FINAL_Internews_SPELP_External_Evaluation_Report_17_03_2015

Consortium for Strengthening Political Parties,
Electoral, and Legislative Process
Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral, and
Legislative Processes Program
EXTERNAL EVALUATION REPORT
Submitted to Internews
Submitted by
Development Knowledge Management and Innovation
Services Private Limited, Lalitpur, Nepal
February 2015

Contents
Acronyms…………………………………………………………………….........3
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………….............4
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………5
1. Background………………………………………………………………...7
2. Program Objectives………………………………………………………..7
3. Program Components, Activities, and Partnerships…………………….7
4. Terms of Reference and Contract……………………………………….10
5. Methodology, Framework, Instrument, and Limitations……………...10
6. Key Findings…………………………………………………………........12
6.1 Relationship between NDI and Internews………………………………12
6.2 Review of M&E Plan……………………………………………………..13
6.3 Program Achievements per Objective…………………………………..15
6.3.1 Strengthening Capacity for Citizen Input on the
Electoral Process………………………………………………….............15
6.3.2 Media are better informed to cover election
related issues at the national and district levels………………………...18
6.3.3 Media are utilized to facilitate debates on the results
of national public opinion polling……………….……………………….23
7. Unplanned Outputs……………………………………………………….27
8. Challenges and Lessons Learned………………………………………...28
9. Recommendations………………………………………………………...29

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Acronyms
ACORAB Association of Community Radio Broadcasters-Nepal
AFN Antenna Foundation Nepal
BAN Broadcasters Association Nepal
CA Constituent Assembly
CC Communications Corner
CEPPS Consortium for Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral, and Legislative
Process
CoP Community of Practice
CSO Civil Society Organization
DAG Disadvantaged Group
DeKMIS Development Knowledge Management and Innovation Services Pvt. Ltd
EAN Equal Access Nepal
FF Freedom Forum
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FM Frequency Modulation1
IDA Interdisciplinary Analysts
IFES International Foundation for Electoral Systems
IRI International Republican Institute
LTM Loktantra Mantra
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
NDI National Democratic Institute
NEFEJ Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists
NOP National Opinion Poll
NRC National Radio Conference
PR Proportional Representation
SPELP Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral, and Legislative Processes
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
ToR Terms of Reference
USAID United States Agency for International Development
VDC Village Development Committee

1
In Nepal the non-state radios such as the community and commercial radios that are given the FM frequency, not
the Medium Wave (MW) or Short Wave (SW) frequencies, for radio broadcast are generally called FM Radios.

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Acknowledgements
DeKMIS Pvt. Ltd would first of all like to sincerely thank Internews for giving this wonderful
opportunity to carry out the external evaluation of this interesting media, political and electoral
processes program. All the Internews’ colleagues in the project office in Kathmandu, Nepal, and
the Asia Regional Office in Bangkok are to be specially thanked for their kind cooperation.
All the key program partners — the CEPPS, NDI, AFN, IDA and FF need to be thanked for
cordially cooperating and providing all the time and information in the course of the evaluation
process.
Similarly, all the radio stations at the five regional levels, their station managers and producers
are to be thanked for their kind cooperation in telling me their stories about their various
engagements in the program.
The NOP Reporting Training participants are also to be thanked for their kind support in sharing
their stories.
Last but not the least we would like to express our gratitude to those citizens of Nepal for their
proactive participation in the program activities, and who all are still out there with that ray of
hope waiting to be heard to make Nepal a better place to live.
Kishor Pradhan
DeKMIS Pvt. Ltd
Lalitpur, Nepal
February 2015

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Executive Summary
• National polls and training journalists on data reporting activities have contributed to the
development of data journalism in Nepal, thus impacting the standard of journalism. In an
online survey of data journalism trainees, of the 13 respondents 46.15% said they mainly
learned about analyzing/interpreting data in reporting; 33.77% about investigating data in
reporting; 23.08% about using data in reporting. All the respondents said that after more than
a year of receiving the training they have been using the learning from the training in their
current work and all the respondents would be happy to attend another such training. [1]
• The entire key informants on the Radio Program Design Workshop that included station
managers and producers were of the opinion that the workshop was different from other
radio designing workshops they had attended in the past. They found the workshop
innovative and learned about bottom-up pluralistic radio programming rather than the
prevalent and dominant formats of media in general including radio, in which the approach is
top-down. All of them had the same voice that they learned from the workshop a radio
program format that is different and in the real sense corroborates giving and raising voices
of the voice less or give emphasis to vox pop.
• Production and broadcast of LTM has contributed to facilitating dialogue between the local
level citizens (raise the voice) with national level opinion-makers such as the CA members,
political leaders, local level leaders and authorities. In some cases CA members and
authorities have taken into account the citizen’s concerns.
• LTM gave the media space to the local level citizens to raise their voice and present their
views on national level issues, as generally media space is dominated more by people in
power.
• LTM contributed to being inclusive in terms of reaching out to remote areas and building
people’s trust on radio to raise their voice.
• Particularly the radios’ capacity was been built in producing radio programs with a format
that are more research or data based, and bottom-up, in the sense that it gives more space and
voice to the general public.
• The LTM radio programs produced 40 episodes. All the 40 episodes emphasized FGD that
facilitated interaction and discussion on national opinions or issues vis-à-vis local opinions or
issues. However, the assurances that transpired from the national level and local leaders and
authorities in the FGDs could not be accounted. Or the downward accountability could not
be facilitated by LTM. In future radio programs can be designed and planned in such a way
that within the life of such radio program cycle that the assurances and actions agreed to in
the earlier programs can be followed or accounted in the later programs with the same group
of participants.
• FM radios in Nepal have been producing and broadcasting programs that are sponsored or
supported by programs or development agencies for a long time. This has of course helped
them to build their capacity but at the same time made them dependent on such resources for
program production and broadcast. Strategic partnership that entails cost sharing for radio
production and broadcast may ensure to some extent sustenance or continuation of
production and broadcast programs started by a program. In this regard, to what extent the
advertising revenues the FM radios collect, while sponsored radio programs have covered the
production and broadcast costs, to meet the cost sharing partnership can be explored.

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• Rather than organizing training in volumes in terms of large number of participants or
journalists, training few selected journalists and consistently mentoring them can make a
lasting impact.
• After a media training on a theme, the evidently proven approach for better results has been
providing fellowships to selected trainees, to exercise their learning or produce outputs on
the theme. So in the case of data journalism training, fellowships could have followed for
tangible results.
• Regarding the partnership in program outputs such as opinion polls and to what extent or
degree the outputs can be disseminated or made public, it is better to have a clarity in the
partnership agreement at the very outset of the program and clearly define the authority or
right of discretion.
• A common output like the www.nepalelectionchannel.org can only work if the ownership is
common to all the program partners or contributors. So priority should be given to nurture
common ownership and such activities should have more interactive moderated features like
discussion lists, proactive membership for citizen participation. Or more interactive activities
that attribute to building the community of practice as envisaged by the program through this
activity.
• With proper editing and formatting of the draft white papers it can be shared widely and
uploaded on the election channel. The white papers can be compiled, edited properly and can
be published also as a digest.
• In the changed socio-political contexts and given that Nepal have had two CA elections, and
the contentious issues persist to be like federalism, it is advisable to focus in future on public
debates and political literacy radio programs that comprehensively analyze and interpret such
issues, and contributes to build national consensus.
• For a program of this nature with a nexus of public opinion (raising people’s voice), media
and political factors the challenges can be assessed coherently to be three-fold.
• First, how can a program that aims to raise public opinion vis-à-vis dominating elite political
opinion and culture be independent of such prevalent dominance? How can it work
independently to raise and present the public opinion to the dominating power and political
forces in play in the public sphere? How can it be independent of unprecedented risks that
could be anticipated?
• Secondly, if such programs tend to work independently and despite the risks goes ahead to
make public the information and data that it generates, or the findings, then it may cause
harm. In other words the consequences of taking the risk of revealing or making public the
sensitive findings can not guarantee the safety of journalist or other actors in a program of
this nature.
• Thirdly, like most of the development programs that cannot sustain beyond its program life,
developing an effective program exit strategy that sustains the activities or achievements
made by the program is still predominantly a development challenge. Instilling ownership in
the beneficiaries of the outputs (activities) of the programs that would eventually lead to the
ultimate outcomes (changes), is important, given that the prevalence of weak resource
capacity of the beneficiary stakeholders usually do not see a life beyond the program period.

