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Strengthening Rural Development Models in Georgia ENPARD II Final Evaluation
The final evaluation for the EU Project - ‘Strengthening Rural Development Models in Georgia’ was conducted in September-October 2019, in Georgia. By this time the Project was on the completion stage into its two-year duration: November 1st 2017 - October 31st 2019. Mercy Corps, along with three other LEADER implementing agencies within the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD Phase II) has contributed to the reduction of poverty through integrated, sustainable and participatory rural development in Georgia.
The aim of the final evaluation is to assess the Project outcomes in order to better understand Project successes and challenges and provide recommendations for the design of future Project of a similar scale and direction. Read More...
The aim of the final evaluation is to assess the Project outcomes in order to better understand Project successes and challenges and provide recommendations for the design of future Project of a similar scale and direction. Read More...
FINAL EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT “Sports for Social Change and Inclusion”
The project is implemented from May 2016 until July 2019 by CARE International in partnership with the Association Otaharin from Bijeljina. This report presents the final evaluation of the project.
The overall target of the project was the improvement of the living conditions of Roma children in Bijeljina. The project focused on improvement of the school education of Roma children and their living conditions through sport and art activities, combined with youth and parent group work and school support. The core activity of the project was to organize a football team and football school Otaharin. Playing football should have been the main motive for children (but also parents) to improve their attendance at school, hygiene, increase self-confidence and social behaviour. Beside playing football, the other activities of the project were financing meals for a public kitchen, provision and awarding of school material for poorer children of primary school age, provision of football playground by signing a contract with professional football teams and coaches, awarding of school scholarships for poorer children of primary school age, providing healthy food and drinks at trainings, organizing mandatory workshops for children and parents in order to increase their various social capacities. Read More...
The overall target of the project was the improvement of the living conditions of Roma children in Bijeljina. The project focused on improvement of the school education of Roma children and their living conditions through sport and art activities, combined with youth and parent group work and school support. The core activity of the project was to organize a football team and football school Otaharin. Playing football should have been the main motive for children (but also parents) to improve their attendance at school, hygiene, increase self-confidence and social behaviour. Beside playing football, the other activities of the project were financing meals for a public kitchen, provision and awarding of school material for poorer children of primary school age, provision of football playground by signing a contract with professional football teams and coaches, awarding of school scholarships for poorer children of primary school age, providing healthy food and drinks at trainings, organizing mandatory workshops for children and parents in order to increase their various social capacities. Read More...
STUDY ON PROMISING SECTORS AND VALUE CHAINS IN THE REGIONS OF GBEKE, PORO, TONKPI AND THE DISTRICT OF ABIDJAN
Crop production in Côte d'Ivoire is "mainly" provided by women and represents about 70% of agricultural value added. In business activity, women outnumber men. Despite all this, women derive lower resources from all their efforts than men do.
To reduce this vulnerability, CARE has initiated the "Women's Empowerment and Business Development" project.
The project intend to focus its efforts on a limited number of promising sectors to which it will provide more targeted and in-depth support to facilitate sustainable change among women and enable them to move from a development category to a higher level.
The study of sectors or activities is an exhaustive analysis of six (6) main agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in the project area. With the help of precise arguments and supported by an economic analysis, it is necessary to propose the list of promising sectors and relevant information likely to help the effective management of the project.
All eight (8) areas identified with CARE are in the administrative regions of Poro, Gbêkê, Tonkpi and Abidjan District and cover the commune or in some cases the sub-prefecture of Korhogo, Sinématiali, Bouaké, Brobo, Man, Sipilou, Abobo and Songon Read More...
To reduce this vulnerability, CARE has initiated the "Women's Empowerment and Business Development" project.
The project intend to focus its efforts on a limited number of promising sectors to which it will provide more targeted and in-depth support to facilitate sustainable change among women and enable them to move from a development category to a higher level.
The study of sectors or activities is an exhaustive analysis of six (6) main agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in the project area. With the help of precise arguments and supported by an economic analysis, it is necessary to propose the list of promising sectors and relevant information likely to help the effective management of the project.
All eight (8) areas identified with CARE are in the administrative regions of Poro, Gbêkê, Tonkpi and Abidjan District and cover the commune or in some cases the sub-prefecture of Korhogo, Sinématiali, Bouaké, Brobo, Man, Sipilou, Abobo and Songon Read More...
