Active Literacy Program Experimentation evaluation Active Literacy Program Experimentation evaluation sumamry

1. Project Description and Background to Evaluation
The Active Literacy program is an initiative of SFWA targeting women of the Saving For Change program. The beneficiaries of the program recive training in literacy skills, citizenship, governance and management with the emphasis on everyday aplicatoin. The program, in experimentation since 2008, is implemented by two local NGO of Mali in different areas.
The evaluation is a follow up evaluation from 2011 to assess the teaching material and relevance of the program.

2. Purpose/objective
The evaluation aimed at evaluating the implementation of the Active Literacy Program including the newly integrated radio component in terms of pedagogical relevance, relevance of and adaptation to user needs, process of implementation, effectiveness and efficiency. To gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the program.

3. Methodology
A prelimianry meeting was held at Stromme Foundation with the consultants to ensure the latter of the expectations of SFWA and make a realistic planning of the evaluation. The strategy of investigation targetted both direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project activities, including all stakeholders involved in the implmentation.
Data collection; interviews with individuals  and focus groups, document analysis on program implementation, handbooks and teaching guides. Analysis of the collected data to secure a holistic vision of the different evaluation aspects.

4. Key findings
Strengths of the program
• Favorable environment for execution of the program. The synergy of SWFA programs a has a positive influence
• Its participative approach accelerates the process of ownership and responsibilization of women and communities
• The active literacy teaching program is a modern pedagogy, which sets the learner in the center of the learning process
• The radio component brought a new dimension to the program within the covered areas
•  The supervision of and proximity of SFWA brought motivation and dynamism to beneficiaries as well as centre managing committee members and implementing NGO staffs 
 
Weaknesses of the program:
• The animators  are not well informed about the competences to be acquired by the learners at the end of the program
• The training program does not respect the teaching principle of always moving from simple to complex, from known to unknown and the background of the learners
• To complicated mathematic lessons, compared to the real everyday needs of the learners
• There are too many images in some lessons, and an impreciseness on the referents of certain images
• The theoretical bases or the fundamental principles of the teaching approach of the AL program are not easily identifiable in the documents and the teaching materials of the AL program.
• Some animators do not have good enough French skills
• Significant numbers of women of the Saving For Change program are looking forward to receiving the training

5. Recommendations:
• To respect teaching principles related to moving from the simple to the complex and from the known to the unknown
• To integrate issues related to land ownership, environment (the cutting of wood) and the culture of peace into the modules of the Active Literacy program
• To be more flexible in terms of number of hours per day for Active Literacy centre activities; providing the volume of hours (15 hours) per week is respected
• To systematize the use of tape recorders to help the listening of the radio program at spare times
• To improve the quality of some pictures

6. Comments from the organisation, if any:
 (this section to be filled by the staff responsible in SF’s Regional Office)