Here in CARE International’s Evaluation e-Library we make all of CARE’s external evaluation reports available for public access in accordance with our Accountability Policy.

With these accumulated project evaluations CARE International hopes to share our collective knowledge not only internally but with a wider audience.

Looking for something specific? You can filter the evaluations using the dropdown menus on the right side of the screen.

If you have an evaluation or study to share, please e-mail the document to ejanoch@care.org for posting.

Final Evaluation Report: ENSURING ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER, CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AND GOOD HYGIENE IN WEST MOSUL, IRAQ

With the objective of providing vulnerable women, men, boys and girls in conflict-affected, underserved and epidemic-prone communities and improving civic participation of local residents, CARE’s interventions targeted highly prioritized areas of West Mosul in need of installation and rehabilitation of water supply systems through close collaboration with the Directorate of Water (DoW) as the local authorities are currently overwhelmed by the scale of needs to enable affected populations to return home.

With this project, CARE addressed three critical gaps in water rehabilitation systems and services in West Mosul by:
• the rehabilitation of water supply system,
• solid waste management, and
• community engagement through establishing hygiene volunteers and water committees.

The endline evaluation seeks to analyze the endline values for key WASH indicators as stated in the project documents in the targeted areas and to assess, impact and effectiveness of programming to successfully track accomplishments of the WASH project, relevance and sustainability of the project after the implementation through the usage of quantitative and qualitative data. The evaluation also looked into areas of success as well as challenges faced implementing activities in Al-Matahin and Al-Islah neighborhoods of West Mosul.

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A POLICY BRIEF FOR REDUCING CLIMATE RISKS AND VULNERABILITY FOR THE WOMEN, GIRLS AND SMALL HOLDER FARMERS AMONG PASTORALIST COMMUNITIES

Investments especially mining in pastoral areas across the Horn of Africa countries, while important for national development entails serious environmental impacts and pose climate risks that increases the vulnerability of marginalized groups of people who are already disadvantaged by the semi-arid topography. The women, girls, youth, and smallholder
farmers are particularly affected given that their fragile livelihoods are nature based.

The current regional initiatives aimed at building resilience of the affected communities have not adequately addressed the linkage between livelihood systems and sustainable environment management. The initiatives at national and regional levels tend to use traditional orthodox approaches of “environmental conservation” as sacrosanct for addressing all climate risks.

It is critical that any initiatives to reduce the vulnerability caused by the investments must consider that providing decent livelihoods for the most vulnerable groups is the key to achieving an environment conducive for investment. The interventions proposed in this brief, if well implemented, will address this issue; providing sustainable livelihoods while promoting economic investment. Read More...

Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) phase III & Improving Living Condition and Mitigating Monsoon Risk for the Refugees: Endline Study Report

CARE Bangladesh has partnered with IOM since November 2017 as Site Management Support Agency in Camp 16 (Potibunia) and since 01 January 2019 in Camp 13 of Ukhia upazila of Cox’s Bazar District.

A joint End-line assessment was conducted in both camps being site managed and coordinated by CARE Bangladesh (Camps 13 and 16) with the support from IOM and IRW. In addition, Shelter and WASH component were also supported by these two donors for selected HH. The purpose of this end-line study was to provide measurable data against project targets, indicators, outcomes and objectives, as well as to help prioritize activities and focus of work across the two locations.

Overall, the situation seemed improved more in camp 16 than in camp 13 followed by CARE intervention which was at the same level in the baseline. . Participation in decision making process block wise in both camps increased almost by 39%. 95% of respondents said that site development activity was done in last month that indicates the value of work actually ongoing. On the shelter response almost 66% responded they are having good quality shelter. Access to enough water for household need and water treatment stratus before drinking increased simultaneously in a good way. Open defecation is still having a concerning issues in both camp. A variety of factors might explain these differences that explained with deeper analysis in this report. Read More...

