Projekt-Kategorien: Development Cooperation

Development and Implementation of a M&E-System for the Plan Honduras Project "Prevention, Protection and rights Restitution for Girls and Boys survivors of sexual violence"

The overarching objective of the Plan Honduras project was that girls and boys are protected from sexual violence and had access to child friendly and competent prevention and attention mechanisms from local to national level. In order to achieve this objective, Plan Honduras developed an action programme that was to strengthen prevention, protection and attention capabilities for at-risk girls and boys and survivors of sexual violence in the family, community, municipality, departments and at the national level.
The task of the Center for Evaluation (CEval) in this framework was to assist and consult the process of developing and implementing an impact oriented gender sensitive M&E-system that could be used throughout the project cycle and beyond. Therefore the CEval adviced and trained project executives and partners in order to enable them to systematically monitor and evaluate project related activities, to identify the most relevant aspects on all impact levels, to formulate impact oriented qualitative indicators for the project contributing to gender equality, to design a data collection plan and instruments and to solve occurring challenges during the data collection and analysis process.
The knowledge transfer was facilitated through a combination of continuous consultancy, training measures and practical implementation of the consultancy and training content within an accompanied baseline study including a gender analysis as well as an accompanied interim and a final project evaluation.

Impact Evaluation of WIENCO Ghana Ltd. Out-grower Schemes

The overall objective of the impact evaluation was to measure and evaluate the investment of the Agricultural Trade and Investment Fund (AATIF) in two of WIENCO’s out-grower schemes in Ghana. In particular, two out-grower arrangements, the Cocoa Abrabopa Association for cocoa farmers and the Masara N’Arziki for maize farmers, were under investigation. The main interest lied in identifying the causal link between participating in WIENCO’s out-grower arrangements and the following outcomes and their development over time:

  • Productivity Levels
  • Employment opportunities
  • Farm and overall household income
  • Living and working conditions
  • Risk exposure regarding total household income; and
  • Farm-households’ risk coping strategies and mechanisms.

This shall provide AATIF with evidence on the effectiveness of funding out-grower schemes. In addition a simplified tool allowing WIENCO to collect data on the key outcomes shall be designed.

The 5-year evaluation will be conducted by a consortium of the Center for Evaluation (CEval) and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), together with Ghanaian partners. A mixed-method approach had been embedded in a profound contextual analysis. The evaluation combined a quantitative analysis of household and village surveys with qualitative insight into WIENCO’s impacts derived from focus group discussions (FGDs) and expert interviews. The reports provided the counterpart with robust evaluation results while also presenting practical recommendations to improve WIENCO’s activities.

Trend and impact study on fair trade in Germany

Fair trade had been an issue in Germany for over 40 years now and has received increasing public awareness ever since. The impacts of fair trade in the producer countries of fairly traded goods and products have been the subject of numerous studies. By contrast, insights on how fair trade affects the consumer countries of these goods and products to date are scarce.
The study implemented by CEval on fair trade in Germany addresses this gap. It aimed at identifying the societal changes and trends that have been evoked by fair trade in Germany and to determine how the fair trade movement contributed to these changes.

In doing so, a participative approach made sure that the expertise and perspectives of relevant actors are adequately reflected in the study. Furthermore, the study approached its research subject drawing on a theory-based approach and employed a balanced mix of qualitative and quantitative methods.

An intensive literature study, qualitative expert interviews, focus group discussions, online surveys and a telephone consumer survey were carried out to collect data. The data was evaluated using qualitative content analyses, time series analyses and descriptive statistical evaluations. Once the data had been analyzed, the results of the study were compiled in a report and discussed at a final workshop together with those who commissioned and supported the study.

University Cooperation with Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), with Funding Provided by the DAAD Program “Subject-Specific Partnerships with Universities in Developing Countries”

Having completed a successful 3-year cooperation focusing on the further development of the postgraduate study programme “Project and Programme Evaluation for Social Development” established at Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) in 1995, the Center for Evaluation (CEval) and the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) identified and realised new areas of cooperation. Since 2008, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has supported this cooperation with its funding project for sending German academics to universities in developing countries. Since 2012, the DAAD has also provided funding through the programme “Subject-Specific Partnerships with Universities in Developing Countries” (2012-2015), financially ensuring the plans to enhance the partnership between the two universities in Germany and Costa Rica.

The goal of the DAAD programme was to improve the teaching situation and to set up sustainable teaching structures in developing countries by facilitating academic exchange. Therefore, the international exchange between students, PhD candidates and lecturers was one of the most important aspects in the context of this enhanced cooperation. The focus also laid on opening up the master programme to other Central-American areas (regionalisation), embedding the partnership into an existing, international network (internationalisation), and adapting teaching of the master programme at UCR to regional demands and ensuing educational needs (creating a distinct programme profile). The four year partnership helped establishing or expanding regional and international professional networks and developing additional capacities regarding teaching and research.

It is planned to continue with the partnership in 2017 and integrate another Latinamerican university into the cooperation.

Development and Implementation of a Gender-Sensitive Continuous M&E-System for the Plan India Project “ENGENDERED! – Minimizing Gender Gap”

The aim of the project on behalf of Plan International India is to identify and eventually tackle structural causes of discrimination against women in India. To that end, responsible project managers of the partner organization should be enabled to implement gender-sensitive measures and to monitor and evaluate their impacts.
The task of the Center for Evaluation (CEval) was to provide support for the development of verifiable impact hypotheses and a user-friendly M&E system in cooperation with responsible project managers. Right at the beginning of the project, during a workshop in 2008, the LogFrame developed by Plan India had been discussed and revised regarding the measurability of included indicators. Further proceedings were a local training session in 2009 and further consultation services in the course of the project. In 2015, CEval conducted a final evaluation of the project.

Evaluation of the African Good Governance Networks (AGGN)

Young Africans educated at German universities are regarded by the DAAD as important resource persons who are able to play a key role in processes of development towards rule of law, democracy and economic prosperity after their return to their home countries. The African Good Governance Network (AGGN) was established at the beginning of 2007 under the patronage of Germany’s Federal President. This network is intended to contribute to the expansion and deepening of academic cooperation between Sub-Sahara Africa and Germany and at the same time to promote future African leaders in the field of good governance. The members of the AGGN support the principles of good governance, recognise them and actively disseminate them.

The AGGN can be understood as a long-term training programme in which up to ten new members are admitted annually. The network currently has 32 members from fourteen African countries who meet up to three times a year for workshops and seminars. These seminars deal with various theoretical and practical aspects of good governance as well as various personal skills. The aim is to raise awareness and understanding of good governance and the associated social attitude. The task of the evaluation was to evaluate the results and effects achieved so far and, on this basis, to derive recommendations for action for the design of further programme activities. The evaluation also takes the further development of the network and its potential into account.

The evaluation was methodically based on secondary and document analyses, a standardised online survey of all AGGN members and participation in one of the AGGN seminars in South Africa, in the context of which the results of the standardised survey were discussed with the AGGN members themselves.

Final Evaluation of the Child Legal Support and Protection Network Initiative

The final evaluation focused on the Child Legal Support & Protection Network Initiative in China, implemented by Plan International Deutschland e.V., which aims to provide comprehensive care for children who have been abused or who have themselves come into conflict with the law.

The final evaluation focused on identifying and evaluating the effects achieved so far and their sustainability, as well as the role and cooperation of the actors involved. In addition, recommendations for the planned second phase from 2011 should be developed on the basis of the results of the study. In accordance with CEval’s multi-method approach, in addition to guideline-supported intensive interviews with program managers and representatives of partner organizations, standardized surveys of other program participants (e.g. volunteer supporters) and a document analysis were used for data collection.