Civic Education and Governance in the fifth region

Background

The Eveil NGO was officially created in October 17, 1996 under the Malian Law with its headquarters at Sevare, in Mopti Region. Its initial steps in development experience were made through implementation of a project titled "Civic Education and Governance" funded by Strømme Foundation. This project was planned to cover a period of five years, with the aim of promoting "democratic citizen culture and self development among Mopti Region communities." That project aimed at promoting community involvement in the local decision making process and management of their own development. Following achievements of the first phase, the second phase of five years from 2003 to 2007 was to consolidate achievements. This evaluation consists in analyzing the results of that second phase.

Purpose/objective

i) Assess program impact including on income, literacy rate, management of daily life, and conflict management.
ii) Make an assessment of the efficiency of the NGO's activities, including literacy rate, changes in civic behavior, emergence of rule of law, the operation of decentralized institutions, and conflict resolution.
iii) Assess the efficiency in the use of human and financial resources available for the program. Make an assessment of the organization and structuring of the project to achieve its objectives.
iv) Appreciate the relevance of NGO interventions and the process of action planning and identification, including relations between community demand and NGO supply.
v) Determine the sustainability of interventions, including the level of community participation, the degree of ownership and financial autonomy of the major activities.

Methodology

- Analysis of the terms of reference for a better understanding of the expectations of Strømme Foundation
- Documentary study, dealing with project documents to get an idea of the roles and responsibilities of the various actors involved in the life of the project. The major documents analyzed were: the annual reports, the concept papers, study reports, monitoring-evaluation reports, and project implementation tools;
- Choice of villages and communes to be visited as well as participatory reading of the tools with the Eveil team and the Fula language interviewers for a common understanding and the method of questionnaire administration.
- The survey tools were designed to collect useful information for the evaluation. Data thus collected were processed and analyzed.

Key findings

i. Defining awareness raising literacy
The awareness raising literacy method advocated by the Eveil NGO is a method in which the learning of reading, writing, and arithmetic integrates notions related to governance, civil rights, social responsibility and education based on 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paulo Freire.
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ii. Manuals produced
The Eveil NGO designed several training manuals; these reading and writing manuals range from the 1st to the 4th levels. In the area of arithmetic, two manuals were designed: level 1 and level 2. It must be noted that each level corresponds to a year's training. The manuals produced by the Eveil NGO are jewels in the sense that compared to the Fulfulde language manuals produced officially are relatively less informative given the topics addressed. A significant number of the Centers of Education and Development (CED) officially recognized by the State prefer to use Eveil manuals than those of the State; these manuals address several themes in an in-depth and detailed way. Some primary schools in the area use these manuals translating them into French in order to teach children.
iii. At the individual level
Awareness raising started with the learners, particularly women. Acquisition of knowledge brought about unprecedented behavior change which changes the relation between the individual and his own social environment: open-mindedness, claiming rights based on the law, readiness to manage conflict, search for amicable settlement with local mediator effort, new economic initiatives, new enhanced value of knowledge in daily activities, notably those likely to better protect from immediate economic vulnerability and structural vulnerability.
vi. Groups, households, and /or families
A new relation which appears is that of a relation with the new bodies, new organizations, new and/or former institutions: orientation council, mediation commission, communal councils, mayors, specialized networks of trades, projects, NGOs, village chiefs, technical services. The relation with these authorities and/or former or new institutions is no longer the same. It becomes more and more a relation placing groups, households and families at the center of the initiative and of decision making as far as resolution of their problems is concerned.

Recommendations

i. Communes, mayors and communal council men
The phase out process launched by the Eveil seems to require more preparation with the communes. Need to review the process of phasing out of Intensive Training Centres (CFIs) to match with resource mobilization plan to support CFIs.
ii. Economic activities
Facing economic precariousness of some villages, women feel compelled to drop out from literacy training sessions in order to find food; this also explains the strong demand for Income Generating Activities, particularly in the Delta zone.
iii. Training
It is necessary to promote school exchanges in order to reinforce certain skills and enhance the value of certain experiences already acquired by groups in certain villages. Village leaders must be trained and retrained on a regular basis. There must be regular exchange between legal attendants during the training and retraining sessions.
iv. Communes
It is necessary to focus on a more communal and/or inter-communal approach. The Social, Cultural, and Economic Development Plans of the communes (PDSCE) must be a benchmark for support and consolidation of activities implemented.

Comments from the organisation

As a follow up of the evaluation, Eveil has been given more responsibilities to communes so that they can take care of intensive training of the centers. Some communes have started providing copybooks to learners. Eveil has been asked to study the feasibility of Self Help Women Saving Groups which could help mobilize local resources to support income generating activities.