Evaluation of Integrated Education and Development Programme, Somaliland

Background

Evaluation by Pentecostal Foreign Mission of Norway, Somaliland.

The Integrated Education and Development Project (IEDP) were started by Pentecostal Foreign Mission of Norway (PYM) through International Aids Services (IAS) in Somaliland. PYM carried out a feasibility study in 2002 and the project started in 2003. The project was aimed at meeting the great needs in three areas:
1) Education: training courses for teachers and head teachers, literacy training and building or rehabilitating of classrooms or schools
2) Training of health workers and building of health centres
3) Tree planting and other environment conservation activities.

Purpose/objective

The main reason for the evaluation is to find the way for the further work of the IEDP. The funding agency, PYM has given the project implementation agency (IAS) to assess the program up to now and give recommendation for the next two three year. The evaluation will serve as a tool to do this. The evaluation will also help to define which activities should be increased, reduced, or commenced.

Methodology

Methods of research were visits and observations in the field, and interviews.

Key findings

The evaluation committee found a project that was very closely involved with the official structures in the society. They were commended locally for cooperation and effective operation. We found both the educational part and the environmental part to meet a great need in the society and to be working according to expectations and plans. Both the approaches seem to have a great potential in the Somaliland society from a developmental perspective.

A positive aspect of the programme is that local communities have been invited to participate in the development. In particular this was the case in construction and renovation of schools. Parents and local society contributed about 20-30% of the costs of the construction. We found that this had created an understanding among people about the necessity for the local society to play a role in development through voluntary work. The partnership idea should be emphasised in all the different activities in the project.

The education project should be continued. Since more than 90% of the teachers lack teacher training, the teacher's seminars should be formalized into 3 months every year during school holidays for 6 years giving teachers certificate upon completion.
Different aspects of the project should be integrated: teacher training, literacy training, construction of schools and environment project. When IEDP go into a society, they should try to assist different segments of the society: the teachers with training, the mothers with literacy and the villagers in general with tree planting and environment conservation. Then the ideas of literacy and environment protection should be part of training on all levels.
The health aspect should be added if enough funds can be secured.

The project so far has mainly African staff: Two staff members from The Democratic Republic of Congo, and a locally recruited trainer and secretary. The local staff is also hired for training, school construction and tree planting for shorter periods. For a comprehensive project like this PYM should recruit a Norwegian staff member within the field of agriculture/environment or education to strengthen the professional development of the project as a whole. He/she should also be part of the cross cultural experience and learning in this project: How to work in a Muslim culture with local and other African staff. A project that aims at influencing two large sectors of the society - education and environment - needs professional staffing. While it is positive to make use of local expertise to a large extent, one also need some people in the project itself that can take an active role in the professional development of the project.

In addition to this one should recruit a specialist in tree planting and literacy - preferably a woman to strengthen professional development of the environment aspect of the project and integrate it into all project activities, and also to strengthen involvement of women in the project.

Recommendations

• We recommend that there should be a local investment of about 40% in all the contributions to the schools, in money, kind or work in order to make people prioritize their requests, make investments more sustainable and to be able to make more out of project money.
• We recommend routines for transfer of money to be simplified and the administration of finances to be moved closer to the project.
• The great need for a proper teacher training and the great response upon the teachers' seminars indicates that the short workshops for teachers should stop, and the more systematic teachers' seminars should continue.
• The responsibilities inside PYM could also be clarified. As for now it looks like senior consultant is both operating in the field and in charge of handling the project documents in PYM. This double role seems to have worked well up to now, but can make the project vulnerable for criticism of favouritism in relation to other projects.
• The sharing of work and responsibilities within the Project administration seems to have worked well, but we recommend a job description to be developed to avoid problems in the future.
• They need an electronic camera to be able to document also in that way the activities, and to feed the press with pictures.
• The evaluation team is of the clear opinion that most of the project activities would not have taken place without the project because of lack of finances and expertise.
• The different aspects of the project should be more integrated: environment awareness must come into the curriculum of all trainings and tree planting must also come with literacy courses for women and establishment of school gardens.