Brazil Country Programme Plan Evaluation

Background:
In order to comply with its principles of responsibility and transparency, in 2010 NCA decided to carry out a set of evaluations of the components of its Global Strategic Plan. The evaluation of the 2005-2009 Brazil Program is part of this framework, and it has been designed both to examine its performance during the period and in order to be an important instrument in the strategic revision for the country.

Purpose/ Objective:
1. Document the results and the lessons learned to improve institutional learning in NCA and among its partners in Brazil;
2. Evaluate if the projects and programs supported by NCA contribute to the increased participation, equity and protection of the defined focal groups and if NCA’s partners contribute to the strengthening of democratic processes in Brazil;
3. Outline successful mechanisms and best practices, or the reasons why planned objectives were not reached;
4. Provide assistance for the preparation of the new NCA strategy for 2011-2015 and any institutional changes and adjustments that may be necessary.

Methodology:
In accordance with the guidelines stipulated in the ToR, the evaluation used the following principal methodological procedures: i. dialogues with NCA team members for the revision of the ToR and methodological definitions; ii. Preparation, systematization and analysis of the answers to a questionnaire with 47 questions sent to 15 partner organizations; iii. Preparation of scripts for interviews and fieldwork; iv. visits to four organizations in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Maranhão and the Federal District, involving interviews with their teams and coordination teams, community visits, beneficiary families and experiences and interviews with its local partners1; v. examination of a vast dossier consisting of documents produced by NCA and its partner organizations in the 2005-2009 period; vi. Interviews and meetings with the NCA team; vii. final evaluation seminar in São Paulo with the presence of representatives from all partner organizations and members of the NCA team.

Key Findings:
The principal conclusion of this evaluation is that the 2005-2009 Country Strategy was implemented in a very successful form with very positive results in the four areas that, according to the evaluation perception, shaped NCA’s base of action during the period:
1. Strengthening and implementation of collective rights and fighting social injustice;
2. Influence of public policies;
3. Construction of capacities in partner organizations;
4. Fundraising.

This positive performance is explained by a series of factors, of which three should be noted as they proved to be particularly relevant:
- solid and long-lasting partnerships established between NCA and its Brazilian counterparts, whose joint efforts allowed a considerable increase in NCA’s budgetary allocation for Brazil;
- the high level of professionalism among the partner organizations in the specific themes prioritized, in their articulation capacity with other civil society organizations and movements and for dialogue with governmental programs and policies;
- the existence of a new national context strongly marked by initiatives aimed at the reduction of poverty and social injustice, the expansion of state investment in public policy and a greater opening of this to the debate with Brazilian civil society organizations. Since the objective of this evaluation is to contribute to the new NCA strategy for Brazil, it was decided to present an open mosaic of recommendations, with different levels of priority and scopes, which in the future may increase the potential of the positive effects of NCA’s actions during the period evaluated.

This mosaic of recommendations is based on ten assumptions and perspectives of the context which NCA has to take into account in the construction and implementation of the next Brazil Program:

i. over the next five years Brazil’s place in the global scenario will be more visibly in a transition from what we can call a country with poverty/social injustice to a ‘world power’;

ii. despite recent advances in relation to the reduction of poverty, Brazil will continue in the next five years to be one of the countries with the highest social and economic inequalities in the world, which will remain marked by a territorial, racial and gender perspective;

iii. the relevance of Brazil in South-South cooperation will increase, though the perspectives for this Brazilian insertion (state and private initiative) appear, with some exceptions, not to differ much from the current pattern of domination (political, economic, cultural, etc.) which has characterized North-South cooperation;

iv. the participation of Brazilian civil society organizations in South-South cooperation will tend to increase, including as a means of expanding their political and financial sustainability, with questions about their effective role in the monitoring of governmental and business cooperation;

v. the current questioning on the part of international cooperation organizations of the meaning of their presence in Brazil will increase, worsening the sustainability of various NCA partner organizations;

vi. questions linked to the environmental issue will continue to gain national and international importance, renewing the difficult challenges of organizations which work in rural and urban areas to better clarify or outline the environmental aspect of their work;

