Mid-term Evaluation Report of “Longchuan Sustainable Livelihood Project

Background

Since 2009, BUER Consult AS has been cooperating with Long Chuan Foreign Aid Office on providing aid for community development work in Mo Shui and Lv Liang village. The assistance project has two phases – Phase One was from 2009 to 2011, mainly doing some relief work and giving free aids to build infrastructure, like building country roads and environmental friendly toilets, and installing solar-power showers, and so on.

Phase Two is from 2012 to 2016, with a focus on sustainable livelihood of the local farmers. The work of Phase One has made the project staff realize that the main problem of the local community is their livelihood is unsustainable due to the singular agricultural production structure. The specific example is their livelihood has severely depended on sugarcane plantation, which relentlessly relied on the increasing employment of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. This then consequently lead to unsustainability of the eco-environment. At the same time, the sugarcane industry is deemed as a “governmental financial support industry”, which means farmers have no voice in deciding the purchasing prices of the sugarcane. As the labour and planting costs have grown, the unsustainability of the sugarcane industry has become more and more obvious. The highest priority for the local community development that has emerged is to change the singular agriculture production structure and to create diversified means of living.

Purpose/objective

This evaluation is the mid-term evaluation for the 2012-2016  term project, which main objective is to assess the current status of the operation of the project in terms of reaching the initial goals which were set in the beginning; furthermore, to give specific suggestions for further adjustment and implementation.

The detailed mid-term evaluation goals are as follows:

1. Based on project design framework and baseline survey, to find out the real status of the project operation in terms of project results and products.
2. To evaluate the results, relevance, impact and sustainability of the project; to find the deviation, inappropriate project design (including project management), and unexpected project results.
3. To give suggestions on project design and management, and advice on how to increase the farmers’ income/add to their income resources.

Methodology

1. Analyzing Second-hand Documents: Following each evaluations emphasis point respectively, the evaluation team members read and studied two parts of the second-hand documents: A. The documents were prepared by the Kunming project office,  including the baseline survey report, project annual report and the project introduction documents, etc.; B. Any relevant rural developmental documents about  Longchuan on the internet. 
2. Interviewing Key Informants: A. People related to the project, like the project supporting party, the Kunming project office managing staff, the Longchuan project managing staff and the Longchuan project local partners; B. Different shareholders in the community including village committee leaders, group leaders, village project managing staff, women representatives, beneficiaries, and non-beneficiaries, and so on.
3. Focus Group Discussion: A series of group discussions were organized separately in the village, involving village group leaders, village project managing staff, beneficiaries, women and villagers who were not in the project, and so on.
4. On-site Participatory Visit: The evaluation team members visited the specific sites accordingly. For example, goat pens, sugar cane fields and village activity centres.
5. Information Cross Validation: Through on-site report back and immediate feedback, the evaluation communicated with the staff of the county level project office and the Kunming project office was in order to validate the information from the community. Through immediate feedback within the evaluation team, the information from different community groups was confirmed.

Key findings

Since 2012, the project has been putting more emphasis on sustainable life skill building, and has provided systematic activities in order to increase the income of the people in the community. The evaluation team, with their on-site evaluation, has found:

1. Although people’s livelihood is  still a singular income and unchanged, the project, by introducing new activities, has  altered the direction and increased the tendency for variety, such as planting nuts and Chinese bayberries, and farming livestock, etc.
2. The villagers’ eco-environmental awareness has also been hugely increased – they have profoundly realized the hazard on eco-environment caused by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and strongly agreed with the project to plant leguminous crops.
3. The project has helped organize the community and has raised the confidence of the community members, especially amongst the women.
4. The managing staff of the project have a great relationship with the community – its’ operation is widely acknowledged at county level.

At present, there are few problems regarding the operational process:

1. In regards to the livelihood project content, there has not been enough technical support and market development.
2. The participation of the poor households within the project has decreased.
3. The project has not been fully integrated with relevant projects in the area.

Recommendations

1. To analyze, compact and focus on the project strategic direction – “choose what to do and what not to do.”
2. To enhance the connections with relevant industry development in the area, and to share technical support and market building.
3. To find new agriculture business entities that would provide a nurturing environment that would stimulate development, and to explore how to relate those entities to poor households, promoting   interaction that is caring.
4. To explore different project content, for development in respective communities. 5. To advocate for policy change based on the project experiences, and to push for policy improvement in favor of the grassroots communities.