CONTEXT AND POLICY ANALYSIS, ACTION & ADVOCACY STRATEGY FOR THE « WOMEN IN ENTERPRISE» PROGRAM
The present study is part of the development of an advocacy strategy that aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of existing policies that may or may not be favorable to women entrepreneurs, the context and actors of their implementation in Côte d'Ivoire. To guide the design of a national advocacy strategy for the «Women in Enterprise» Program, with a focus on advocacy for the development of women entrepreneurs.
Data collection was carried out in Abidjan and in the regions of TONKPI and GBÊKÊ among actors involved in the issues of women's empowerment, financial inclusion and women's entrepreneurship.
Following data collection and data analysis, it appears that:
- Policy and institutional framework for women's empowerment, financial inclusion and entrepreneurship is provided.
- Government has made efforts to facilitate the creation of businesses through the Single Window CEPICI, but some conditions limit women in their process to start a business.
- Structures and programs have been created for entrepreneurship development and funds have been mobilized and made available to women, but access to these initiatives remains limited due to the conditions of grant and interest for some and lack of information for others.
At the end of the analyzes, barriers to the development of entrepreneurship were identified; these include low women education, limited access to credit, land and information related to entrepreneurial activities and lack of entrepreneurial culture.
Some recommendations for the development of women's entrepreneurship were formulated to the different institutional, technical and financial stakeholders and areas of cooperation for advocacy have been identified. Read More...
Data collection was carried out in Abidjan and in the regions of TONKPI and GBÊKÊ among actors involved in the issues of women's empowerment, financial inclusion and women's entrepreneurship.
Following data collection and data analysis, it appears that:
- Policy and institutional framework for women's empowerment, financial inclusion and entrepreneurship is provided.
- Government has made efforts to facilitate the creation of businesses through the Single Window CEPICI, but some conditions limit women in their process to start a business.
- Structures and programs have been created for entrepreneurship development and funds have been mobilized and made available to women, but access to these initiatives remains limited due to the conditions of grant and interest for some and lack of information for others.
At the end of the analyzes, barriers to the development of entrepreneurship were identified; these include low women education, limited access to credit, land and information related to entrepreneurial activities and lack of entrepreneurial culture.
Some recommendations for the development of women's entrepreneurship were formulated to the different institutional, technical and financial stakeholders and areas of cooperation for advocacy have been identified. Read More...
Women in Enterprise Phase II – Taking Enterprise Development for Women Empowerment to Scale – BASELINE STUDY REPORT
Care CIV through Care Nederland has received funding from the H & M Foundation to implement the Women in Enterprise project. This project has two phases, one of which is more focused on entrepreneurship training for women from VSLA groups and women's associations and awareness raising on women's entrepreneurship that has been implemented from June 2015 to March 2017.
In the second phase of the project, which began on April 1, 2017, credits will be granted to beneficiaries for the launch or development of their activities. However, before deploying the package of activities planned during this phase, a baseline study was conducted to get an idea of the situation or environment of the beneficiaries. The results of this study will serve as a basis for establishing the project's performance indicators and measuring the effects and impact of the project over time. Read More...
In the second phase of the project, which began on April 1, 2017, credits will be granted to beneficiaries for the launch or development of their activities. However, before deploying the package of activities planned during this phase, a baseline study was conducted to get an idea of the situation or environment of the beneficiaries. The results of this study will serve as a basis for establishing the project's performance indicators and measuring the effects and impact of the project over time. Read More...
The end-line report of “Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Study of Women’s and Men’s Different Roles for “WE SHARE THE LOAD” Project
CARE Egypt in partnership with Ariel has implemented a project called “We Share the Load” to address women‟s economic and social empowerment and provide them with an opportunity to improve their livelihoods. The objective of the project is to enable “Women in the targeted communities to be able to economically and socially participate in lifting their families out of poverty in a society that is built on gender justice.” The project targets 1000 women/female headed household and 200 men, in two main locations within Assuit governorate: Tatalia village and Arab Tatalia.
Evaluation shows that there are a number of females who works just and that the ratio of female to family members‟ labor force participation rate in the targeted communities reached 16.8%, which indicate that women in targeted communities are economically able to participate in lifting their families out of poverty. However, since the baseline study did not measure all the project‟s indicators, the evaluation team could not assess if the goal objective is achieved or not.
