Mawe Tatu is a Swahili concept that translates to three pebbles. This name was chosen to illustrate the physics of dropping three pebbles into a pond to represent interventions related to women, men and youth as main components of society. As the pebbles fall, they have the immediate effect of moving the water. Each pebble also creates ripples that propagate and interact with those of other pebbles, in space and time. It is a metaphor that expresses, respectively, the short- and medium-term effects of the project as well as the long-term impact that will result in synergistic effects of Mawe Tatu's interventions. Like Mawe Tatu I, the programme works with women and youth and men to improve the socio-economic status of women and youth and their powers to influence decisions at the household and community levels.
The overall objective of this evaluation is to measure the progress and results of the programme based on the Theory of Change, to draw lessons (lessons learned) for future programmes.
To achieve this, the evaluation team used the mixed methodological approach (quantitative and qualitative) to collect data from programme participants, key informants and Mawe Tatu II programme documentation. A range of techniques were associated with this approach including: the document review to understand the logic of the Programme, focus group discussions with the participants of the Programme in the 8 health zones of the evaluated programme (Rutshuru excluded because of the context of the war between the M23 and the FARDC), a household survey which facilitated reaching several households in 9 health zones as well as 2 health zones and two control health zones. In addition, semi-structured interviews with key informants were conducted enriched by direct observations to identify different attitudes related to the evaluation questions.
Overall, this evaluation indicates that the Mawe Tatu II programme has had significant successes in terms of its 3 trajectories linked to the first Outcome, related to access (and control) to capital, knowledge, skills and entrepreneurial mindset, and the commitment of men, and other successes at the level of its other two trajectories (market access and sexual and reproductive health) as we have also noticed in the database of harvested Outcomes shared with us in the Mawe Tatu II programme documentation at the beginning of this final evaluation.
Programme participants testify that thanks to the training and awareness-raising activities in the VSLAs to which they have joined, they have made savings through which they access capital to launch their small to large businesses. Some women and young members of the few VSLAs have accessed loans in some MFIs although for MFIs and banks in general, the services do not yet offer financial services adapted to women and young entrepreneurs who are members of VSLAs and remain indifferent to cooperate and carry out business with VSLAs because they continue to find them less reliable because they lack collateral to give to taking credit. At the same time, mistrust of formal financial institutions, caused by the failures that entrepreneurs have witnessed in the past, has also created a barrier, which was not fully addressed during the programme, in the effective use of services and products.