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FINAL EVALUATION REPORT

"POVERTY REDUCTION AND COMMUNITY-BASED

SOCIAL PROTECTION IN AFGHANISTAN"

Written By

CHREMATA CONSULTING PVT. LTD.

for

WAR CHILD - UK

FUNDED BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

November 2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ............................................ ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

DISCLAIMER ............................................................................ ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 7

A. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ................................................................................................. 7

B. SCOPE OF THE FINAL EVALUATION .......................................................................................... 8

II. METHODOLOGY (INFORMATION COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND REPORTING) ............................. 8

III. FINDINGS............................................................................................................................... 9

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (FGDS) ........................................................................................... 10

FGD WITH GIRLS: ...................................................................................................................... 10

FGD WITH BOYS........................................................................................................................ 11

FGD WITH SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES (SMCS) .......................................................... 11

FGD WITH YOUTH ..................................................................................................................... 12

FGD WITH WOMEN .................................................................................................................. 13

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS (IDIS) WITH GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDERS .......................................... 14

IDI WITH THE DIRECTOR HERAT INDUSTRIAL UNION .................................................................. 14

IDI WITH DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND LABOUR AFFAIRS ........................................ 15

SEMI STRUCTURED DISCUSSIONS ................................................................................................ 1

SEMI STRUCTURED MEETING WITH INDUSTRIAL WORKERS ....................................................... 17

SEMI STRUCTURED MEETING WITH COMMUNITY ELDERS .......................................................... 18

SEMI-STRUCTURED DISCUSSION WITH THREE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOS) ............... 18

KAP QUESTIONNAIRE AND FEELOMETRE RESULTS ..................................................................... 18

KAP QUESTIONNAIRE:............................................................................................................... 18

FEELFORM: MEASURING FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS: IN A NUTSHELL ......................................... 22

IMPACT SHARING WORKSHOP .................................................................................................. 24

IV. DAC CRITERIA AND THE EVALUATION MATRIX ..................................................................... 24

IV. INNOVATION AND UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES ....................................................................... 26

V. CASE STUDY- A SPARTAN LIFE ............................................................................................... 26

VI. CONCLUSION AND LEARNING .............................................................................................. 29

ANNEXES .................................................................................................................................. 31

Chremata Consulting Pvt Ltd Final Evaluation- War Child UK

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

CSO Civil Society Organizations

DOLSA Department of Labour and Social Affairs

EC European Commission

GoA Government of Afghanistan

IDI In-Depth Interviews

KAPB Knowledge Attitude Practice Behavior

NRC Norwegian Refugee Council

PTA Parents-Teachers Association

SDO Sanayee Development Organization

SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

SMC School Management Committee

UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

WASSA Women Activities and Social Services Association

Disclaimer: This report contains the views of the consultant and does not necessarily reflect the views of the

European Commission or War Child UK or any of its partners.


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Sadly, for the Afghan nation, years of war, conflict and economic hardship have all collectively taken a toll and deprived the society of access to education, trade, opportunities for entrepreneurship and livelihood, and has sapped the very social fabric of its ability to provide support and cover to the marginalized and the vulnerable. In this context, attempts to bridge these socio economic gaps, to mend social collaboration and improve social cohesion are critical and oft ignored aspects of developmental projects. Funded by the European Commission, War Child’s poverty reduction project in Herat stands out as a valiant effort to address all of these challenges and can be fairly described as ‘most’ if not all rolled into one. The main objectives of the project are to reduce hazardous child labour and increase access to education. It also aims to empower women and youth through entrepreneurial interventions and reverse the invariable erosion of community-based social protection mechanisms. The interventions and objectives of the project are thus highly relevant to both War Child UK's (WCUK) organizational philosophy, its cross cutting themes as well as to the socio economic context of Herat. The pages that follow have been written with an open, learning mind perceiving gaps as possibilities, not just to do more, but do it better. As part of the proceedings, the evaluation team met with public sector managers, women, boys, girls, teachers, industrialists, community representatives, industrial workers, and most importantly our own team members who have been bringing hope to the people in Herat – the colleagues at WCUK, SDO and WASSA. The approach of the evaluators on the field, just like in writing this evaluation report, is very open and engaging, immediately capturing the information (benefits and concerns), thoughts and emotions with their stories of aspirations and dreams in life. By the end of day ten in Herat, the review team had directly met some 130 project participants, including the teams of the three collaborating organizations, solicited responses to some 2200 questions, in addition to feedback received from 55 women through the bespoke Feel-Form designed for beneficiary women (taking a KAPB based behavioral change approach on both scores) and the Feelo-meter for gleaning information from WCUK staff associated with the project. The less literate were facilitated at both resource centers by the evaluation team members from Chremata. A total of seven (7) formalized focus group session were conducted: two with school girls; one with boys; two with women; one with youth girls; and one with youth boys. The team also held a number of semi-structured group sessions with members of Herat Industrial Union who are employers and owners of manufacturing companies all located in Industrial Township, Herat City. Consequently, young adults working in a marble processing unit also from Industrial Township undertook group session. Reflecting into the overall performance of the project against its intended deliverables, the project has measured quite well. Its first specific objective of reducing child labor and increase access to education has been a quite successful with more than 85% children from year 1 and year 2 successfully been reintegrated into schools and actively attending. The livelihood component for working children and women better equipped them now both materially and education wise, and parents are more aware and cognizant of the rights and needs of their family members exposed to risks and hazards. Even those who, for financial reasons have had to return to the streets either partially or completely, are now


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cognizant of the fact that there are better ways of earning money, there are safer workplaces to go to, or there are ways to balance study and work as long as family support is provided. This kind of attitudinal and behavioral change is one of the bigger successes of this program, despite its medium size and limited resources. The sharing of the result of the market studies to National Skills Development Program of DoLSA in an effort to link beneficiaries for future multi-skill program of the department; and the drafting of a full concept paper for a Job Fair presented to Industrial Union Head and its employers-members; and the linking of 35 beneficiaries to the National Labor Union for potential recruitment are potentially valuable should it be pursued in the future. With regards Specific Objective 3 which is strengthening community-based social protection mechanisms which key result area is increased social cohesion and access to community-based social protection, seems to have been given least attention and focus ab initio but evaluation team also considers the fact that the gargantuan task of capacity building activities and sensitization towards behaviour and practices change associated in accomplishing this objective could not rest on the project alone. WCUK for example, had mapped out existing traditional social protection mechanisms in the communities which is waning in the advent of strong commercialism brought about by trading with Iran and Pakistan. The study then zoomed out into mapping what is being made available to these people by their own government. The gap was staggering and the succeeding Behaviour Change Communication is evident from the activities but we felt that interventions and program design under Objective 3 left more to be desired to be in league with the rest of the project. Generally, in terms of management and operations, responsiveness to any red flags or lapses in areas related to procurement has been good. In fact, in the last audit conducted for the project, auditors found the idea of creating a Procurement Committee and with WCUK in complete control of procuring toolkits and distributing it to the centers themselves, as highly effective and commendable. Programme management, implementation and M & E has significantly and visibly improved after Yr 1. There is still room for improvement however, if we are to ensure that systems are further strengthened and that check and balances are not post facto. There are striking similarities in the lives of these Afghans, and in the challenges they are faced with. Fortunately, this means that solutions are common too. We feel that the unusually high level of fraternity, camaraderie and bonding that has been witnessed was neither foreseen nor intended, and is one of the very welcome unintended outcomes of the project design. It is a result of the sharing of problems, remedies and life experiences in general that has not only brought them together but has served towards strengthening community support mechanisms. A more diversified donor base would have been better not only for organizational stability but also for independence and flexibility in designing the program and incorporating WCUK’s experience at the initial stages. The “EC Project” as it is popularly called would radiate more ownership if everyone refers to it by its given name which is "Poverty Reduction and Community-based Social Protection in Afghanistan" project. Holistically viewing this project we feel that WCUK's theory of change needs to be contextualized more and built into the detailed implementation plan directly. It should be a living document.


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WCUK has been able to forge some solid partnerships with local players in the development sector, and the continuation of these partnerships into new projects is ample proof of their symbiotic potential. The mechanism of this selection however, requires more transparency for everyone. From WCUK point of view however, the initial selection of partnership is solely based on their discrepancy as an established international organization with its own system of gauging partnerships. Foremost to its selection is whether the local organization shares the same strategic vision as that of WCUK followed by the similarity in organizational values. It will be followed by other measures such as credibility and integrity, financial and HR health of the local organization. Once selected, the partners are well informed of the parameters for which they are chosen for. Government buy-in of the project, is also perceived with less degree of enthusiasm and which almost certainly has come out to be the weakest link in the project. Interestingly, most government officials maintain toned down enthusiasm and some degree of estrangement with WCUK because of not having been involved more. Evaluators, on the other hand have seen evidence from WCUK’s documents that stakeholders including GoA have been involved with the project activities from time to time for instance on the graduation of each batch or during various capacity building activities conducted. At the very least, this dichotomy points towards a pressing need for a more coherent and coordinated efforts geared towards strengthening engagement with GoA. Recommendations of this final report are summarized below.

