Meta Analysis

Evidence of Change In Gender Equality and Women‘s Empowerment in the Balkans 2005-2012

This is a report about CARE’s work to advance gender equality in the Balkans and what we have achieved over the past seven years. Our goal is to give account and to demonstrate our commitment to change the lives of the people we serve. We want to illustrate the real life impact of the work we do with our partners and to document the process, methods and the tools used. We want to show that what we and partners have achieved, is relevant to the regional context and that our approaches and methodologies make a demonstrable difference. We also want to learn from our challenges and limitations, and we will use these lessons in our future work. Read More...

Learning From Failure 2019

Driven by a wish to learn more from what goes wrong in our programming, and to examine where changes to the broader organization and system can improve our programming and impact globally, in 2019 CARE undertook its first evaluations-based failure meta-analysis. This analysis draws learning and evidence from 114 evaluations of CARE’s work from 2015-2018 to understand the patterns and trends in what goes wrong. This helps us take a data-driven approach to strategic investments and action plans to live out CARE’s commitment to high program quality and continuous improvement across the board.
The review draws from project specific data, but deliberately anonymizes the data and focuses on overarching trends to remove blame for any specific project team or set of individuals. This exercise is designed to help us learn more about how we can change our processes and patterns of support and engagement around weak areas to improve our work. CARE is using this data to build action plans and next steps to continuously improve our programming.
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Desk review to conduct assessment of ‘value for money’ provided through CARE International’s programmes to vulnerable and marginalised populations in Asia

This case study has been prepared as part of a study commissioned by CARE International (CI) to assess its long-term impact achieved in the Asia Pacific region between 2005 and 2010. As part of this process CI explored the extent to which socio-economic cost benefit analysis could be applied on a sample of CI projects, using an adapted form of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology1.
The aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of CI’s ability to deliver added benefit and value to participating communities and their societies, given invested resources, whilst testing the feasibility of applying an adapted form of SROI to projects. The study is also expected to contribute to a wider discussion on the usefulness, and applicability, of demonstrating value for money within the contexts CI works.
Given CI’s focus on empowerment, and especially of marginalised and vulnerable women, this case study presents the analysis and findings of four projects: Plantation Community Empowerment Project (PCEP), Sri Lanka Social & Economic Transformation of the Ultra Poor (SETU), Bangladesh Integrated Rural Development and Disaster Mitigation (IRDM), Cambodia Poverty Alleviation in Remote Upland Areas (PARUA), Laos
It is important to note that the projects selected for analysis were initiatives within wider programmes and, as such, were not intended to be illustrative of the overall programme’s magnitude or effectiveness. The SROI methodology is a good fit for CI’s projects due to its participatory nature and valuation of things that matter to stakeholders. However, due to the desk-based nature of this study, these findings should be seen as purely indicative as field research would be required to build a definitive and an accurate picture of impact. Read More...

Child, Early and Forced Marriage: CARE’s Global Experience

In two world regions—Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Asia Pacific—CARE has developed regional strategies on CEFM that galvanize influence with regional, national, and global bodies, support feminist movements, connect the local to the global, scale up and share strategies that work, and target popular media with positive images of equality.18 At the same time, CARE is working on the ground in high prevalence countries around the world. This document lays out CARE’s
approach and experience in CEFM prevention and mitigation across the globe. Read More...

Impact Assessment of Savings Groups

Researchers from IPA, along with CARE staff and their implementing partners, conducted a randomized evaluation of Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) programs in Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda to examine two questions: Who joins savings groups? And, what is the impact on households from programs that promote savings groups? The evaluation used a randomized control trial (RCT) design, in which eligible communities were randomly divided into two sets: a set of villages with access to a VSLA program (the treatment group) and a set of villages where the program was not implemented during the study (the control group). The study started in Ghana in 2008 and in Malawi and Uganda in 2009, and the final data collection took place in 2011 in the three countries. Each site included a panel survey in which households were surveyed before the start of the program implementation and again two or three years later. Over 15,000 households in almost 950 communities were surveyed. The surveys covered a large variety of topics, including health, education, income-generating activities, asset holdings, food consumption, non-food expenditure, intra-household decision making and community involvement. At the time of the endline survey, after an average of two years of program implementation in the three sites, one third of respondents had joined a VSLA group. On average, members had been part of a group for 15 months and 61% of members had gone through a full savings cycle, normally lasting between 8 and 12 months. The evaluation should thus be thought of as assessing the relatively short-term impacts of the intervention. [62 pages] Read More...

Working for impact in Papua New Guinea: CARE International’s portfolio review

This review focuses on CARE International’s program portfolio in Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the past five years (2013-2018). CARE’s goal in PNG is to achieve significant, positive and lasting impact on poverty and social injustice in remote, marginalised rural areas through the empowerment of women and their communities and through effective partnerships. CARE has worked in PNG since 1989 and now has offices in Goroka in Eastern Highlands Province, Mt Hagen in Western Highlands Province, Buka in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARB) and an office in Port Moresby.

