Final Evaluation of the Yuanyang Educational Development Program

Background:
The Yuan Yang Environmental Development Project (YYEDP) was formally started in January 2005. The project was planned for a five year period. The long term goal of the project has been to reduce poverty in selected townships of Yuan Yang County and raise awareness for environment protection and sustainable development by improving education, health care and environmental protection and by empowering and inspiring government officials and the poorest people to develop and gradually to take care of their own self-development to improved life and living conditions. Main activities have been community development training (health, English teacher’s training, biogas) and construction of water systems and biogas systems, as well as some building and repair of school buildings and roads.

Purpose/objective:
The main purpose of the evaluation was to provide implementing partners with
the feedback they need to secure the best possible results of the resources invested and give a true and realistic view of the project results and outcome and how these have influenced the beneficiaries. Another main purpose was to get as much knowledge as possible when it comes to lessons to be learned for the implementing partners.

Methodology:
The evaluation team used four main tools to evaluate the project: Review of project documentation, participatory assessment activities, observation and interaction with project staff and site visits.

Key findings:
The villagers see their primary needs as continued development of infrastructure (road construction in particular), however, the training seemed to be very well received and most expressed a desire for continued training. Two main challenges were discovered: There is a distinct lack of defined leadership in the project and no one was really clear who should be directly responsible for the overall management and direction of the project. Moreover, there was no real clearly defined vision for the project and certainly any vision that did exist was not one that was universally agreed upon. Much of these issues also goes back to the design of the projects being implemented within Shincon and more crucially, the lack of agreed vision for Shincon itself.

Recommendations:
The agency responsible for the implementation of the project (Shincon) was recommended to sit down as a team and decide whether they want to continue working in Yuang Yang, what possibilities there are that fit in with their overall vision and strategy, and what the vision would be for a future project in Yuan Yang. In addition to needing a clear vision, there was also need for greater clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the different partners and the people implementing the project. Overall, it was commonly agreed by all of the implementing partners that training was both the most successful and the most wanted aspect of the project. It was therefore recommended that in the process of casting a future vision for work in Yuan Yang, Shincon seriously consider that training become a key aspect of that project. The original project vision is in need of a revision by the people that will implement any new project in Yuan Yang.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
After the evaluation it was decided not to continue with a new project in Yuan Yang. This was partly based on the findings of the evaluation that confirmed what the project has been struggling with for some time, a lack of ownership and sustainability and poor management by the local partner.