Evaluation of the scope of the cooperation between NCA partner organizations in Guatemala

Background

As part of its 2016-2020 strategic plan, NCA planned to have in 2016 an external
evaluation about the impact and work of Fundación Solar, which is categorized by NCA
as resource partner addressing energy efficiency and climate resilience issues, mainly.

The collaborative work and assistance of Fundación Solar with CIEDEG and CODEFEM
was focussed in this assessment that also supports to NCA with some learnings about
its own Partnership Policy application and implementation.

Purpose/ Objective

Assess the effectiveness both in the NCA application of the categories of partner
organizations and in the cooperation that has developed between three linked national
partners.

Methodology

This evaluative process was done according to the proposed methodology, divided into
three moments: documentation review, work in the field in the city and the
communities through focus groups and interviews. With this procedure the evaluation
team was able to compare information bringing to a comprehensive vision of the
developed coordination between the different actors involved.

Key Findings

The relation and cooperation between NCA and its national partners, as well as the
coordination between the partners, is conditioned by NCA categorization of core and
resource partners. This categorization is only NCA application for programmatic issues
but it is not the own recognition of the partners, necessarily.

Particularly, the evaluation determined that NCA was unable to define a territorial
work strategy, nor to construct a methodology of coordination between Fundación
Solar (core partner) with CIEDEG (core) and CODEFEM (resource). This gap did not
facilitate the strategic coordination between the three partners that were assessed
because there was no directionality and clarity. This situation and the complex reality
of the communities and Guatemala, significantly conditioned the work evaluated.

One important finding is that the effective coordination was made by the
workers/technicians of the assessed partners in the field more than the leadership
coordination. The people in the field who in the practice saw the importance of
coordinating and not duplicating efforts; as well as not wearing down the activities of
women's groups, subjects of the actions done. It was evidenced the importance to
complement the strengths of the two organizations. The operative/field coordination
was well assessed but not the strategic coordination. It seems that this situation did
not allow to achieve better results and impact.

Among the main results found in the evaluation, are:

• The coordination initiative/project was adapted to the context situation of adaptation to climate change, the conditions of poverty and the political situation.
  Cultural and environmental practices improved in the target communities that
  contributed to family health and economy as well as advocacy at municipal level.
  This through the forest management and the installation of improved stoves.
• The initiative/project had an adequate complement between the topics and actions
  for the prevention of disasters and climate change.
• Women’s organization capacity was improved including their advocacy. Women’s
  technical skills were developed for the maintenance of the improved stoves.
• Advocacy to the municipality authorities both to support the stoves installation as
  well as with the forest management was strengthened. The reduction in the use of
  firewood results in the decrease of logging as a measure of climate adaptation

Recommendations

1. The coordination between partners must be an agreed exercise defining common strategies and methodology to all the actions to be implemented mainly for complementary work.
2. To sustain the actions to be implemented, all partners’ coordination must prioritize
   mainly the communities’ capacities strengthening and secondly the capacities
   development of the partners’ staff.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid

In 14 December 2016, Fundación Solar informed to NCA that their Executive Board
decided to end the cooperation with NCA due to the change of their geographical area
priority from 2017 which is no longer aligned with NCA coverage strategy.