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Mawe Tatu English Summary of Endline Evaluation

This summary presents key findings of the endline study contucted to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Mawe Tatu" (M3) program in North and South Kivu Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The M3 project was implemented to improve the household economy of vulnerable groups, to reduce gender-based violence through improving equity in gender relations; and to improve sexual and reproductive health among women, men, and youth.
Guiding questions included:
1. Did the household economy, and the socio-economic situation of women improve as a result of the introduction of VSLAs?
2. Did men get successfully engaged to support women’s economic autonomy, to reduce gender-based violence, and to support women in their decisions about their sexual and reproductive health?
3. Were young women and men empowered to take healthy decisions for their sexual and reproductive life?

Full evaluation (in French) here: http://www.careevaluations.org/evaluation/mawe-tatu-evaluation-finale-phase-i-et-etude-de-base-partielle-phase-ii/ Read More...

Rwanda Influencing local government planning process to address GBV

strengthening demand- and supply side local governance processes to ensure that local decision-makers incorporate and implement measures for GBV prevention and response into the district level development planning process, which is known as imihigo in Rwanda. This programming experience has highlighted the importance of strengthening women’s and marginalized groups’ participation in the imihigo process and ensuring that district level performance contracts include budgetary allocations for GBV prevention and response activities.
Influencing the imihigo process must however be understood as a long-term advocacy objective. To date, CARE Rwanda’s programming interventions have contributed to changes in the attitudes of local leaders in terms of their understanding of GBV as a development issue and their responsibility for ensuring downwards accountability to their constituents.
The starting point for this influencing process was the implementation from 2010 to 2013 of the Great Lakes Advocacy Initiative across six districts in southern Rwanda. This project aimed to increase national and local leaders’ accountability for the implementation of national GBV policy, as well as building the capacity of women and men activists to receive cases of GBV and to provide referrals to appropriate services and to advocate for quality, affordable and available services in the community. GLAI and subsequent women’s empowerment programming interventions by CARE Rwanda (GEWEP and Umugore Arumvwa – ‘A Woman is Listened To’) which also focussed on GBV prevention and response, provided the foundation for CARE Rwanda to build an understanding of the socio-political context shaping the implementation of GBV legislation at the national and local level and to develop effective working relationships with key ministries such as MIGEPROF.
Implementation of GLAI also involved Read More...

Making Advocacy Count: GBV Advocacy in Rwanda

Over the past 9 years CARE Rwanda has implemented a series of programming interventions designed to promote women’s empowerment and to address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Rwanda. Learning from these programmes informed the development of a holistic approach for community based GBV prevention, which is now being scaled up by the Government of Rwanda’s Ministry for Gender Equality and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) with the intention of reaching national coverage within the next 3-4 years. Read More...

Women’s Economic Empowerment through Gender Transformative Approaches – Evidence from CARE’s Experience in Middle East & North Africa

CARE defines women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as the process by which women increase their right to economic resources and the power to make decisions that benefit themselves, their families and their communities. Our Theory of Change (as discussed in CARE’s WEE Strategy Document) outlines three conditions necessary for genuine and sustainable economic empowerment for women: increased capabilities, decision-making power and an enabling environment. An integrated approach across all three conditions is required to achieve genuine and sustainable change. Increasing individual women’s capabilities can lead to temporary increases in their economic opportunities and income. However, women’s economic empowerment can only be achieved through also transforming unequal power relations and discriminatory structures.

This Learning Brief is created to provide practical learning and present existing tools applied by CARE Country Offices (COs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to encourage a more gender transformative approach to WEE and livelihood programming. This is highly relevant for practicioners from the whole sector working on economic empowerment and livelihood porgramming in fragile settings anywhere in the world. This document can aid a better understanding of gender transformative concepts by livelihood staff, as well as better understanding of the principles of sound economic empowerment by gender staff. This Learning Brief contains many practical insights and allows practicioners to understand how theory and frameworks can have an impact on the actual programming and results on the ground. The Hub encourages teams and practicioners to use this Brief, and the different overviews and examples provided, to reflect on their own work on gender integration, and take steps to move beyond gender responsive programming towards a truly transformative approach for our impact groups.

