Evaluation of the Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Centre for ...

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383.6.1 Sufficiently harnessed?Despite the activities, and especially for graduates expressing overwhelmingsatisfaction with the course, many respondents did nonetheless suggest that there isan underdeveloped potential in the Centre exerting its influence.One highly relevant avenue highlighted was that the findings in dissertations could bemade better known to maximise potential for impact. One observer in governmentdescribed the dissertations as a vast and latent store with potential for use inevaluating policy implementation. The dissertations could be used to monitor whathas actually changed following the Maintenance Act, or the Sexual Offences Act andso on. NGO employees, including Directors, also alluded to added value that suchresearch could add by feeding into better focus and strategizing in their own work.The Deputy of the Centre also identified an additional issue in not following thelogic of the grounded approach to its natural conclusion in terms of seeking betterimplementation of policy for women. The risk is that communities suffer researchfatigue in light of little improvement evident in their circumstances despite being‘researched’. These findings tend to suggest two inter-related issues, namely, publicityand in association, accessibility, and more practical application to scrutinisingimplementation and hence directly policy relevant. These are also connected to athird, namely, profiling the Centre.Though accessible to some extent through the web in recent years, comments byrespondents, as well as the evaluators’ own attempts to navigate the web site tends topoint towards hard to find format (listed according to year, and not topic, forexample). Presently, the profiling of work does not appear particularly user-friendly.Furthermore, an additional policy friendly format could be better utilised bystakeholders who may not have time or inclination to read full length dissertations.Some follow-up in terms of direct relevance to communities is also desirable.It is fair to say that the Centre is active mainly if not almost entirely in Zimbabweand not in the regional countries. One finds that the graduates are relatively wellnetworked in Zimbabwe but this decreases the further one moves awaygeographically as explained by the previous comment in Zambia that ‘we do not seethe impact of graduates’. The need for strategic interventions for alumnae wasparticularly felt in Zambia and Kenya.But what is reasonable to ask of the Centre over and above its clearly dedicated andhighly focused attention to the course and its extra-curricular activities? We listseveral examples of elements identified by respondents in survey and interviews asthe sorts of ideas that could potentially feed into a more strategic outreach to bedetermined by SEARCWL. Some of these may not necessarily demand moreresources, others may:−−−Should do more training with government, and women in private practiceMore outreach (Law Commission)Centre could mobilise its research and use it strategically: ‘Research is locatedat the Centre and if we don’t get it ourselves then it will stay there’.
− The dissertations and the research shows some solutions are there for mostAfrican countries. The Centre should identify most of the findings that couldbe used within the countries. Perhaps the Board could be more involved toknow how such work has been helping or otherwise.− The Centre should enrol more men as men tend to be gate keepers− A name change to reflect gender rather than women’s law− The Centre could use alumnae to put issues on agenda- linking research toalumnae− Better coordination of research to take this into policy and advocacy− Not enough interaction with civil society- to generate new theory− Not enough interaction with government− More staff would enable more write up and public platforms− Need audit of laws− ‘If Centre has more time it can be more strategic’− Students themselves could push the Alumnae networks, but we could put therelevant students together-if for instance, with Ministry of Justice- we couldplay a more active role in facilitating that process (Amy Tsang, Centre).− The Centre could monitor and look at for instance, the police or whathappened in the courts and reflect on this.− Opportunities - how do we make use of the data that we have?− We have not addressed the issue of dissemination a lot in the board/colloquia(Regional Advisory Board - see later).Whether these are realistic suggestions must be gauged in the context of the existingfunding structure, and indeed, that the Centre’s activities having been conceptualisedand operationalized for over 20 years first and foremost as an academic course. TheCentre also drew attention –given current staffing and funding- to an inevitable tradeoff that would occur between enhanced outreach and the academic quality it hasachieved. The Centre also cautions that a more proactive role may also undermineacademic independence. These are all very valid concerns. Nonetheless, there may beissues and areas that are feasible for a greater role for Centre involvement.3.6.2 Strategy, communication and informationIn adjudicating such calls for a more strategic focus for the Centre as a whole, onedoes need to bear in mind resource constraints. Nonetheless, it would appear highlyappropriate to ask how the Centre responds to such challenges through its strategicplanning and communication. The Centre has no separate strategy document apartfrom the project document that it submits to the RNE before each new fundingperiod. There does not appear to be an information or communication strategy. Inresponse to questions about how the Centre priorities its ‘outreach’ functions, theDirector suggested that the staff always talk together. Though this may well be thecase, there is no strategic decision making document regarding what types ofinvolvement the staff should prioritise; they tend to react as issues come up. Withthree teaching staff, this may be deemed adequate and a natural response. However,39
Page 1: Norad Report 5/2013 DiscussionEvalu
Page 6 and 7: 4AcknowledgementsThe Norwegian Inst
Page 8 and 9: 6Executive SummaryBackgroundThe pur
Page 10 and 11: 8Kenya and Zimbabwe. Another area o
Page 12 and 13: 10with and in a manner more pro-act
Page 14 and 15: 121 Introduction1.1 Background and
Page 16 and 17: 14−−−at the Centre and cooper
Page 18 and 19: 16evaluation is how the 2010 MTR id
Page 20 and 21: 18and also any strategic planning d
Page 22 and 23: 20An important factor for impact al
Page 24 and 25: 223 Findings: Impact of the SEARCWL
Page 26 and 27: 24percent in 2008, 18 percent in 20
Page 28 and 29: 263.3 Women’s law as a discipline
Page 30 and 31: 283.4.2 Career impactOne of the mos
Page 32 and 33: 30A critical space for influencing
Page 34 and 35: 32A male senior law officer in the
Page 36 and 37: 34“massive knowledge. It has real
Page 38 and 39: 36group to do lectures, training, a
Page 42 and 43: 40like with the lack of discussion
Page 44 and 45: 42to RNE for 2012 the centre ‘now
Page 46 and 47: 44• Regional Masters programmes 6
Page 48 and 49: 46of the Women’s Law Series entit
Page 50 and 51: 48development of new methods and ev
Page 52 and 53: 50There is clearly a major threat i
Page 54 and 55: 52to reconsider those less popular)
Page 56 and 57: 542008 Centre- end of phase report2
Page 58 and 59: 56SEARCWLProf. StewartProf. A. Tsan
Page 60 and 61: 58Annex 2:SWOT analysisName Positio
Page 62 and 63: 60Annex 3:Zambia Field WorkOne of t
Page 64 and 65: 62Annex 4:Survey Responses1. Are yo
Page 66 and 67: 645. Age of respondents50%45%40%35%
Page 68 and 69: 6670%67%60%50%40%30%32%20%10%0%1% 0
Page 70 and 71: 6818. Assess the quality of various
Page 72 and 73: 70543211%1%5%29%64%0% 10% 20% 30% 4
Page 74 and 75: 7224. Which components of the cours
Page 76 and 77: 74Thank you for answering this ques
Page 78 and 79: 76can share with you as they were a
Page 80 and 81: 78office as a Consultant namely (a)
Page 82 and 83: 80objective of the program was to e
Page 84 and 85: 82Results of Assessments of Women
Page 86: NoradNorwegian Agency for Developme

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