1. GoA stakeholders need to be engaged more actively and frequently. 2. Financial inputs should be built into the logframe. 3. As central to child protection, the Gender element needs to be incorporated better as well as the

involvement of male folks in to the project should be maintained throughout the project life . There are several studies that prove that women have the greatest influence on children’s well being outside of project interventions, thus possessing high potential for sustainability. Furthermore, women have been shown to spend the largest fraction of their money on the welfare of their children, hence gender integration into programming holds special value for child protection programs. Involvement of male folk to increase impact has several advantages and is becoming more and more common now. This is especially true in increasing buy in and acceptability in a challenging or alien social context. Links to resources Save the Children’s work in this context are given at the end of the report.

4. Financial incentive aspect of the project design should not be so direct and perhaps de linked from the presence/absence of WCUK e.g. through a local microfinance bank/ Local Microfinance Financial Institution. This will lend a greater degree of sustainability to the project

5. For future projects a more useful baseline exercise should be conducted and preferably more early on in the project life should be conducted, which would allow timely inputs into the new program design, log frame etc.

6. Tracking of target beneficiaries and continuing linkage should be done through some low cost-no cost measure such as continuously raising awareness and advocating for Child Helpline - WCUK's call-in telephone numbers. Child Helpline staff already conducted series of campaigns in SDO and WASSA classes and media advertisements on televisions, newspaper and magazines but a more vigorous approach will be needed to ensure that beneficiaries can still reach out long after the project ends. Although, Child Helpline is a lifeline for children needing support not specifically targeting this project's beneficiaries, it will support WCUK foothold to scale up its interventions and leverage its experience better for fundraising as well as for keeping dialogue open with GoA.


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7. Small grants and micro-funding should be solicited through the GoA etc for key success stories that can visibly showcase project impact, again improving sustainability.

8. Team engagement should be more open, free and deeply rooted in the idea of team spirit, camaraderie, and togetherness.

9. In the absence of active learning and adaptive response to internal and external contextual changes, organizations simply continue to repeat old practices and approaches, thus comprising impact and efficacy. Change efforts if any remain superficial and improvements are either fortuitous or self terminating. In today’ ever changing context where knowledge is the real competitive advantage, WCUK should plan to incorporate knowledge management and a learning organization approach based on the works of theorists such as Nonaka, Senge, Garvin and others. Peter Drucker has done a lot of work on learning organizations and especially for non profits which can be used for adaptations. I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background and Context

War Child UK (WCUK) has been working in Afghanistan since 2003 implementing child protection, education and livelihood projects in partnership with local organizations and Government of Afghanistan. In March 2010, WCUK conducted participatory research with Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) and Ministry of Education (MoE) Afghanistan to inform the design of this project for street and working children, youth and women of Herat which was then funded by European Commission (EC) for three years (February 2011 to November 2013). The project was implemented in close partnership with two local organizations, Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) and Women Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Herat, Afghanistan while the government sector partners for the project were Department of Social and Labour Affairs (DOLSA), which falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Social and Labour Affairs and the Department of Literacy under the Ministry of Education. The overall goal of the project was: To contribute to poverty reduction and social protection for marginalized working children and women in the informal employment sector, with the following objectives: Specific Objective 1: To reduce child labor and increase access to education. Specific Objective 2: To improve the working conditions, employment prospects and livelihoods for working children and women Specific Objective 3: To strengthen community-based social protection mechanisms.

The targeted beneficiaries of the project include: 1) 350 school-aged children aged 14 and under who do not attend school and are instead engaged in harmful labor practices 2) 300 pre-school children aged up to 6 (children of women working in the informal economy). 3) 540 youths aged 15-17 employed in the informal economy and working under hazardous conditions 4) 840 women employed in the informal economy


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The team from Chremata submitted a detailed inception report for carrying out the final evaluation of the project and after many interactions with the Herat-based management team of WCUK, the overall methodology and scope were agreed and finalized.

B. Scope of the final evaluation

The report has made an attempt to propose pragmatic solutions for areas where there is room for improvement and has suggested mechanisms that can bridge the voids identified through the review at every section. At the end, there is a section on learning disseminations pointers. In essence the objectives driving the final evaluation were, to assess:

Where the project stood on achieving its outcomes

The trends of the feedbacks of the key project participants How do the partners and participants view the interventions through pentagonal lens of;

impact, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and, importantly, sustainability. A sixth angle of ‘management and coordination’ in program delivery /implementation and was gauged in the discussions held with teams of local partner organizations- SDO and WASSA.

The evaluation assessed the project on Impact as well as on (i) relevance; (ii) effectiveness (iii) sustainability, (iv) Efficiency / value for money. Overall, the key purposes of this final evaluation was to: - To make an overall independent assessment of the extent to which the project met its objectives as stated in the logframe and assess the technical design and strength of the project; and - To substantiate key lessons learnt and to propose practical recommendations on how to move forward with better experiences and learning from this final evaluation.

II. METHODOLOGY (INFORMATION COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND REPORTING)

A total of seven (7) formalized focus group session were conducted, two with school girls, one with boys of the same group, two with women and one each with boys and girls ranging from the ‘youth’ segment of the Project participants. Each FGD is composed of 10-12 participants with a large number of participants taken out from each of the ongoing classes when the FGD was conducted. The team also held semi-structured group session with members of Herat Industrial Union who are mostly employers and owners of manufacturing companies located at Industrial Township, Herat City which this project worked closely in ensuring safety of child laborers in their companies (approximately 29% of the 476 baselined in 2012) through signing a Commitment for Employers, provision of occupational safety kits and advocating to Kabul Ministry of Justice and Parliament towards the creation of a national campaign to endorse locally-made products in full support to existing businesses in the county and attract further investments. Lastly, a group session was also conducted with young male adults working in a marble processing unit, located also in Industrial Township and finally one session


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with representatives of national and international non-government organizations such as HELP International, Norwegian Refugee Council, Aschiana (local NGO). In evaluating the project, a mixed method approach was used, namely quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data was collected using forms and questionnaires during the evaluation to provide a productive balance of qualitative and quantitative techniques. In keeping with a qualitative approach, verbatim data collected from sources using interview and focus group discussion was analyzed and summarized in narrative form in order to provide a ready reference analysis of the extent to which project has been able to realize its objectives. The proposed broad methodology was employed:

Participatory engagement with key stakeholders and beneficiary groups including youth, children, women, community members, government and implementing partners (SDO and WASSA) and selected international and national government organizations.

FGDs (tools used is shown on page 38) to engage on areas pertaining to:

o Women who received training and who form the largest chunk of the target beneficiaries, pre-school children, from street to school-going children and youth aged 15-17.

o Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) and SMCs (School Management Committees). o Data collection instruments such as Interview questionnaires and interview guides were

developed before meetings with key stake holders such as Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) and Women Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Herat, Afghanistan.

Key Informant Interview (KII): KII were also used to collect information from the key informants

of the project and the questionnaire used is attached on pages 41 to 43.

A more comprehensive list of documents and literature review is attached on page 35 and include, among the few:

o Annual reports o Case studies, Baseline Report / (Baseline information) o Project proposal, log frame, Detailed Implementation Plans (DIPs) o Monthly, quarterly and interim reports

Random Stratified Sampling was used for the KAP questionnaire and the entire population was

selected for the Feelometre due to its rather small size. Details of the qualitative tools and analysis are given in the section KAP Questionnaire and Feelometre Results.

III. FINDINGS

What follows is a management angled synopsis of the process adopted in the final evaluation alongside some key areas of interest. Focus Group Discussions have been presented in the form of key take away points, while owing to the nature of In-depth Interviews, these have been presented in narrative style to maintain the essence.


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“We had to work very

hard to remove

psychological and

emotional scars off

these children and

make them adjust to

their new life in

school.’

- Teacher from Saifi

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (FGDs)

Salient takeaways from each FGD are documented below which will dovetail into the evaluation matrix. Engagement with children was far more challenging than the rest of the other respondents due to their socio-cultural orientation of not easily warming up with adult strangers. Evaluators had to use child-friendly methodologies such as introducing games, plays and even cartoon characters to enhance understanding. Most of the leading questions put to the children revolved around how they perceived the project, its interventions and what difference if any had it made in their lives (in order to assess impact).

FGD with Girls:

Two FGDs were held with young girls. Most of the girls were vocal about a significant change in their lives brought about by WCUK’s "Poverty Reduction and Community-based Social Protection in Afghanistan" project. The main points they mentioned were that it opened up a world of possibilities into their previously limited world of confines and hopelessness.

The key interest area or profession which inspired the young girls was teaching and academia. This could be because of the wonders of education imprinted upon their minds by a project design centered around imparting education, training and life skills in addition to other assistance.

One factor which the girls feel has played a vital role in creating impact, is the learnings the girls get from interaction with other girls of their age. The sharing of experiences, new skills solutions to common or shared challenges and awareness in general. Improved social skills were a direct outcome from this and this we feel has also indirectly contributed to the project Objective #3 i.e. to improve and strengthen community-based social protection mechanisms.

The other impact evident pre and post project intervention was the relative openness and willingness of the fathers and families to allow their daughters to venture out into more challenging activities such as learning multi-skills in hope of hitting the profitable means of livelihood with those skills; or to be further educated hoping that education will land them higher-paying jobs particularly in international organizations.

Overall, the girls demonstrated satisfactory literacy and numeracy skills, and read out randomly selected passages from their textbooks.

