PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY OPERATION DAYSWORK (OD) 2006-2010

Background:
In 2005, OD approved the project proposal from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA),  on Human Trafficking as the main focus for a series of interventions in the lives of youngsters from Brazil, main victims of this problem. Based on the experience gained with work developed on this theme and with the youngsters, five partner organizations integrating the portfolio of NCA in Brazil were selected to receive support: Ação Educativa, Diaconia, Instituto Socioambiental, Serviço à Mulher Marginalizada and Viva Rio.

Objective:
The implementation of the projects started in January 2006 and is to be concluded in December 2010. The evaluations carried out have, therefore, had an intermediate character and focussed four objectives, which can be summarized as follows: i. to examine the efficiency of the projects’ implementation; ii. to identify the projects’ impacts; iii. to examine societal changes that may have occurred in facing Human Trafficking; iv. to contribute with recommendations for the future orientation of the projects.

Conclusions:
The main conclusion of the evaluation is that, until now, the projects have managed, in the great majority of the spaces where they operate, to establish themselves as a reference in the work with youth and on the issue of trafficking. The projects’ effects have been beyond the ones foreseen in the annual work proposals and plans. The extensive network of partnerships established and/or strengthened by the five organisations in the area of project implementation has increased the potential of the evaluated initiatives in reaching their main goal: to promote the Brazilian youth as agents of transformation.

Recommendations:
1) On communication: The evaluation has recommended that the projects should give continuity to the search for
invention and reinvention of communication forms and channels in order to potentialize their multiple functions, using its staff, multimedia equipment, computing centers and, above all, the youngest in their learning process in this area, to their fullest capacity.
2) On disabled youth: social inclusion of youngsters with special needs (that is, with physical disabilities) has been
addressed, even if not yet systematically, in some of the evaluated projects. Thus, it is recommended that more investments are made in this audience, although in general it is still relegated to a second plan in the actions of organizations of the civil society.
3) On ethnicity: the evaluation recommends that more attention be given to the issue of racism and ethnicity,
considering the persisting situation of racial prejudice and social vulnerability of the black youth population in Brazil.
4) On religion: a series of questions related to the full inclusion should be better thought out by the organizations,
such as: How to involve youngsters with different religions in the work that is being implemented? What media and what approaches should be used? How to prevent the entrance door to the communities (many times the social work of the Catholic Church) from closing others? How to enlarge and diversify relationships in spaces where there are groups and positions that are opposite to one another?
5) On (lack of) schooling: Since all projects involve youngsters who live in low income communities, this educational
predicament contributes negatively in reaching the objectives and results proposed. The solution to this problem is obviously connected to public policies in the educational realm, being the organizations of the civil society in charge of taking actions related to these policies so that they can promote the professional qualification of the youngsters, aiming at their inclusion in the labor market: the erradication of illiteracy, more investments in teaching, getting the youngsters back to school and good quality education and professional training, etc.
6) On youth protagonism: Two issues - the first one concerns the organizational and financial weaknesses, not only of youth associations, but also, and which is graver, of the very local and/or communitary partner institutions. Field visits verified that the generalized weakness in this sphere stands in stark contrast with the quality of the services rendered by the projects. The second weakness consists of the little ability of some of the projects to really involve the youngsters (as well as instances of the communities they belong to) in the management of the projects that are being implemented – revealing a certain contradiction with the perspective of strengthening the juvenile protagonism. The recommendation is that they should pay more attention to these two gaps.

Follow-up:

A seminar was organized in October 2008, after the completion of the report, uniting the five organizations that underwent this evaluation. Here, the evaluators presented their findings, and challenges and weaknesses were discussed openly, in order to draw upon the experiences and competence on one another.

As an attachment to the working plans for 2009, each one of the five organizations has made a separate follow-up plan based on the recommendations in this evaluation, commenting on each specific issue and expressing how they will deal with the challenges in their future work. This will in its turn be followed up by NCA during the course of the year.