Mid-Term Evaluation report for the “Creating a safe and friendly environment for adolescent girls and boys” project

Background

Physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuses are major forms of violations of child rights in Zimbabwe. These are perpetrated through child marriage, child pledging, child labor, use of girls as payment of family disputes and lack of adult supervision, among others.

Some of the key drivers of violations includes: harmful cultural and religious practices; gender and power relations and poor enforcement of laws. Together with the project partners Childline Zimbabwe and Legal Resources Foundation, this project seeks to improve access to justice and protection services, enhance child participation, include and reduce the retention of children with disability and strengthen the coalitions with other stakeholders working on children rights.

Purpose/objective

The Mid-Term Review (MTR) assessed the degree to which planned outcomes around the four projects are on course to achieve the targeted results. The key objectives of the MTR was to assess the projects for the following: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, project management and sustainability. The MTR also assessed the project’s performance on cross cutting issues; gender equality, disability inclusion, unexpected results, added value and participation.

Methodology

Data was collected from various stakeholders through a survey with school children, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted with both internal and external stakeholders inter-alia project staff, policy makers such as government authorities, local community based organizations, other Non-Governmental Organizations working on child rights and school personnel. Focus Group Discussions were held with women, girls and previously mentioned committees. These FGDs assisted the Team in getting first-hand information and lived realities of the participants. Furthermore, the FGDs were used as a basis for documenting the Most Significant Change stories.

Key findings

1.  The project was relevant  in all districts and the relevance of the project was further buttressed by high levels of participation of the respective communities, including the children, traditional leaders; parents of CwD; locally initiated committees such as Child Care Workers, Child protection committees and Community Based Rehabilitations; government line ministries and departments; Community Based Organizations and other NGOs. The cooperation was effective in the sense that it brought together actors with different expertise ensuring maximum benefit to the children especially girls and CwD.
2. The project has also made some significant strides in ensuring the inclusion of CwD. Testimonies of KIs and children interviewed in group discussion point towards a better environment for CwD than before the project was implemented.
3. That implementing a project of this nature and magnitude in an unpredictable socio-economic environment requires constant innovative re-invention and adaptation. There is a need for constant reflection in order to respond to obstructions expeditiously.
4. There is a need for more nuanced methods of memory keeping to ensure that programme recipients can internalize and retain knowledge in the long term. This could be achieved through tools such as billboards, booklets, pamphlets, and posters. Moreover, the use of the local language has proved to be a great success in facilitating programme uptake.

Recommendations

• Given that the Monitoring and Evaluation (ME) system though line with industry best practice is internally based, it would be advantageous for PIZ to continue with regular training and refreshing of the internal ME team.
• The study showed that it was necessary for PIZ to start considering designing operational procedures that are flexible in the face of national challenges and events. Such a move will contribute towards the timeous achievement of project objectives without unscheduled sojourns.
• The study also exposed the ubiquitous nature of child related challenges. In this regard, PIZ KIs proposed upscale and nationalization of the project in order to increase its impact.
• In the case of reporting child rights violations, the study has shown it critical to consider more inclusive methods of reporting such as boxes where anonymous reports may be placed. It would be critical for Childline to have multiple methodologies of reporting cases in order to broaden the data set of child right offences. Furthermore, necessary resources to investigate anonymous tips and unclear reports must be afforded to the organization going forward. 
• It would also increase project mileage to see other permanent community institutions such as the government ministries and other CSOs increasingly replacing the project implementing organisations as lead trainers in future. This would signify high assimilation of lessons learnt at district level and higher chances of project sustainability.

Comments from the organisation

Plan Norway finds the report to only partially answer the questions posted in the TOR.  However, some of the findings are relevant and will be followed up by Plan.