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1. Background
Internews, an international non-profit media development organization works to improve access
to information for people around the world by fostering independent media and promoting open
communications policies in the public interest. Internews’ programs are built on the conviction
that providing people with access to vibrant, diverse news and information empowers them to
participate effectively in their communities, effect positive social change, improve their living
standards, and make their voices heard.
In Nepal Internews implemented a two-year program (1 March 2013 – 28 February 2015) that
sought to help Nepali media better understand election-related issues and strengthen the ability
of radio to facilitate debate on opinion poll results, ultimately increasing citizen participation in
the electoral process. The program was supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) via
the USAID-funded Consortium for Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral, and Legislative
Process (CEPPS) under the Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral, and Legislative Processes
(SPELP) program.
This two-year extended program was a no-cost extension of earlier program under CEPPS, and
retained its relevance and effectiveness in the context that Nepal was still undergoing political
transition at that time. The first elected Constituent Assembly was dissolved on 22 May 2012
without promulgating the new constitution. The second Constituent Assembly election originally
planned for 22 November 2012 was postponed to 19 November 2013.
As a part of the program agreement with NDI, towards the completion of the program Internews
was required to carry out external evaluation of the program. This external evaluation thus was
carried out to fulfill this requirement.
2. Program Objectives
The program was rooted in the Strategic Objective: ‘Civil society initiatives more effectively
contribute to transparent electoral processes,’ with three program objectives of:
• Strengthening Capacity for Citizen Input on the Electoral Process;
• Media are better informed to cover election related issues at the national and district levels;
and
• Media are utilized to facilitate debates on the results of national public opinion polling.
3. Program Components, Activities and Partnerships
There were four components of the program under which there were specific activities.
Internews collaborated with three key local partners: Antenna Foundation Nepal (AFN), Inter
Disciplinary Analysts (IDA), and Freedom Forum (FF) to implement the activities.
3.1 Component 1: National Opinion Polls
The national poll activity was proposed with the rationale that public opinion polling represents
an excellent opportunity for Nepalese citizens’ to make their opinions known across a wide
range of issues. Public opinion polling would offer the opportunity to hear directly from citizens
through statistically valid polling

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methodologies, rather than relying on political leadership or pundits who purport to speak on
behalf of ‘the people.’ Public opinion polling, when done well, would shed light on public
perceptions, overturn cherished assumptions, and force political parties and the government to
confront the real desires of citizens. Through this program component, Internews proposed to
work directly with a contracted national polling firm to hold a series of 12 national ‘issue based’
polls across Nepal and organize 12 press conferences. Interdisciplinary Analysts was contracted
to conduct the national opinion polls.
3.2 Component 2: Training on Reporting Public Opinion Polls
This activity was proposed with the rationale that Nepalese journalists have varying degrees of
knowledge about how polls work, how to differentiate between statistically valid polls and those
that aren’t, and how to accurately interpret polling results. Further, production of radio program
focusing on the polling results is a new area for journalists. To these ends, Nepali journalists
need enhanced abilities to report on polls and to contribute in-depth analysis of their results.
Through analysis and the convening of multiple perspectives, media can create a more
knowledgeable, well-rounded, and informed public. It is only with active media engagement that
the polling results will enter public discourse, lead to a stronger civil society and a more active
population, and potentially pressure political parties to be more responsive to locally identified
needs.
Under this Internews proposed to organize a total of 5 trainings (three-day each) in Nepal's five
development regions. Training was to be provided to a total of 100 journalists from radio stations
participating in the broadcast of the radio programs produced by the Antenna Foundation and
other prominent local journalists. The training was to be conducted before the launch of the
media programming to prepare a cadre of reporters for covering results of public opinion polling
as well as enhancing public debate on the polling through media.
3.3 Component 3: Media Programming on Polling
In this Internews proposed to work with the Antenna Foundation to produce a series of radio
programs based around issues highlighted in the monthly results of the public opinion polls.
Every week, national and regional radio programs were to cover different aspects of polling
results including field reports, interviews, expert opinions, and live discussion with public
participation. Programs would cover political parties, governance, economic performance on
people’s everyday lives and information about a range of actual and potential economic and
political behaviors. The polling results would provide key background and quantitative data to
support the production of audience centered programming. Central to this programming would
be field reports that illustrate human, real world examples of the trends indicated in the polls.
There were four sub-activities under this component.
3.3.1 Program Design Workshop
Before launching the radio program, AFN was to organize a two-day Production Design
Workshop to bring synergy to the program produced by all 5 regional partner radio stations.
These radio stations would collaborate on the production of local versions of the ‘dialogues’ on
polling results. People responsible for producing the programs (Station Manager, Chief of
Programs and Producers) of each radio station and AFN's production team would participate in
the workshop. Workshop participants would design the radio program through a collaborative
methodology.

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3.3.2 National Public Discussion on Findings of the Polling
Antenna was to produce a total of 40 radio programs, which were to use the polling results to
launch more in-depth discussions of current trends in the political landscape. Each program was
to last 30 minutes with field reports, interviews (including with government officials, political
party leaders, analysts, CSOs) and live calls for audience participation. The aim of this activity
was to help make government officials more responsive to the actual needs and interests of the
general public and more accountable generally to the electorate. Segments of this program on the
polling results, including interviews with national political figures, were to be picked by regional
partners to be included in their programs.
Apart from 5 regional production partners, this program was to be aired through a broader
network of over 40 radio stations nationally.
3.3.3 Local Dialogues on Findings of Polls through Local Radios
Antenna was to select 5 local radio stations in five development regions outside of Kathmandu to
partner for local production and distribution of this program. These radio stations were to be
selected based on their production capacity, broadcast coverage area and audience popularity to
collaborate for the production of a local version of the ‘dialogues’ on polling results. Each
locally produced program was to have field reports, interviews, live-call-ins by audience
members with members of political parties, civil society actors and public officials in the studio.
Similar to nationally produced program these stations were to cover the polling results with a
more focused regional perspective of the data. The goal here was to use the polling results and
local media as a platform for holding public officials accountable at a local level, as well as to
provide more local perspective and voices of local people on national issues. Local programming
was to address aspects of regional issues as well as contextualization of the results to the local
population.
Each radio station in the region was to produce a total of 40 programs of 30 minutes duration. A
total of 200 programs (40 episodes x 5 radio stations) were to be produced and broadcast during
the program phase and broadcast through 25 local radio stations.
3.3.4 Publication of Outcomes of Dialogue Program
Every month AFN was to produce a summary of outcomes of the radio programs produced at
both the central and regional levels. Summary pages for each region were to provide a general
analysis of hot topics of the month, the range of issues covered in the programs and politicians’
responses. The dialogue papers or white papers were to give the general public an opportunity
for their voice to be heard, as well as provide both objective and subjective information,
analyzed dispassionately and delivered evenly. By sharing the edited version of the dialogues,
politicians and policy-makers were expected to measure citizens' satisfaction with service
delivery, their perceived national priorities, their political preferences, their attitudes on the state
of the economy and overall development of the country. AFN was to publish the document on
ww.nepalelectionchannel.org, social media channels on a monthly basis as well as distribute to
politicians and the wider political arena through email. A total of 10 such compiled reports were
to be produced during the program period.

3.4 Program Component 4: Community of Practice

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Under this continuing with earlier activities implemented by Internews under SPELP/CEPPS
program the website as a portal www.nepalelectionchannel.org covering electoral and political
developments regarding election related issues was formally launched in August 2011. In the no-
cost extension program, Internews proposed to expand existing site to enable direct submission
of reports by CSOs, journalists, and other concerned parties. The site was to be reformatted to
better publish and publicize the results of the polls. Internews was to continue to support
Freedom Forum to hire a full-time web manager to curate news on Nepal’s political transition
published by mainstream media as well as publish results of the polls.
All materials published on the website were to be cross referenced and publicized on social
media platforms such as the Nepal Election Channel Facebook page and Twitter account to reach
as broad an audience as possible. The social media platforms were also to be utilized to stimulate
further debate within Nepal’s growing network of netizens.
Details regarding the proposed activities are in the program proposal attached as Annex 1.
4. Terms of Reference and Contract
The external evaluator was required to evaluate Internews’ program against its stated program
objectives and determine to what extent objectives have been met within the time frame of the
program.
The deliverables were: research instruments; audio recordings of interviews along with written
transcripts; documentation of the proceedings of the final conference; and final evaluation report.
The final report was to be of 15-30 pages in length, including key findings per activity, main
conclusions for the overall program, and suggested recommendations for the future. A list of
interviewees was to be included as an annex. The evaluation report was required to analyze the
results of the program to include not only achievements within stated objectives and expected
deliverables, but also a nuanced discussion on program methodology, challenges, and lessons
learned.
The term of contract was from 12 to 28 February 2015. Detail terms of reference and the contract
are attached as Annex 2.
5. Methodology, Framework, Instrument, and Limitations
5.1 Methodology
The final methodology for the evaluation was to be developed collaboratively between the
consultant, the Internews Nepal Country Director and Internews’ Regional Director for Asia.
Basic steps involved included: review of agreement between Internews and NDI; review of
approved Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan; review of quarterly and other reports;
interviews with key Internews staff; interviews with key staff at partner organizations; interviews
with managers and producers at partner radio stations, with a focus on the production of
Loktantra Mantra; interviews with training participants of the data literacy trainings; and
rapporteur for two-day radio conference organized by Internews and local partners, documenting
and consolidating proceedings into single document.
5.2 Framework

