‘STRENGTHENING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS’ PROJECT (2009-2013) FINAL EVALUATION REPORT

Background:
The program choose to focus on strengthening the rights of the child through various activities, developed in conjunction with key stakeholders, as there was an identified need for this work at a grassroots, local and government level.

The main target group for the program was children. The program focused on how to improve the childhood of and opportunities for children in Mongolia so they could grow up in an environment without abuse of their rights. The program sees children as a member of a family and a member of a community, and therefore sees it as most effective to include children, parents and professionals within the target group. The geographical target area was Khovd, the regional center for the 5 western provinces of Mongolia, and Ulaanbaatar, the capital. The program ran from 2009 to 2013.

Purpose/objective:
Based on the ToR, two of the main purposes of the final evaluation were:

• To determine whether the project objectives has been reached
• To identify lessons learned and to provide recommendations for the next phase of the project    

Within this evaluation the following points were the specific focus of the evaluation:

• Assess and measure achievements, changes and results that SCR has contributed to within target areas during the project period.
• Also look specifically on the achievements made after the Mid Term Review to see if the changes made lead to a higher level of achievement
• Define the level of stakeholders’ participation including primary and secondary stakeholders
• Lessons learned. The evaluation will help project staff, project management and related partners to know what has been working well and what has not been working well which helps project management to find ways of improvements

Methodology:
Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied using the following data collection tools such as focus group discussion with key stakeholders, desk review, and interview of representations from all levels of stakeholders such as representation from project partners, community members, professionals, local decision makers, field visits/ observation and case study. Within desk review references, project documents, national reports, surveys, research, policy documents on social service and welfare were reviewed.

Key findings:
1. The implementation of the project should be carefully planned from the onset, with special consideration to project cycle, including project design, implementation and monitoring system.
2. After the parliament and local election, most of the governors, decision makers, and civil servants at national and sub-national level were frequently replaced and it caused the project staff to introduce the project goal, objectives and implementation several times.
3. The changing of community behaviour and values needs time and considerable effort before it could be eventually achieved.
4. The criteria of keen interest and commitment to effective participation can be one of the indicators of selecting beneficiaries for community development activities in local communities.   
5. Nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle is a constraint for the empowerment of all the family members, especially the fathers and male members. During the busiest seasons of local community, it would be difficult to participate and engage in community based activities.
6. In order to accommodate emerging interests among the target beneficiaries the training and activity plans have to be flexible.     
7. The creation of strong linkages with government and other national and international organizations from the initial period of project lifetime is important as a means of ensuring sustainability, sharing experiences and building capacity.
8. Linking operational plans of the project and stakeholders, such as khoroo can be effective to cooperate and contribute to the achievement of both organizations’ goals and objectives set within the strategic plan.

Recommendations: 
1. Project planning, implementation, and evaluation processes have to be carefully considered before implementing the project.  Moreover, continuous implementation of the project activities is important and sudden stoppage may weaken the implementation performance.
2. Strengthen interpersonal communication skills of social development education service partners and stakeholders to reinforce networking and partnerships for the expansion of the project activities and sustainability.
3. Continue organizing of capacity building trainings for project staff in order to improve their skills, and to implement the project activities more effective and efficient.
4. Improvement of the relationships between NLM–Mongolia’s projects may be one of the ways of sharing and using project resources in economical, productive and smart manner within the organization.
5. All the project documentation, including evaluation and progress reports have to be clear, short and sharp as a form of communication tool. The success of the project depends on the project related documents.
6. Furthermore, recommendations where given in connection with “dormitories” and “advocacy and awareness raising activities” such as strengthening NLM-Mongolias relationship with the government in order to ensure sustainability, transparency and sharing of knowledge and experience.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
The evaluation is of high quality and we believe that the project has come a long way and learned a lot. The recommendations are especially helpful and it will be interesting to see how they take those with them into the new project period which starts next year.