Evaluation Report, Federation Capacity Building and Social Mobilization Project, November/December 2006

Background:
The projected started in January 2003 and is running until 31 December 2007. It is unique both in its development approach as well as in the cooperation among the stakeholders. The project is aiming at increasing the capacity of the 260 Union Federations (local self managed association of rural landless as democratic and effective community based organizations so that they will thus be capable to support effectively the social development of their groups and act as social change agents in their local communities. The stakeholders, RDRS and four Scandinavian partners (the lead agency DanChurchAid, NorwegianChucrhAid, FinnChurchAid and Church of Sweden) have joined in a consortium to ensure funding, management and sharing of lessons learned. Funding sources are from the European Commission and from stakeholders own funding sources.  

Purpose/ Objective:
The objectives of the evaluation are to:

• provide stakeholders within the European Commission, RDRS and the consortium members with relevant and sufficient information to make informed judgment about performance of the project;
• document major lessons learned;
• provide practical recommendations for follow- up action for RDRS, the Federations and the Consortium members – including RDRS strategies and policies for supporting ad strengthening the Federations in future.

Methodology:
Four week in Bangladesh, where the consultants prepared and implemented the evaluation together with RDRS. It included briefing, desk study of relevant documents, field data collection in the districts, meetings, focus groups interviews, validation, analysis and de-briefing. There is a fine balance between quantitative and qualitative data and information.

Key findings:
The report concludes that the project has been very successful in the strengthening the capacity of the federations to ensure good governance hereunder adequate representation and active involvement of women. The findings are structured in way which assesses the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project, which is very useful for leaning and future action purposes. Most important are:

• Federations are democratic; governed by policies, rules and audits; there are internal democracy, representation and participation of rural poor women;
• 140 federations of targeted 200 are legally registered with relevant government agency. The remaining 60 have tendered their registration request.
• Capacity measures have increased management performance e.g. management of meetings, record keeping, financial management and audits.
• Physical facilities are impressive – 221 out of 260 have well managed community centres, surrounding compounds, grain storage and trees.
• Folk song and theatre groups in 29 Upazillas as well as social mobilization events have created a tremendous education and awareness level for people in the communities e.g. on HIV/AIDS, health, voter education, human rights and disaster preparedness.
• Communication systems are improved and has enhanced networking between federations, and has given a modest income opportunity for them.
• 576 federation leaders contested in the last UP (Union Parishad) local election and 222 were elected (44% women and 56 % men) - which is remarkable.

Recommendations:
 If federations want, RDRS should consider involving federations as local grass roots partners in implementation of its future programme.
 Plan and implement economic autonomy and empoverment of the federations as this will support the ongoing institutional development and thus long-term sustainability.
 Focus on the C grade and lower end of B grade on the capacity continuum.
 Federations primarily have an implementation – and organizational role. Coordination committees at Upazilla and      District level have an advocacy and networking role. Do not nix these two roles up!
 The future holds two challenges for the federations: a) the federations must sustain as democratic CBOs to support their disadvantaged members and the wider community, and b) in order to be effective in this endeavour, the balance between institutional, programme, process and financial sustainability.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid (if any):
The evaluation is an important tool for the forthcoming EC application