Here in CARE International’s Evaluation e-Library we make all of CARE’s external evaluation reports available for public access in accordance with our Accountability Policy.
With these accumulated project evaluations CARE International hopes to share our collective knowledge not only internally but with a wider audience.
Looking for something specific? You can filter the evaluations using the dropdown menus on the right side of the screen.
If you have an evaluation or study to share, please e-mail the document to ejanoch@care.org for posting.
Rafah Governorate: Deception, Destruction & Death in the “Safe” Zone Rapid Gender Analysis
Aim and methodology: The aim of this RGA was to hear from women and men currently in Rafah, with a focus on those providing essential services to communities and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the Governorate. The aim was to better understand the experiences of women, men, girls and boys at this moment, and to identify how CARE and the local and international humanitarian community, including U.N. Agencies, can best respond - understanding the formidable challenges and barriers to do so.
This RGA was conducted at a time where the population of Rafah were subject to continued and threatened bombardment from land, air and sea. As such it was intentionally designed to be light and small scale in terms of primary data collection; which took place between 7th April to 17th April 2024, and is complemented by secondary data review and analysis.
This RGA is being published in the days surrounding further escalation of violence in Rafah. The Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is blocked 6 and an evacuation order has been issued in the Eastern parts of Rafah; the designated “safe zone” in the Gaza strip. This reinforces the voices of the men and women who told us, with no uncertainty, that nowhere in Gaza is safe.
Key findings related to each area of inquiry and recommendations are summarised below, with more details to be found in the main report.
Key findings:
1. Shifting Gender Roles: Continuous displacement has led to some traditional gender roles adapting and expanding, as well as others being reinforced. Increased and unrealistic pressure has been placed on women to meet the needs and demands of dependents in a highly stressful environment, which has led to an increase in verbal and physical violence against women.
2. Coping Mechanisms: On the verge of starvation, nearly the entire population in Rafah has reported extreme and harmful coping strategies including but not limited to bartering with other essential items, begging, gathering wild foods, scavenging under rubble or in trash or seeking food outside their shelter.8 Reports indicate some women are fasting for several days in a row,9 and boys and girls are forced to work on the street selling or begging. Female heads of household, older women and women with disabilities face security and protection obstacles seeking access to food distributions.10
3. Sustaining through Community Networks of Solidarity: Community solidarity has emerged as a lifeline for survival, such as women supporting children’s education and men distributing food parcels or organising activities for children. Religion and prayer have played a key role in the coping strategies of men, women and children. For youth, social media (when accessible) played a role to maintain connections, articulate fears and share experiences with others. For children, where possible, play and educational outlets within shelters provide a brief respite from the reality of airstrikes.
4. Maternal & Reproductive Health: With an overwhelmed and overstretched health system, people with disabilities, chronic conditions and trauma are left without the most basic care. With estimates of 155,000 women in Gaza pregnant or lactating, and 5,500 expected to deliver in the next month,11 the lack of adequate maternal, sexual and reproductive health services leave mothers, newborns and their children exposed to severe and life-threatening health risks. If women survive pregnancy and childbirth, postpartum recovery, including ability to breastfeed, also present severe challenges.12
5. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS): Of extreme concern is the severe emotional, physical and psychological distress among the displaced population, especially among children and youth. As caregivers do their best to survive and manage their own mental health, the impact on children and youth is extensive and holds intergenerational impacts.
6. Education: With formal education effectively stopped since October 7th, children have lost out on a whole academic year of education. While there were reports of some initiatives such as ‘informal learning circles’ and remote learning, these are not easily accessible. Parents, caregivers and children are focused on daily survival; there is the increasing need for adolescents and young girls to support with chores or be confined to their tents due to safety issues; and, particularly for boys, the need to help earn money or seek supplies for the family. Read More...
Mastercard Impact Fund and CARE Global Partnership: Ignite Program Endline Results Report
Impact level indicators include increase in household income and financial resilience. Both of the impact indicators have shown positive movements illustrating that the project has created a positive change. There are different degrees of change in different countries.
Percentage of strivers who reported an increase in household income showed impact across all three countries.
• Vietnam almost doubled the total number of households who increased income between baseline and endline (44% at baseline; 87% at endline), an increase of 43 percentage points.
• In Pakistan the number went up by 16 times (3% at baseline; 51% at endline).
