice levels. To cite a few examples, organisers felt that it was important to clarify the indicators for the removal of the RFD technical support consultant as a project advisor in the team (a dependence was developing on the individual). In addition, with regard to development practice, organisers stress "the need to develop innovative strategies that link a livelihoods framework with a rights-based approach in the design of interventions. This appears to be particularly appropriate to projects with objectives related to education through mass education, outside of a formal setting or within the context of governance where institutions are traditionally regarded as inaccessible."