Up-Scaling Community Resilience through Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) Project: Baseline Report

The Ecosystem based Disaster Risk Reduction project will contribute to addressing the current challenges through a combination of activities to increase the ability of communities to anticipate, absorb, adapt, and transform towards the impact of hazards such as drought and floods, enhance the capacity of district local governments, CSOs and the private sector to improve, inclusive and effective multi-stakeholder governance at catchment level to foster sustainable development that takes a landscape approach, is risk-informed and eco-sensitive.

The study objectives were to determine the baseline status on selected outcome and output indicators as established in the ECO DRR PME plan, and to provide specific and achievable recommendations on possible improvement.

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Supporting Partnerships and Resilience of Communities (SPARC) in Northern Rakhine State End-of-Project Evaluation

The Supporting Partnerships and Resilience of Communities (SPARC) project, with funding from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), was implemented in Maungdaw District, northern Rakhine State between December 2011- December 2019.

SPARC’s goal is to contribute to the sustainable reduction of poverty in communities through improving the social and economic position of poor, vulnerable households, and to strengthen household and community capacity to sustain such improvements. To achieve this goal, CARE implements integrated livelihood activities that improve food security and economic opportunities, including community forestry, crop productivity intensification, facilitating access to education and introducing financial services through Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA).

An end-of-project evaluation was recently commissioned ‘to determine if SPARC achieved its end of project outcomes of sustainable reduction of poverty in poor, vulnerable communities and strengthened household and community capacity to sustain such improvements’.

The evaluation used a mixed method approach combining a literature review and quantitative data sets drawn primarily from the project monitoring system, together with qualitative data, collected using participatory approaches such as focus group discussions (FGD), key informant interviews (KII), and Stories of Change Interviews (SoCs). Read More...

Strengthening Resilience and Inclusive Governance (STRENPO) Mid-term Review

The Strengthening Resilience and Inclusive Governance Program (STRENPO) is a 4-year programme in the nexus between humanitarian and development work, managed by CARE International in Uganda, in partnership with four Ugandan civil society organisations. The programme commenced in April 2018 for the years 2018-2021.

The overall objective of STRENPO is: Women and youth in vulnerable, natural resource-dependent communities, including refugee settlements, are resilient to shocks and stresses arising from natural resources degradation, climate change, and conflict & displacement.

The overall impression generated from the documents review and the consultations in Uganda is that programme implementation is largely on track compared with work plans; this includes individual partner projects carried out by three ‘old’ partner organisations and RICE-WN as the new partner in the programme. Interventions are well-managed and the STRENPO team in CARE as well as staff in the partner organisations appear dedicated to the implementation of the programme in general and to their particular contribution.

A baseline survey was undertaken in late 2018 and is assessed as a well-planned and executed activity. The study focused on measuring resilience and the result was a sophisticated framework of criteria for categorising indicators of capacity to anticipate and respond appropriately to climate changes. Important information also came out from the Gender Sensitive Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (G-CVCA) that were undertaken by mid-2019.

- It is therefore recommended to introduce a more diversified approach to the interventions that targets impact groups directly, building on findings from the baseline survey and the G-CVCAs.
- It is recommended that STRENPO continues a strong follow-up to the CAAPs in order to facilitate funding of activities of priority to the involved communities and relevant to the programme’s objectives.
- It is therefore recommended that STRENPO during the coming two years increases the focus on using potential avenues for best practices replication and other catalytic effects.
- It is recommended that the STRENPO partners together selects a handful of the outlined ‘strategic actions’ for further development and specification.
- It is recommended that some of the capacity gaps that have key relevance for the programme are selected, so that it can be decided what type and how much support to the capacity development interventions the programme is able to offer.
- It is recommended that STRENPO in early 2020 reviews its potentials for engaging in stronger partnerships with the private sector, using a market driven analytical approach to determine appropriate interventions and relevant value chain and private sector actors to engage with.
- It is recommended that the STRENPO team engages in a discussion with CARE Danmark to further clarify their understanding and expectations regarding the programme’s inclusion of innovative climate change prevention solutions and a transformative approach to resilience.
- It is recommended that STRENPO undertakes a quick review of its results framework, with the intention to reduce the number of indicators, but also to allow a breakdown on some indicators into refugees and hosts. The revision should also aim at reducing and/or combining the qualitative indicators and progress markers. It is furthermore recommended to review and revise the phrasing of result areas and the Theory of Change, taking note of the suggestions made during the MTR workshop.