vii. the perspectives for the continuity of a developmental posture on the Brazilian state are strong, resulting in an increase in threats to environmental sustainability and the social sustainability of traditional populations;

viii. NCA should consider that national and international attention will remain focused on the Amazon Region, with an significant reduction of space on the socio-environmental agenda for other Brazilian biomes such as the cerrado and the caatinga;

ix. NCA constructed solid relations with a broad range of Brazilian organizations and any change in priorities should preserve these relations as much as possible; x. in the religious field it should be noted that despite the strengthening of institutional ecumenism, the perspectives are for increasing difficulties in the so-called grassroots ecumenism, especially due to the ongoing advance of Pentecostalism in rural and urban communities.

Recommendations:
Even recognizing the relevance and the scope of a strict programmatic approach, we recommend that the Brazil Program continue to rely on a plurality coherent with the objectives and strategic themes of NCA. A good part of the success attained was based on the formula of counting on solid – though diversified - partnerships, in other words organizations operating at different levels of intervention, with different relevant problems in strategic geographic regions.
Programmatic synergies: - the evaluation found that NCA had failed to promote and stimulate more long-lasting contacts between its partners, and should seek creative forms of expanding interaction between its partners, for example holding meetings and seminars about themes that are of real interest to the organizations or even making the sporadic ‘meetings of partners’ more interesting and opportune.
Communication: NCA should seek forms of reversing in the short term its Brazilian partners lack of knowledge of its strategies and institutional dynamics: the translation of documents and the introduction of this question in visits can be complemented with routine communication related to practical questions of interest to the partners.
Dialogue with NCA units: The interaction of the Brazilian partners with the different units of NCA should continue and intensify, since this can have important implications in various dimensions, in particular South-South cooperation. Due to the strong demand of its partners, NCA should strongly expand its actions in this area, including it as one of its priorities in the implementation of the next Program.
Size of team – various weaknesses in the relations between NCA and its partners seems to result from the reduced size of its team. Expanding the programmatic logic is costly and presupposes greater technical time than is available in the Brazil unit.
Gender Relations – there was a contrast between the relatively low weight of this theme in the Program and the centrality of this perspective among many of its partners. It is suggested that the design of the next strategy give greater attention and visibility to actions in this field.
Local NCA consultant: due to the persistence of difficulties of various partners in understanding the status of the local advisor, we recommend that NCA better outline its role and its attributes.
PME: many partners have difficulties in identifying the results and impacts of their actions. In a cooperation scenario that is increasingly results orientated, we suggest greater NCA support in this area. A good starting point would be the preparation of a matrix of results and impacts that could be routinely used by the partners of the Brazil Program.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid (if any):
NCA Follow up:

Brazil Program
We will continue to have a broad partner portfolio. However we will seek to structure the partnerships and projects in a more focused way corresponding with NCA Brazil thematic foci.
Programmatic synergies
We will organize at least 10 partner meetings in the course of the five-year period to discuss thematic issues
Communication with partners
We will twice a year send an update from NCA to partners. Important documents will be translated to Portuguese. We will define how the web site of NCA can be used to strengthen communication with partners.
Dialogue with NCA units
Colleagues from different departments of NCA will be involved in implementing the new 5 year plan, namely form the thematic division, the emergency preparedness division, division for quality assurance as well as the department of development policy. Visits from Brazil to NCA in Oslo will also strengthen this issue.
Gender relations
The gender issue will get more focus in the new 5 year plan. For example, in the OD supported programme the issue will be an important element. This will be reflected in active promotion of girls’ participation in the projects as well as the gender issue being mainstreamed as a topic in project activities, and in discussions related to development and rights issues. Specific indicators have been developed for the monitoring of this effort.
Local NCA consultant:
When the new consultant has been recruited by September 2011, information of the role of the consultant will given to the partners
PME
During the planning process, discussions on baseline, indicators as well as outcome and outputs have involved partners’ participation. A Brazilian consultant has worked on this issue together with NCA and our partners during the first semester of 2011.This will be followed up during the plan period 2011-2015.