One question included in the FGD for both girls and boys was about the last dream they had seen. Fear figured in a few responses. One has had reported a sequence with police barging into the home and taking away the family, while another had seen a vision of herself being bundled with a family going off to Iran where they endured further hardship and adversity. Yet another girl had seen in her dream a huge rock fall on her. In contrast, one young girl had seen an angle-eagle who rescued her from a (rather shallow) well. Although, these responses might have been occasional outbursts or stirring of strong emotions as they are stimulated, it is also worth considering for future engagements to provide longer courses on psychosocial counseling or dealing with trauma and long, lingering problems during life skills sessions.


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“I will go to school

even if I have to work

after hours to pay my

fee"

- Zakariya, a young

boy beneficiary

FGD with Boys

An FGD session with 12 boys studying at the Saifi High School for boys was conducted on November 20, 2013. Generally, the participants were full of new aspirations, ideas, motivations and energy. Most of the leading questions put to boys also revolved around how they perceived the project, its interventions etc. and what difference if any had it made in their lives (in order to assess impact). One question put to all children groups was to ask what their activities were in the hours before coming to school, in order to assess what part of their lives they and their families had to compromise in order to make it possible for the children to attend school. Most boys were engaged in livelihood and business activities oftentimes with their parents. As an add-on-activity, individual boys were asked to act out how they would convince their parents to allow them to attend these education targeted activities.

Overall the program has been successful in moving children from streets to the centers/schools by increasing access to education.

The boys had been able to form definite opinions and view of what they wanted to do with their future lives, and notably, their plans for the future were education driven and distinctly different from their current non-academic commercial activities. We heard from Farhad, who few years back was undertaking back breaking toil of a construction worker, but now want to be a ‘teacher’. Other in the group aspire to protect the land/country by joining the Afghan army and police, while others still said their aim was to study civil engineering and ‘bring drinking water to the people’. A few are looking at taking up a career in medicine.

The boys could compare themselves positively against other children "especially the drug addicts on Iran border". The reference was made in view of the escalating number of Afghan boys being used as drug mules in the Islam Qala bordering Afghanistan and Iran and most of time bring drugged themselves to do the job (Iran's War on Narcotics article). The boys could identify education and life skills and training as being the distinguishing factor between children who “had a future” and those who didn’t.

A heightened level of self esteem as school goers was also evident. As the girls, the boys also demonstrated satisfactory literacy and numeracy skills, and read out

randomly selected passages from their textbooks.

FGD with School Management Committees (SMCs)

Left to find their own paths on the streets, some of the bright young boys we met on early November may have ended up as outcasts or even criminals, but are now are out classing their peers in academics and skills. Some of the children in the school have gone on to become stellar students and position holders. Key findings from the FGD with SMCs:

Infrastructure in schools needs to be improved. At the moment , they are housed in tents. Cash and in-kind incentives should continue into higher classes also. There needs to be a mechanism to ensure that apart from formal education there are skill

development opportunities for young boys also as they grow. The series of trainings provided to the School Management Committees, PTA members and

teachers from Saifi, Paynab and Omar Farooq schools were considered good practice and would


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Guardian Angels: “These children are now among the top scorers in school examinations".

- Teacher from Saifi School)

be a good area for relevant government body such as Department of Education and Literacy to replicate or engage in the future.

Recruitment and engagement of teachers should be more stringent and only qualified and experienced teachers should be engaged. They pointed out that some teachers had barely qualified 12 years of education which the Department of Education has to look into as well.

The teachers also pointed to the need of higher level and specialist psychosocial support for these children in the context of a war afflicted country.

FGD with Youth

For women as for youth, the interventions focused mostly on providing ancillary support (both knowledge based as well as financial) to boost the line of business the individual was already engaged in. For instance, a young boy who was trading in milk products was provided with a cart, someone who was already selling fruit was given basic training on small business management skills. As such, although skills have been taught, the emphasis has been on teaching of the skill and less on its application to real life scenarios, which is why most target participants are still in the same profession and so in real terms a change or improvement in occupation has not occurred. This observations were also reflected in the monitoring reports conducted by War Child UK and shared the observations to National Skills Development Programme (NSDP) Head, Mr. Ahmad Jawid Nazimi, of the Department of Labor and Social Affairs (DoLSA). NSDP was also provided with "Matching Skills Set of Beneficiaries to Labor Market in Herat City, Afghanistan" report which recommended most-sought after

YOUTH BENEFICIARIES share a light moment with one of the project evaluators after an FGD session.


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skills needed by Herat market and further recommended multi-skilling of current beneficiaries should NSDP will be conducting vocational trainings on areas such as construction (masonry, plumbing, electrical wiring) and food industries (baking and packaging). Key findings from this group are:

Youth have benefited greatly from the reading and writing skills imparted to them, as this group was one which mostly were not literate, but now can feel a change in their lives by little things such as being able to read sign boards, instructions and newspapers also, enabling them to remain better aware of the country’s situation and also of opportunities and threats around them.

Tools distributed are useful, and youth are not only utilizing them for their own benefit but are also passing on the benefit by training others and thus contributing to sustainability.

Youth are passionate about becoming agents of change themselves, and indicate a strong resolve to promote WCUK or similar resources to other youth so that they can benefit in the same way as they have benefited.

None of the participants had any prior link or approach to WCUK at the time of selection, and thus highlighting a good selection and induction system.

The training on entrepreneurial skills has enabled them to negotiate prices, cartels and association with other vendors and maximize their earnings.

FGD with Women

Women were generally more approachable, and even though only a handful were literate, most were confident and willing to express both gratitude as well as critique. The salient takeaways from the FGD with women are:

Reading and counting skills were well picked up by the women beneficiaries. There was a sense of fraternity amongst the skilled and the sense of sharing those skills to those who have less are apparent through strong camaraderie among these women.

There is some room for improvement in how the cooperatives and vital missing links to markets have been put in place. Women groups were not aware of such an idea i.e.cooperatives or value-links to the markets.

The team felt that owing to a lack of consultation with the beneficiary groups, the sustainability of the project had been compromised in this respect not only for women groups but also for others.

Women expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of toolkits provided to them such as sewing machines, threads and iron with sub-standard heat regulators indicative of poor production quality. Other manufacturing issues came up during one of the home visits. WCUK, on the other hand, had these observations captured early on through its monitoring visits and to resolve the issue created a Procurement Committee with representatives from each of the four centers and WCUK's Logistics Officer, Finance Officer and one Family Support Officer. The Procurement Committee then decides on the items to order after careful inspection and trials of the products then proceeds to decide on quality considering what is only made available in the Afghan market and their prices.

The savings program has been picked up well in this group. Savings are now part of their lives. They are putting something away for rainy days and even showed their savings boxes to the evaluators in apparent pride.


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From their Business Development training, beneficiaries learned money saved is money earned and input costs and profits are very well understood. Earnings are mostly being reinvested into the family and this also serves to achieve the objectives of the project.

Long term impact of the intervention can be gauged from the fact that almost all 26 women said that their mothers could not read or write, but again all of them were determined to make their children attend school.

Even at the Shalbafan Resource Center, interaction with women confirmed that while the skills had been taught quite well, the social and cultural limitations of girls and women to be out to take opportunities for employment reflected on the project's shortcoming in providing linkages and relationships critical for sustainability. The concept of a Job Fair was created by WCUK to link beneficiaries to possible employers but women cannot participate outside their communities and bringing the employers to communities is also close to impossible due to their security concerns with many businessmen kidnapped for ransom.

A lot of women expressed concern over the closure of the project and the relative impact it would potentially have on their lives. WCUK had already heard about these same concerns during its May 19, 2013 Launching and Validation Exercise for its Social Protection Mapping Report shared with 105 community members from District 2, 7 and 10 of Herat City. They are in fact worrying about the pull out of international forces which they also see as pull out of other international organizations from their country as insecurity will worsen and had asked WCUK Country Director directly about this. Therefore, WCUK sees this concern not as project-specific issue but a general concern of the people.

In-depth Interviews (IDIs) with government stakeholders

IDI with the Director of Herat Industrial Union

Meeting with the Director of Herat Industrial Union, Mr. Khadem was short but significant. Generally, he expressed having relatively some knowledge about the project and its interventions but felt, strongly, that more and better could have been done. Interestingly, he expressed ignorance about the wider project activities and gave some of his criticisms on specific activities of which he was of knowledge. Mr. Khadem appreciated the value of consultative fora (such as a project steering or advisory committees), as such have been set-up by USAID and GIZ, and regretted that no such initiative had been taken by the project. In the absence of a sustainability mechanism in place, he implied that the valuable investment made to change people’s lives will not go much beyond the project life. He elaborated on the interventions undertaken by USAID under an on-going initiative, where, besides other engagement, a display-room is being set up to as a ‘show and tell’ window, to promote and encourage local industries. In contrast to the claim of the Industrial Union Head of not being involved enough by the WCUK management, WCUK produced documents, photographs and even a news coverage showing participation of Industrial Union in participatory activities held and arranged by WCUK. WCUK also claimed that Industrial Union has full access and control of the members of Industrial Union and all invitation for participation in any of WCUK activities had to be coursed through Mr. Khadem's office. Moreso, WCUK had created its own Assessment Committee composed of WCUK as technical support and focal point, Mr. Mahmood from Industrial Union Office, DoLSA, AIHRC, Youth Department, United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Herat Governor's Office to assess and work closely with Industrial Township companies. It was even Mr. Mahmood who scheduled visits and guided the assessment team as they went around monitoring the 20 companies.


