A Comparative Evaluation of FOKUS FGM Projects in East Africa

Background:
The initiative to the evaluation of FGM-projects supported by FOKUS has been taken by FOKUS. It is of increasing importance for FOKUS to carry out thematic evaluations involving several projects, in order to better document the combined results of projects/programs within our thematic priority areas. An important reason for evaluating FGM in 2011 is the fact that FOKUS, including involved member organizations and partners, are in the process of developing a thematic FGM-program in East Africa.

Purpose/objective:
Review and compare best and unsuccessful practices (or success/failure stories) in each of the selected projects; identify the most effective approaches in creating long-term and sustainable results and changes, in light of different country contexts.

Provide FOKUS/relevant member organizations and partners with recommendations for future program development on FGM in East Africa. 

Methodology:
The evaluation questions will be addressed primarily through the use
of a qualitative evaluation design. The evaluation will rely on a participatory approach based on the following theoretical frameworks for evaluations and organizational learning: Appreciative Inquiry, Evaluation for Change and the ILO participatory gender audit methodology. These methods use the mapping of success and achievement as a key basis for learning, putting the results of the intervention at the center stage. This approach will also allow us to capture a wide range of opinions and views.

Key findings:
Main achievements: The FOKUS projects have above all contributed to putting FGM on the local agenda, making people engage in open discussions about an issue formerly not talked about, changing people’s attitudes, and increasing awareness about the harmful effects of FGM. The mere existence of the projects and the fact that they disseminate information and create a pressure to abandon FGM is important in itself.

The projects may also have contributed to the reduction of FGM observed in many of the areas where they work. Results reported by project staff, community members and written reports point in the direction of drastic reductions of the FGM prevalence.

Key success factors are identified as:
• Local ownership
• Sustained interventions
• Targeting key people

The main common challenge: Assessing the exact achievements and results of the FOKUS projects is challenging. Except for recent baselines developed by KFUK Kenya none of the projects are based on baseline data. While a lot of solid and innovative work is being done on the ground, the results are often not accurately captured in the reports. Moreover, several of the projects appear to be largely focusing on activities and outputs with insufficient attention to outcomes and impacts, leading to potential underreporting of achievements and the missed opportunity to measure, learn from and exploit the impact of the program. This results in problems related to identify what changes have actually occurred, and what changes can possibly be attributed to the specific projects.

Recommendations:
1. Future FOKUS support should build systematically on the existing experiences and lessons learned from partner organizations as well as updated research and the experiences of other organizations currently engaged in similar work, which has been evaluated and studied.

2. All FGM efforts should promote a rights based approach seeing the work against FGM as a relational gender issue, being relevant to both men and women. FGM interventions should focus on the social mobilization of multiple stakeholders within the communities through an open dialogue.

3. All FGM interventions should emphasize local ownership through the involvement of relevant formal and informal social structures, such as government bodies, traditional CBOs and local leaders.

4. Interventions should be based on long-term commitment, and they should have clear exit strategies with concrete and realistic plans for handing over to the local communities.

5. In Tanzania it is seen as crucial to continue support of health initiatives addressing the widespread belief in FGM as the cure to vaginal and urinal infections, locally named Lawalawa.

6. FOKUS should play a more active role in strengthening the administrative capacity of the supported organizations in order to improve their results based management. National experts/organizations should be identified to undertake the necessary training or provide advisory services.

7. There is a need for all the FOKUS supported projects to improve the documentation of achieved results. It should therefore be a requirement for all FGM projects to develop baselines against which they will be able to measure results.

Comments from the organisation, if any:

From the Women’s Front: The report emphasizes the importance of baseline studies, but does not give any guidelines as to which phenomena one should capture by such studies. Should we capture prevalence, cultural explanations, or media coverage? We think it is of little help to use research terminology without giving concrete examples.

The evaluators also use terminology which primarily refers to quantitative research methods. Qualitative phenomena are referred to as “anecdotal,” and thereby underestimate the importance of non-quantifiable phenomena.