Strengthening of organisational competence and skills, CBCN, Bas-Uélé, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background

CBCN operates in the province of Bas-Uélé in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Bas-Uélé is the second largest province in DRC, situated in the northern part of the country. Weak road infrastructure makes Bas-Uélé a quite isolated province. CBCN is active in the social development in various ways; in the educational sector, in the health sector as well as with other social development issues. CBCN has a strong link with the BUN.

The Competence Building Project started in 2015 as a 2-year project, that has now been extended with a 3-year project, receiving funding from Norad. The purpose of the project long term is to strengthen CBCN as a change-agent in the province of Bas-Uélé. The evaluation was initiated to inform the 3-year extension of the project, and to support capacity building within CBCN.

Purpose/objective

The evaluation is a mid-term evaluation with the purpose of providing guidance for the future of the project based on assessment of project achievements and efficiency so far. It is also a learning evaluation, with the aim of contributing to capacity building of CBCN.

Methodology

The evaluation was designed to use mixed data collection methods:

• Document review: project documents, annual plans, annual reports and organization-specific documents
• Group discussions with different target groups
• Key informant interview The data from these different sources has provided a possibility for triangulation to verify results.

Key findings

The evaluation process, with group discussion with different target groups, surfaced that the project has contributed to important changes within the CBCN community; awareness on issues such as church governance, anti-corruption, gender bias, human rights, behavioural change in leadership and in self-sufficiency as well as improved competence amongst project staff, church leaders and coordinators.

The key methodology of the project has been organisation of seminars and workshops. This type of activity is something that CBCN, being a church, is experienced in, and the target groups are familiar with.

The CBCN church structure, with regions, districts, sections and local churches, and departmental committees at every level, provides a useful structure for disseminating information and for mobilisation.

The project coordination in CBCN as well as in BUN experienced some challenges when the project was planned and in the early months of implementation. This caused confusion as to which Project Document was actually guiding the project. The expected change from the project activities has not been clear or specific, making it difficult for the project management team to do follow-up.

Despite these weaknesses, it is clear that the project has provided an important space for awareness building and training, for dialogue on sensitive issued and reflection on beliefs and practices. The participants in the group discussions reported on similar changes, which indicates that the changes can be linked to project activities.

Recommendations

1. Focus the capacity building topics for each target group. For example: For project staff, focus the capacity building to address the weaknesses within CBCN project management, such as in the areas of planning, follow-up and reporting.
2. Introduce a system of having individual learning goals for the project staff, and that these are monitored regularly to support learning.
3. Consider introducing a system of peer support among project staff – in particular those who are involved in planning, follow-up and reporting. Peer support could mean that staff members read each other’s plans and reports and provide constructive feedback to improve quality, and that they meet as peers to discuss challenges in follow-up.
4. Introduce reporting templates that support clarity and consistency in reporting.
5. Develop a realistic monitoring plan for the project, using the project indicators.
6. Provide in-service training on project management for the project’s management team.
7. Continue to focus on leaders at central and district level throughout the project period, to enable consolidation of the capacity building and sustainability of project results.