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A one-on-one meeting with the Industrial Union Director was followed by a semi-structured discussion with employers/company owners (marble, beverages, confectionery). They admitted that they are still employing children but they are very careful to give them lighter jobs and employed to do non-hazardous tasks which is actually viewed as snowballing effect of WCUK's awareness raising about Afghanistan Labour Law. Employers also felt that their needs had not been fully considered in considering the buying of occupational safety kits. Chemically-treated gloves are hardly appropriate for food manufacturing processes, one said. The project has not encouraged promotion of local products, such as cakes, milk and juices, and this matter was brought to the War Child management through a meeting by the representative of Pamir, a leading beverage manufacturing unit in Herat. He also said that the imported products are more expensive and the project could have done more, if it had promoted equally good locally-produced food stuff. WCUK had its request form filled out by Industrial Union showing the items which the companies need in their offices. The items were bought by WCUK as per specifications stated in the request form, hence, the assurance that those bought were what were actually requested by the companies. Moreover, the promotion of local products had been conceptualized by WCUK with the creation of a full television advertisement script after monitoring with companies revealed its importance. The script will show the Governor of Herat Province and the DOLSA Director endorsing local products. But DOLSA Director herself did not approve the advertisement apparently due to her own personal belief that locally-made products from Herat are sub-standard and earlier requested the Governor to increase the budget of orphanages managed by her department because she will buy the supplies of the orphanage from Iran. In the context of observations on low profile visibility, the team observed at one of the busiest crossings in town, a mega billboard of one of the USAID supported projects, focusing on capacity building at various levels. The signage had the logos of all five organizations, including USAID and WASSA, which is a local partner of WCUK in the project. WCUK on the other hand, remains firm on its low-profile visibility and avoid widespread knowledge of its location for no other obvious reason but to ensure the security of the office and its staff. However, this does not mean that WCUK compromised visibility, branding and public relations campaign necessary to ensure EU and the partners' contribution being ensured in the project. Specifically, WCUK compensated for an ARIANA TV 30-minute Roundtable Discussion; ARIANA TV coverage of most of EC project's activities such as graduation of beneficiaries, signing of commitment for employers, big gathering of community leaders during the launching of the social protection mapping report; ARIANA TV 30-minute coverage of reintegrated children's poster making contest; case stories widely disseminated and shared in WCUK website; and publications and all external communications bearing major stakeholders logos.

In-Depth Interviews with the Department of Social and Labour Affairs

Meeting with the Director of Department of Social and Labour Affairs, Ms. Basira Mohammadi, was very cordial and she extended a little above allocated time. She was joined by her Deputy Director, Mr. Mohammad Naeem. Ms. Mohammadi expressed gratitude to WCUK for its interventions in the poor districts of Herat. However, she expressed that WCUK had not effectively engaged with her Department. While the Director was of the view that the local partners ‘had not undertaken beneficiaries’ identification process effectively’, the evaluation team found this to be conflicting and not factual and in fact found evidence that the measures and processes of selection of beneficiaries to be quite adequate and detailed. In fact


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during one of the FGDs with beneficiaries none had claimed to know anyone inside WCUK or in the project management. The Director said the WCUK had violated ‘policy’ by going direct to the industrialists rather than working it out through DOLSA. In her words WCUK, ‘contacted the Industrial Union and provided them toolkits without consulting DOLSA’ which is the State agency mandated to work relationship in such matters. This is in violation of ‘policy’ she maintained. DOLSA was also not consulted in the selection of items for the toolkits. The matter was flagged to WCUK but this was after the toolkits had been procured and provided to the industrial units, and nothing much could be done about it, added the Director. However, the copy of the 'policy' she was referring to was not made available to the evaluators. WCUK had clear detailed implementation plans set to be followed with strict timelines and guidelines. If WCUK had to wait for the bureaucratic processes imbued in government systems, then the project deliverables will be compromised. It is also to be noticed that activities involving procurement was being asked to be approved first by DOLSA under their so called "policy" for reasons no need to be mentioned as too obvious to be clarified. Project has not set-up any regular mechanism of information sharing and consultations with DOLSA, and basically engagements have been ad-hoc and need based, were the views of the Director were needed then she will be consulted. However, for DOLSA under another initiative, supported by UNICEF, there is a regular forum of information sharing and consultation, which is ‘working well’, added the Deputy Director, who has also been trained as a trainer in areas of child protection. WCUK, time and again, requested DOLSA Director for meetings to update her on the progress of the project but was also sidelighted by the busy schedule of the Director. The Director said it was too early to assess the impact of the Project as it would come out ‘once the women they have trained use the skills and start earning’. But at this stage it is not possible to assess the impact of the Project interventions, she added. Her views on cash disbursements were not favorable as this ‘had caused problems and this is linked to the beneficiary selection’. The internal operations of WCUK are viewed as healthy and its external auditors verify the organization's management and financial health. WCUK's external auditing firm which is accredited by the EC coupled by WCUK's Finance Team, can provide more credible proof on how effective or efficient the donor's money was spent on this project. Moreso, WCUK has open information policy where all documents are made available for transparency and accountability subject to scrutiny and perusal of government sectors as they may please. Sharing her views on the overall quality of work of the two local partners, WASSA and SDO, the Director was not favourably inclined towards the overall work undertaken in Herat by the latter. WCUK emphasized how mechanisms to evaluate future partners are in placed and could not be compromised by subjectivity. WCUK first looks into possible partner's strategic focus as well as organizational values which should share that of WCUK's own mandate and purpose. WCUK will then process the financial as well as management health of the organization, their thematic and geographic area of intervention and capacities.


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Semi Structured Discussions

Despite efforts, an IDI with the Director Literacy could not be conducted, so semi-structured discussions were conducted with several groups including industrial workers at a local factory, one with community elders and one with several members of international/national government organizations.

Semi structured meeting with industrial workers The evaluation team met with 8 male industrial workers employed at Al-Asr Marble processing. None of the participants fell in the youth category, and confirmed that the plant does not employ any children. When the project started the plant it engaged children, and in the subsequent years the children had graduated and now fell into the youth category. As part of their employment benefits, these workers receive medical coverage and the salary structure is in line with the market. The team assessed that the living facilities and food provided by the management was quite satisfactory. The project had conducted three days training on first aid and accident management through two consultants from the International Committee of Red Cross. Two members of the Plant had also attended these sessions. However, contrary to the plan, the training was not cascaded any further for the workers, and this was confirmed during the ensuing discussions. The workers have been provided good quality safety helmets and a visit to the Plant revealed that the operational and other areas are adequately ventilated. Overall, the employee working conditions are favourable. One of the workers mentioned he recently had an accident, and had to undergo two surgical procedures. The treatment cost totaled some 50, 000 Afghanis and was borne by the Management. This was noteworthy, and an intervention WCUK could consider for its staff working in Herat where medical or insurance coverage in not in place. The community had favorable opinions about the overall effectiveness of the Project and voiced that they feel the interventions have been able to bear fruits.

Caselet: Effect of WCUK’s intervention on the local employers’ work ethics

WCUK’s poverty reduction project engaged with the local employers in the community in Herat in an effort to influence the work ethics and practices of the local employers. Once, one of the workers at a local industrial plant, mentioned he recently had an accident, and had to undergo two surgical procedures. The treatment cost totaled some 50, 000 Afghanis and was borne by the Management. This was noteworthy intervention and believed to be the effect of snowballing of Afghanistan Labour Law provision to the companies' management.

Within three years of project life, the employers had begun to show more responsible work and employment practices thus positively affecting the quality of life and well being of the local communities.


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Semi structured meeting with Community Elders The team had a semi-structured discussion with the community elders, including one woman, Kareema Bibi, who was part of one of the focus group discussions too. The session was conducted at the Shalbafan Resource Center managed by WASSA. No clear constructive criticism or stark difference of opinion emerged during the interaction.

Semi-structured discussion with three development sector organizations

On November 4, 2013 a meeting with representatives from from World Vision International, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)and Aschiana were conducted at WCUK Office. The evaluation team learnt that World Vision International is also working with street children and has enrolled 200 children in public sector schools. These children are engaged through vocational skill development at the Centers and then transferred to the schools. This presents as a mechanism for follow-up which acts to monitor progress and address any issues that may arise at the school end of the link.

Mr. Noor-ul-Haq from NRC provided useful insight to the broader development scene in and around Herat. Most important was about the successful experience that NRC has had in setting-up 10 Cooperatives in an equal number of villages. The project has been funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). In order to avoid ‘market’ saturation they have diversified the products, creating ‘spaces’ for the participating Cooperatives. Their market survey indicated training needs in related to life-skills, business development and peace building, which were than addressed though capacity enhancement efforts for the members of the Cooperatives. They have developed a Youth Education Package which incorporates the modules for the capacity areas identified as part of the Survey, including components on hygiene promotion d human rights. Total of 246 and 254, youth were trained in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

KAP Questionnaire and Feelometre Results

Knowledge Attitude and Behaviour Practice (KABP) Questionnaires and the Feelform / Feelometre were two tools designed to triangulate from both perspectives of:

(i) Data Triangulation, as well as (ii) Methodological Triangulation

Knowledge Attitude and Behaviour Practice (KAP) Questionnaires (please see form on page 36) were distributed to 55 participant beneficiaries at the two Women Resource Centres, while the Feelform (please see tool on page 33) served to assess the feedback from WCUK staff associated with this project. These assessments were not conducted for children due to the nature of the investigative tool.