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A SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate
the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) involved in a program.
SWOT analysis aims to identify the key internal and external factors seen as important to
achieving an objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main
categories: internal factors – the strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization; and
external factors – the opportunities and threats presented by the environment external to the
organization.
Though SWOT analysis is generally used as a planning tool for deriving coherent data,
information, and analysis, its logic can be also used in evaluation of organizations or programs
for data, information, and analysis management. Or for that matter knowledge management.
5.3 Instruments
SWOT analysis framework was used to collect information/data and for analysis, for the external
evaluation of the Internews program activities.
The checklists were developed for different groups of people/organization or key informants, to
be consulted/interviewed. The checklists were administered through face-to-face and telephone
interviews with 23 people and audio recorded. See Annex 3.
Online survey of the trainees who attended the National Opinion Poll Reporting Training was
conducted using SurveyMonkey. The framework and the instruments used are attached as
Annex 4.
5.4 Collection of Data and Information
Data and information were collected from secondary and primary sources such as program
documents and reports. Key informant interviews were conducted with 23 people sampled from
Internews, NDI, AFN, FF, IDA, radio station managers, producers, and participants of the
production design and poll reporting workshops.
Some of the sample outputs of the program such as the Loktantra Mantra radio programs,
www.nepalelectionchannel.org website, white papers and related others were reviewed.
Data available from secondary sources were crosschecked as well as the data from primary
sources. Evidences of outputs such as articles published by journalists who attended the poll
reporting training were collected as far as possible.
5.5 Limitations
One of the limitations of this evaluation was 15-days given for completing the assignment did
not suffice to undertake more in-depth and rigorous work. Due to time constraint on the part of
the deadline of the SPELP program component implemented by Internews being 28 February
2015, more time could not be allocated for the evaluation.
Consequently it was not possible also to visit the radio stations at the regional level and actually
consult the participants of the radio programs. Also, it was not possible to review the actual radio
programs produced by the regional radio stations.

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6. Key Findings
6.1 Relationship between NDI and Internews
The National Democratic Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to support
and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness, and
accountability in government. NDI has worked in Nepal since 1994, conducting programs for
political party and parliamentary development, voter and civic education, domestic election
observation, and youth and women’s political empowerment.
Internews is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to empower local media
worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect and the
means to make their voices heard. Internews provides communities the resources to produce
local news and information with integrity and independence. With global expertise and reach,
Internews trains both media professionals and citizen journalists, introduces innovative media
solutions, increases coverage of vital issues, and helps establish policies needed for open access
to information. Internews’ commitment to research and evaluation creates effective and
sustainable programs, even in the most challenging environments.
In Nepal Internews between 2010-2012 carried out the media component of the USAID-funded
CEPPS program.2
Building on it, via CEPPS under the SPELP program the NDI entered into
program agreement with Internews to implement the media component of the SPELP.
The program agreement reviewed was entered between NDI and Internews as no-cost extension
for 16 months between NDI and Internews for the period 1 March 2013 to 28 February 2015.
See Annex 1 for the details of the non-cost extension program proposal. Since NDI had
partnered with Internews to implement media components in other countries where it works, it
was a natural fit for NDI to partner with Internews in Nepal.
Both the parties (NDI and Internews) held high and respected the partnership between them. As
a matter of fact non-media activity under the SPELP such as the National Opinion Poll (NOP),
was arranged to be implemented by NDI through Internews, and NDI was flexible enough to
build in the NOPs the media component. Implementing the NOP was first proposed and offered
to Internews, and Internews negotiated to build media components around the NOPs. This
happened during the then NDI Country Director’s tenure.3
Incumbent key informant at NDI did
not have detail information on why Internews was asked to implement the NOPs. Normally in
other countries NDI conducts such NOP activity by themselves.
Given the relevance and effectiveness of the SPLEP program to the various dimensions of
political developments and contexts in Nepal (such as the constituent assembly election,
constitution making and other issues such as federalism), the program required undergoing no-
cost extensions twice. Internews in this regard holds high the flexibility and cooperation shown
by NDI. Reciprocally NDI also highly appreciates and regards the partnership and leadership of
Internews in Nepal.

2
CEPPS includes International Republican Institute (IRI), International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES),
and National Democratic Institute (NDI).
3
As per the interview with Madhu Acharya, Program Director, Internews Nepal.

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6.2 Review of M&E Plan
The program had an approved in-built monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan. At the program
conceptualization stage itself an M&E log frame was developed and included in the program
proposal. The M&E log frame had set the objective inputs required for the monitoring of the
progress of the program such as the indicators, outputs/outcome, baseline, target, means of
verifications or data source, disaggregation and the frequency. The program’s M&E log frame is
attached as Annex 5.
Besides the M&E Plan log frame, a revised handbook of the M&E system for the NDI program
SPELP, for the period 2010-14 was prepared by a consultant from Promente, which provided the
guideline for M&E baseline, tool for data collection, data collection and disaggregation method
and indicator.
The M&E Plan and the revised handbook were provided to Internews sub-grantee partners such
as AFN and FF. Referring to the handbook the sub-grantees maintained the monitoring part of
their respective activities by collecting aggregated and disaggregated data and information. See
the handbook attached as Annex 6.
The source of data and information for Internews for M&E were the monthly and quarterly
progress reports from the sub-grantees. The actual M&E works carried out by the Internews’
sub-grantees are as follows.
6.2.1 Antenna Foundation
AFN carried out online survey by using SurveyMonkey for the mid-term evaluation of the NOP
Reporting Trainees from 13-20 January 2014.4
Of the total 100 participants in the training 70
responded to the survey. See Annex 7 for the detail results of the survey.
AFN has kept up-to-date data on the participants of the Program Design Training, NOP
Reporting Training and the radio program participants.
Data on training activities were disaggregated by gender and districts or development regions.
See Annex 8.
The radio program documentation maintained data on the number of radio programs broadcast
on the national level issues and the nature of issues discussed and the nature of participants.
Disaggregated data on the participants for radio programs by gender, social groups, and
profession were maintained. See Annex 9 for a sample.
A monthly Facebook page analysis of the radio program was monitored supported by a white
paper for each radio episode. See a sample attached as Annex 10.
6.2.2 Freedom Forum
Freedom Forum implemented the community of practice activity[2] of the program, which was
further built on the achievements of the preceding phase of the SPELP[3]. Under this activity FF
had designed and created an online portal (www.nepalelectionchannel.org), both in English and
Nepali, on various activities, information and data related to the election in Nepal in the

4
The NOP Reporting Trainings were organized in five districts between July to September 2013. So the online
survey or mid-term evaluation was carried out four months after the training.