• In Peru a total of 33% of the households reported an increase in their household income at the end of the project.
Percentage of strivers’ financial resilience also showed improvement.
• Vietnam recorded 43 percentage points improvement between baseline and endline (67% at baseline; 96% at endline).
• Peru showed 26 percentage points growth between baseline and endline (42% at baseline; 53% at endline).
•No comparable data for this indicator was found from Pakistan. Read More...
Women for Change: RÉSULTATS DE L’ENQUÊTE SEMESTRIELLE
Pledge for Change Reporting 2024
In relation to equitable partnerships, we have set interim targets for 2025 for the extent and diversity of partnerships, and seen some progress in these areas, but our 2023 Keystone partner survey highlights three main areas for improvement: funding adequacy and timing, promotion of partners in the media, and joint decision-making. CARE is working on connecting finance and program reporting systems to better report on financial transfers to local partners (and to set a meaningful target for this for future years). We are also analysing good practices from positive outlier countries in the partner survey, to identify specific actions and processes that can be spread more widely to improve partnership practices.
For authentic storytelling, we have been shifting behaviours and practices towards anti-racist and decolonized communications, based on our global Communications Commitments. We are setting up a working group to explore global media monitoring and automate some monitoring requirements. CARE will also launch our third biannual image audit and update our images and consent policy. We can demonstrate some progress in acknowledging partners and promoting local voices in annual reports and information/advocacy campaigns, but we are not yet able to measure this in relation to fundraising.
In terms of influencing wider change, we have consistently been ceding space to local and national women-led organizations (WLOs) to advocate for their priorities with policy makers. We have also seized advocacy opportunities at the multilateral level and in the US to enhance donor transparency and accountability. CARE will lead negotiations to develop an IASC-endorsed definition of Women and Girl-Led Organizations to boost the engagement, participation and decision-making by these organisations in humanitarian action. We will continue to leverage our positions of influence in various policy platforms to open up leadership spaces for WLOs, and support them in using these spaces. CARE will set up mechanisms to track how our media and communications team is creating opportunities for partners, especially WLOs, to feature their voices and policy priorities. Read More...
USAID’s Community Nutrition and Health Activity (CNHA) Report – Consultation (Meetings with Stakeholders, Households & Community People to Understand Information Sources, Media Access and Habits of CNHA Primary Target Groups to Inform CNHA SBC Strategy)
The consultations revealed key findings on the sources and trustworthiness of health-related information, with community health workers like CHCPs and FWAs emerging as the most trusted sources. Although many pregnant and lactating mothers received information on nutrition and family planning, adolescents and mothers-in-law were less informed. Common barriers to accessing accurate information included limited literacy, restricted access to health facilities due to poor transportation, and traditional beliefs that discouraged the adoption of new practices. Despite the widespread use of mobile phones, especially smartphones, media access was limited, with most women relying on family and community gatherings for information. The consultations also highlighted the need for improved communication flow from health facilities to the community, particularly for nutritional information and family planning services. The consultations also highlighted the need for improved communication flow from health facilities to the community, particularly for nutritional information and family planning services, emphasizing the importance of targeted interventions to bridge gaps in knowledge and access within these vulnerable groups.
Total Page No: 66 Read More...
Youth Skills Development Impact Brief
young people with mentors, training providers, and employers. We train youth in soft skills (such as critical thinking, time management, decision making, self-confidence, and others), financial literacy, and market-demanded technical vocational skills to meet the needs of the labor market.
CARE’s youth skills & workforce development programs primarily support Sustainable Development Goal 8 - Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Since 2020, CARE’s programs have supported 22 million people in increasing their economic empowerment and participation in dignified work in 67 countries. Read More...
Call to Action Field Implementation (CAFI) II
In 2013, governments, donors, and humanitarian organizations launched the CTA, to fundamentally transform how GBV prevention, risk mitigation, and response are addressed. The CTA aims to strengthen accountability in policies, systems, and mechanisms.
The partnership has grown to more than 100 members, but consolidating CTA implementation in the field is a key gap that needs to be addressed. As a result, CAFI was launched to advance the Call to Action 2021- 2025 Road Map on the ground.
What are the main objectives of CAFI?