The findings of both are given below.

KAP Questionnaire: The knowledge attitude and Behaviour/Practice Questionnaire was composed of binary Yes / No questions designed to gather feedback and perspectives from the staff working with WCUK and associated especially with this project.


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A total of 2200 questions were posed to women beneficiaries out of which 1650 questions were selected for the purpose of the analysis, and the remaining 25% were dropped. The questions dropped served to set the context and improve the accuracy of the responses overall. In the questions answered there was a Y/N response rate of over 90% and a total of 1478 questions were answered. The questions of the KAP questionnaire can best be clubbed into 3 groups, against the project Objectives i.e. : Specific Objective 1: To reduce child labor and increase access to education. Specific Objective 2: To improve the working conditions, employment prospects and livelihoods for

working children and women Specific Objective 3: To strengthen community-based social protection mechanisms The questions considered for the analysis are given below: The questionnaire was originally developed in the English language and was then translated into Persian according to the good research procedures and guidelines including forward and backward/expert translation as laid down in social research literature (Guillemin, Bombardier, and Beaton 1993; Acquadro et al. 1996; McKay et al. 1996; Harkness and Schoua-Glusberg 1998). Two different translators who could speak both English and Dari, but whose native language was Persian, translated the questionnaire from English into Persian. In order to enhance the quality of the translation, one of the two translators was the part of the evaluation team, whereas the other did not know the aims of this questionnaire. In the analysis benchmark questions from probing areas of Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour were picked against each of the project objectives, and the responses were analyzed within the objectives as well as across objectives. Questions pertaining to Project Objective 1

Objective Qs # Actual Question

1 Knowledge Qs 7 Is education the right of every child?

1 Knowledge Qs 9 PTAs and SMC are useful groups?

1 Knowledge Qs 12 NGOs like SDO or WASSA are true friends of my community?

1 Attitude Qs 3 Is it good for women to learn reading and writing?

1 Attitude Qs 7b Our children (Girls) should go to a formal school?

1 Attitude Qs 13 SDO and WASSA have worked well with my community?

1 Practice Qs 7a Is your son or nephew going to a formal school?

1 Practice Qs 7b Is your daughter or niece going to a formal school?

1 Practice Qs 12 Would you work with SDO or WASSA as a volunteer?

Questions pertaining to Project Objective 2

Proj Objective Qs # Actual Question

2 Knowledge Qs 1 Can a woman own run her own business?

2 Knowledge Qs 2 A woman can be involved in house-hold decision making?

2 Knowledge Qs 3 Are there 'Shariah' compliant ways to save money?

2 Attitude Qs 1 Should a woman run her own business?

2 Attitude Qs 4 Should people save money?


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2 Attitude Qs 12 Changes can bring better things?

2 Practice Qs 1 Are you running or planning to run your own business?

2 Practice Qs 3 Do you save money?

2 Practice Qs 11 Have you recently managed any change?

For Objective # 3 pertaining to strengthening community-based social protection mechanisms towards social cohesion and increased protection, the proxy measure commonly used was the practice of giving and receiving gifts. Giving and receiving gifts holds a special place in culture of the Asian subcontinent especially in areas inhabited by Muslims of non Arab descent, and is taken well even in relatively religious societies owing to its preferred status in Islam also, in fact, giving and receiving of gifts has been impressed upon followers in order to foster social cohesion. Culture aside, from an economic standpoint, the practice of giving or receiving gifts not only points to a degree of financial wellbeing, and being able to give gifts would certainly follow only one has satisfactorily addressed one's own basic needs and those of immediate dependants. As such, a positive practice of giving and receiving gifts as an indicator of Objective 3 would point to a relatively higher level of financial freedom and wellbeing, quite possibly as a result of the interventions under Objective # 2 (relating to entrepreneurship and livelihood for this same community). Questions pertaining to Project Objective 3 Proj Objective Qs # Actual Question

3 Knowledge Qs 4 God (/our religion) blesses those who give gifts to others? *

3 Knowledge Qs 5 In time of need, we can lend out money to our family or friends?

3 Knowledge Qs 6 There is no issue if a woman knows other women outside of her family?

3 Knowledge Qs 10 Our religion teaches us fortitude and acceptance?

3 Attitude Qs 2 Woman makes good decisions for her family?

3 Attitude Qs 5 Gifts are tokens of care?

3 Attitude Qs 6 In case of need, we should lend out money to our family and friends?

3 Attitude Qs 7 Should we know people outside our family?

3 Practice Qs 2 Do you regularly make some decisions for your family?

3 Practice Qs 4 Have you a received a gift in the recent past?

3 Practice Qs 5 Have you ever loaned out money to a family member or friend?

3 Practice Qs 6 Do you know some people who are not your relatives?

While the knowledge attitude and practices of beneficiaries in response to three years of project interventions are generally mostly positive, there are nevertheless many interesting findings from the KAP analysis. The charts below, list the percentage of negative responses to benchmark questions from each objective. In longer run behavioral change process, the ‘B’ is for ‘Beliefs’, not ‘Behaviours’. For the purpose of the study it has been used for Practices (or Actions) simply because it is not at all probable that a three year Programme could have even touched , let alone aspire to change, the belief systems of any target group, more so of adult women living in a context such as Herat.


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Objective 1: Reduction of Child Labour and access to education

% of negative responses TOTAL

Knowledge Y 155

N Knowledge 0.64% 156

Attitude Y

N Attitude 1.28% 148

Practice Y

N Practice 3.21% 144

Objective 2: Entrepreneurship, livelihood for women and working children


Knowledge Y 150


Attitude Y


Practice Y


Objective 3: Social Cohesion and social protection


Knowledge Y 196


Attitude Y


Practice Y



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Key findings from the KAP analysis are as follows:

The highest degree of positive attitude (100%) was

observed towards Objective # 2 i.e. entrepreneurship and

livelihood. Apart from the awareness and BCC activities of

the project, this is likely due to the place livelihood

interventions hold in the community’s everyday life, and

also because of the associated financial grants aspect.

Knowledge about Objective 1 i.e. Reduction of child labour

and access to education was reasonably high reflecting

high quality program interventions for the beneficiaries.

Under Objective 1, there was observed a twofold increase

in the negative responses as we move from knowledge to

attitude, and another twofold increase in the negative

responses moving from attitude to practice. Aside from

demonstrating the natural loss of effectiveness in

translating knowledge to attitude and attitude to practice,

this reflects the soundness of the tool used.

Although demonstrating very good understanding

generally, the relatively lesser degree of understanding

was of the interventions under Objective # 3 relating to

Social Cohesion, reaching touching almost a significant

10%. We feel this warrants attention as the team felt that

the Objective # 3 was not adequately dealt with in the

project log frame also, and this finding therefore points to

the underlying program design and thus assumes

significance.

Notably, the practices under Objective # 3 do not seem to

have suffered particularly due to less than satisfactory

numbers seen above. This is consistent with findings from

other analyses which point to an unexpected level of social

cohesion stemming from the interaction of women and

young girls in the resource centers. A bonding which goes

beyond the project intervention into their personal lives

and one which would add to project sustainability also.

Under Objective 1, there

was observed a twofold

increase in the negative

responses as we move

from knowledge to

attitude, and another

twofold increase in the

negative responses

moving from attitude to

practice.

Aside from

demonstrating the

natural loss of

effectiveness in

translating knowledge

to attitude and attitude

to practice, this reflects

the soundness of the

tool used

Under Objective 1, there

was observed a twofold

increase in the negative

responses as we move

from knowledge to

attitude, and another

twofold increase in the

negative responses

moving from attitude to

practice.

Aside from

demonstrating the

natural loss of

effectiveness in

translating knowledge

to attitude and attitude

to practice, this reflects

the soundness of the

tool used.


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Feelform: Measuring Feelings and thoughts: In a nutshell

As part of the final evaluation, Chremata team designed a specific tool, the Feel Form. The objective of this tool was to capture the perceptions and ideas of the War Child UK (WCUK) Project staff around 7 critical programming areas (copy of Feel Form attached).

A total of seven (7) Forms were circulated, however, only six (6) team members provided their feedback. The person handling finance was not able to participate in the process. The respondents provide hand written inputs, with the handwriting of one quite hard to decipher. In this particular case, reliance has been on a ‘key words ‘approach. The seven questions with responses elicited through an indirect, unobtrusive, feedback mechanism are shared here.

“I feel the most meaningful interventions of the Programme were…..”

All respondents mentioned literacy classes and integration of street children into the formal schooling system. Three added ‘business training’ whereas one mentioned ‘building the capacity of ‘local counterparts and government staff’ and one response highlighted that design and implementation with community involvement as one of the most meaningful aspects.

“I feel the interventions that will easily continue post Project are…..”

Children enrolled in schools will continue beyond Project was the ‘feel ‘of all respondents. Four added functioning of the School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), whereas 5 felt that business and took-kits provided to the Project participates will take continue after the Project. One respondent added that youth will go into formal business areas, and one shared that the ‘capacity building’ initiatives carried out with the ‘local population’ holds a life of their own.

“I think the challenges the Programme will face post WCUK assistance are…..”

