Project Mid-Term Review of Social Mobilization of Women Affected by Conflict in Northern Uganda (SMOWAC)

Background

The indicated project is a five-year initiative (2005-2009) of CARE Norway through the financial support of NORAD and is being implemented in northern Uganda. It is now in its third year of implementation and the goal is to improve household livelihood security and self-reliance of 50,000 internally displaced people mainly women through their participation in income generating activities, small enterprises, micro-finance activities, and appropriate agri-business initiatives by the year 2009.

Purpose/objective

The objectives of the mid-term review were to assess the progress made by the project towards the socio-economic empowerment of women as well as examine the relevance of the project design and implementation approach vis-à-vis the actual needs of the target group. The consistency of the ongoing project activities with the new CARE Uganda's long term strategic plan and the overall CARE International vision and mission was explored. The sustainability of the project, with regard to its financial, technical and organizational aspects, was also looked into and recommendations were made.

Methodology

The evaluation process used data collection methods such as structured household interviews, key informants' interviews, focus group discussions, documents review and consultative workshops/meetings.

Key findings

The project was found relevant, timely and addressed critical needs of the population. During its first 3 years of implementation it had registered positive outcomes as well as faced some challenges. The positive results include the high participation of women in most of its activities. For example 80% of 16,467 participants in village savings and loan associations, and 75% among 35,664 members in community groups were women. The women that enrolled in the community groups received business skills trainings. High increase was seen in the overall accumulated savings in village associations. By the time of review (November 2007) the cumulative savings totalled up to Ush 487,377,750 and the value of cumulative loans was Ush 522,947,500 . The portfolio at risk (PAR) for the period ended December 2007 was 9.8% (equivalent to Ushs 24,637,856 against a total of Ushs 251,406,700 total outstanding loans), a reasonably impressive record. In addition, the savings and loan groups were credited for having has a positive impact on the social life styles of individual members, e.g. it minimized excessive drinking of alcohol and it positively impacted on food security among participating members' families.

The activities had been carried out in partnership with organizations that are familiar with local context. The use of group approaches in agricultural and business development schemes have increased the efficiency and effectiveness in the management of resources. Women were also the major beneficiaries of agricultural development schemes of animal traction; cassava multiplication; training and demonstration; apiary and honey production; and agricultural marketing, in that 76% of 13,000 clients were women.

The project is directly in line with the strategic direction of CARE Uganda which seeks to empower the poor to achieve their economic rights and strengthen their capacities.

Some of the challenges the project faces include infrastructural problems such as shortage of land, equipments, agricultural inputs and markets for agricultural products; shortage of income among beneficiaries which kept savings in the village associations low; inefficiencies in the M&E plan to assess project activity performance; insufficient collaboration between CARE and other development agencies; and absence of committed participation from the youth and local government authorities.

Recommendations

Some of the recommendations made by the project evaluators include increased engagement of the youth and local government authorities during project implementation. More intervention is needed in this area to address structural barriers that get in the way of women's advancement. CARE needs to advocate for government's involvement in the fight against early marriages, child labour and defilement in schools. The project should improve its market chain analysis in order for enterprises to be selected according to existing demands in the market. A more comprehensive M&E and documentation system is needed to better capture the project progress. The project, through the village savings associations, should strive to support the participants' engagement in larger and long-term investments in order to improve on the profitability and sustainability of their initiatives. The project management and implementation structures should be open to adjust to emerging concerns, for example, more field staff will be needed at partner level to take care of increased geographical coverage following camp decongestion.

Comments from the organisation

During the consultative workshop the findings and recommendations were discussed with partners; representatives from the district authorities, as well as from CARE Uganda and Norway. Some key follow-up strategies were agreed on . Moreover, CARE is currently redesigning the project to make it more "programmatic" and to ensure that it coincides with the newly developed program strategy for CARE in Northern Uganda as well as CARE Norway's new collaboration agreement with NORAD (2009-2013). Findings and recommendations from the review have advised both these two processes.