On the other hand, the study tried to identify respondents‟ satisfaction with their current financial situation as compared to the year before the project to define the project‟s role in improving their financial situation. Results indicate that only 30% of respondents are satisfied with their financial situation, and 68.3% stated some improvement in their financial situation compared to previous year. This is consistent with the results of the qualitative study where respondents stated that the increase in their incomes was less than rise in prices. Read More...
Evaluation shows that there are a number of females who works just and that the ratio of female to family members‟ labor force participation rate in the targeted communities reached 16.8%, which indicate that women in targeted communities are economically able to participate in lifting their families out of poverty. However, since the baseline study did not measure all the project‟s indicators, the evaluation team could not assess if the goal objective is achieved or not.
On the other hand, the study tried to identify respondents‟ satisfaction with their current financial situation as compared to the year before the project to define the project‟s role in improving their financial situation. Results indicate that only 30% of respondents are satisfied with their financial situation, and 68.3% stated some improvement in their financial situation compared to previous year. This is consistent with the results of the qualitative study where respondents stated that the increase in their incomes was less than rise in prices. Read More...
EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM: FINAL EVALUATION REPORT
This report provides the results of the final evaluation of the Emergency Food Security Program (EFSP) implemented in twelve districts within the four regions of Sool, Sanaag, Galgaduud and Mudug that was conducted during July and August 2019.
Over and above the program performance parameters, the beneficiaries overwhelmingly indicated that the program had had significant positive impacts. The program was considered timely as it was delivered when beneficiaries were getting into months of food insecurity. When asked whether the cash transfer had improved their livelihoods, 93% of the household survey respondents reported that their livelihoods had improved, mainly in terms of improved purchasing power (93%), ease of meeting their basic needs (78%), better social status (22%), better and more recognition (17%), taking children to school (14%), access to healthcare (9%) and in other (non-described) areas (7%). In the household survey, 94% of the respondents received three cycles of the correct amount, whilst 5% who were targeted under the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) received two cycles enabling households to purchase their preferred foods, at least 25Kg of rice, 25Kg of sugar, 25kg wheat flour, 3kg of cooking oil, 10kg of pasta and some vegetables.
The program had a positive impact on the 52,299 households enrolled. The programme resulted in a reduction of distress coping strategies, with an average rCSI of 12.8 reducing from 20.4 at the program baseline. This supports the effectiveness of the program in enabling the beneficiaries to reduce the number of negative coping strategies that they were previously employing in order to meet basic household needs. In addition, as planned, all the households used the cash transfer to meet their basic needs, with 97% of them using the cash transfer to purchase food for the household, indicating that the cash intervention has directly contributed to the enhancement of the household food security during the drought. Trend analysis shows that throughout the program there was a downward trend of the rCSI scores, while there was an increase of household dietary diversity index to 20.4 compared to the baseline of 12.8. Similarly, an analysis of household hunger shows that in general the beneficiaries were experiencing little to no hunger, with only 13% experiencing moderate hunger and 86% of households experiencing little to no hunger. This again indicates that the programme has achieved positive outcomes.
While the evidence suggests that the program generated a number of positive impacts, across many domains, demonstrating effective and efficient implementation, and that the beneficiaries used the cash as per the original objectives of the program, households continue to faces challenges in their capacity to fully recover from the impacts of conflict and drought. Increasing the scale of interventions and developing additional holistic livelihood strategies for the target areas, creating linkages with market-based interventions and improvement in access to water, education and healthcare, experimenting with graduation models combined with local savings (VSLAs) were among some of the areas identified for improving future programming. A more detailed description of these recommendations is provided towards the tail end of the report. Read More...
Over and above the program performance parameters, the beneficiaries overwhelmingly indicated that the program had had significant positive impacts. The program was considered timely as it was delivered when beneficiaries were getting into months of food insecurity. When asked whether the cash transfer had improved their livelihoods, 93% of the household survey respondents reported that their livelihoods had improved, mainly in terms of improved purchasing power (93%), ease of meeting their basic needs (78%), better social status (22%), better and more recognition (17%), taking children to school (14%), access to healthcare (9%) and in other (non-described) areas (7%). In the household survey, 94% of the respondents received three cycles of the correct amount, whilst 5% who were targeted under the Rapid Response Fund (RRF) received two cycles enabling households to purchase their preferred foods, at least 25Kg of rice, 25Kg of sugar, 25kg wheat flour, 3kg of cooking oil, 10kg of pasta and some vegetables.