Learning insights incorporated in the document are based on the learning accumulated by CARE MENA Country Offices (COs) in the last five years under our women’s economic empowerment/livelihood programming. It focuses on two main components of WEE gender transformative programming: economic advancement and gender equality, along with approaches related to engaging men and boys. The evidence of these lessons learned is based on: 1) revision of documentation of more than 12 long term and short term WEE/livelihood programs implemented by CARE in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, West Bank & Gaza, Caucasus and the Balkans, 2) interviews with key informants including gender champions from these COs along with other global CARE gender experts who collectively searched for answers to questions in the themes of gender transformative approaches in WEE programming. Read More...

Enhancing holistic emergency GBV prevention, response and mitigation intervention in conflict affected communities in South Sudan

This report provides an independent evaluation of the project on Enhancing Holistic Emergency GBV Prevention, Response and Mitigation Interventions in Conflict Affected Communities of South Sudan. A UNICEF supported Gender and Protection Project in Twic East and Duk Counties of Jonglie State. The overall objective of the project was to ensure that vulnerable women and girls have increased access to life saving multi-sectoral GBV response and prevention services. The project was implemented by Care in South Sudan with funding from UNICEF. This was an emergency response project with a specific focus on GBV case management and psychosocial support. The project had a survivors’ centered approach as an integral part of the response to GBV incidents. The gender progress assessment focused on the effectiveness including Knowledge Attitudes and Practices (KAP) towards GBV, efficiency, the potential impact and sustainability and lessons learnt from the GBV and protection program in Jonglei.
The evaluation used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The primary data collection methods included: (i) Questionnaire administered to 150 households in Panyogor, Kongor Nyuak, Pakeer in Twic East and Ageer in Duk. (ii) Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with key stakeholders such as: the Department Relief and Rehabilitation commissioner, health, justice, protection, women leaders and Care Staff. (iii) Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with project beneficiaries (women, men, boys and girls). FGDs with 12 participants each were conducted in each of the five sites - two FGDs for girls, two for women, one for boys and also for men; (iv) relevant documents were reviewed for triangulation purposes. In total, 531 respondents participated in the GBV assessment including 21 key informants, 360 FGD participants and 150 household heads. Read More...

Strengthening Rural Development Models in Georgia (ENPARD II) Midterm Evaluation

Strengthening Rural Development Models in Georgia seeks to build on the success found by Mercy Corps, CARE and People in Need as they introduced the LEADER model for rural development to the municipalities of Borjomi, Lagodekhi and Kazbegi. In addition to continuing to implement this community-led local development approach, they were tasked with providing more national-level support for other Georgian LEADER implementations with the support of ELARD, a Europe-based not for profit organisation.

A series of interviews and focus groups held with beneficiaries, implementing agencies and other stakeholders provided a very positive picture of the impact being delivered by the LEADER model in these three municipalities, particularly in terms of increased engagement with local governance, community cohesion and economic participation.

Results further suggested that the growing presence LEADER in Georgia’s rural municipalities was positively moving Georgian rural governance in the direction envisioned by the Georgian Government and the Delegation of the European Union, that is, towards a state of alignment with the European Common Agricultural Policy.

The main difficulty identified is that Georgian Government policy looking forward appears to be wavering with regards to its commitment to the LEADER model, despite the levels of investment provided by the EU. Read More...

Baseline Evaluation: Partners for Learning – P4L

Key results of the project evaluation

In the P4L intervention areas, we estimated that approximately 5.7 % 1 of children are out of school girls and boys (OOSGB) who come from most rural households (72%), in female-headed households (63%), and extremely poor and their education expenses consume a large part of their global expenses (59%). Most of the surveyed OOSGB are between the ages of 7-14 (66%) without a large difference regarding their sex (girls or boys).

The dropout situation was measured; it is estimated to at a level of 3% mostly in the rural areas (77%) and more frequent among older children from 15-17 years (6.6%). The reasons for non-enrollment or dropout are varied and among others we will mention: High domestic workload for the children; Children’s participation in agricultural activities; Lack of economic means to pay fees, material, textbooks, shoes, and/or uniform; Lack of identification documents (baptismal certificate / birth certificate / national ID) for enrolment; Repeated teacher absences, caused often by strike; Hunger (absence of school feeding program); Distance between home and school.

Main recommendations / perspectives

Considering the results obtained from the data analysis some keys actions are recommended such as more campaigns for providing a ID document to each children; more awareness campaigns to reduce children’s workload until the total elimination of the child labor exists; more awareness activities for enrolling children at the normal school age (5-6 years) regardless of their sex; sensitization for parents around community-based retention and consistent attendance of their children at school; and by increased support to families to raise their household income. Read More...