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preceding phase of the SPELP.
In the M&E plan of the program the key indicator for this component was the level of traffic on
the website to be increased by 25[4]% from the start (or launching of the website). This was to be
monitored or measured by using the Google Mapping Analytics inbuilt on the portal as a back-
end feature. See sample as Annex 11.
Table 1: Activities, Targets,5
and Achievements
Activities Outputs/Targets Achievements
Activity 1: National Opinion Polls 12 polls; 12 press conferences - - 3 polls
- - No press conferences,
instead Media Sharing
Meetings organized, e.g.
3rd
Poll media findings
shared with media related
sectors in Dec 2014.
- - NDI has shared the
political findings of the
NOPs with political
parties.
Activity 4: Community of Practice
website
www.nepalelectionchannel.org
1.
25% increase from the start
(of uploads and visitors in Nepali
and English)
- Uploads:
- July-October 2013 = 306
- October 2013 – June
2014 = 1739
- Visitors:
- July-October 2013 in
Nepali = 9956 (18%)
2014 in Nepali = 31,680
(31%)
- July-October 2013 in
English = 9972
2014 in English = 31,748
(31%)
Activity 2: Training on reporting
public opinion polls
• - 5 trainings at 20 participants per
training
• - 100 journalists trained
- - 5 trainings in 5 districts
with 20 participants
- - 103 journalists trained
Activity 3.1: Program Design
Workshop
• - 15 trainees from 5 partner radio
stations trained
- - 1 program design
workshop
- - 1 refresher
- - 14 radio journalists
(producers) from 5
regional radio stations
and AFN trained
Activity 3.2: National Public
Discussions on findings of the
polling
2. 40 national level radio programs - 40 national level radio
programs produced by
AFN
Activity 3.3: Local Dialogues on
findings of polls through local
radio stations
- 200 local level radio programs
produced by 5 regional radio
stations
- 200 local level programs
produced by the 5
regional radio stations
Activity 3.4: Publication of
outcome of dialogue program
- 240 radio episodes/radio programs’
synopsis
- 40 white papers produced
Source: Various program’s progress and partners’ progress reports

5
As per the M&E Plan.

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6.2.3 Interdisciplinary Analysts
On IDA’s part on the NOP component, the original plan was to conduct 12 opinion polls and 12
press conferences. However, taking into consideration the relevancy and possibility of having
more number of polls in terms of costs, time, human resource, and substantive and useful
findings and data every month, and the changed political contexts, it was decided to have only 3
polls during the life of the program.
Besides the number of polls, in the M&E plan the output/outcome planned that was measurable
and quantified was that 5 political parties would use polling data or results in internal discussion
and the source for this would be NDI reports. From the key informant interview with NDI it has
been found that some of the results of the polls which were not appropriate to be made public
were communicated to the political parties, though the exact details could not be accessed.
As for others such as disaggregation of the polling sample data, IDA had maintained
disaggregated data by age, gender, cast/ethnicity, and location and vocation that are in the NOP
reports. See Annex 12.
6.3 Program Achievements per Objective
Key findings by the external evaluation on program achievements per objective are as follows.
The findings emphasize the achievements against the targets set under activities, under the three
objectives, and presented and discussed in terms of SWOT framework.
6.3.1 Strengthening Capacity for Citizen Input on the Electoral Process
Under this objective there were two major activity components.
6.3.1.1 Component 1: National Opinion Polls
As per the proposal submitted by Internews to NDI for no-cost extension in March 2013,
originally it was planned to have 12 NOPs and 12 press conferences. Taking into account the
practicality and relevance of having 12 NOPs, it was later reduced to only 3 NOPs and the 12
press conferences were also not organized. The data on the 3 NOPs are as below.
Table 2: Data on NOPs
NOP
number
Date of the NOP Number of
districts/VDCs/municipalities
covered
Sample size
1st
September 2013 31 districts; 129 VDCs + 22
municipalities from every district
3004
2nd
February 2014 31 districts; 128 VDCs + 22
municipalities from each district
3000
3rd
September 2014 44 districts; 183 VDCs + 28
municipalities
4021
Total 7025
Source: Various SPELP Program Progress Reports
Looking at the output level this component of the program has been able to achieve its target. A
total of 7,025 Nepali citizens were able to provide input into the electoral process. However, it is

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not clear and evidence is not available that the inputs from citizens have been able to influence
the electoral process at the national level since there was no follow-up polls or activity
conducted to match the outcomes of citizen’s inputs into the electoral process. From the key
informant interviews it has also come to light that the complete set of poll data or results (such as
the political party popularity ratings) could not be made public due to various reasons, such as
political sensitivity and not necessary to make it public or share with media. As a matter of fact
some of the program partners expressed disappointment at not being able to make public the
complete data or results of the polls.
From the key informant interview with NDI, however, it came to light that NDI communicated
the related data and poll results to the related political parties. However, documented evidence
or objective information on this was inaccessible.

Also, to share the media findings of the third poll, on 24 December 2014 Internews organized a
Media Sharing Meeting with media NGOs, researchers, and media outlets. A total of 25
participants attended. The third survey contained the most comprehensive data about media
consumption in Nepal after 2008, which also included mobile, Internet use and computer access
in Nepal. Editors from newspapers and representatives of TV and the top online news portals
were also invited to the meeting, though they did not attend despite telephone follow-up.
Findings of the survey were shared through Slideshare.net
(http://www.slideshare.net/madhu272/internewsida-media-survey-findingsnepal-pdf) and
emailed to all the participants.

Some of the implementing partners are of the opinion in future in such partnership or activity
implementation agreement it would be mutually satisfactory to inculcate the terms for sharing or
disseminating the poll data or results. However, the party who commissioned the polls in this
nexus are of the view that it is a normal procedure that the decision to make such data or
information is in the discretion of the contracting party.
IDA has been doing political opinion polls for the past 10/12 years and when the poll
questionnaires or checklists are formulated they make a point to engage the political parties as a
stakeholder. So having the engagement of the political parties at the very outset of the national
public opinion poll process the ownership and acceptance of the poll processes and results are
assured and risk of dissent or conflict of interest are reduced. According to IDA in the past
public opinion political polls they have conducted they have made public the complete report
online in print and completely presented to the media as well. According to the CEPPS/NDI
Quarterly Report: October 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, the media component findings of the
third poll were also disseminated as infographics through the online news portal
www.setopati.com. Samples of the overall findings of the 3 polls are as follows.
Overall Direction of the Country

16

56

18

10

26

37

28

9

27

37

27

8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Moving
in
the
right

direc8on

Moving
in
the
wrong

direc8on

Some
in
right,
some
in

wrong
direc8on

DK/CS

Percent

Sep
2013
Feb
2014
Sep
2014

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Major Problems Identified at National and Local Levels

Nepal
should
be
a
federal
state
or
a
unitary
state?

See Annex 12 for the synthesis report of all the 3 opinion poll findings.
6.3.1.2 Component 4: Community of Practice
Under this component, a community of practice (CoP) website www.nepalelectionchannel.org,
that covered electoral and political development regarding election related issues, was launched
in the earlier phases of SPELP in August 2011.
In the external evaluation phase of the program, Internews had proposed to expand the existing
site to enable direct submission of reports by CSOs, journalists, and other concerned parties. The
site was also to be reformatted to better publish and publicize the results of the polls.
All materials published on the website were planned to be cross-referenced and publicized on
social media platforms such as the Nepal Election Channel Facebook Page and Twitter account
to reach as broad an audience as possible. The social media platforms were to be also utilized to
stimulate further debate within Nepal’s growing network of netizens.
According to the April 1, 2013 to June, 30, 2013 CEPPS/NDI report, Freedom Forum continued
to manage and update the site on a voluntary basis for the past one year even without financial
support from Internews. New sub-agreement to upgrade and update the site was signed with
Freedom Forum in June 2013 for 12 months. And Internews was in the process of identifying a
local contractor for upgrading of the site, which was to be completed in August 2013 to be ready
41

