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.
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ETUDE DE BASE PROJET ESPOIR POUR ‘‘L’INSERTION SOCIO-ECONOMIQUE DES FEMMES/FILLES DES CAEF’’
Les apprenantes bénéficiaires directes des CAEF et leurs chefs de ménages, les populations (hommes et femmes) bénéficiaires indirects et les partenaires de mise en œuvre ont constitués les principales cibles de l’étude qui a été réalisée en avril 2022. L’étude a démarré avec la conception des outils de collecte, puis a suivi la formation des agents de collecte, y compris leurs superviseurs ; ensuite la collecte à proprement dire des données quantitatives et qualitatives dans les régions de Mamou et Conakry (Kaloum et Dixinn).
En termes d’approche méthodologique, la mission tire ses constats des entretiens approfondis individuels et de ménages, et auprès de plusieurs groupes de discussion au sein des communautés ciblées (des groupes hommes et femmes dont des groupes homogènes d’adultes et des jeunes) avec les différents partenaires ; en termes d’entretiens individuels et de ménages les enquêtes ont touché 195 personnes (dont 117 apprenantes et 96 chefs/cheffes de ménages).
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Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai Response Program Baseline May-June 2022
Farmer Field Business Schools and Village Savings and Loan Associations for promoting climate-smart agriculture practices: Evidence from rural Tanzania
Learning From Failure 2022
As always, it is important to note that while each evaluation in this analysis cited specific failures and areas for improvement in the project it reviewed, that does not mean that the projects themselves were failures. Of the 72 evaluations in this analysis, only 2 showed projects that failed to deliver on more than 15% of the project goals. The rest were able to succeed for at least 85% of their commitments. Rather, failures are issues that are within CARE’s control to improve that will improve impact for the people we serve.
To fully improve impact, we must continue to include failures in the conversation. We face a complex future full of barriers and uncertainties. Allowing an open space to discuss challenges or issues across the organization strengthens CARE’s efforts to fight for change. Qualitative analysis provides critical insights that quantitative data does not provide insight into the stories behind these challenges to better understand how we can develop solutions.
CARE reviewed a total of 72 evaluations from 65 projects, with 44 final reports published between February 2020 and September 2021 and 28 midterm reports published between March 2018 and October 2020. Seven projects had both midterm and final evaluations at the time of this analysis. For ease of analysis, as in previous years, failures were grouped into 11 categories (see Annex A, the Failures Codebook for details).
Results
The most common failures in this year’s report are:
• Understanding context—both in the design phase of a project and refining the understanding of context and changing circumstances throughout the whole life of a project, rather than a concentrated analysis phase that is separate from project implementation. For example, an agriculture project that built it’s activities assuming that all farmers would have regular internet access, only to find that fewer than 10% of project participants had smartphones and that the network in the area is unreliable, has to significantly redesign both activities and budgets.
• Sustainability—projects often faced challenges with sustainability, particularly in planning exit strategies. Importantly, one of the core issues with sustainability is involving the right partners at the right time. 47% of projects that struggled with sustainability also had failures in partnership. For example, a project that assumed governments would take over training for project participants once the project closed, but that failed to include handover activities with the government at the local level, found that activities and impacts are not set up to be sustainable.
• Partnerships—strengthening partnerships at all levels, from government stakeholders to community members and building appropriate feedback and consultation mechanisms, is the third most common weakness across projects. For example, a project that did not include local private sector actors in its gender equality trainings and assumes that the private sector would automatically serve women farmers, found that women were not getting services or impact at the right level.
Another core finding is that failures at the design phase can be very hard to correct. While projects improve significantly between midterm and endline, this is not always possible. There are particular kinds of failure that are difficult to overcome over time. Major budget shortfalls, a MEAL plan that does not provide quality baseline data, and insufficient investments in understanding context over the entire life of a project are less likely to improve over time than partnerships and overall MEAL processes.
Some areas also showed marked improvements after significant investments. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), Gender, Human Resources, and Budget Management are all categories that show improvements over the three rounds of learning from failures analysis. This reflects CARE’s core investments in those areas over the last 4 years, partly based on the findings and recommendations from previous Learning From Failure reports. Specifically, this round of data demonstrates that the organization is addressing gender-related issues. Not only are there fewer failures related to gender overall, the difference between midterm and final evaluations in gender displays how effective these methods are in decreasing the incidence of “failures” related to engaging women and girls and looking at structural factors that limit participation in activities.
Another key finding from this year’s analysis is that projects are improving over time. For the first time, this analysis reviewed mid-term reports in an effort to understand failures early enough in the process to adjust projects. Projects report much higher rates of failure at midterm than they do at final evaluation. In the projects where we compared midline to endline results within the same project, a significant number of failures that appeared in the mid-term evaluation were resolved by the end of the project. On average, mid-term evaluations reflect failures in 50% of possible categories, and final evaluations show failures in 38% of possible options. Partnerships (especially around engaging communities themselves), key inputs, scale planning and MEAL are all areas that show marked improvement over the life of the project.