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RESI Final Evaluation

The Rural Economic Sustainability Initiative (RESI) aimed to support inclusive and sustainable rural economic
development in four target municipalities in Kosovo: Prishtinë/Priština, Novo Brdo/Novobrdë, Kamenicë/a and
Ranil(l)ug. The approach utilised built on a very successful previous project and featured grants to MSME in agriculture,
capacity development of municipality agriculture departments and a special focus on empowerment of women and
socio-economically vulnerable groups.

Relevance. RESI was found to be highly relevant to the four chosen municipalities and filled critical gaps that were
impeding rural economic development at farmer, processor and local government levels.

Effectiveness. RESI has delivered its outputs which is a massive achievement in such a short 3 year period. The
project met or exceeded each of its targets as per the output indicators. In terms of outcomes, specific targets were
not set but increased income and job creation has occurred and can be linked to RESI.

Efficiency. RESI was highly efficient. As compared to the previous (IRDS) project the RESI team scaled up all aspects
of the project across 4 municipalities and dispersed twice as many grants in only 3 year (as compared with 5).

Impact. Data gathered by the RESI team shows that 285 new full-time jobs and 490 seasonal jobs have been created
so far. Income of grant recipients has increased by 53% on average.

Sustainability. Overall signs are good, but it is too soon to concretely assess sustainability.



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Final Evaluation Report: Nourishing the Future II Project, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica

The CARE-Cargill Nourishing the Future II project was implemented in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica between September 2016 and August 2019 (36 months). Its primary objective was to help producers and women micro-entrepreneurs improve the quality of life of their families, assuring their food security and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Six impact indicators and 32 outcome indicators were tracked for Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and 11 indicators were applied in Costa Rica, where we implemented a subset of interventions (food security, nutrition and hygiene). Overall, when comparing indicators to their baselines, the average effectiveness was 72%, with Honduras achieving the best results and Nicaragua having less favorable results due to ongoing social, political and economic issues.

Among the most relevant findings of the evaluation were the success of Cargill’s inclusive business model and value chains in integrating small producers and micro-entrepreneurs into markets; an increase in the resilience of households to the effects of climate change; an increase in the use of sustainable agricultural practices; and an increase in incomes as a result of market sales, access to financial services and related training. Moreover, we observed the target beneficiaries working together in rural savings unions, cooperatives and producer associations, supporting the provision of financial, technical and marketing services to their members. Regarding food security and nutrition, our work with schools led to an increase in the consumption of healthy foods at the household level. The project increased access to nutrient-rich foods through community, school and family gardens as well as increased knowledge and application of good practices in sanitation and hygiene.
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THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVES IN ACHIEVING WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: A CROSS-PROJECTANALYSIS

Collectives are a fundamental building block for much of CARE’s work. What are the greatest strengths of a collectives approach across projects? We combined data from many CARE collectives across projects and found that:
• The gender composition of the collective affects the intended outcomes.
• The most successful collectives are those with a balanced gender mix of collective members and women leaders. The second most successful collectives are those with a balanced gender mix and mixed gender leaders.
• CARE collectives are having an effect on women’s economic empowerment.
•CARE collectives are having a particularly strong effect on income, leadership, domestic decision making, production, violence and time use. Read More...

United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations Participatory Gender Analysis Final Report

United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE), is a five-year (2015-2019) Food for Peace program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Save the Children, and the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM). The program aims to reduce chronic malnutrition and food insecurity and build resilience among vulnerable populations in threedistricts in Malawi, Blantyre Rural, Chikwawaand Nsanje.

The UBALE team carried out a gender analysis in August and September of 2015, with the participation of UBALE key staff from across the program. This is the final report for that gender analysis.
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