3

23

34

15
13

42

4

21

46

18

11

35

13

23

41

22

10

0

10

20

30

40

50

Poverty
The
cons8tu8on

will
not
be

formulated

Price
hike
Unemployment
Lack
of

development

and

infrastructure

Poli8cal

uncertainty/

instability

Percent

Sep
2013
Feb
2014
Sep
2014

23

34

42

23

38
39

24

30

47

0

10

20

30

40

50

Nepal
should
be
a
federal
state
Nepal
should
be
a
unitary
state
DK/CS

Percent

Sep
2013
Feb
2014
Sep
2014

of 29
for uploading national opinion poll results and radio programs.
Quantitatively the outputs planned in the new sub-agreement were: 12 monthly polls published
online;6
10 monthly overviews of local radio content published; and all radio programs published
in MP3 format on the website. The data on updating and visits to the election channel between
the period July 2013 to June 2014 are as given in the table below.
Table 3: Data on www.nepalelectionchannel.org upload/update and usage
Period/Quarter Number of
Uploads/Updates
Visitors in
English
Visitors in
Nepali
Facebook
Likes
July – October
2013
306 9,972 9,956 1,055
October –
December 2013
857 27,498 27,429 1,822
January – March
2014
627 1,233 1,233 NA
April – June 2014 255 3,017 3,018 NA
Source: 4 reports submitted by FF to Internews from October 2013 – June 2014
The above data reveals and corroborates that the election channel was accessed the most in and
around the last constituent assembly election in Nepal on 19 November 2013. This clearly
indicates that the election channel had a direct relevance to the CA elections.
Freedom Forum was of the opinion that the media or the journalist benefitted most from this
component of the program as per the Google Analytics Data of the website—most of the visitors
during the last CA election to the website were journalists. The channel has developed as a
useful web portal, resource base and dialogue platform, especially for media, according to FF.
After the sub-grant agreement was completed in June 2014 Freedom Forum has continued to
maintain and update the website with its own resources and exploring new partnership for
support to continue with it.
As of 26 February 2015 the Facebook likes had increased to 2,060 from 1,822 in December
2013. Other latest data on visitors and updates/upload was not accessible.
Review of the www.nepalelectionchannel.org web portal in line with the planned outputs and
targets of the program, reveals that it lacks the archiving of the 3 poll results, not even the poll
results which were made public through other outlets like Setopati, like the one on media
components; 10 monthly overviews of the local radio contents or the white papers; and all the
radio programs, i.e. the 40 radio programs produced by AFN at the national level and the 200
radio programs produced by the local radio stations at the regional level.
On the current website (as of 26 February 2015) only 13 radio programs or Loktantra Mantra
episodes have been archived and there are no opinion polls and monthly local radio reviews
published.
According to Freedom Forum one of the reasons why some of the originally planned targets
could not be achieved was due to inconsistencies in managing the multiple partnership of the
SPELP, as the contents for the www.nepalelectionchannel.org were produced by different
partners and Freedom Forum also could not be consistent in following-up to obtain the contents.
Though there was a common program partner coordination committee, regular and consistent

6
The number of polls as discussed already was reduced to 3.

of 29
archiving of the outputs from the program lost its actually planned rigor.
Freedom Forum further viewed that by having one single partnership or one organization
carrying out these several activities – national polls, reviewing and documenting (publishing) the
local radio program issues as white papers, and the radio programs at the national level – would
have been more effective to manage this component of the program.
6.3.2 Media are better informed to cover election related issues at the national
and district levels
Under this objective there was one major activity component.
6.3.2.1 Component 2: Training on reporting national public opinion polls
AFN conducted five three-day trainings for 103 journalists in Biratnagar (Eastern Region),
Kathmandu (Central Region), Pokhara (Western Region), Nepalgunj (Mid Western Region) and
Dhangadi (Far Western Region).
The selection process for the training comprised of a public call for applications in Kantipur
Daily for journalists with at least three years of experience in any form of media, i.e. print,
television or radio. The call also asked journalists to provide their personal details, level of
education, interested subject areas, and the training location most favorable to them. Detail
downloadable information on the training was also posted on the AFN website. Priority was
given to women and disadvantaged groups (DAGs) while five seats each were allocated to
producers of those regional partner stations under the program in order to ensure smooth
program output.
Table 4: Summary Data on NOP Reporting Trainings and Participants
SN Location Date Trainee Composition Trainers
1 Kathmandu 21- 23
September 2013
19 participants, 6 females,
16 Brahmin, 1 Chettri, 2
DAG
Rajendra Dahal, Madhu
Acharya and Rajan
Parajuli
2 Biratnagar 26-28 August
2013
21 participants, 5 females, 6
DAG, 6 Madhesi, 1 Newar,
8 Brahmin
Rajendra Dahal and
Madhu Acharya
3 Pokhara 14 -16
September 2013
19, participants, 4 Females,
16 Brahmin, 3 DAG
Rajendra Dahal, Madhu
Acharya and Rajan
Parajuli
4 Nepalgunj 30 July -1
August 2013
21 participants, 7 females, 1
DAG, 4 Chettri, 16 Brahmin
Rajendra Dahal and
Rajan Parajuli
5 Dhangadi 17-19 August
2013
23 participants, 4 females,
11 Chettri, 12 Brahmin
Rajendra Dahal and
Madhu Acharya
Total Trainee Composition 103 participants, including 26 females, 16 Chettri,
68 Brahmin, 12 DAG, 6 Madhesi and 1 Newar
Source: AFN Program Completion Report, June 2013 - September 2014
The data above on NOP training shows that social diversity wise the participation was dominated
by Brahman and Chettris and male participants. However, such domination by one or two social
group or gender is contingent on their engagement in journalism profession, as majority of the
journalists in Nepal are from Brahman and Chettri social groups. Similarly, more men are
engaged in journalism profession than women.

of 29
Of the 103 trainees media background wise 44 (45.32%) were from radios (including
community, commercial and state radio/Radio Nepal), 8 (8.24%) were from TV, and rest or 51
(52.53%) were from national and local print dailies or weeklies or news agencies such as the
state owned National News Agency and Ujyalo News Network. The detailed list of participants
by district/development region, gender, media type and social diversity is attached as Annex 13.
AFN carried out a mid-term evaluation of the NOP Reporting Training using SurveyMonkey
about four months after giving the training. The online survey was sent to 100 trainees; 70
responded. Of the total responses 50% agreed that the training has improved their reporting
using surveys and data; 54.29% of the respondents said the skills they obtained from the
training on using, analyzing and interpreting data in their work has been the most useful; 30%
said that their confidence has increased in using data in their work; 52.94% agreed that the
training has improved their local level reporting on local development budgets etc.; 72.46%
agreed that after the training they have learned to verify and investigate data use in reporting;
and 77.14% agreed that by using data in their work it gives accuracy and objectivity and
makes the concerned authorities accountable. See Annex 7 for details of AFN survey.
The evaluator also conducted a rapid online survey using SurveyMonkey between 18-25
February 2015, i.e. almost two years after the poll reporting workshops were imparted. The
survey was sent out to 100 trainees, of which 10 bounced, 1 opted out, and of the 17
respondents 4 did not complete or skipped. This meant out of the 89 survey recipients only 13
or 11.57% responded.7
Of the 13 respondents 6 or 46.15% said they mainly learned about analyzing or interpreting
data in reporting; 4 or 33.77% about investigating data in reporting; and 3 or 23.08% about
using data in reporting.
Further regarding the use of the learning from the training 10 or 76.92% said in reporting for
newspaper/radio/TV; 3 or 23.08% in analytical report writing/producing using data; and 2 or
15.38% in writing features. 12 or 92.31% of the respondents said after the training it has
improved the quality of their work. All the respondents said that after more than a year of

7
In social science research 10-15% of the total sample size is acceptable for generalization.
1.
Training
has

improved
their

reporting
using

surveys
and

data,
50%

2.
Skills
they

obatined
from

the
training,

using,

analyzing
and

interpreting

data
in
their

work
has
been

most
useful,

54.29%

3.
Their

conEidence
has

increased
in

using
data
in

their
work,

30%

4.
Has

improved
their

local
reporting

on
local

development

budgets,

52.94%

5.
Learned
to

verify
and

investigate

data
use
in

reporting,

72.46%

6.
Using
data

gives
accuracy

and
objectivity

in
their
work

and
makes
the

concerned

authorities

accountable,

77.14%

of 29
receiving the training they have been using the learning’s from the training in their current
work and all the respondents would be happy to attend another such training. The detail survey
result is included as Annex 14.
More in-depth consultations with randomly selected 10 samples, representing gender, districts
and type of media were carried out by the evaluator. Of the 10 trainees interviewed one was
selected for the training but due to some reasons did not attend. See Annex 15 for the list of
trainees who were in-depth interviewed.
All the samples agreed that the poll reporting training was useful and it enhanced their skill in
using, interpreting, analyzing, investigating data in their work. By use of data in their work it
has improved the standard and credibility of their work. Khumba Raj Rai, a reporter for
Kantipur daily paper from Okhaldhungha (Eastern Nepal) said: “I had attended many trainings
in the past. But this training was focused on data reporting. Now it is easier for me to report
finance news.” See Anecdote 1.
The training has contributed to improving the quality of journalism and public reliability on
media. It has also improved public’s access to data and factual information on local issues such
as local development budgets, census etc. Prem Kumari Ghale, reporter for Kantipur daily, also
a radio journalist from Pokhara (Mid Western Nepal) said: “I did a story on development
planning in my district and the readers were able to have access to more accurate data and
information on development planning.” See Anecdote 2.
Most of the samples have continued to use the learning from the training in their
day-to-day journalism work. One sample was of the opinion that though the training imparted
knowledge on using data in journalism, it is ultimately up to the journalist to make the best use
of it and learn more and improve the quality of journalism through learning-by-doing.
Regarding the duration, module and monitoring of the trainings some of the points raised
were: the duration of the training could have been longer so that there would be enough time
for practical exercises; such a training should have a session on fieldwork in which the
participants can actually work on a data journalism assignments or programs; and the follow-up
to the trainees lacked rigor and consistency, as the outputs from the trainees were not
regularly collected or followed by the organization which imparted the training. Aruna
Banjade, a producer at Radio Pyuthan (Far Western Nepal) said that there should be at least
once a month follow-up. Asking the trainees to send what they have produced (after the
training).
Also, it needs to be noted that the data journalism skills are assessed to have been possible to be
used effectively more in print journalism vis-à-vis radio and TV, as Yogesh Rawal, a reporter for
Sagarmatha TV from Dhangadi (Far-western Nepal), who also doubles up as a reporter for local
print paper, said: “I have not used data that much in my TV reporting. But have generally used
data in print reporting.”
Regarding organizing such training in future Prem Kumari said: “It will be very useful for the
radio journalists because most of them have not taken journalism class. Most of the radio
journalists love ‘talk show’. If this kind of training is conducted they have to do desk study.” See
Anecdote 2.

