Mid-Term Review of the Development Fund of Norway’s Malawi & Zambia (MAZA) Sustainable Agriculture Programme

Background

The Development Fund of Norway (DF) has been implementing Sustainable Agriculture Programme with local and international partners - Find Your Feet (FYF), Network for Youth Development (NfYD), Mzuzu Agricultural Development Division (MZADD), and Trustees of Agricultural Promotion Programme (TAPP) since January 2012. The goal of the Programme is to improve the food security for 39,000 households in Rumphi, Nkhata Bay and Mzimba districts in the Northern region and Dowa and Ntchisi in Central region by 2016. Specifically the Programme focuses at achieving 5 expected results: (i) implementation of sustainable agriculture (SA) techniques by small scale farmers; (ii) Increasing households’ food sources; (iii) Increasing access to market for small-scale farmers; (iv) Strengthening local institutions and organizations,  and;  (v) Ensuring that women are benefiting at all levels of project implementation. As the Malawi-Zambia (MA-ZA) Sustainable Agriculture Programme has been implemented for around 2,5 years now, a mid-term review was commissioned by DF to assess the progress made and make adjustments, if necessary, to enable the Programme achieve its goals by the end of the Programme period in 2016. This draft report presents preliminary findings of the mid-term review that was conducted between August and September 2014.

Purpose/objective

The main objective of the mid-term review was to assess the progress of the MAZA Programme against stated outputs in order to establish beneficiaries’ satisfaction with the Programme interventions.  In particular, the Mid-term review was tasked with the following:

• To assess best practices, issues and challenges affecting sustainability of the activities, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, relevance of outputs and their overall contribution to project outcomes to guide decision on the future of the Programme.
• To assess the results of each partner project and how the project management and implementation is contributing to the overall Programme achievement.
• To identify challenges that have been encountered and recommend best practices for preparing second phase implementation of the MAZA Sustainable Agriculture Programme.

Methodology

The mid-term review used qualitative research methodologies in order to exhaustively assess the performance of the MA-ZA Programme during its first half of the Programme cycle. The mid-term review used the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, namely: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impact, and Sustainability. Besides the DAC Criteria, the review also analysed MA-ZA Programme Design and its Connectedness among other issues. The performance of the various components was rated on a six-point scale from highly unsatisfactory to highly satisfactory. The study used both secondary and primary data. The secondary data came from a number of sources like programme annual reports, bi-annual quantitative survey report, project documents, and the refined project log-frame whereas the primary data was sourced from stakeholder consultations, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.

Key findings

The MTR has shown that the MA-ZA Programme is a well-designed programme that is highly relevant and aligned to the various developmental policies at all levels. The strategies are appropriate to address the food insecurity problems that are exacerbated by the effects of climate variability. Using the various OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, the study has shown the programme has been highly efficient and effective. The impact of the programme is already being felt even though it is has two more years to its completion. Further, the study results show that there is a high probability that the benefits would continue to accrue to the community long after the MAZA has phased out. The review has shown that overall the Programme is making satisfactory progress and is on course to achieve its set objectives.

Recommendations

The following recommendations were made based on the study findings:

1. There is need to strengthen the exit strategies to ensure that Programme interventions are sustainable beyond the life of the Programme.
2. For Output 3, the existing indicators do not adequately capture the reality of the situation, as far as market access is concerned. It is recommended that some of the indicators that are used in the logical framework of the AICC/MUSCCO Increased Market Access and Financial Services Project should be adopted in the main MA-ZA Logical Framework.
3. Strengthen the implementation of the SO3 activities by ensuring that all the implementing partners are actively engaging with the new partners (AICC and MUSCCO).
4. Ensure that NfYD activities are clearly built into the overall programme logical framework for ease of monitoring and to facilitate easy end-line evaluation.
5. NfYD should improve its presence and visibility in all the MA-ZA impact districts. This would effectively promote youth engagement and involvement in the MA-ZA Programme activities, to ensure long-term sustainability of the SA interventions.
6. Revise the target for indicator 1 for Output 3 (% increase in income from sale of crops and livestock produced on the farmers’ own farm) downwards to account for the 49% devaluation that took place in May 2012.

DF’s comment and use of the evaluation:

DF finds the findings of the review informative, logical and comprehensive. Going forward, DF will strive to address the shortfalls highlighted in the review with a view to improving quality and impact with which the MAZA Programme is implemented. The partner plans for 2015 will take into consideration the recommendations from the mid-term review.  In addition, DF will use the findings and recommendations therein to improve on the other existing sustainable livelihoods programme like the Sustainable Lead Farmer Programme (SALFP).