"This midterm performance evaluation of the United States Agency for International Development’s Assistance to Citizens in Fight Against Corruption Activity (ACFC) and Investigative Journalism Program (IJP) examines the outcomes the activities achieved during the first two and a half years of impl ... ementation. Both activities started in September 2019 and will end in September 2024. The evaluation concluded that the two activities increased citizens’ awareness about and confidence in anticorruption activities of civil society in directly targeted municipalities, and awareness about media anticorruption reporting at a national level. More success stories and a centralized effort to promote results and messaging should follow, and all supported media requires an improved approach to audience engagements. Despite stagnation at the national level, citizens’ engagement in anticorruption increased significantly in affected municipalities, especially through locally based informal groups and CSO initiatives, as well as through well-tailored initiatives for monitoring abuse of public resources in pre-election campaigns and public procurement during the pandemic. The lack of coordination between direct beneficiaries, and with external stakeholders, partially caused by the pandemic, made anticorruption efforts fragmented and less sustainable. The pandemic and political stalemates negatively affected the high-level advocacy initiatives with modest results only in the areas of conflict of interest and public procurement, while the ACFC grantees had some results in their advocacy initiatives. The two activities were effective in getting institutions to process corruption reports and in stopping illegal activities in some of the institutions. Investigative journalism reports resulted in several high-profile corruption cases. Even though judicial effectiveness is improving, citizens’ distrust in judicial and other institutions still hampers gains in reporting corruption." (Abstract) more

"Strengthening Independent Media (SIM) in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a 5-year $5.481 million activity, which was launched in October 2010, financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented by the Internews, with partners Annenberg School of Communications at ... the University of Pennsylvania and the Media Center Sarajevo (MCS). SIM Activity originally was designed as a comprehensive media assistance program to support traditional and online media outlets, various journalists’ associations in BiH, the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA), the state regulator for broadcast media, and the Press Council (PC), the BiH self-regulating body for print media, through a $1.0 million small grants program with additional funds for capacity building and resource development. Two years into the Activity’s implementation, Internews and its partners, based on directions from the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and USAID/BiH recalibrated its media development strategy for BiH and streamlined its tasks into the following components: 1. Support the quality and growth of online media outlets, technologies, and sources; 2. Build the quality of investigative reporting and resources; 3. Develop local capacity expertise and practice in media policy, media law, and media literacy. SIM’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system employed the International Research and Exchanges Board’s (IREX) Media Sustainability Index (MSI) as the primary indicator to measure the Activity’s overall success, along with other outcome, output, and input indicators. This performance evaluation examined the results of the five-year media assistance in BiH and the effects of the program on the BiH’s overall media landscape." (Executive summary) more