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Anecdote 1: Kumbha Raj Rai, Male, Print Journalist, reports for Kantipur
Daily from Okhaldhungha, Eastern Nepal
Kumbha has been working as a print journalist for the past 10 years. For three years he
worked in a local newspaper and after that has been reporting for national Kantipur daily. He
does not have an academic background in journalism but have studied population and
rural development in his undergraduate studies.
Kumbha attended the NOP Reporting Training in Biratnagar. He specifically mentioned that
the training helped him to report on economic issues using data or on financial news
reporting. He was able to use small data to develop bigger issue stories. He shared with
the evaluator several of his works in which he has used data.
Regarding the training content Kumbha said: “In future such training should also have
sessions on understanding the related official and technical languages that are used by
governments and surveys on categorizing or describing data and statistics. ” He added:
“Having sessions on scientific concepts on data and statistic could also be useful for
journalists to better understand, use, analyze, interpret and above all to churn out stories from
data.”
Further, on a positive note Kumbha was of the view that journalists benefitted from the
training by learning to use data and its manifestations in journalism. And by the journalists
doing so, in turn the citizens also benefitted, as they have access to factual information and
data on issues that affect their lives.
Some of Kumbha’s sample works are available online at:
10 dead in Okhaldhunga bus crash
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/02/01/related_articles/10-dead-in-
okhaldhunga-bus-crash/258788.html
Khumbu residents demand Salleri-Beni road extension
http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/06/02/national/khumbu-residents-demand-salleri-beni-road-
extension/390376.html
After 13 long years, Sunkoshi bridge comes into operation
http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/12/23/national/after-13-long-years-sunkoshi-bridge-comes-into-
operation/399404.html
Anecdote 2: Prem Kumari Ghale, Female, Reporter, Kantipur Daily; and
Radio Marshyangdi, Pokhara, Mid-Western Nepal
Prem Kumari worked for Kanitpur Daily paper as a reporter from Pokhara for almost 10
years. She also worked for the community radio Radio Marshyangdi as a Station Manager in
Pokhara for about 8 years.8
Unfortunately after almost a decade of working as a journalist she
quit about 3 months ago, and moved to Kathmandu and is working for an NGO. At the same
time she is pursuing her higher education of masters in mass communication.
She attended the training in Pokhara while she was working for both the media outfits. She had
earlier attended a training on investigative journalism imparted by the Center for Investigative

8
Many journalists in Nepal, especially in the districts, wear more than one journalist hat and work for more than one
media outlets either in print, radio or TV.

of 29
Journalism. The poll reporting or data journalism training she attended under the program she
found was different in the sense that she learned about using data, playing with data, interpreting
data to develop journalistic reports and stories. In few words she said the training was ‘data
focused’. After the training she wrote several stories on development planning, tourism and
others using data journalism techniques.
Learning to use data in journalism Prem Kumari said: “I was able to do more accurate data
analysis in my stories or write-ups and such reports or stories with factual accuracy not only
raised the standard of my work but the readers also got accurate and reliable information.” She
added, such data journalism not only provided accurate information to general public but made
the authorities and other decision- and policy-makers accountable, including the politicians.
Regarding the training Prem Kumari said that there has to be consistent follow-up by asking
the trainees to send their outputs or works on data reporting every month after the training to
the organization that imparted the training.
She added: “More such trainings should be organized since most of the journalists working in
Nepal do not have journalism academic background and possess basic knowledge about
journalism.” She further said such trainings should have more than one trainer though there
were two resource persons from IDA who took some sessions in the training. She added duration
of the training should have more time to do practical works on actual data journalism.
Participation wise she found there very few female participants in the training. Maybe the
organizers should consider allocating equal number of seats for male and female. She, however,
opines that there is no need for separate training for female journalists, as female would like to
work shoulder-to-shoulder competitively with male counterparts. Some of Prem Kumari’s data
journalism sample works are available online at:
Mid-Marsyangdi earns Rs 14.5b in revenues
http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/11/15/business/mid-marsyangdi-earns-rs-14.5b-in-revenues/397719.html
Dev programs in Lamjung hit contract hurdle
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2012/02/04/related_articles/dev-programs-in-lamjung-hit-
contract-hurdle/231204.html
Polling in himalayan districts (with inputs from Prem Kumari)
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2013/11/14/top-story/polling-in-himalayan-
districts/255743.html
6.3.3 Media are utilized to facilitate debates on the results of
national public opinion polling
Under this objective there were four major activities under one component.
6.3.3.1 Component 3, Activity 1: Program Design Workshop
A two-day program design workshop was conducted by AFN from 24-25 September 2013 in
Dhulikhel, Kavre. Of the 14 participants there were 2 station managers, 8 producers (identified
for radio program production) from the five radio stations, 2 each producers and potential hosts
for the show from AFN.
This training was facilitated by Internews’ Nepal Project Director Madhu Acharya. The
production design workshop was based on Design Thinking Approach popularly practiced by

of 29
Silicon Valley companies and incepted at Stanford University, d.school.9
The workshop
followed the design thinking approach - Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test mode.
Table 5: Participants in Program Design Workshop
SN Participants Gender Organization District
1. Ishwari Prasad Chapagain Male Vijaya FM Nawalparasi
2. Om Prakash Paudel Male Vijay FM Nawalparasi
3. Tula Adhikari Male Krishnashar FM Banke
4. Prem Sing Sunar Male Krishnashar FM Banke
5. Kranti Shah Male Narayani FM Parsa
6. Niraj Pithakote Male Narayani FM Parsa
7. Dhirendra Sinal Male Shuklaphanta FM Kanchanpur
8. Bibechana Bista Female Shuklaphanta FM Kanchanpur
9. Bhairab Angla Male Saptakoshi FM Sunsari
10. Suman Puri Male Saptakoshi FM Sunsari
11. Kalpana Bhattarai Female AFN Kathmandu
12. Durga Lamichhane Female AFN Kathmandu
13. Rajan Parajuli Male AFN Kathmandu
14. Kiran Nepal Male AFN Kathmandu
Source: AFN Quarterly Reports
Key informants, who included station managers and producers, who were interviewed
specifically on the program design workshop, all were of the opinion that this workshop was
different from other radio designing workshops they had attended in the past. They found the
workshop innovative and learned about bottom-up pluralistic radio programming rather than
the prevalent and dominant formats of media in general including radio, in which the approach
is top-down. All of them had the same voice that they learned from the workshop a radio
program format that is different and in the real sense corroborates giving and raising voices of
the voice less or give emphasis to vox pop.
Also, informants were of the opinion that they learned about how in a radio program the
national level opinions commonly propagated by the political party leaders and intellectuals can
be matched with the citizen and local people’s opinion on the same issue or the priorities at the
national level vis-à-vis at the local level. They would be using LTM radio format in other radio
program productions in future. See Anecdotes 3 and 4.
Besides the radio design workshop, at the onset of the program, after making an observation visit
to the regional radio stations by Internews and AFN in early February 2014, it was found
necessary to organize a refresher workshop. A two-day refresher workshop was organized in
February for the radio program producers in Nagarkot. The two-day refresher training for
producers was attended by 12 producers, including two each from AFN and five other regional
radio partners. Apart from discussing existing problems and ways to deal with it, the training
also discussed further episode planning and issues such as branding and increasing impact
through various activities.

