This evaluation, conducted by Matahari Global Solutions between February and April 2026, applied the OECD-DAC criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability to assess the project’s design, implementation and outcomes across all four countries and globally.
The evaluation finds the DHRP to have been highly relevant, addressing a field that remains underserved by mainstream global health actors – a gap independently validated by partners at the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (“the Global Fund”). The project’s T-PAR model was both its most distinctive feature and its most significant contribution: by embedding CAT at every stage of the research process, and project governance the DHRP generated findings of demonstrable authenticity and produced a cohort of young advocates who are intending to continue this work beyond the grant’s lifetime.
Key findings:
- Strong evidence of meaningful participation, youth and community leadership across all four countries
- Strong evidence of practical digital safety and response capacities built among CAT members and wider communities
- Strong evidence of the translation of complex digital health and digital rights concepts into community language and practice
- Documented challenges for an academic organisation to administratively and equitably host a large international grant with civil society and Global South partners with regards to flexibility and adaptability
- Documented stronger commitments by WHO to addressing human rights and gender in digital governance
- Documented normative embedding of digital human rights in Global Fund guidance and funding.
- Limited evidence on policy traction at the national level, particularly in Ghana and Vietnam, due to external contextual constraints
- Limited evidence on structural sustainability beyond individual capacity, in the context of shrinking international funding
[Photo credit: Ghana Community Advisory Group]