● Catalyze increased representation and leadership of women and girls, specifically WLOs, in decision making structures and humanitarian assistance
● Amplify GBV expertise: scaling existing capacity of WLOs
● Address GBV root causes and coordinate effective response and risk mitigation
How does CAFI work?
CAFI aims at contributing to WLO strengthening through capacity-sharing approaches between partners. WLOs are engaged from the beginning, allowing them to co-create and adapt the project according to their needs and contexts and ensuring
accountability and women’s voice and leadership throughout the whole project cycle.
CAFI works through a consortium of 10 WLOs across Latin America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, the Middle East/North Africa, and Europe, who coordinate national networks of WLOs: Arab Women Organization (AWO) of Jordan, Baghdad Women Association (BWA) in Iraq, Center Women’s Perspectives (CWP) in Ukraine, Comité des Jeunes Filles Leaders (COJEFIL) in Niger, Dynamique des Femmes Juristes (DFJ) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fundación
para el Desarrollo en Género y Familia (GENFAMI) in Colombia, Global Media Campaign (GMC) in Mali, Himaya Daeem Aataa (HDA) in Lebanon, and Tinta Violeta in Venezuela. In Iraq, Lebanon, and Venezuela, project activities are co-led by WEO, Sama for Development, and Uniandes, respectively. Read More...
Final Evaluation: MACP Project – Disaster Ready Communities in Vulnerable Rural Areas of Guatemala
Its general objective was increased empowerment and leadership of vulnerable communities, to provide an efficient, gender-sensitive emergency response, in a context of natural disasters and health crises at the end of the project.
Specific objectives were:
a) Communities after the first year of the project implement social measures to reduce vulnerability and risks. b) Communities execute social actions together with municipal governments to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, the project defined five results:
1. During the first year of the project, communities have a well-informed and adequately trained, inclusive, and self-organized group responsible of leading disaster preparedness. 2. Communities have greater capacities for disaster response with the respective plans and inclusive systems implemented and updated, incorporating what they learned at the end of the project. 3. Communities are connected, for a second year, with the project, to municipal governments and have access to technical and financial assistance. 4. The project contributes to increase the capacity of nearby communities and local government units in disaster preparedness. 5. Communities respond efficiently to health crises and coordinate with health services for appropriate use of the respective protocols.
The team hired for this purpose carried out a series of capacity-building activities, investment in infrastructure, providing support and technical training to leaders. The project was executed by a multidisciplinary staff and some activities were implemented by hiring temporary, external consultants with expertise on related topics.
Upon completion, CARE Guatemala requested a final evaluation. This process has allowed us to identify a series of important findings related to the project cycle. Among them, a design and execution with a high level of pertinence, coherence, relevance, efficiency/effectiveness, impact and sustainability. A process to strengthen the capabilities of the Local Coordinators for Disaster Reduction COLRED was successfully carried out in 60 communities from 6 municipalities benefited.
As an immediate result of the strengthening process, 60 COLRED have the capabilities to identify, monitor and act during emergencies caused by disasters and have higher levels of cohesion compared to the beginning of the project. They have also complied with all the steps to obtain CONRED accreditation and have prepared and received approval of its Local Response Plans. They are articulated to community and municipal processes through the Municipal Instances of
Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management IMGIRD, spaces that have different levels of development based on their management and formalization, starting as units to Municipal Directorates. This municipal space was strengthened by COMRED whose members were trained and strengthened. Participating communities received support to renovate facilities that could potentially become shelters, School Committees were trained and organizational support that will allow them to adequately manage disaster risks in the context of their educational process.
Since its formulation, the project had a solid approach and was committed to promoting equity in participation processes including women and men. However, disaggregated analysis tools and specific gender action plans were prepared after the project had begun. This caused, in part, that gender implementation suffered some limitations during activities. However, it has been satisfying to note that, despite these limitations, the women involved in the process are empowered, have an understanding, defend the importance of their participation and identify the basic actions related to community management and mobilization for disaster reduction and emergency action.
The findings documented in this report were verified by implementing a comprehensive work methodology that reviewed documents produced by the project, analyzed the activity cycle, reviewed the financial and administrative aspects of the project, as well as documents and systematizations prepared, carried out interviews with three levels of execution involved in the project (senior management, middle management and operational team), with focus group, and made field visits to execute direct observation and interviews with participants. At the end of the document, there are pertinent conclusions and recommendations. Read More...
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