Epidemic Control and Reinforcement of Health Services (ECRHS) Phase 1 Programme in Sierra Leone

This report presents findings from the end phase evaluation of the Epidemic Control and Reinforcement of Health Services (ECRHS) Phase 1 Programme in Sierra Leone, which was implemented from November 2015 to December 2018. The aim of the Programme is to ‘Improve the health status of the population of Sierra Leone’. The Programme was originally designed to provide response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, but also considered a longer-term view and worked towards putting in place preparations putting in place preparations for the transition of an extended health system strengthening (HSS) effort.

The overall purpose of the evaluation was ‘to assess result and impact of the above-mentioned Epidemic Control and Reinforcement of Health Services Programme against the Programme goal and outcomes in targeted northern region of Sierra Leone. The evaluation was specifically commissioned to; 1) Assess the Programme result areas in relation to effectiveness, relevance and efficiency of the Programme, 2) assess changes made in general conditions and perspectives, 3) assess need for additional (Programme-) support in future, 4) assess sustainability of achieved results with respective to the DHMTs and Community-based Surveillance (CBS) system, 5) identify the Programme’s key challenges during implementation, and lessons learnt/best practices, and 6)generate concrete recommendations for decision making process regarding health and SRH Programming in the future.

The Evaluation integrated both quantitative and qualitative research methods. 1,608 respondents were randomly selected from across 80 communities for households/individual interviews. This sample included 1,196 female and 412 male respondents. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held with community members in 60 communities and 30 key informant interviews (KIIs) were done with CARE, implementing partners, state actors and chiefdom authorities. Twenty-seven (27) Community Health Workers (CHWs) and 5 Water Management Committee members were also interviewed. Also, facility assessment was conducted for -77 PHUs using the Ministry of Health and Sanitation standard tool and case studies/insight stories were further documented from the field interviews.
Read More...

Measuring Social Norms and Girls’ Empowerment Report of the SenseMaker study of the

This report presents the findings from a SenseMaker story collection process conducted as part of a qualitative evaluation of CARE International’s Tipping Point project in Sunamganj, Bangladesh. Tipping Point aims to reduce the incidence of child marriage through shifting social norms at the community level, addressing the root causes of the practice and seeking to holistically effect change at the level of individuals, communities, and the broader enabling environment. The SenseMaker study was conducted by the Overseas Development Institute and researchers from Jahangirnagar University, in close cooperation with Tipping Point’s two local implementing
partners, JASHIS and ASD in Sunamganj district. The evaluation team collected 875 stories in total: 325 from girls; 214 from boys; and 336 from mothers and fathers of adolescents.

The primary analytical approach for assessing the nature of change within Tipping Point communities was comparing the data from Boundary Partners (girls and boys who participate in Tipping Point ‘Fun Centre’ groups, and parents of adolescents who participate in Fun Centre groups) with data from non-Boundary Partners from the same village. Read More...

Women’s economic empowerment in emergency contexts: Niger case study

While discussion of the ‘Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus’ continues within the sector, there remains debate as to whether women’s economic empowerment is a luxury, or even feasible in humanitarian contexts where the priority is to keep people alive. Increasingly, however, humanitarians are seeing interventions aimed at women’s economic empowerment in emergency contexts as a key tool to increase protection and support people in crises to live in dignity. CARE set out to analyse whether financial inclusion strategies like community-led savings groups may in fact represent a way to not only respond to crises, but also to build resilience against them, even in highly fluid contexts.

In June 2018, CARE teams conducted fieldwork in two areas where it is implementing ongoing humanitarian interventions. CARE organised focus groups and interviews with communities and individuals in Diffa and Konni where it has delivered humanitarian assistance. The interventions combined blanket cash distributions, and the establishment of savings and credit groups which also provided women with life skills and business training to set up small businesses.

Within a crisis setting, combining a savings group structure including income generation support with humanitarian assistance such as food and non-food items (NFIs) helped women not only to meet basic needs in a more sustainable way, but also improved their independent access to and control over money.

During emergencies, providing women with humanitarian cash to cover basic needs allowed women in savings groups to continue saving and to invest in income generating activities (IGA), rather than using up capital on food.

If crises continue to hit, the positive impact of savings groups set up in emergencies can become strained. In this case, further cash interventions can preserve small businesses.

Membership of savings groups and receipt of IGAs and life skills training increased women’s income and confidence. Membership of a savings group provides psychosocial benefits to women who are suffering anxiety, depression or trauma by providing a social network that meets and talks regularly. Read More...

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