9
For further details on the d.school and Design Thinking Approach please visit http://dschool.stanford.edu/our-
point-of-view/

of 29
6.3.3.2 Component 3, Activity 2: National Public Discussion on Findings of the
Polling
At the national level AFN produced 40 radio programs focused mainly on the findings of the poll
related to election, federalism, and political transition. The issues were discussed nationally
primarily in a focused group. The radio program was called ‘Loktantra Mantra (LTM)’. AFN's
production was aired in over 30 of AFN's radio partners across Nepal every Wednesday.
At the national level radio programs were produced with on-location, with focused group
discussions in at least seven districts covering Bhaktapur, Dolakha, Kathmandu,
Kavrepalanchowk, Lalitpur, Nuwakot and Sindhupalanchowk. Complete list of the LTM
produced by AFN with the summary of contents, discussions, and participants produced and
broadcast by AFN is attached as Annex 16.
A total of 525 people participated, including 58% males and 42% females in the national level
LTM. Out of them, 56.38% were Brahmin/Chhetri, 26.67% Janjati, 10.86% Dalit, 0.38%
Muslim, 1.14% Madhesi and 4.57% from other communities. Profession-wise, 11.43% were
teachers, 13.33% students, 12.76% business/entrepreneurs, 9.9% farmers, 3.43% political
activists, 15.81% social activists, 3.62% professionals, 4% government service, 10.67%
housewives, 15.05% did not mentioned/others.
Due to time constraints it was not possible to consult the people who participated in the radio
programs. To gauge the impact of the radio program key informants from Internews, AFN,
partners radio station managers and producers were consulted.
Major points that came out of the key informant consultations on who benefitted the most from
the production and broadcast of the LTM were:
• The LTM radio program format was relatively different from the other radio programs.
• LTM was different in the sense that it gave more space to vox pop or citizens in the electoral
and political process.
• The citizens at the local level benefitted the most in terms of that they had access to media
space to raise their issues and present their opinions on the national issues through the LTM
and interact with the other national and local level opinion makers.
• The LTM radio programs gave that space for national opinion makers to be accountable
downward.
• The journalists and the radio stations also benefitted, in terms of that their capacity was built
in designing and producing radios programs that was different from the past and more people
or citizen centered.
• The outreach of the radios to remote and rural villages or the geographical coverage by the
radios in producing radio programs with vox pop was enhanced.
• Contributed to decentralization of radio programming.10

10
As most of the local radios do not have the capacity to produce quality programs and most of the programs they
broadcast are produced from the ‘center’ by either Kathmandu based production houses or radio networks, LTM
local production contributed to ‘decentralizing’ and building the capacity of local radios to produce quality radio
programs.

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Specifically major points that stemmed from the consultations regarding the duration and actual
impact or effectiveness of LTM in influencing the national level opinion making process were:
• Most of the producers of the LTM and the partner radio stations opined that if the LTM was
continued for a longer time then the later programs on LTM could follow-up on what
discussions and assurances that had transpired in earlier program from the leaders,
politicians, policy-makers and authorities, then it would have made the downward
accountability of the overall program effective and measurable.
• The duration of the LTM of half an hour did not suffice for all the participants to raise their
concerns or present their opinions.
• Time allocation for citizens to raise their concerns and opinions and for the local leaders,
politicians, authorities etc. or who are accountable to respond, should be equally divided, as
not all the citizens the LTM FGDs could present their opinions during the LTM
slotted/edited program time.
• Some of the national level opinions or findings of the polls were not relevant at all at the
local levels, as for them more important was local level development issues like road, water,
education, poverty etc.
• Giving more time for research to contextualize the national level opinions or poll results to
local level can be attributable in making such radio program effective in achieving its
ultimate goal or objective. As some of the national level issues such as the elections,
constitution making were not priorities for the citizens than the roads, water, education etc.
The LTM radio programs were produced and broadcast by AFN and the local radio stations for 9
months between the period December 20013 – September 2014. None of the partner FM radios
have continued to broadcast the LTM after the completion of the LTM radio program with AFN.
Nor has AFN been able to continue with LTM production and broadcast after completion of the
program due to lack of resources or the capacity to bear the production costs for field reporting
by visiting remote villages. Also, though there have been efforts to access resources to continue
with the LTM radio program, it was not found that any of the partner radio stations have been
successful.
6.3.3.3 Component 3, Activity 3: Local Dialogues on Findings of Polls
Under this activity 5 regional radio stations, viz, Saptakoshi FM, Sunsari; Narayani FM, Parsa;
Vijay FM, Nawalparasi; Krishnasar FM, Banke; Suklaphanta FM, Kanchanpur, produced 200
radio programs (40 per regional station) and were broadcast by 30 local radio stations.
The selection process for the regional partner radio stations was compeitative bidding.
AFN issued a request for proposals to 15 prospective radio stations for production and
broadcasting of the radio program on polling results. AFN received proposals from 13
radio stations. The key criteria for selection were: i) understanding of concept of
proposed radio program (5 points); ii) approach and methodology for effective operation
of regional program (25 points); iii) strategic combination of radio stations (10 points);
modality of partnership with local radio stations (10 points); iv) radio program production
capacity (including existing physical resource, experience on live-call-in program on
socio- economic issues) (20 points); v) proposed budget (5 points); vi) experience and
qualification of proposed team (15 points); and vii) partnership track record with Antenna
Foundation (10 points).

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In the radio program produced by the regional partner stations, a total 2073 people participated,
including 69% males and 31% females. Out of them, 62% were Brahmin/Chhetri, 23% Janjati,
9% Dalit, 1% Muslim, 4% Madhesi and 1% were others.
Most of the respondents specifically on the local level radio program opined that it was able to
give that media space to the citizen to raise their voices and opinions. The FM radios have also
benefitted by working on a more bottom-up radio format and were able to understand people’s
issues more. See Anecdotes 3 and 4.
Anecdote 3: Niraj Pithakote, Male, Producer, Narayan FM, Parsa
Niraj has been working with Narayani FM for the past two years as a producer. He attended the
program design workshop in Dhulikhel and was involved in producing the LTM at the regional
or local level.
He had a clear understanding of the purpose of producing and broadcasting LTM and thinks
that it was able to raise the public opinions and marginalized voices on national and local
issues.
He gave an example that in a FGD for the LTM they had conducted in Amlekhganj in Bara,
local participants opined that they did not know anything about the constituent assembly and
constitution making process. The CA members from different political parties and local leaders
who participated in that LTM’s FGD assured that they would raise these issues in the CA and in
their respective political parties’ central committees. Also, in an informal discussion a
proportional representation CA member from Nepal Congress Party personally assured to raise
the issue at the national level. But the assurance the CA members and the political leaders had
given could not be made accountable or has been followed-up. The participants of that episode
of the LTM do not know their concerns were raised at the national level or not.
Despite the program or the LTM radio program not being able to make the national level
opinion-makers or the leaders downward accountable, Niraj said: “ The citizens at the local
benefitted the most from the LTM as they could have access to media space and raise their
voice.”
The effectiveness and popularity of the LTM he also said are indicated by the demand for the
LTM in other VDCs, as he gets requests personally to conduct such radio programs in other
villages.
Regarding the program production improvement Niraj said: “The duration of the program can be
extended from 30 minutes to 1 hour so that all the participants can present their opinions and
there is enough time for the citizens and the leaders or the national level opinion-makers to
interact and find solution or consensus on local issue or opinions.”
Anecdote 4: Suman Puri, Male, Producer, Saptakoshi FM, Sunsari
Suman was earlier a print journalist and has been working for Saptakoshi FM for the past 8
years. He said the program design workshop was different from the radio training workshops he
had attended earlier, in the sense that it emphasized design thinking.
His understanding of the LTM radio program was that it tried to link the local opinions to the
national level opinions. He said: “In the Koshi flood in Prakashpur where the mainstay of
economy and livelihood is agriculture, in the LTM FGD, forming an agricultural cooperative
was discussed and now it has been formed.”