Over the past five years, CARE’s program in PNG has worked in multiple areas: sexual, reproductive and maternal health, community health promotion, awareness and behaviour change; inclusive governance; women’s economic empowerment; climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction; and emergency response. These programs have been implemented in PNG’s particularly challenging operating environment.

Two underlying elements in CARE’s programs in PNG have been an emphasis on promoting gender equality and supporting inclusive governance. This review thus focused closely on CARE’s gender and governance approaches: what impacts were seen, what lessons learned, and what promising approaches are emerging to inform better programming by CARE and other players. [108 pages] Read More...

Civil Action for Socio-Economic Inclusion (CASI) Programme Vietnam: Learning & Documentation Review

In Vietnam, the Civil Action for Socio-Economic Inclusion (CASI) Programme is one of the pioneering initiatives in the field of strengthening civil society. It is in a position to strive for increased rights and give a voice to marginalized people among ethnic minorities in the northern region of Vietnam. In December 2017 CARE decided to field a Review Team (RT) to carry out a “Learning and Documentation Review.” The purpose of the Review was to “Draw out, synthesize and document some of the major achievements and lessons learned from the CASI programme support.” The review focuses on four core issues that are relevant beyond Vietnam: i) partner-driven approach and advocacy; ii) contribution to civil society strengthening; iii) approaches to support ethnic minorities and iv) lessons learned from the phase-out approach. [67 pages] Read More...

Profil National Genre des Secteurs de l’Agriculture et du Développement Rural

La FAO et la Commission de la CEDEAO ont commandité une évaluation genre des secteurs de l’agriculture et du développement rural au Niger, dans le cadre de leur Projet de Coopération Technique «La réponse genre aux Plans régionaux et nationaux d’investissement agricole pour relever le Défi Faim Zéro dans la région de la CEDEAO». Cette évaluation a appréhendé, d’une part, les inégalités entre hommes et femmes dans le secteur agricole et rural et, d’autre part, l’aspect genre dans le Programme National d’Investissement Agricole (PNIA), notamment l’Initiative les Nigériens Nourrissent les Nigériens (I3N), ainsi qu’au niveau des institutions étatiques et des partenaires au développement. [104 pages] Read More...

Conscience Politique et Action collective des structures Mata Masu Dubara au Niger

Cette étude fait partie d'un vaste programme d'apprentissage contribuant à la Stratégie de Croissance de l'Impact (IGS) de « Femmes en Mouvement » (WOM) de CARE en Afrique de l'Ouest. Le but de cette étude est de tirer les leçons de plus de 25 années d'expérience de CARE Niger sur le modèle Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) qui a fait ses preuves en matière de leadership et d’empowerment des femmes. Il s’agit d’éclairer la mise à l’échelle du modèle MMD et de son impact dans la région Afrique de l’Ouest. Le but de de cette stratégie Femmes en Mouvement (WOM) est d'atteindre une masse critique pouvant servir de levier pour un mouvement social porteur d’une véritable transformation des normes sociales et des lois en faveur des droits des femmes et des filles. La prémisse générale de cette orientation est que les mouvements sociaux sont essentiels pour créer et maintenir un changement social à long terme, et des recherches publiées ont montré que l'activisme féministe est le moteur le plus important et le plus cohérent pour un changement de politique progressiste. [21 pages] Read More...

Political Consciousness, Leadership and Collective Action in the Mata Masu Dubara Structures in Niger

This research study is part of a broader learning agenda contributing to CARE’s Impact Growth Strategy (IGS) in West Africa - “Women on the Move” (WOM). The purpose of this study is to learn from CARE Niger’s more than 25 years of experience with the Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) which has a proven track record of women's leadership and empowerment. It is also about informing efforts to scale up the MMD model and its impact in the region. The goal of the WOM strategy is to reach a critical mass that can serve as a lever for a vibrant social movement with potential for real transformation of social norms and laws in favor of the rights of women and girls. The overall premise of this direction is that social movements are essential for creating and sustaining long-term social change, and published research has shown that feminist activism is the most important and consistent driver behind progressive policy change. [22 pages] Read More...

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Keywords

Adolescents Agriculture AIDS Basic and Girls' Education Cash Vouchers Child Health child marriage Child Nutrition Civil Society and Governance Climate Change Conflict Mitigation COVID 19 COVID 19 RGA Disaster Risk Reduction Economic Development Education Emergency and Humanitarian Aid Entrepreneurship Environment FFBS Food Security Gender Gender Based Violence Gender Equality Health Livelihoods Maternal Migrants and Refugees Natural Resources Nexus Nutrition Resilience RGA Sexual Sexual and Reproductive Health Shelter Social Norms Usaid Value Chain VSLA WASH Water Women's Economic Empowerment Women's Empowerment Youth