The program had a positive impact on the 52,299 households enrolled. The programme resulted in a reduction of distress coping strategies, with an average rCSI of 12.8 reducing from 20.4 at the program baseline. This supports the effectiveness of the program in enabling the beneficiaries to reduce the number of negative coping strategies that they were previously employing in order to meet basic household needs. In addition, as planned, all the households used the cash transfer to meet their basic needs, with 97% of them using the cash transfer to purchase food for the household, indicating that the cash intervention has directly contributed to the enhancement of the household food security during the drought. Trend analysis shows that throughout the program there was a downward trend of the rCSI scores, while there was an increase of household dietary diversity index to 20.4 compared to the baseline of 12.8. Similarly, an analysis of household hunger shows that in general the beneficiaries were experiencing little to no hunger, with only 13% experiencing moderate hunger and 86% of households experiencing little to no hunger. This again indicates that the programme has achieved positive outcomes.
While the evidence suggests that the program generated a number of positive impacts, across many domains, demonstrating effective and efficient implementation, and that the beneficiaries used the cash as per the original objectives of the program, households continue to faces challenges in their capacity to fully recover from the impacts of conflict and drought. Increasing the scale of interventions and developing additional holistic livelihood strategies for the target areas, creating linkages with market-based interventions and improvement in access to water, education and healthcare, experimenting with graduation models combined with local savings (VSLAs) were among some of the areas identified for improving future programming. A more detailed description of these recommendations is provided towards the tail end of the report. Read More...
WASH support to IDPs & host communities in Dohuk & Ninewa
CARE, REACH and Harikar solicited support from GAC to support their WASH intervention in four IDP camps (Chamishko, Essyan, Mamrashan and Sheikhan) and in host community collectives (Ardawan, Ba’adre, Kalakchi, Mahate and Ayas) in Dohuk and Ninewa from January 2017 to December 2019. The project also had an emergency response component in November 2017 in three neighbourhoods of West Mosul (Al-Mansour, Al-Jawsaq and Wadi Al-Hajar). The purpose of the final evaluation is to assess the post intervention situation in the targeted areas against baseline indicators. Furthermore, the study looked at the effectiveness and efficiency of the intervention to reach the expected outcomes. The study also considered criteria such as coverage and appropriateness to evaluate the quality of the intervention. Finally, the evaluation looked at some of the impacts of the intervention.
The final evaluation concludes that CARE, REACH and Harikar reached most of the expected targets during the project implementation. The evaluation team is confident that with the intervention of CARE, REACH and Harikar men, women, boys and girls have improved access to safe water supply (Outcome 100) and to safe sanitation facilities (Outcome 200) in the IDPs camps and also to some extent in the host communities. The evaluation team can also report that IDPs have had improved access to hygiene supplies in 2017 and 2018 thanks to the hygiene voucher system set up by CARE, REACH and Harikar (Outcome 300). Men, women, boys and girls also have improved access to information about hygiene as well as gender and protection both in the IDP camps and host communities (Outcome 300 and 500). The evaluation team collected mixed results however concerning the increased capacity of community actors, local NGOs & local authorities to provide timely WASH assistance to vulnerable IDPs and host communities that meet the differing needs of women & girls (Outcome 400). Due to the volatility of the context and the limited financial capacities of local authorities, the intervention failed to identify a strong exit strategy where local authorities would take over the services provided by CARE, Harikar and REACH with the support of GAC. Read More...
The final evaluation concludes that CARE, REACH and Harikar reached most of the expected targets during the project implementation. The evaluation team is confident that with the intervention of CARE, REACH and Harikar men, women, boys and girls have improved access to safe water supply (Outcome 100) and to safe sanitation facilities (Outcome 200) in the IDPs camps and also to some extent in the host communities. The evaluation team can also report that IDPs have had improved access to hygiene supplies in 2017 and 2018 thanks to the hygiene voucher system set up by CARE, REACH and Harikar (Outcome 300). Men, women, boys and girls also have improved access to information about hygiene as well as gender and protection both in the IDP camps and host communities (Outcome 300 and 500). The evaluation team collected mixed results however concerning the increased capacity of community actors, local NGOs & local authorities to provide timely WASH assistance to vulnerable IDPs and host communities that meet the differing needs of women & girls (Outcome 400). Due to the volatility of the context and the limited financial capacities of local authorities, the intervention failed to identify a strong exit strategy where local authorities would take over the services provided by CARE, Harikar and REACH with the support of GAC. Read More...