Back to a future – Youth Pack 2003-2005, Sierra Leone

Background

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) started operations in Sierra Leone in 2000 to support the National Recovery Strategy, to aid the process of recovery and the reintegration and reconciliation for resettled internally displaced persons, returnees, ex-combatants and separated children. As the situation in Sierra Leone no longer poses a humanitarian emergency with regards to internally displaced persons and refugees, NRC is phasing out at the end of December 2005.

In 2005 the education program in Sierra Leone has three main components, one being Youth Pack, a one-year pilot program for 400 youth in four different centres. Youth Pack provides a combination of vocational skills training with basic academic and life skills education for 14-22 year olds, and is implemented in co-operation with a local NGO (Action Aid Sierra Leone) in Kambia district on the border to Guinea. Youth Pack was run for two years (2003-04 and 2004-05).

Purpose/objective

Scanteam was asked in March 2005 to evaluate the Youth Pack program, to document lessons learnt and guide plans to develop and debate the establishment of Youth Pack programs in other countries. The main purpose of the evaluation is to guide NRC centrally and country teams embarking on youth education projects. The evaluation assessed the following main issues:
- Relevance: Assess need and relevance in the community and for all stakeholders
- Process; Identify best practises and weaknesses; balance between theoretical and practical components, and involvement and empowerment of stakeholders at all stages.
- Impact: To assess if the program reached the target group and contributed to individual growth and reintegration; impact on teachers, and unforeseen positive and/or negative effects.
- Sustainability: To assess if changes achieved are likely to be sustained for all actors involved; and continuation of Youth Pack activities after NRC's exit.
- Cost-effectiveness of the intervention; use of trainers, supervisors, and two teachers per class.
- The NRC mandate: To assess if Youth Pack falls within NRC's mandate, and relevance with regards to NRC criteria for program support, including target groups.

Methodology

A team of two Norwegian and two Sierra Leonean consultants visited the Youth Pack program, conducting exploratory interviews with all main stakeholders and observed classes and activities in the centres. Based on this, questionnaires and systematic checklists were developed, and used by the local consultants in two subsequent trips to carry out further interviews. Interviews have also been conducted with NRC in Freetown and in Oslo, with Action Aid Sierra Leone and with other organisations and the Ministry for Education, Science and Technology (MEST).

Key findings

The intentions and ideas of NRC to start the Youth Pack project are very good and much needed and have resulted in a very positive direct outcome for the learners and teachers, and a very good impression in the communities. However, NRC has not been sufficiently aware of the differences between the Youth Pack pilot program and their established project portfolio, and has not had the right skills, tools and experiences for Youth Pack to reach optimal results.

The main problem seen by the evaluation team is the way the programs has been planned and implemented, almost in isolation from other actors (including the local implementing partner), as an expensive service-delivery project. In general Youth Pack is seen to be NGO-run activities, which are very much welcome, but the community members and leaders do not see that NRC has taken advantage of resources that are available locally. The lack of involvement and co-operation with local actors (government institutions, other projects, and local communities) and the lack of follow-up of learners is the most serious drawback of the o the project, resulting in very limited sustainability of the efforts beyond the direct beneficiaries.

Recommendations

Main overall recommendations:
NRC should continue work to facilitate implementation of Youth Pack programs for transition periods in countries emerging from conflict and war.

If NRC continues to work on Youth Pack and include it in the organisation's portfolio, it should be done with the following adjustments:
1. Update the planning and implementation methods and tools to fit with current "state of the art" way to execute such programs in transition phases, including stakeholder assessments, clear formulation of objectives and the establishment of a functional monitoring system.
2. Use lessons learnt from Youth Pack SL to develop guidelines for working with local partners. If partnerships are formed, the program should be planned jointly from the start.
3. Explore possibilities for closer community cooperation and Youth Pack integration with local institutions, including ways to reduce costs.
4. The curriculum should be thoroughly revised, to make it more appropriate to this type of course, and to the level and life situations of the learners and teachers. The revision should include the development of effective teacher-learner materials.
5. The two components of the program should be integrated.
6. Ensure enough time and manpower during the planning and start-up phases to accomplish the above points.