Evaluation of the Norwegian Government Supported Programme in Gedo, Somalia, May 2007

Background:
The consultancy endeavors to evaluate the program being implemented by NCA in Gedo region since 1993 in terms of its responses to emergencies as well as the impact it has made on the livelihoods of the target communities. NCA's program in Gedo follows an integrated approach where by the hard-ware components (water supply, education, agriculture and income generating activities) are made to benefit from the soft-ware components such as hygiene and sanitation education, gender and HIV/AIDS. NCA's strategy has been to apply the principles of Do-No-Harm and aspects of Rights Based Approach in the course of implementing the program.

Purpose/ Objective:
In all the years since the program has been in operation, it had not benefited from an independent evaluation and all concerned agreed that this task is long overdue. Therefore the rational for having the current evaluation was two fold:
• To determine the impact of the program on the beneficiary communities given the constraints and the many problems encountered, and

• To identify the lessons learned and to recommend on the best way forward for the program.

The scope of the evaluation was the entire life of the program although, for practical reasons, emphasis has been made on the activities implemented in the year 2006.

Methodology:
The evaluation methods employed includes:
• Review of existing information and secondary data
• Focus group discussions
• In-depth, individual interviews (semi-structured)
• Informal (unstructured) discussions
• Direct observations

Key Findings:
• Community Education Committees are a critical component of the education project. They enhance the sustainability of the school and assist in maintaining attendance rates. Any new schools should continue to adopt this system.
• Through initially utilizing and respecting the traditional elders system projects receive village wide support and prove more sustainable.
• A gradual, rather than rapid, introduction of women onto committees has proven extremely effective in perceptions of gender and the acceptance of women in different roles.
• To help communities feel empowered and respected they should be involved in projects as far as possible. Local materials and labor should be utilized wherever possible to ensure the community participates as far as possible in the project creating a sense of ownership and enhancing the overall effectiveness and sustainability of the project. This also generates good relationships between an organisation and the community and strengthens respect for the organisation.
• Utilize traditional community structures and members of the community to assure security and enable access to the most vulnerable.
• When addressing sensitive, cultural and religious issues projects must meet all key members of the community in particular the male elders and religious leaders. Behavioral changes will only occur if these powerful and respected members are in support of the project.
• Basing conflict resolution interventions on traditional conflict resolution techniques can be an effective, efficient and appropriate approach.
• Successful rights-based programming can succeed even in difficult environments if culturally aware local staff maintain a continual dialogue with key local actors and gatekeepers.

Recommendations:
• WFP is encouraged to collaborate with food security projects to explore the future possibility of sourcing locally and providing a market for these farmers.
• NCA explore the opportunity of constructing a secondary school in the region. Somalia greatly lacks educated personnel, for example, teachers and doctors.
• In the future the rehabilitation of shallow wells and water points should occur in parallel to the training of Water and Sanitation Committees.
• NCA's proposal to conduct training of Water and Sanitation Committees and hygiene promotion is undertaken as soon as possible.
• The Central Rangelands Project should be distributed in the field but NCA should undertake studies to confirm or reassess the findings as the Central Rangelands Project was conducted in 1979 and since then Somalia has suffered major droughts, great variations in weather patterns and social, economic and demographic changes.
• NCA should follow up their hope and the community's hope that certain emergency schools could be made permanent. The community/diaspora should be expected to contribute to such a development.
• In future emergency projects NCA should continue to use this strategy of involving local communities and private businesses wherever feasible to ensure activities and future work is supported and sustainable.
• NCA should engage communities fully to clarify roles, prevent raised expectations and avoid unreasonable demands.
• NCA should seek to involve the most vulnerable women in the communities. This could be done most effectively through involving the elders and constantly stressing the importance of involving these women to prevent them later becoming dependent on the community.
• NCA should consider the possibility of facilitating a meeting with other Nairobi-based agencies operative in the different areas of Somalia to share experiences and develop models of good practice on the do-no-harm principle. This could be linked to the recommendation below on rights-based programming.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid:
Follow up:
• A programme planning workshop was held in February 2008, where the recommendations of the evaluation report were reviewed and incorporated as action points for implementation plans for the year 2008.
• A proposal was submitted to MFA aiming to address some of the recommendations contained in the evaluation report
• The recommendations on further development of the education sector have been taken up with UNICEF and the MFA and proposals submitted by NCA to that effect.