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Solar Harnessed Entrepreneurs (SHE) Baseline Assessment: Promoting Productive Use of Energy (PUE) for Women and Girls in Sierra Leone
Although quantitative data collection was largely used to get primary information using structured questionnaires for personal interviews, the research team also used qualitative methods through Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), with respondents drawn from the renewable energy sector/mini-grid power stations. The study also used Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides to interview Project’s target groups and individual women entrepreneurs in the study areas. The coverage of the assessment was to include twenty (20) communities in all seven (7) intervention districts (Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba, Pujehun, Kambia, Koinadugu and Bombali), but based on initial targets for the first phase of implementation, only sixteen (16) communities were reached during the assessment.
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The crisis we can still avert
A recent report from Gro Intelligence and CRU Group estimates that the impacts from the Ukraine crisis on nitrogen fertilizer availability in the global agriculture system will lead to a total loss of 72 trillion calories of food produced in 2022 alone. That loss would cause 620.9 million MORE people who are already struggling to meet their basic food needs to lose at least one more meal a day for the next 6 months. This is the crisis that is coming—growing the current crisis by more than three times higher the 205.1 million people already experiencing food crisis.
Gender inequality will play a significant role in this crisis. Based on current trends in gender equality and food security, 332.8 million of these people will be women. That means 44.7 million more women than men could miss one meal a day for the next 6 months. Women could miss 8.5 billion more meals than men.
This is not a foregone conclusion. We can still act to prevent the worst of the crisis. The number of calories lost is only part of the story. Food insecurity is as much as story of inequality as it is of food production. Read More...
Study on the sustainability of GRAD structures and outcomes
Background
The Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development (GRAD) project (hereafter referred to as the project) was a five-year USAID-funded project which began in December 2011 and ended in December 2016. Its strategic objective was to graduate a minimum of 50,000 chronically food-insecure households from the Ethiopian Government’s (GoE’s) Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). Additionally, it aimed to increase each household’s income by $365 by the project’s fifth year in 16 Woredas in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR). During the implementation of the project combined “push” and “pull” model into a complete and integrated package of interventions and within this model the project at times established and/or the above-mentioned actors.
Methodology
Accordingly, desktop reviews of relevant documents including the project final evaluation, suitability and exit plan as well as a variety of reports were undertaken. The study team collected quantitative and qualitative information from 330 VESAs, 1,066 households, 188 saleswomen, 21 agro-dealers, 31 FEMAs/cooperatives. Furthermore, it consulted with representatives from multi-stakeholder platforms groups, Woreda FSTF, MFIs/RuSACCOs and participating wholesalers linked to the project.
Key findings:
VESAs:
56% of the VESAs established and supported by the project are still active as members were able to benefit from their membership, improve their saving and loan management, improve loan repayment mechanisms, were able to share out on time and at critical times, have structured and transparent management committee. These groups develop their members’ social capital, have a strong sense of trust, have benefited from their family’s support. The active VESA have reasonable membership size, common interest and have managed receive continued support.
42% of the VESAs established are inactive as members lost confidence and the interest right after the project ended. Members did not clearly understand the value of the VESAs, some faced internal conflicts, others such as the groups in Sidama and Gurage Zones were affected by drought and security issues. Overall, the inactive VESAs have received less support especially those established in the later part of the project. On a positive side, in Tigray few groups dissolved their VESAs as there was no needed since they now have started saving at banks and can access credit from MFIs.
2% of VESAs have transformed into RuSACCOs. Those who managed to this transformation was encouraged by some of their members who already were also member to a RuSACCO. The VESAs were not encouraged due to RuSACCO’s principle that supported individual membership to join already established RuSACCOs; and groups would rather retain their VESA as they feel they have full control and do not want to lose their social capital.
Active VESAs were formed on a voluntary base and were given adequate briefing about the purpose of the group. In contrast, the inactive VESAs members were mainly selected and groups were formed by project staffs.
Active VESAs remained together and have not sought to split into smaller groups as they value the social capital created within the group and prefer to work as a one team. Dissimilarly, 53% of the currently inactive groups did separate to form smaller groups, mainly due to internal conflicts, dissatisfaction regarding members selection methods and lack of management skills amongst the leadership.
Across all study areas, all VESAs were found have bylaws and in the case of Tigray and Amhara regions, some groups internally agreed and have amended their bylaws articles related to saving amounts, loan repayment mechanisms and interest rates reflecting their needs.
Active VESAs have successfully built social cohesion, capital, are a safe and fertile environment for training, social and cultural norms discussion platforms that may impede development drives and contribute to food security (e.g. gender inequality, infant feeding practices, etc.).
On average 61% of the active VESAs have been able to increase their savings size while only 13% reporting a decrease. Those who reported a decrease was directly associated to their inability to save as family expenses have escalated and they were unable to generate more income in order to save.
