Evaluation Report Project Kauna, Hausa-Fulani

Background:
KAUNA is a project that derived from the former Hausa literacy in 2006 to continue carrying out its activities in the same zones of interventions. The two local churches mentioned above are the owners of the project and have established its management committee beside the proper administration staff of the project. The committee that was established in 2006 as mentioned above include a coordinator (a woman), an assistant coordinator (a man), a secretary, a treasure and two advisors. The project intervenes in 3 out of the 5 departments in Zinder namely Magaria, Matamey and Mirriah all of them located next to the other.
The main activity of the project is literacy in Hausa and since 2006 and 2007 in Fulfulde in Magaria and Mirriah respectively.

Purpose/objective:
The aim was to evaluate / to determine / to appreciate the process and the execution of the activities of the project as well as the results and impact on the local society. It was also to draw some conclusions about a future probable work.

For all the components, the objectives were to evaluate:
- The activities and the results of the activities of the project
- The effect of the project on men and women
- The pertinence of the components, the approach and methodology of work
- Management of resources, the rate of salaries, the expenses for the administration in relation to the activities
- Strength and weaknesses in terms of competence and capacity of the staff
- Strength and weaknesses of the three components of the project in relation to sustainability of the administrative, technical and financial capacity according to the context (motivation and resources of the local community and of Niger Republic in general) and the organisation (the capacity of the owner concerning motivation and resources)
- The decision making and the participation in the undertaking of activities and in the management committee as well. Particularly looking at the follow-up of aims and objectives and seeing if there are adjustments to be made
- The extent of collaboration with local partners and authorities
- The pertinence of activities in relation to the national and regional plans of Niger republic and to the priorities of Norway
- Making recommendations about the above points.

Methodology:
The evaluation team has made a review documentary by visiting different centres to measure the achievements of the project and by interviewing the learners, the teachers, the supervisors and even some community leaders where the centres are installed.
As for the sustainability of the activities of the project, the beneficiaries were interviewed, some committee members, and the staff of the project and village leaders.

The components of the literacy project to evaluate were:
1. Literacy Classes
2. The Production and Sale of Book
3. The administration including the transfer to the local owners and the contribution /the impact of the management committee.

The terms of reference (TDR) of the evaluation have been transmitted to the evaluators with activity reports from 2005 to 2007 as well as the report from a previous evaluation carried out in 2005 by a Norwegian team.

Key findings:
To sum up, the project has established 53 centres located in 29 places. 26 of them are feminine, 25 are masculine and 2 are mixed.
The project has about 1,000 learners (944 are from Mirriah, not counting those from the 4 Fulfulde centres). 415 of them are women that represent about 44 per cent (44%).

The classes are taught in Hausa and Fulfulde. Most of the time, the feminine classes are monitored by women. A strength of the literacy classis is the low rate of abandonment. The learners have become aware of the importance of education and make efforts to succeed.
Some results registered:
- the beneficiaries know how to read and write in their language,
- Learned to be independent
- Got knowledge
- There is a change of mentality. In previous times the women disliked school but now they register their children in school. They have understood that education is important.
- Women who carry out a small trade can do their accounting correctly. (in the savingroup too). They can read numbers (in terms of business this is important) and calculate their benefits.
- Change of mentality: the learners advise the women to give birth in health centres
- They know about hygiene and children are sent clean to school

In fact, an enquiry carried out among the beneficiaries (the populations) showed that even without the project some centres will continue to function due to their own motivation to try to pay the monitors themselves. Some former Hausa literacy centres prove this since they are still functioning without any support from the project but with a decrease in numbers of learners compared with the project period.

Recommendations:
The literacy work on the field is appreciable. It must be encouraged because of the eagerness that we noticed from the populations, the monitors and the supervisors.
Recommendations:
- If possible to find funds to continue the project in order to help Fulfulde literacy centres to achieve the 3 years period.
- Instead of the management committee being dissolved they should have the opportunity to continue the activities for 3 years and even beyond, in order to help the local churches to engage in development activities outside of the "church" concept and through another structure "a project".
- Learners would take advantage of their experience in adult literacy to undertake some income generating activities (IGA/AGR) with the assistance of a fund donor.
- The local coordinator should continue the training about theories and practice in adult literacy which she started in 2007 in Ouagadougou and will finish in 2009.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
The project was phased out half a year earlier than planned in 2008, because of lack of staff capacities. Therefore the recommendations were not put into action, but the evaluation will be important for planning and elaboration of similar projects on literacy in the future.