Interestingly, three responses indicated literacy and business skills training as the challenges, whereas similar were flagged as some of the most meaningful interventions. One response indicated that risks could be for the life skills training, whereas one though that the ‘beneficiaries who have not received the tool-kits’, some 50% of them, could be a challenged group after the Project. There was also a mention of the Project adopting a ‘service delivery’ approach with not enough focus on rights based advocacy. On respondent did not provide input on this dimension.

”I view.....as the successes of the Programme”


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Integrating street children into schools was unanimous, while four respondents adding life skills training and vocations skill development as additional star performers. Two mentioned capacity building of local partners and stakeholders as the successes.

“I think the weaker links in the Programme were…..”

Less buy-in and support by the Government were two responses, whereas another mentioned ‘working with companies’ (industries, best interpretation) as the weak links. Two respondents though that the grants were inadequate..

“I feel .....could pose a risk for the Programme”

The usual suspect, ‘security’ topped the list, with four highlights. One added the fall out of ‘troops from Afghanistan’ in the same vein. One response related to the tool-kits running out of business, and one left this grid blank.

” ”Oh yes, another thing that comes to my mind is…..”

Nothing came to the minds of three respondents. One thought that market links could have completed the livelihood components. Another was of the view that there is a felt need for establishment of ‘women and youth centers’ to show-case and market their products. One view was that the work done with local partners was the hallmark of the Programme, which has enabled the Program to ‘deliver efficiently and effectively’.

Impact sharing workshop

Participation in the ‘Impact Sharing’ workshop was the last formal engagement of the Review team. Organized on November 6, 2013, at the premises of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the event managed to attract about 40 persons, with 8 participants from civil society, Industrial Union, community elders, World Food Program and Youth Affairs, with two from the local TV channel. Rests of the participants were staff members of the three participating organizations, WCUK, SDO and WASSA. Review team made a short presentation at the event, marking a close-out of the evaluation process. Copy of the Presentation can be found on page 32.

IV. DAC Criteria and the Evaluation Matrix

Impact

The project initiatives have been well taken by the community and the beneficiaries have gained and benefited by them. A significantly positive change in life has been experienced by the vast majority


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of the target beneficiaries, and overall better social cohesion and reliance was also observed by the evaluation team. Overall, the evaluation team feels that the project successful in achieving impact through its development interventions, even though some impact achieved was not directly totally foreseen, such as the significant learning which came from the learning rooted in the fraternity and bonding between group members. This was especially evident for young girl children and women.

Relevance The interventions and objectives of the project are highly relevant to both WCUK’s organizational philosophy and cross cutting themes as well as to the socio economic context in Herat. Years of war, conflict and economic hardship all combine to deprive the society and Afghan nation of access to education, trade, opportunities for entrepreneurship and saps the very social fabric of its ability to provide support and cover to the marginalized and the vulnerable. In this context attempts to mend and improve social cohesion are critical and oft ignored by developmental projects. The project interventions and objectives are thus both relevant and appropriate.

Effectiveness Children have a substantially higher access to education, and there is a marked improvement in the outlook towards education and the educated. There is definite positive difference in the skills, bargaining capacity and negotiating power of the youth how have been subjected to the interventions. By and large, the interventions have served to raise awareness and subsequently dependence on social cohesion, which is one the key objectives of this project, thus adding to Effectiveness. Timeliness is a subset of effectiveness, and while most program activities have been one time, there was a delay of several months before the baseline study was available. Even when available, the baseline did not provide quality information to help guide program design and was more of a statistical repository fitted loosely to a household survey format.

Efficiency/Value for money Financial inputs have not been included into the LOG Frame, which does not lend itself conveniently for the assessment of Efficiency. Value of money however is a relative concept hinging on the value addition of any particular input against a given cost. Costlier, therefore is not always inefficient and cheaper not necessarily better value for money. The evaluation team observed instances where goods provided were either of borderline quality (if not substandard), but this was of course can also be associated with what Herat market can only offer its communities so far. Aside from this, the objectives were generally achieved on time, often in difficult circumstances in Herat, and this also is a direct measure of efficiency as time was not lost. The section on semi structured discussion with other international and national non-government organizations lists some efficient alternative models such as the one run by NRC and these point to other viable approaches.

Sustainability Overall, the only area where beneficiaries pointed out gaps is in the sustainability of the project. Beneficiaries and families have expressed concern if not panic over the closure of the project and the team felt that the last day project activities left the beneficiaries not adequately prepared to continue and cope in the absence of financial and technical assistance provided by WCUK’s team. For the Youth and Women there is dearth of adequate linkages with platforms such as market cooperatives and trade associations thus leaving even the skilled and trained youth and women at a loss of direction. For children also, there is uncertainty looming at project closure.


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IV. Innovation and Unexpected outcomes The most noteworthy unexpected outcome is that that there is an unusually high degree of fraternity and bonding within the beneficiary groups in the centres. This is especially evident from the responses and interaction from two of the most vulnerable groups i.e. young girl children, and women. Both groups have benefitted manifold from their new found associations in these new venues, and it warrants mention that the primary reason cited behind these bonds is the sharing of experiences from one another, and the learning derived therefrom. The evaluation team believes that such association will not only serve to provide an element of sustainability to the project, it will contribute towards increasing community-based social protection mechanisms in Afghanistan.


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V. Case study- A Spartan life

“Hmmmmm…. what a heavenly aroma.”

Simple life, a blessing only Spartan living can afford, coupled with a crystal vision, again a gift of

sparing circumstances - sums up life and affairs of Maryam Bibi. Proud bread winner for a decade,

since her husband passed away, leaving her with two sons. One is in jail across the border and the

other who does not seem to bother. Young Aslam is a bit of a romantic, fixed on soaps and mushy

movies. Stick-ups on the walls gave clues to his story. A chat with him confirmed it.

The visit changed mood at the mention of sewing machine and iron. They seemed to be magical

words and charged her to action. Visitors must see the ‘goodies’ that have been sent by the unseen

‘friends’ (as they refer to the donors). Two tools that have worked miracles for her, gifts to keep life

and soul seamed together, throbbing. In her words ‘Allah has been so kind to me. All thanks to Him’.

Her graciousness is impossible to miss, as is her generosity. It was tough to turn down offer of lunch,

after sharing cup of tea and snacks. Mundane questions came in between probing her for views on

the quality of the machines, functions of the iron, overall feel on life, her future needs, the usual

works and words. Her response remained the same “Allah has been so kind. All praise to Him’.


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Maryam Bibi is a community volunteer too; runs the local neighborhood ‘tandoor’ (clay oven), and

here we see her baking ‘rotis (bread) for the other ‘girls’ who, as she mentioned, are not that apt at

the traditional, yet complicated, skill of ‘tandoor’ tendering! She was a bit upset at the notion of

charging others for this daily chore. She maintained it is a labour of love, and, as such, a pleasure. “I

am alone so it is nice to have these girls drop in around noon. I have people to chat with’, was her

straightforward explanation. Only truths can be so simple, serene; flawless.

The frame left out a rosebush; it is right beside the ‘tandoor’. Wild and vibrant with pink blossoms.

There is hope yet, in fact heaps of hope out there. Wish the ‘friends’ could see how they have

touched lives, changed destinies. How they have managed to expand Maryam’s inner world, and

kept her going, growing.

Not being linked to a market, her home-run stitching, knitting and crocheting business hits snags at

times. That was the only worry she shared, ‘I cannot go out much so have to rely on a few contacts.

But others are also making similar stuff so my business has somewhat shrunk over time’ she

explained, busy at the ‘tandoor’. Not much economics required to figure this one out, really.

For the time being things seem to be in order in her limited world. Sewing machine and iron sent by

the ‘friends’ serving as life coping outfits.

Maryam’s life affirms that God could not be everywhere, managing the worlds is indeed a tall order,

and so He created friends. Attention to details, keeping an eye on matters, no slippages here or

there, but then its no surprise as “He is the Best of the planners” (The Quran, Surrah Al-Anfal)


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VI. Conclusion and Learning

1. GoA stakeholders need to be engaged more actively and frequently starting 2014 through possible mechanisms like joint trainings, joint brain storming sessions, requesting them to come and preside over ceremonies (already being done but should be maintained).

2. A more evident and sustained platform allowing market linkages should be provided to graduates to link them to market.

3. Financial inputs should be built into the logframe to help assess efficiency. 4. As central to child protection, the gender element needs to be incorporated better. Although, it

had been emphasized time and again that security issues coupled with social and cultural limitations of women were key challenges of the project particularly in the attempt to link them to possible employers and available market linkages, a range of possibilities can be explored further in the future.

5. Involvement of male folks in to the project should be maintained throughout the project life to increase sustainability and impact through better buy in and better acceptance of the new initiatives globally (references given at the end). This has been the subject of a number of researches and is the trend lately.

6. Participation of women in shura shows a healthy and positive trend towards increased participation of womenfolk. This is also in line with the gender mainstreaming program of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) under its National Solidarity Programme.

7. Financial incentive aspect of the project design should not be so direct and perhaps de linked from the presence/absence of WCUK e.g. through a local microfinance bank/ Local Microfinance Financial Institution. This will lend a greater degree of sustainability to the project.

8. For future projects, a more useful baseline exercise should be conducted and preferably more early on in the project life should be conducted, which would allow timely inputs into the new program design, log frame etc.

