Food and Nutrition Security

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...

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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Final Evaluation Report: Nourishing the Future II Project, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica

The CARE-Cargill Nourishing the Future II project was implemented in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica between September 2016 and August 2019 (36 months). Its primary objective was to help producers and women micro-entrepreneurs improve the quality of life of their families, assuring their food security and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Six impact indicators and 32 outcome indicators were tracked for Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and 11 indicators were applied in Costa Rica, where we implemented a subset of interventions (food security, nutrition and hygiene). Overall, when comparing indicators to their baselines, the average effectiveness was 72%, with Honduras achieving the best results and Nicaragua having less favorable results due to ongoing social, political and economic issues.

Among the most relevant findings of the evaluation were the success of Cargill’s inclusive business model and value chains in integrating small producers and micro-entrepreneurs into markets; an increase in the resilience of households to the effects of climate change; an increase in the use of sustainable agricultural practices; and an increase in incomes as a result of market sales, access to financial services and related training. Moreover, we observed the target beneficiaries working together in rural savings unions, cooperatives and producer associations, supporting the provision of financial, technical and marketing services to their members. Regarding food security and nutrition, our work with schools led to an increase in the consumption of healthy foods at the household level. The project increased access to nutrient-rich foods through community, school and family gardens as well as increased knowledge and application of good practices in sanitation and hygiene.
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THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVES IN ACHIEVING WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: A CROSS-PROJECTANALYSIS

Collectives are a fundamental building block for much of CARE’s work. What are the greatest strengths of a collectives approach across projects? We combined data from many CARE collectives across projects and found that:
• The gender composition of the collective affects the intended outcomes.
• The most successful collectives are those with a balanced gender mix of collective members and women leaders. The second most successful collectives are those with a balanced gender mix and mixed gender leaders.
• CARE collectives are having an effect on women’s economic empowerment.
•CARE collectives are having a particularly strong effect on income, leadership, domestic decision making, production, violence and time use. Read More...

PROMOTING A SUSTAINABLE AND FOOD SECURE WORLD (PROSPER) – FINAL EVALUATION – REPORT

CARE and Cargill have built on their fifty years partnership in implementing PROSPER Project: Promoting a Sustainable and Food Secure World in seven countries. Two phases of the project have already been implemented during globally and in Egypt. In Egypt, the Phase II work called the Origination and Development of Soya Bean Smallholder Farmers project. The project addressed the food and livelihood security of farming families in the three governorates of Minia, Behera and Beni Suef, and ended in July, 2017.

CARE and Cargill has launched a third phase of the project in 2018. The goal for Phase III is to create a more inclusive socio-economic environment along the soybean value chain for small-scale farmers in Egypt. The project targeted 3000 farmers.

The evaluation focused on providing an overview of the project’s relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The evaluation assessed assess the status of achievement of project indicators, identified implementation challenges, derived lessons learned and recommendations for future phases of the project.

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Rapport de la revue interne-Projet de Recherche-Développment pour la Sécurité Alimentaire et l’ Adaptation au Changement Climatique

L’objectif stratégique du projet REDSAACC vise à appuyer les efforts du gouvernement dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle en contribuant à mettre les populations Nigériennes à l’abri de la famine et à leur garantir les conditions d’une pleine participation à la production nationale et à l’amélioration de leurs revenus.

L’objectif global de cette revue interne est de montrer et mesurer les changements opérés du fait des actions du projet REDSAACC à travers l’évaluation des effets/impacts de la mise en œuvre de l’approche du projet dans le transfert des technologies et le partage des innovations locales pour une adaptation des systèmes de production agricole aux changements climatiques. Read More...

United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations Participatory Gender Analysis Final Report

United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE), is a five-year (2015-2019) Food for Peace program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Save the Children, and the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM). The program aims to reduce chronic malnutrition and food insecurity and build resilience among vulnerable populations in threedistricts in Malawi, Blantyre Rural, Chikwawaand Nsanje.

The UBALE team carried out a gender analysis in August and September of 2015, with the participation of UBALE key staff from across the program. This is the final report for that gender analysis.
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Informe Final de Evaluación Proyecto Nutriendo el Futuro Fase II

El Proyecto Nutriendo el Futuro Fase II se ejecutó en el marco de la alianza CARE y Cargill, en apoyo a cuatro países del área centroamericana: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua y Costa Rica.
Su objetivo fue contribuir a que los productores/as y microempresarios/as de las áreas rurales y periurbanas del área de influencia de Cargill mejoraran la calidad de vida de sus familias, garantizando su seguridad alimentaria y el manejo sostenible de sus recursos naturales. El mismo se implementó por un período de 36 meses, entre septiembre de 2016 y agosto de 2019. El Proyecto brindó apoyo directo a un total de 84 comunidades, 1,606 pequeños productores/as, 968 microempresarios/as y 25,968 niños y niñas en edad escolar. Más del 50% de los beneficiarios (12,863) fueron mujeres y niñas. Read More...

Promoción de la Seguridad Alimentaria, Desarrollo Económico e Inclusión Social en la Región Lempa de Honduras

Se presenta el informe de la evaluación final del proyecto “Promoción de la Seguridad Alimentaria, Desarrollo Económico e Inclusión Social en la Región Lempa de Honduras” resultado de un ejercicio participativo realizado entre mayo y septiembre de 2019. El proyecto fue diseñado e implementado por CARE Internacional Honduras, y tenía por objetivo principal contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de hombres, mujeres, niñas, niños y jóvenes que viven en condiciones de pobreza, exclusión, vulnerabilidad y riesgo, generando condiciones para la seguridad alimentaria, la salud, la nutrición y la gobernanza en materia de seguridad alimentaria, a través del desarrollo de componentes programáticos bajos estas temáticas. En términos de alcance cuantitativo, se lograron evaluar 26 indicadores con disponibilidad de información, encontrando que el proyecto logró el cumplimiento de 16: cumplió con 8 de 8 indicadores en el componente de disponibilidad de alimentos, 4 de 6 en el componente de gobernabilidad, 1 de 2 en el componente de alimento solidario y 3 de 10 en el componente de salud. Read More...

Social Outcomes of the CARE-WWF Alliance in Mozambique Results and Recommendations from a Decade of Conservation and Development Programming

In 2008, the CARE-WWF Alliance emerged as a major strategic partnership between two international non- governmental organizations seeking to tackle the linked challenge of poverty and natural resource degradation. From the start, the mission of the Alliance was to test the idea that empowering some of the poorest and most vulnerable women and communities on the planet to engage in sustainable livelihoods and natural resource governance could improve their wellbeing and conserve globally important biodiversity.

This impact report summarises the results from the full project evaluation. Read More...

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