Evaluation of Mahila Jagaran Sangh (MJS)

Background
MJS has been implementing the Enhance Women Participation in Development Interventions (EWPDI) project since August 2003. The project's goal is to enhance women's participation in development interventions and decision-making. In 2003 and 2004 the project was implemented by MJS under the supervision of Namsaling Community Development Centre (NCDC) and funded by the Development Fund (DF). Since 2005 MJS has been implementing the programme independently.

Purpose/objective
DF and MJS, Ilam initiated the review of this programme to assess whether the project has been run in line with the goal and objectives; to identify the areas of improvements in the programme; to understand the cost effectiveness; and finally to ensure the sustainability of the programme.

Methodology
The evaluation was conducted in August 2007. The evaluation team developed semi-structured questionnaire guidelines for the purpose of interviewing cooperatives, Executive Committee members, the staff and various external stakeholders. A series of interactions were held with the MJS Executive Committee members and the staff of EWPDI project. The Evaluation Team visited the working areas of EWPDI's project Village Development Committees (Laxmipur and Shantidanda). The field visits included interactions with the cooperatives' committee members and saving and credit groups. A series of meetings were held with the EWPDI project's stakeholders in Ilam.

Key findings
MJS has been contributing to poverty reduction by enhancing women's capacity in the field of socio - economic development. MJS has been targeting women and remote Village Development Committees from August 2003. It is also important to note that the Executive Committee members are only women and the Savings and Credit Organizations (SCOs) and Cooperatives comprise the people coming from major target groups, both women and men, although women are higher represented than men in the SCOs.

The findings revealed that the group strengthening trainings and exposures were focused on limited key position holders of the SCOs and cooperatives. Minimal know-how is passed to the SCOs and cooperative members to enhance collection, mobilisation, and management as well as the saving, credit, income generating and enterprise development skills and knowledge. Nevertheless, the approach to build the capacity and awareness has helped to transform the SCOs into cooperatives, has given a sense of financial security and has created a forum for enterprise development.

A weakness observed in the programme design of the EWPDI project was lack of phase- out strategy. Recently, MJS and NCDC have prepared a draft constitution establishing district cooperative network with the purpose to fill this gap.

 Recommendations
- Individual members' focus on capacity enhancement: it is necessary to extend the trainings to the individual members of SCOs and cooperatives, remodelling the training delivery approach with realistic coverage matching with the numbers of staff and structure.
- Strengthen the micro and small enterprise component: the members of the SCOs and cooperatives have a sound amount of financial resources for economic development. MJS should be able to link this resource with the micro enterprise development techniques, developing effective selection criteria for the potential entrepreneurs and establishing appropriate support system for sustainability.
- Vision building: vision building activities should be organized for MJS EC and staff for effective planning and implementation of micro and small enterprises, domestic violence programme, etc.

Comments from the organisation
Any evaluation is produced within a very limited framework with regards to the composition of the evaluation team, the time available, its access to information and how it analyses the information received. Furthermore, any social reality can be analysed and presented in many different ways, among which an evaluation represents only one. Hence while this evaluation report may be useful as a tool for general learning, it has limited value as a source of information about the particular projects and partners in question. We urge any reader to consult the partners involved or Development Fund before applying this information in a way that may affect the partners and the project.