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STRENGTHENING RESILIENCE AND PROMOTING INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE PROGRAM (STRENPO): Experiences of advocacy and action for climate change resilience

Care International in Uganda presents to you experiences and lessons learnt while implementing Strengthening Resilience and Promoting Inclusive Governance for Women and Youth in Vulnerable Communities Project (STRENPO). At Care we are using the nexus of humanitarian and long-term development to build resilience that bridges humanitarian action and sustainable development. Our approach to increasing resilience operates in synergy with gender transformation and inclusive governance.

We also show the models used to empower citizens such as engaging duty bearers, building civil society organizational capacity to engage with the duty bearers and claim citizens’ rights and provide information to citizens, build organization legitimacy and support multi-stakeholder platforms for engagement and informing policy processes. Read More...

Umeed-e-Nau Project Health and WASH Support project for drought affect people of Umerkot, Sindh

This report present the external evaluation of Umeed-e-Nau project - Health and WASH Support project for drought affect people of Umerkot, Sindh. The project was implemented by CARE International in Pakistan (CIP) through its partner CWSA under UNOCHA’s PHPF-III from February – December 2019.

The evaluation of the CIP’s Umeed-e-Nau project has been carried out as per the DAC criteria such as Relevance/appropriateness, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability. However, CIP has included an additional criteria i.e. Project Management.

Findings of the final evaluation indicate that CIP rightly identified the needs in holistic manner, as the people in the target area were struggling for water and vulnerable to different health related hazards. The community appreciated all the project activities particularly the MMCs due to quality services, equipment and medicines. Innovations introduced by CIP and donor’s flexibility to understand and approve required changes was also an important factor for paving a smooth path towards achieving successful results of the project. The capacity building and awareness raising activities like health & hygiene training, nutrition awareness has inbuilt sustainability. In both WASH and Health interventions, the impact on behaviors and practice can be observed with passage of time. The trend of use of latrines, water filtrations, consultation with qualified health practitioners, realization of importance of health care especially maternal health and last but not the least hygiene awareness are likely to impact positively on beneficiaries’ individual and communal lives for many years.

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Humanitarian Project in South Waziristan Tribal District (SWTD): End of Project Evaluation Report

Over five million persons were displaced from the tribal districts of ex-FATA region over the last decade. Over 90% of these persons have now returned and face massive humanitarian needs. CARE International in Pakistan (CIP) is implementing a humanitarian project in SWTD focused on WASH activities. In October 2019, CIP commissioned a joint independent evaluation to assess its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. The evaluation collected information through a desk review of key documents, 9 FGDs and 200 household interviews with men and women in the project locations, 6 key informant interviews and physical observations. Overall, the quality and impact of the project is high, which is especially commendable given the extremely challenging work environment and external constraints. Read More...

CARE International in Pakistan (CIP) Humanitarian Project in North Waziristan Tribal District (NWTD): End of Project Evaluation Final Report

Over five million persons from the tribal districts of ex-FATA region were displaced over the last decade. Over 90% of these persons have now returned and face massive humanitarian needs. CARE International in Pakistan (CIP) implemented a humanitarian project in NWTD through a local partner (PRDS) focused on WASH and shelter. In October 2019, CIP commissioned an independent evaluation of the project to assess its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. The evaluation collected information through a desk review of key documents, 8 FGDs and 200 household interviews with men and women in the project locations, 8 key informant interviews and physical observations. Overall, the quality and impact of the project is high, which is especially commendable given the extremely challenging work environment and external constraints. 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...

Where the Rain Falls Phase III (2017 – 2019): Final Evaluation Report

In 2009, the Where the Rain Falls (WtRF) initiative started as a three-year research project investigating the impact of rainfall variability on food and livelihood security, and migration.

This research culminated in a global policy report (2012) and the development of more action-oriented community-based adaptation (CBA) pilot projects in each India, Thailand and Bangladesh. A second phase (2014 – 2016), and later a third phase (2017 – 2019), aimed to scale results, impacts and lessons learned to date for broader support for, and uptake of, CBA methods and approaches.

In October 2019, CARE France engaged an International Consultant to lead WtRF’ first multi-county evaluation. As per the Terms of Reference (TORs) for this evaluation (see Annex IV) the main objectives of the evaluation are two-fold:
(i) to assess the degree of achievement of the WtRF global and specific objectives in India and Thailand respectively; and
(ii) to extract common and/or comparable lessons learned about factors contributing to and hindering achievements (e.g. barriers and enablers) 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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