In all the study areas, the groups have paid share out every year in May and June. Their average value of liquid savings during the last share-out was 28,282 Birr with an average group share out of 1,444 Birr ($51) and an internal loan size of 26,649 Birr.
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CARE Guatemala Food Security Rapid Assessment 2022
Rural families in Guatemala face one of the most severe food shortage seasons, mainly due to the high cost of meeting their basic needs, the effects of international conflicts and COVID-19 prevention measures, low hiring of temporary labor, the slow recovery of the impact of storms Eta and Iota, and the rainy season 2022 that has started with rains above normal, causing water saturation in the soil, which affects subsistence agriculture. This is worst for families who live in the dry corridor.
In this context, the Municipal Coordinator for the Disaster Reduction –COMRED- and the Municipal Directorate of Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management -IMGIRD of the municipality of San Bartolomé Jocotenango, department of Quiché, with the technical support of CARE Guatemala and TECHO, surveyed 163 households in 33 rural communities to know the availability and access to food, the economic situation, gender roles and strategies of survival that families are implementing. This report shares the results of the analysis of the data collected in July 2022
• 42% of households do not have any remaining grain from the previous harvest, and a further 33% only have remaining grain reserves for further 3 months or less.
• Women earn 56% less than men. On average, men earn $143 per month, and women earn $62.
• 21% have gone into debt to be able to buy food
• 38% are reducing the size of their meals; 22% of people are eating less (or have stopped eating) to make sure their children can eat
• 31% are now skipping at least one meal per day
• 3.7% have spent entire days without eating
• 2% have sold their land to buy food
• In 45% if the households, at least one member has migrated outside the community to find jobs elsewhere.
• Women and young girls are doing 94% of the work preparing food, cleaning, and taking care of family members. Read More...
Closing The Financial Inclusion Gap in Rwanda (CFIGR) Project
I. Improving the financial literacy levels and saving culture of 700,000 financially excluded (75% women) in 30 districts of Rwanda.
II. Increasing access to and use of appropriate and affordable customer centric products/ services for 560,000 financially excluded Rwandans.
III. Piloting effective transition to cashless payments, through the digitalization of at least 2080 of the supported saving groups’ operations/transactions and development and provision of technology based formal financial services. IV. Increasing LTSS subscriptions and sustained payments through VSLAs as platforms. V. Expanding the existing CARE’s Agents Network to cover all 14,837 villages as a community development advisory, catalyst, and support structure. Key Achievements Thanks to CFIGR project, CARE’s financial inclusion work now covers 30 Districts through 15,053 Village Agents supporting 39,776 village savings & loan groups (VSLGs) with over 1,087,154 members, 74% being women that have so far mobilized around RWF 25,352,861,314 ($ 25M USD) of total savings and use RWF 22,124,081,062 ($ 22M USD) of cumulative loans1 invested in groups ‘members income generating activities. The CARE-MINECOFIN partnership project has been able to contribute to closing the financial inclusion gap by organizing 440,036 financially excluded citizens (71% women) into 17,088 VSLAs. These VSLA members form part of the 745,459 people mapped at the beginning of the project as financial excluded representing 59% and are now financially included. In addition, 369,726 VSLAs members have access to formal financial services which include SACCOs, MFIs and Banks where they can save and borrow for personal needs.
To increase LTSS subscriptions and sustained payments through VSLAs, CARE integrated LTSS into financial literacy manual as an effective manner for VAs to deliver messages to VSLAs members and make informed choices; subscribe and persistently save through the long-term pension scheme. CARE trained and equipped master trainers with digital materials. Under the additional financial support of the UNCDF, 416 master trainers in each village were equipped with digital materials including tablets and animated videos to help mobilize, register, and follow up on LTSS payments by VSLA members. To date, 225,293 VSLA members (70% women and 21% youth) both from old and new VSLAs have registered in EjoHeza scheme. 197,151 members (68% women) are active savers and FRW 1,429,982,010 saved as annual contributions as of end April 2022. Read More...
PENNIES TO POWER FINAL REPORT
Due to looming threats including climate change, an estimated 20% increase in hunger is predicted by 2050. The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath likely will push 426 million more people into poverty in the next three to five years. Responding to these challenges requires creative solutions that prioritize the most vulnerable, including women and young people. To this end, CARE implemented the Pennies to Power program with generous support from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. This final report describes the program’s accomplishments over the full implementation period (June 1, 2019 to June 1, 2022).
Pennies to Power played a critical role in building resilience and increasing the capacity of people to cope with crises. Moreover, it helped create thriving and sustainable communities, where farmers prosper, people are empowered, and the planet is healthier. CARE implemented the program in Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania to build resilience, unlock market access for women and youth, and ensure they are economically and socially empowered through savings groups known as village savings and loan associations (VSLAs). Moreover, the program contributed to the achievement of the following U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): No Poverty (SDG 1), Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Gender Equality (SDG 5), and Climate Action (SDG 13).
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