External evaluation of the community development project (DECO)

Background: Purpose/objective:
Misión Alianza de Noruega en Ecuador (MAN-E) began its diaconal and community development work in the marginal areas of Guayaquil in 1994. 

The document “Guayaquil, Ecuador Community Development – 2004 Project Plan” is the project’s base. After the evaluation in 2006 the project was reviewed and the document “2006 Project Plan Changes” was made. The project has two lines of action, Education and Churches; and three work axes, Community Organization, Health and Social Relations, and Family Economy. The project works with two types of local partners: Schools with its community committees or commissions and churches with its committees or commissions. The project’s support focuses on different types of training and financing for infrastructure and furniture. The general budget for 2007 and 2008 is US$1,262,000 and US$1,521,000 respectively.

Methodology:
The Evaluation team visited MAN-E twice. During the 5 – 14 January period, the team met with all staff related to DECO Project and other specific projects. They reviewed documents and visited six local partners: 3 schools and 3 churches.  During the 15 – 27 January period the team reviewed several documents such as handbooks, meeting minutes, etc. During the 27 April – 2 May period, the team held more meetings with MAN-E’s staff and local authorities with whom MAN-E works.  During that same period the team worked on the Evaluation Report, and presented the conclusions and recommendations to the Board of Directors and all of MAN-E’s staff on Thursday April 30.

Key findings:
Impacts, significance, relevance, and sustainability
1. The 2006 evaluation confirmed the impact, significance, and relevance on the beneficiaries. As agreed with MAN-E, the evaluation team this time has limited itself to discussing the impact only with a few selected partners. The interviews have confirmed that the project continues to have the same impact. Likewise, the reached achievements and quality of results corroborate this.
2. The sustainability strategy of the project focuses on two group levels: the social partners through the board of directors, committees and micro-projects management, and the directors and pastors networks.
3. In the 2006 evaluation it was noticed that directors and pastors’ network did not show a clear vision for project sustainability. This has not changed; they continue to see MANE as an international organization that has the resources and sometimes even more as a regulatory organization for their participation.
4. Sustainability is also determined by the type of implementing, schools are within the national education system and the local churches are linked to other larger structures, which in time allow them to consolidate. However, sustainability of the latter is quite vulnerable because in most cases they are emerging churches.
5.  The cooperation actions with local authorities have been strengthened, which is supposed to contribute to sustainability.
6. The project has lacked an explicit strategy with gender focus. It was designed at the end of 2008. Therefore, it has not been possible for the evaluation team to compare impacts, relevance, and significance with regard to gender.

Recommendations:
Recommendations regarding the General Project
1. Prepare baseline to be applied in the design of the new DECO project.
2. MANE should define its development focus: whether it is the community or
partner development.
3. The development objective should be more realistic and simple, taking into account limitations in promoting community development through partners such as school and church.
4. A logical framework including impact indicators should be prepared.
5. Pilot models that enable validation of methodologies and pragmatic results should be prepared.
6. Consider whether the existing development approach of two lines – education and church is the most appropriate to reach the community and strengthen development in social groups.
7. For the project design, MANE must take into account the new parameters and socio-political scenarios, based on the new constitution of the country and the State plans for education.

Comments from the organisation, if any: