Midterm Evaluation of NPA-Cambodia Office’s Development Program

Background

NPA’s Cambodia programme originated in the early 1990s with humanitarian relief operations (mainly linked to refugees and repatriation) and with the first deployment of de-miners under UN auspices in the north-western part of the country. The NPA has provided financial and technical assistance to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre since 1993.
A coherent development programme only materialised in the 2005-2010 period. This was linked to the phasing out of NPA’s operational and service-oriented projects - a legacy of humanitarian work from the previous decade. By 2010, NPA’s development programme had more than 20 partners in the country. The programme was funded by Norad’s civil society grant as the sole external funder (in the early years there was also a small contribution from Norad’s “oil for development” programme).

The Civil Society programme in Cambodia is currently supported through the frame agreement NPA has with NORAD (2016-19)

Purpose/objective

The main purpose of the evaluation was to assess NPA’s partnership with local NGOs/Civil Society Organisations and to identify results and lessons learnt from the programme. The evaluation should incorporate the current country political context and other external factors that might affect NPA’s future development programme and strategy. Furthermore, the study should identify best practices and key lessons and provide recommendations for improvement in terms of program design and strategies, partnership cooperation and NPA’s added value.

Methodology

A variety of approaches and methods were selected to collect data enabling the team to respond to ToR and the evaluation questions. This included desk review, interviews with staff of NPA and partners and focus group discussion with beneficiaries.

The team interviewed more than 35 individuals, including current and former staff of NPA (In Oslo and in Cambodia), officials of partners and beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Interviews was carried out among a selection of NPA’s local partners in Phnom Penh and the Preah Vihear province. The interviews were semi structured based on interview guides developed by the team.

Furthermore, the team interviewed 29 individuals in five different focus groups. This included direct beneficiaries (community activists, local government officials and others).

Key findings

Relevance: The team concludes that the relevance of NPA’s Cambodia is satisfactory. The selection of thematic areas and partners are well aligned with NPA’s global policy guidelines. They are also relevant in relation to major development challenges facing Cambodia. NPA’s approach to local partners – emphasizing advocacy and strengthening of partners – is also well aligned with NPA guidelines and with challenges facing civil society organisations in Cambodia.

Results - Efficiency and effectiveness: Overall, the team concludes that NPA’s development programme is performing well with local partners delivering on activities and outputs and programme implementation running reasonably smoothly. Relations between NPA and partners are in general good. However, the evaluation also identified several challenges and bottlenecks. They are likely to be exaggerated with the current deteriorating space for independent civil society action. Many partners will need to adapt to changing political context. This requires revision of strategies and work plans. Maintaining focus, and in some cases even securing the survival of partners advocating for democratisation and human rights, will be important. The evaluation team found that gender aspects appeared reasonably well integrated.
Added value:
The team found that NPA’s Cambodia programme pays insufficient attention to its added value in relation to partners. NPA plays an important role as an intermediary between the donor (Norad) and the local partner. NPA also plays an important role in identifying and selecting partners. Beyond this, the added value is found to be more uneven.

Recommendations

1. Maintain support to partners working for democratisation and popular participation
2. Mainstream advocacy in service delivery with more emphasis on programme
3. Help ensure that networks deliver
4. Maintain emphasis on support to governance certification of partners
5. Protecting NPA’s space – and the role of humanitarian disarmament
6. Maximise NPA’s added value

Comments from the organisation

NPA Cambodia has developed an action plan to follow up findings and recommendations from the Mid-term evaluation. The focus has especially been on addressing findings relating to the increasingly shrinking space for civil society in Cambodia and to maximize NPAs added value. All findings and recommendations will be addressed and will inform any new plans from NPA going forward.