9. Tracking of target beneficiaries and continuing linkage should be done through some low cost-no cost measure such as expanding the function of an already existing Child Helpline where users can have access to qualified staff with whom they can to speak freely and in confidence and crucially, they can receive telephone counseling if unable to access assistance in person.

WOMEN BENEFICIARIES sharing their "feel of the project" with one of the project evaluators.


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This will ensure that the outreach and connections are not lost, and continue to provide a truer evaluation of the project even after the project end. Such tracking will allow WCUK foothold to scale up its interventions and leverage its experience better for fundraising as well as for keeping dialogue open with GoA.

10. Small grants and microfunding should be solicited through the GoA etc for key success stories that can visibly showcase project impact, again improving sustainability.

11. Employee engagement within WCUK teams need to be improved. This could be in the form of team building exercises or joint role swapping, brain storming or job rotation to better familiarize them with the role and contribution of WCUK as an entity thereby increasing ownership by staff.

12. Investigating causes behind improved M&E and program management in yr 2 and yr 3 were beyond the scope of this study, however these should be looked into and replicated in future and other programs based on Drucker’s learning organization model.

13. Although sufficient evidence were shown by the WCUK management that at the graduation of each batch of beneficiaries were attended by its relevant government sector stakeholders, the statement conflicts with the kind of information the government department tried to present to us, which highlights the need for good relations and seamless communication with these stakeholders.

14. Better and more open communication needs to be done with beneficiaries at project startup, so as to avoid any misunderstandings especially about financial aspects of the project like in this project at end of Year 1, 40% of women believed that there would be formal financial incentives. This can be in the form of a signed undertaking taken at the start of the project which includes an acknowledgement that they have no financial expectations which the beneficiaries should be in agreement.

15. WCUK has helped define the development landscape in Herat, and any new developmental projects especially those from child focused or livelihood focused organizations and related donor funding coming in to Herat will benefit from the work done by the WCUK team. From a financial and social perspective the communities have benefited not only because of the improvement in their incomes and stability, but from the respect they have gained socially and in their peers because of better livelihood which they can now enjoy as earning members of society.

16. REFLECT CIRCLES have been used effectively by WCUK could have been done here also. This is a broad suggestion and comes from similar work done by WCUK in other countries especially in the African subcontinent of Uganda and by other child focused NGO in the region.


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Annexes

1. Workshops and presentations:

a. Impact sharing workshop

b. Opening workshop


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2. Feelo-meter/ Feel form

Feel Form (Assessment Tool) for friends

Pour out your heart here

What do you feel were the most meaningful interventions of the Programme…………………………………

In my opinion the interventions of the Programme which I feel will easily continue beyond War Child

UK’s financial support are …………………………………………………………………………………………………..……

I think the interventions of the Programme which will face challenges continuing after War Child

UK’s financial assistance ends is …....................................................................................................

In my view the biggest success of the Programme was………………………………………………………………

I think the weaker links in Programme implementation were.........................................................

The main risks that the Programme may face in the coming years? ……………………………………………

Another thing I would like to share with you today is that I feel…………………………………………………..


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3. Terms of Reference

The evaluation team will aim to:

1. Determine to what degree the project outcomes/specific objectives have been achieved? Were there any

unexpected outcomes?

2. Determine who has benefitted, and in what ways?

3. Determine if the results contribute to WCUK’s Thematic Goals of Protection, Education and Livelihoods

4. Look at the following dimensions of the programmes impact: (i) relevance; (ii) effectiveness (iii)

sustainability, (iv) Efficiency/ value for money

5. Assess performance in terms of the shared responsibility and accountability, resource allocation and

informed and timely action between project partners.

6. Determine strengths (including successful innovations and promising practices) and weaknesses of the

planning, design, implementation and M&E.

7. Determine project contribution to reintegrating street working children in formal school, and the

effectiveness of the methodologies used. What lessons have been learned and who have they been shared

with?

8. Determine project contribution to building the capacity of local actors to prevent and respond to child

protection risks and assess how beneficiaries, parents and communities members value the established

community protection mechanisms. What has worked and what has not? What lessons have been learned

and who have they been shared with.

9. Assess to what extent the project has contributed to changes in broader national/ international policies

and whether these have contributed to changes in practice and attitudes of decision and policy makers that

directly benefit the project’s target group.

10. Determine factors that led to the change/impact and the extent to which all the institutional

arrangements (partnership relationship, War Child UK Management, financial management systems and

coordination function) contributed (or not) to this impact.

11. Determine the extent to which the broader context (political, security, environmental, social, and

financial) has impacted upon the project’s progress?

12. Provide actionable, specific and practical strategic recommendations on how War Child UK and its

partners can use the learning to strengthen future work.

13. Lead the planning and implementation of a lessons sharing/dissemination workshop with stakeholders


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4. Documents Reviewed

The documents reviewed for this evaluation include:

o Project Proposal and Full Application to EC

o LOG Frame

o DIPs

o Annual Reports

o Baselines

o Comparative Documents

o Human Indices Reports

o ARIANA TV AD Script.docx

o Attendees of Industrial units.docx

o Case studies of reintegrated children.docx

o Detailed Business Program Plan.xlsx

o FINAL Presentation. Code of Conduct.1st part.pptx

o FINAL Report.Y2 Bens Monitoring.zav.docx

o Final.OSK Monitoring Report.KS.docx

o First Aid Training Report. October 6,8 and 9, 2013.docx

o June 2013. Y1 Bens 2nd Monitoring Report.FINAL.docx

o Oct.2013 Report of Pre-Post Test of Business Training. Saeeda.docx

o October 21.FINAL COPY. Awareness Raising and Outreach Training.ppt

o October 22.FINAL COPY of Advocacy Training.ppt

o October 28. FINAL COPY. Fundraising Training.October 28.ppt

o REVISED COPY.SPM with DOLSA comments (1).docx

o Saving for the Rainy Days Ahead.WFP CS Final.doc

o Sept.2013 Monitoring report of re integrated Children.docx

o September 2013 Report of Business Training Observation.zavcommented.docx

o Training Manual for CCC.doc

http://www.crc-afghanistan.org/statics/about-crc (statistics etc and recommendations)

http://www.annualreportwarchild.org/

Thematic Report 2011 UNICEF: CHILD PROTECTION FROM VIOLENCE, EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE

Integration of Gender into child protection programming as well as involvement of male folk:

http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/search/library/Men%20Engage

http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/search/library/Child%2520Protection%2520Groups

http://www.crc-afghanistan.org/statics/about-crc

http://www.annualreportwarchild.org/read-the-annual-report/S_1052_WARCHILD%E2%80%99SWORK40/S_1068_Projectcases56/S_1071_ProjectcaseAfghanworking59/a1022_default

http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/search/library/Men%20Engage

http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/search/library/Child%2520Protection%2520Groups


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5. KA(B)P Questionnaire (Translated version was used)

Assalama Allaikum, Please answer in Yes/No

I know: Knowledge:

1. Can a woman own run her own business? 2. A woman can be involved in house-hold decision making? 3. Are there ‘Shariah’ compliant ways to save money? 4. Our religion blesses those who give gifts to others? * 5. In time of need, we can lend out money to our family or friends? 6. There is no issue if a woman knows other women outside of her family? 7. Is education the right of every child? 8. Should we work in safe and fear free places? 9. PTAs and SMC are useful groups? 10. Our religion teaches us fortitude and acceptance? 11. Changes in life are to be expected and have to be accepted? 12. NGOs like SDO or WASSA are true friends of my community?

I feel: Attitude:

1. Should a woman run her own business? 2. Woman makes good decisions for her family? 3. Is it good for women to learn reading and writing? 4. Should people save money? 5. Gifts are tokens of care?

*question to assess changes in the income levels for males 6. In case of need, we should lend out money to our family and friends? 7. Should we know people outside our family? 7.a. Boys should go to a formal school? 7.b. Girls should go to a formal school? 8. Should women learn to read and write? 9. Is it possible to work in a safe and fear-free place? 10. SDO and WASSA set up PTAs and SMCs set-up should keep on working? 11. We all have to remain ready for calamities and disasters? 12. Changes can bring better things? 13. SDO and WASSA have worked well with my community?

I do: Practice or I can do: Behaviour:**

1. Are you running or planning to run your own business? 2. Do you regularly make some decisions for your family? 3. Do you save money? 4. Have you a received a gift in the recent past? 5. Have you ever loaned out money to a family member or friend?


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6. Do you know some people who are not your relatives? 7.a. Is your son or nephew going to a formal school? 7.b. Is your daughter or niece going to a formal school? 8. Have you recently read or written anything interesting?

8. Is your work place comfortable? 9. Are you or a person you know a member of PTA or SMC? 10. Do your agree that calamities and disasters come and go? 11. Have you recently managed any change? 12. Would you work with SDO or WASSA as a volunteer?

Thank you and Khuda-e-Paiman

** In longer run behavioral change process, the ‘B’ is for ‘Beliefs’, not ‘Behaviours’. Here we are using it with

Practices (or Actions) simply because it is not at all probable that a three year Programme could have even

touched , let alone aspire to change, the belief systems of any target group, more so of adult women living in a

context such as Herat.


