Creating Change in Children’s Lives – with focus on local governments: An Evaluation of Save the Children’s Child Rights Governance Programme, Nicaragua Case Study

Background   
The CRG programme in Nicaragua has partnered with government at both central and local levels, and civil society working nationwide and in specific regions and with a university (the UCA). However, the central focus of the intervention has been on supporting and strengthening local level government commitment to, and ability to work on, child rights issues. This report delineates this experience in Nicaragua and how it has influenced work in the Central American region. We have structured the report in accordance with the SC areas of work on CRG.  Mainly: child rights monitoring; strengthening national systems; and the building of awareness and capacity.

Save the Children in Nicaragua currently has a CRG portfolio that includes 13 projects, 10 partners and an annual budget of 789,792 USD and an expected expenditure equalling 805,760 USD in 2013.

Purpose/objective (including evaluation questions)   
This report is one of 4 country studies focusing on Child Rights Governance (CRG) theme and informs the overall evaluation of CRG globally. The purpose of the overall evaluation were to:
• Provide an overview of types of CRG interventions, including a system to classify types of outcomes and impacts.
• Provide SC with evidence of outcomes and impacts (positive, negative, intended, and unintended) and establishing the causal link between outcomes at system level and outcomes and impacts in children’s lives.
• Provide SC with a manageable methodology to capture outcome and impact from various CRG programmes.

Methodology   
The report has resulted from a desk review, interviews, and focus groups with children and youth in Nicaragua. The field visit to Nicaragua was conducted between the 27th of August and the 5th of September, 2013, by a team of two consultants. Children and youth were engaged in four focus groups where participatory exercises, including timeline and Venn Diagrams, were conducted. A half day introductory meeting with Save the Children Nicaragua staff was held to share the aims of the evaluation as well as discuss the methodology, and gain some contextual understanding on the projects conducted on CRG and how these fit within SC’s broader engagement in the country. The field visit ended with a debrief session where preliminary findings and our understanding of these were presented to Save the Children Staff. Key findings from this study have been included in the synthesis report.

Key findings   
SC involvement in Nicaragua has primarily focused on work with municipal governments to increase their engagement on Child Rights issues. SC partners in Nicaragua extend far beyond municipal governments, but can generally be seen as part of an effort that supports local government engagement. Broader efforts have included, for example, the strategic level engagement with the central government institutions aimed at improving the child rights situation overall (i.e., MIFAMILIA).

The Nicaraguan experience in creating and supporting partnerships is a rich one. In Nicaragua, SC has worked with a variety of partners ranging from government actors at the central and the local level, civil society organizations, children institutions and initiatives, as well as academic institutions. SC’s partnerships with these organizations have enabled projects and programmes around the country to carry out activities ranging from radio programmes to MA programs; and most prominently working directly with municipal governments to support capacity building on child rights issues and strengthen their ability to support the implementation of child friendly policies. Overall, the partnerships have benefited from strong ties to SC and there are clear synergies between the works carried out by individual partners. SC has started to promote lateral relationships between SC partners. This is an area that could be consolidated and would serve to strengthen the outcomes of the SC work overall.

SC’s role as an innovator in the Nicaraguan context extends to some of the projects supported by SC; mainly to the work conducted with the network of municipalities and more recently with supporting municipal child friendly budgeting. In furthering results to scale, the work carried out with municipalities is one that appears to have the potential to be sustainable long after SC involvement may cease. While there are numerous steps that remain to be taken in ensuring that municipalities have developed child friendly policies, the potential for sustainability is there because there is a structural foundation from where municipal governments can develop.  Child rights is one of many clear and important demands made of municipal governments, therefore SC’s support is important in focusing attention on CRG specifically.

Recommendations   
1. Continue supporting municipalities to ensure that the newly developed policies are adequately implemented.
2. Support engagement between SC partners. Municipalities, for example, could benefit from having stronger ties to other SC funded actors like the Universities.
3. Further develop the methodology to evaluate child friendly budgets so that it is able to better explain the factors that have led to individual budgetary decisions.
4. Explore opportunities for child and youth engagement at the municipal level which ensure that the participation of children is safe and meaningful.

Follow up (with reference to Action Plan) 
A follow-up plan of the CRG evaluation with SCN Management response has been developed and is currently being implemented. See document #269796.

Specific follow up point for Nicaragua:
• Support the network of municipalities to take upon new activities.
• Arrange a workshop with all the partners to discuss and share plans, specifically the long term plan for the Norad proposal.
• Seek to develop a partnership with an organization that is competent on budget analysis.
• Do an internal assessment of the child participation activities, and adjust projects accordingly.