EVALUATION
ARTICLE 19
Evaluating freedom of expression and digital rights work in restrictive and fast-moving contexts
Client: ARTICLE 19
Service: Evaluation
Year: Various years / multiple projects
When civic space is shrinking and digital repression is evolving fast, evaluation has to do more than count outputs. It has to make sense of what is relevant, effective, sustainable, and beginning to shift in a highly volatile environment.
Across different projects, RES has supported ARTICLE 19 with evaluations of complex work on freedom of expression, access to information, and digital rights in politically restrictive environments. One example was the evaluation of Engaging Tech for Internet Freedom (ETIF), a regional project focused on strengthening resistance to digital authoritarianism in Asia-Pacific. Combining research, capacity-building, and advocacy, the ETIF project supported civil society organisations to engage more effectively with tech companies and international bodies.
Evaluation in restrictive environments
For this work, we used the OECD-DAC criteria as the overall framework, adapting the approach to the realities of the context. This meant relying primarily on key informant interviews with civil society organisations, ARTICLE 19 staff, and a small number of advocacy targets, while prioritising the safety and security of those involved.
In projects like this, a conventional evaluation approach is rarely enough on its own. Partners were working across shrinking civic space, faced surveillance risks, and rapidly changing political and regulatory conditions. The evaluation therefore had to be rigorous, but also realistic about what progress and change looks like within this context.
“Change looks different in every context, and what is possible to influence also changes. Like all evaluation we work on, conducting an evaluation that recognises this was essential for evaluating research and advocacy impacts for freedom of expression standards in restrictive environments”
– Patrick Regan, RES Director
What the evaluation highlighted
Through our evaluation, we identified ways that ARTICLE 19 could maintain and deepen its presence in the region; strategies for building more clarity, flexibility and time into the development of research and resources with partners; clarified partner needs for further promoting and piloting resources developed, such as CLARITI, as well as how to strengthen project design and administration through onboarding, logistics, M&E tools.