The goal of this article is to offer lessons learned on how to share what can be considered “transition experience” with countries in the Western Balkansand Eastern Partnership among others, in order to have a real impact on people’s lives. The author concludes that the Czech Republic, and other Visegrad countries, should share transition experience in areas where they have achieved evident progress and gained significant know-how which they are able to share. At thesame time, such experience sharing has to be needs-based and complementary to other development efforts in partner countries. Based on the international recognition of the progress of the Czech Republic and on the evidence from two evaluations discussed in the article, women’s cancer prevention and treatment seem to be a great example of a well-chosen transition experience shared with the Czech partner countries of Georgia and Serbia. Yet, for similar projectsin the future, it is necessary to reflect on the key local influencing factors; to understand exactly how each project will work and remain flexible throughout the project cycle; to focus on actual impacts and to accept accountability, and finally to practice evidence-based, consistent, long-term advocacy to achieve systemic changes.

See the full article, the original evaluation reports, related presentations and media outputs in the cancer evaluation case.

The article was originally published in the peer-reviewed journal International Issues & Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs, Vol. XXV No. 3-4 | 2016.