Evaluation and Development of Protection International's Strategic Framework

about.

Protection International works on the preventative protection of human rights defenders by focusing on the following thematic areas:

  • Public policies

  • Collective protection

  • Criminalisation, business

  • Human rights and positive narratives

objectives.

Assess the Impact of the 2019-2023 Strategic Framework:

Analysing the implementation, outcomes, and impact of the current strategic framework by examining programmatic work and organisational development with targeted data collection in Thailand, Colombia, and Tanzania.

Capture Learnings and Challenges:

Gathering insights on what worked well and what did not, to learn from past experiences to help Protection International improve its future strategies and address challenges that impacted their success.

Support the Development of the New Strategic Framework:

Facilitating the creation of the new 5-year strategy by organising participatory workshops with stakeholders, combining the evaluation of past achievements with setting goals for the future.

Develop Recommendations for the Future:

Providing concrete recommendations to guide the development of Protection International’s new strategic framework for 2024-2028.

methodology.

We combined the strengths of Realist Evaluation and Appreciative Inquiry to design a participatory, learning-focused evaluation of Protection International’s 2019-23 Global Strategy.

Interactions between a country’s context and the diverse identities of its Human Rights Defenders, their wider networks, and stakeholders may have produced differing responses within and across countries during the implementation of the strategy.

Our methodological approach enabled a robust, context-driven exploration of what did and did not work and for whom, to what extent, under what circumstances, and why, and encouraged envisioning even greater possibilities and then formulating strategies to operationalise the ambition.

The approach was well-suited to exploring if, how, and why the agency and resilience of Human Rights Defender actors as conceptualised in the 2019-23 strategy had been strengthened.

We used facilitation methods and tools to translate learning from the evaluation into organisational practices, through the co-facilitation of four participatory and inclusive workshops drawing on learnings and recommendations to support the development of the new strategy. This connected progression increased validation across stakeholder groups, and enhanced buy-in for viable recommendations for the new strategy.

outputs.

Participatory Engagement

Inclusive activities to facilitate Objective and Key Result goal setting and Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Rewards Analysis and participatory workshops to support the development of the 2024-28 Strategic Framework.

Evaluation Report

An intersectional, feminist, user-centred evaluation, providing global scope alongside targeted data collection, to surface key insights and learnings and generate actionable recommendations.

Learning Focused Presentations

The team presented to a wider group of stakeholders, leadership, and the donor, SIDA, to share key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.