Evaluation Cooperation Rainforest Foundation Norway – Forum Kerjasama LSM Papua (FOKER). Papua and West Papua Provinces, Indonesia

Om publikasjonen

Utgitt:Januar 2014
Utført av:Marc Argeloo, Els Tieneke Rieke Katmo and Muayat Ali Muhshi
Bestilt av:Regnskogfondet
Område:Indonesia
Tema:Sivilt samfunn
Antall sider:0
Prosjektnummer:QZA – 12/0764 - 50

NB! Publikasjonen er KUN tilgjengelig elektronisk og kan ikke bestilles på papir

Background:
Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) started working with Forum Kerjasama LSM Papua (FOKER) in 2008, a network for CSOs in Papua and West Papua provinces with 118 member organizations. FOKER’s mandate is to do advocacy related to development of Papua, and capacity building of the member organizations. The partnership was initiated by RFN supporting FOKER’s campaign Save the People and Forests of Papua. The first part of the project focused on documenting and analyzing the conflicts related to forest management in the provinces, with the material that was developed to be used for lobby and campaigning in the following part of the project. This continued until 2012, and in 2013 a new long-term contract between RFN and FOKER was signed. The purpose of this project was to achieve laws and policies that would better protect, recognize and benefit the traditional communities of Papua and West Papua provinces.
This evaluation was the first external evaluation of FOKER’s RFN supported projects. In addition to assessing the project in itself, the evaluation team also included an organizational review of FOKER.

Purpose/objective:
The evaluation had the following objectives:
• To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the RFN supported FOKER’ project(s) in Papua and West Papua provinces.
• To provide an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and gaps in design and implementation of the RFN supported project(s), and recommendations for how weaknesses can be addressed.
• To provide an overview of strengths and weaknesses of FOKER’s organizational structure and internal management, and recommendations for how challenges can be addressed.
The evaluation was expected to contribute to strengthening FOKER as an organization as well as their project implementation.

Methodology:
The methodology included a combination of review of FOKER project documents, field travel, key informant interviews, focus group discussions with FOKER staff and member organizations as well as interviews with other key stakeholders. The evaluation team spent about two and a half weeks in Indonesia.

Key findings:
The evaluation concluded that whereas the project was fairly relevant, it had produced limited impact, especially for the traditional communities of the two provinces. The evaluation attributed this to a number of reasons, among others a lack of coherence between the various project documents and a design of campaign activities which was not found to be effective. The evaluation identified a number of internal challenges in FOKER.

Recommendations:
Project:

Design

The various project documents (reports, proposals) need to be synchronized. Capacity on project design needs to be increased in the FOKER secretariat.
It is recommended FOKER, in cooperation with RFN, focuses the project geographically and thematically
Positioning: tone of voice and unsubstantiated information
Prepare more focused and less elaborate proposals. Solutions should play a prominent role.
It is recommended that the generic characteristic of ‘policy improvement’ is defined in more detail and that the link of such improvements is substantiated at community level.
Gender perspective
It is recommended that FOKER makes a clear choice on how to approach gender perspective. The gender perspective should be implemented only when backed-up by sufficient resources and right programmatic embedding
Monitoring and evaluation
It is recommended that a basic system is developed and implemented through which lessons learned are analysed and the results of such analysis are applied. Such system should involve both the role and responsibilities of RFN and FOKER.
Campaigning
  It is recommended that in case campaigning remains an activity of FOKER, and lobby and advocacy are still part of a campaign, a proper vision exists of what campaigning in Papuan society means.
Generic terminology
  It is in general recommended that more attention is paid to defining certain elements within the cooperation. To begin with, ‘target groups’ and campaign require attention. 

Organization
Institutional improvement
  Resources should be made available for organizational development.
It is recommended that a limited number of actions are undertaken in 2014 in order to book ‘quick’ results that in turn will motivate Steering Committee, staff, Regional Coordinators and participants to take subsequent actions. Suggested areas to start with: 1) Financial management, 2) the role of the secretariat vs the members, and 3) project documents. 
  Recommendations should be implemented in a flexible way, with not too much focus on organizational charts. FOKER’s Master Plan 2013-2018 needs some sort of reality check to see what elements indeed can be implemented.
  It is recommended that the position of and relationship between Steering Committee and Secretary Executive are reconsidered. This involves the evaluation of FOKER’s statutes.
   It is recommended that the position and functioning of Regional Coordinators is evaluated.
Positioning and broadening
   It is recommended that FOKER makes a brief analysis of how to build on its position and profile with a small group of external advisors (other NGOs, media, corporate sector, government) in order to get input on how to rebuild and strengthen its position, and to explore possibilities of fulfilling a more independent NGO role at provincial and national level.
Strengthening the network
   In order to strengthen the network and FOKER’s role as voice for NGOs it is recommended that a brief analysis is made of what NGOs are still active, which active NGOs are still willing to participate in the FOKER network, and how such core group can strengthen its position, and that of FOKER, in order to better fulfil its mission.
   The corporate sector should be targeted, but not only by confrontation. FOKER should consider going into more direct dialogue with companies operating in the provinces.
   FOKER should also consider getting more engaged in commercial activities that are directly connected to local communities and natural resource management.
Prepare for new fundraising
   It is recommended that a basic fundraising policy is developed. It should be clear with whom the mandate for fundraising lies, Steering Committee or Secretary Executive.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
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