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).