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6. Data Collection instruments & Tools

FGD Guide: BENEFICIARIES

Introduction to the Group:

I am Bushra Jafar, a representative of Chremata Consulting,. Chremata Consulting is an independent

consulting entity, commissioned to undertake the evaluation of WCUK’s Programme Poverty Reduction and

Community Based Social Protection. The overall purpose of the on-going WCUK’s Programme is to contribute

to poverty reduction and social protection for marginalized working children and women in the informal

employment sector.

We are conducting a focus group discussion. We thank you for your time today. We shall engage in discussion

to solicit your views in relation to the WCUK programme.

During the FGD, please help yourself to tea and water (if available). If you need to get up to use the rest room,

feel free. We expect the focus group to take 1 to 1-½ hour. We shall record/ document the proceedings and

seek your consent to allow us to use this discussion and/ or interpretation for our report.

Purpose:

Before we get started, we would like to give you a little background about focus groups and why we are doing

this focus group discussion with you. Focus groups are intended to give us a sense of how a group of people

feels about a certain subject (in this case WCUK programme). We often want confirmation that others feel

this way, so we might follow up a question with something like “Do others feel this way” or “Is this important

for other people to know about?” We want to hear from everyone, and so at times I may interact to help the

conversation keep moving. We will be taking your comments and summarizing them to share with the survey

team and the programme implementers. You and your individual opinions won’t be identified in any way.

Name of the Center/ School/ Settlement: ____________________________________________ Location: Date:


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PARTICIPANTS LIST: These are beneficiaries of the WCUK assistance

Name

Type of

Assistance

Received

Age Name

Type of

Assistance

Received

Age

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Guidelines For Participants: Before start of discussion, we would like to let you about some recommended guidelines or “ground rules” that help establish the group norms so that the group proceeds smoothly and respectfully for all participants:

Only one person talks at a time.

Be sure about the Confidentiality. “What is shared in the room/group stays in the room/with us.”

It is important for us to hear everyone’s ideas and opinions. There are no right/wrong answers to questions – just ideas, experiences and opinions, which are all valuable.

It is important for us to hear all sides of an issue – both the positive and the negative.

7. EVALUATION MATRIX and FGD QUESTIONS

Relevance:

1. What activities have been carried out by the project in your area (for different target groups). To what

extent the assistance provided by WCUK as per your need, appropriate to the context? Please explain

how/why for each of the intervention area?

2. Who was selected as beneficiary under the project activities, do you think there were other people

(children, women, youth) that you thought should have been included in the project and they are not,

and why?

3. To what extent did WCUK assistance address needs of children, women, youth? Please explain

how/why for each of the intervention area?

4. What are those priority needs that are still un-addressed? What should WCUK prioritize for address

needs of children, women, youth? Please explain why?

Effectiveness:

1. To what extent are you satisfied with WCUK assistance) in past three years? What would you have

wanted them to do differently?

2. Who apart from (children, youth and women) has benefitted the most and why (please probe more

for different intervention areas)?

Efficiency / Value for money:


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1. To what extent the WCUK assistance was provided at an appropriate time? Please elaborate with

reference to each intervention area?

Impact:

1. To what extent/in which ways the WCUK assistance made difference (positive/negative,

short/medium and long term) in the lives of men, women, children, older persons and disabled

persons lives? Please explain it for each assistance area?

2. To what extent the WCUK assistance has contributed to their ability to access basic rights, capabilities

to sustain/return/ (re-settle and how?

Sustainability:

1. What benefits of WCUK assistance do you feel would continue beyond project completion and please

elaborate why/ how? How could these benefits be made more sustainable?

Thanks for your time and candid responses.


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8. Questionnaire Key Informant Interview Guide – Local Stakeholders

The interview guide/questionnaire has been developed to cover feedback, perceptions and opinions of the local

stakeholders including local representatives, Government officials, and other local partners engaged associated with the

project.

The key consulting areas and related questions are given below;

1. General

a) What is the role of your organization with regards working women, children and youth in Herat? b) Are you are aware of the work of WCUK in this area, what do they do?

2. Performance a) Do you think the project has been able to meet the intended results/outputs? b) Are you satisfied with WCUK/Partners performance? c) What has been your role in the implementation of this project?

3. Relevance, Appropriateness and Timeliness

a) What were the priority needs of the conflict affected people and how did WCUK/Partners establish/assess those needs?

d) Was the project Poverty Reduction and Community Based Social Protection in Afghanistan an effective assistance for the people? Was it timely?

e) Do you think there were better ways to support these beneficiaries in a better way, what would you have recommended to WCUK?

f) Did you have any role with respect to relevance and appropriateness of this project?

g) In your opinion do you think WCUK and Partners followed internationally agreed quality/compliance standards in implementation of the project? (Child Protection any other standards) )?

h) Do you have any recommendations for WCUK/Partners related to this?

4. Coverage (Geographic & Beneficiary)

Geographic Targeting

a) Are you aware of any mechanisms in place for geographic coordination & collaboration to avoid duplication and resource maximization? How effective were those?

b) How did WCUK/Partners identify priority areas for livelihood recovery interventions? c) Did you have any role in this process? d) Do you have any recommendations for WCUK/Partners related to geographic targeting in future?


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5. Immediate Impact

a) What is the immediate impact of the project on direct beneficiaries?

6. Coordination

a) Did WCUK/Partners coordinate with you during the course of this project? e) Did this coordination have any impact on the quality of the project? f) How effective this coordination was in terms of beneficiary targeting, programme design, avoiding duplication,

facilitation, problem solving etc.? g) What in your opinion needs to be improved in coordination at various levels?


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Questionnaire Key Informant Interview Guide – Local Stakeholders (WCUK/SDO &

WASSA Teams)

The interview guide/questionnaire has been developed to cover 8 Consulting Focus Areas, which relate to the consulting

TORs. This tool shall guide semi-structured interviews with WCUK staff/management & partners representatives (both at

Herat and in the field). As the evaluators may meet a range of respondents from WCUK and partners, hence the

evaluators may add/tailor question as to match the respondents’ interests & profiles.

The key consulting areas and related questions are given below;

1. Performance

a) Did your programme/partners meet the intended results/outputs? b) What facilitated/hindered (logistics, environment, govt. partners, local practices) the WCUK Project/Partners

performance (results/outputs)? Please share example/s? c) What were the gaps, challenges and risks (security, logistics, govt. policy etc) for you/partners and how were those

addressed? Share any evidence of innovative solutions? d) In a highly insecure environment, how WCUK/partners averted security risks in implementing a Cash Transfer

Programme? e) What are WCUK /partners key learnings as to performance? Any documentation/experiences that you may share?

2. Relevance, Appropriateness and Timeliness

a) What were the priority needs of the conflict affected people and how did WCUK/Partners establish/assess those needs?

b) How & why did WCUK/Partners prioritize certain sector/needs for Livelihood Recovery assistance? c) How did WCUK/Partners decide to develop and implement the project “Poverty Reduction and Community Support

Protection in Afghanistan” ? d) Was it timely? e) How did WCUK/Partners’ engage communities/beneficiaries in need identification, prioritization and tailoring of

Livelihood Recovery/recovery grant? Was that timely? f) How were differential needs addressed in identification, prioritization, and tailoring/contextualization (children,

women, men, older peoples, people with disabilities)?

3. Delivery/Management

a) How does the normal PCM cycle (Planning and M&E) work for WCUK/Partners? b) Did the external context evolve/change? What changes happened and how project management systems/structures

were adapted to external changes to ensure timely and effective delivery? c) What were the internal coordination mechanisms (internally with/between depts./units, field office, CO, HQs and

partners)? How much did coordination facilitate/hinder the programme/project delivery? d) What will you do different in future to avoid those gaps/challenges? What would have been the alternate strategies

for you to adopt to avoid gaps and challenges in similar projects in future?


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4. Partnerships

a) How did WCUK carry out the process of partner selection? b) Did partners have experience in delivering similar projects in the past? c) Did partners have strong systems to deliver CTP transparently? d) How WCUK supported them in achieving this? e) Were there any gaps, challenges and risks with your and partners structures & systems? What would you like to

change/do differently in future?

5. Coverage (Geographic & Beneficiary)

Geographic Targeting

a) How/why did you identify priority areas for the project interventions? b) What criterion was established for geographic targeting, was that effective? c) What were the gaps, challenges and risk with geographic targeting (access, security, weather etc), how were

those addressed, please provide evidence? d) What were the key lessons learned with geographic targeting for future use?

Beneficiaries Targeting

a) What was the population coverage for your intervention, what was the beneficiary make up of different age groups?

b) What criterion was established to identify beneficiaries? What process was adopted for beneficiaries identification/targeting, How effective was that?

c) How did you integrate gender equity in beneficiary targeting, how effective was that (women, vulnerable populations, people with disabilities etc)?

d) What were the key challenges, gaps and risks with beneficiary targeting, how were those addressed and how would you do it differently in future?

6. Immediate Impact & Sustainability

b) How did WCUK/Partners support affect/impact peoples’ lives (direct & indirect beneficiaries) in terms of immediate impact?

c) Did WCUK/Partners interventions (design and delivery) contribute to sustainability of results, how effective was it, please provide evidence?

7. Coordination

a) How did WCUK/Partners ensure effective coordination with key stakeholders at various levels, from national to local?

b) What measures/mechanisms were in place for geographic coordination & collaboration to avoid duplication and resource maximization? How effective were those?

c) What are the expectations from various collaborative partners, what are the gaps and challenges and what in your opinion needs to be improved in coordination at various levels?

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