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He opined that the local citizens definitely benefitted from the LTM as they found a media
platform to raise their concerns and issues to the local leaders and authorities. He thinks: “The
radios also benefitted as through the LTM they were able to reach out to remote VDCs and
credibility of the radios have improved. The LTM has also increased the radio audience. Local
citizens who had participated in the TM FGDs call and update him on the issues they had raised
and discussed.”
Regarding the improvement of the LTM he said more time should be given to identifying the
issues; increase the duration of the radio program; maybe less participants or less time or more
participants and more time, or the duration of the radio program should have ample time for
every participant to raise their voice or present their opinion; and there should be more
participation of local leaders and authorities in the LTM FGDs. Maybe there could be some
provisions or incentives for the local authorities to participate in the radio program FGDs.
Suman concluded: “There should be follow-up radio programs that would facilitate to make the
political leaders and authorities that gave assurances in earlier program accountable to the
citizens.”
6.3.3.4 Component 3, Activity 4: Publication of Outcome of Dialogue Program
Under this activity every month AFN was to produce a summary of outcomes of the radio
programs produced at both the central and regional levels. Summary pages for each region
would provide a general analysis of hot topics of the month, the range of issues covered in the
programs and politicians’ responses.
The white papers would give the general public an opportunity to raise their voice to be heard as
well as provide both objective and subjective information, analyzed dispassionately and
delivered evenly. By sharing the edited versions politicians and policy-makers would be able to
measure citizens' satisfaction with service delivery, their perceived national priorities, their
political preferences, their attitudes on the state of the economy and overall development of the
country.
A total of 10 such compiled reports were planned to be produced during the program period and
AFN would publish the document on www.nepalelectionchannel.org on a monthly basis, as well
as distribute to politicians and the wider political stakeholders through email.
Some of the white papers were shared with other partners in the progress reports by AFN.
However, it was not found to be archived on the election channel as well as being distributed to
wider political stakeholders through email. A sample of a whitepaper is attached as Annex 17.
7. Unplanned Outputs
Some of the unplanned outputs of the program were as follows.
7.1 Infographics on Poll Results
Internews produced several infographics on selected poll results and they were disseminated
through online news portals such as www.setopati.com.
These infographics were developed to support better dissemination of the poll findings. The
infographics on poll results were also disseminated through youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G8zLVV7yD8.

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7.2 National Radio Conference
Internews in collaboration with AFN, Association for Community Radio Broadcasters-Nepal
(ACORAB), Broadcasters Association Nepal (BAN), Nepal Forum for Environmental
Journalists (NEFEJ), Equal Access Nepal (EAN), and Communications Corner (CC) organized a
two-day National Radio Conference (NRC) in Dhulikhel and Lalitpur from 20 – 21 February
2015.
The conference was participated by about 80 people representing various radios, associations
and others related to radio in Nepal.
The main objective of the NRC was to discuss with the stakeholders, various perspectives of
radios with primary focus on policy, content, governance and sustainability issues. Synthesize
the inputs and discussions from the stakeholders and input to the new media policy the
Government of Nepal is in the process of formulating.
Amongst several other presentations and discussions around policy, content, technology,
governance, and sustainability related to radios in Nepal, presentation on media component
findings of the National Opinion Poll Wave III, and trends in radio contents and listenership
from other researches such as that of Sammarth and Communications Corner were presented.
Complete proceedings of the conference is attached as Annex 18.
Most of the participants of the conference viewed that after a long time a national radio
conference was organized and provided the opportunity by bringing together all the stakeholders
of radio sector, to retrospect on the state of radios in Nepal. And it was organized timely, to
provide inputs from radio sector to the new media policy being drafted by the Government of
Nepal.
7.3 Handbook on Data Journalism
Internews is preparing a handbook on data journalism in Nepali referring to global standard
handbooks. After it is prepared and printed it will be distributed to the journalists who attended
the data journalism training as well as to other media stakeholders and practitioners who are
interested.
This handbook is being produced to sustain the trainings that were conducted earlier and to
provide journalists a concrete reliable resource not just to use data to support their stories but to
also expose them to skills in collecting, cleaning, analyzing and visualizing the data to help
audiences better understand the issues.
8. Challenges and Lessons Learned
For a program of this nature with a nexus of public opinion (raising people’s voice), media and
political factors the challenges can be assessed coherently to be three-fold.
First, how can a program that aims to raise public opinion vis-à-vis dominating elite political
opinion and culture be independent of such prevalent dominance? How can it work
independently to raise and present the public opinion to the dominating power and political
forces in play in the public sphere? How can it be independent of unprecedented risks that could
be anticipated?

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Secondly, if such programs tend to work independently and despite the risks goes ahead to make
public the information and data that it generates, or the findings then it may cause harm. In other
words the consequences of taking the risk of revealing or making public the truth can not
guarantee the safety of journalist or other actors in a program of this nature.
Thirdly, like most of the development programs, which cannot sustain beyond its program life,
developing an effective program exit strategy that sustains the activities or achievements made
by the program is still predominantly a development challenge. Instilling ownership in the
beneficiaries of the outputs (activities) of the programs that would eventually lead to the ultimate
outcomes (changes), is important, given the prevalence of weak resource capacity of the
beneficiary stakeholders usually do not see a life beyond the program period.
Framing the SPELP program in these three-fold challenges and assessing the key evaluation
findings the lessons that can be learned from the program are as follows.
• In carrying out or forging partnership on sensitive activities like the opinion poll, degrees of
and possibilities of independence in making public the results or the findings should be
explored as far as possible.
• In conducting such multi-stake activities like opinion poll the chances of making the results
public and being accepted by the key stakeholders without any conflict of interest can be
minimized by engaging them from the very outset and nurturing ownership.
• In resource intensive activities like radio program production and broadcast, a cost sharing
mechanism can be applied which can ensure to some extent the sustenance and ownership of
such outputs.
• In a multiple partnership programs where the activities and outputs are interconnected and
interdependent for achieving the outcomes, effective and responsible partnership should be
maintained. For example, most of the outputs from the program such as the LTM and white
papers as planned have not been uploaded or made public through the
www.nepalelectionchannel.org, because cooperation and obligation between the multiple
partners was not effective.
• Given the diversity of activities of the program and differing mandates of organizations as
partners, it may not be possible to implement all the activities under one roof or organization,
but the possibilities of finding a productive and effective partnership mechanism can be
always explored.
• By having an exit or sustainability strategy in a program plan chances of sustainability of a
program outputs could be assumed to be more.
• For effective M&E management of a program it would be coherent to have one single
integrated M&E process and system.
• For keeping track of and managing the evidences of impacts and to tap the learning and
manage knowledge from program activities, in the monthly or quarterly progress reports,
including a section that accounts reporting on lessons learned can contribute to effective
knowledge management of the program.

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9. Recommendations
Assessing the findings of the evaluation, and given the changed socio-political context with
unresolved issues such as the type of federalism, and that after two CA elections Nepal still does
not have a new constitution, following recommendations can be made.
i) The LTM radio programs produced 40 episodes. All the 40 episodes emphasized FGD
that facilitated interaction and discussion on national opinions or issues vis-à-vis local
opinions or issues. However, the assurances that transpired from the national level and
local leaders and authorities in the FGDs could not be accounted to the citizens. Or the
downward accountability could not be facilitated by LTM. In future radio programs can
be designed and planned in such a way that within the life of such radio program cycle
that the assurances and actions agreed to in the earlier programs can be followed or
accounted in the later programs with the same group of participants.
ii) FM radios in Nepal have been producing and broadcasting programs that are sponsored
or supported by programs or development agencies for a long time. This has of course
helped them to build their capacity but at the same time made them dependent on such
resources for program production and broadcast. Strategic partnership that entails cost
sharing for radio production and broadcast may ensure to some extent sustenance or
continuation of production and broadcast programs started by a program. In this regard,
to what extent the advertising revenues the FM radios collect, while the production and
broadcast costs have been covered by sponsored radio programs, to meet the cost sharing
partnership can be explored.
iii) Rather than organizing training in volumes in terms of large number of participants or
journalists, training few selected journalists and consistently mentoring them can make a
lasting impact.
iv) After a media training on a theme, the evidently proven approach for better results has
been providing fellowships to selected trainees, to exercise their learning or produce
outputs on the theme. So in the case of data journalism training fellowships could have
followed for tangible results.
v) Regarding the partnership in program outputs such as opinion polls and to what extent or
degree the outputs can be disseminated or made public, it is better to have a clarity in the
partnership agreement at the very outset of the program and clearly defined the authority
or right of discretion.
vi) A common output like the www.nepalelectionchannel.org can only work if the ownership
is common to all the program partners or contributors. So priority should be given to
nurture common ownership and such activities should have more interactive moderated
features like discussion lists, proactive membership for citizen participation. Or more
interactive activities that attribute to building the community of practice as the program
had envisaged.
vii) With proper editing and formatting of the draft white papers it can be shared widely and
uploaded on the election channel. The white papers can be compiled, edited properly and
can be published also as a digest.
viii) In the changed socio-political contexts and given that Nepal have had two CA elections,
and the contentious issues persist to be like federalism, it is advisable to focus in future
on public debates and political literacy radio programs that comprehensively analyzes
and interprets such issues, and contributes to build national consensus.

FINAL_Internews_SPELP_External_Evaluation_Report_17_03_2015

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