Water

Productive Water Technologies to enhance resilience for smallholder farming households in Chiredzi and Mberengwa Baseline Report

CARE International in Zimbabwe is implementing the Productive Water Technologies to enhance Resilience for Smallholder Farming Households initiative, within two existing CARE resilience building projects. The LDSC-funded intervention will complement the software components of two ongoing CARE projects funded by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF), which is managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The two CARE projects, Enhancing Community Resilience and Sustainability (ECRAS) running from July 2016 to March 2021, and Enhancing Community Resilience and Inclusive Market Systems (ECRIMS) running from September 2017 to October 2020, are being implemented in Chiredzi (and Mwenezi) and Mberengwa (and Zvishavane) districts respectively.
The current projects mainly focus on software (training, capacity-building, etc.), with limited establishment of water infrastructure. Specifically, the new initiative will support year-round access to productive water for smallholder farming households in Chiredzi and Mberengwa districts through the establishment/construction and rehabilitation of water infrastructure and related production assets. Year-round water access will address challenges relating to livestock and crop production, thus helping improve food and nutrition security for smallholder farming households, including those headed by women and youth. Some of the water points also will provide safe drinking water. In each of the two districts (Mberengwa and Chiredzi), the proposed project interventions will be layered on and integrated with the two ongoing CARE projects to enhance resilience and sustainability. Both ECRAS and ECRIMS aim to increase community capacities to sustain development gains and achieve improved well-being in the face of shocks and stresses. The projects, which enhance household and community resilience, seek to achieve five outcomes: Household and community capacities and assets are strengthened to deal with economic and climate-related shocks and stresses [54 pages]. Read More...

Cyclone Idai Response and Recovery Project in Manicaland Province: Final Evaluation Report

CARE International in Zimbabwe and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Consortium implemented an ECHO funded project in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts. The consortium implemented early recovery interventions, seeking to address the immediate WASH and basic needs of the Cyclone Idai affected populations. The interventions were centered on a community-based integrated approach focusing on building local capacities and empowering communities to regain control over their lives and become more resilient using a robust cash-based component. The project is targeting a total of 9 wards in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts. The project also implemented integrated WASH support interventions in 2 wards in Chipinge district and 1 ward in Chimanimani district whilst implementing the Multi-Purpose Cash Transfer project in 4 wards in Chimanimani district.

The eleven-month project (1 May 2019 to 30 March 2020) aimed to respond to the urgent needs of vulnerable populations through integrated WASH, food security and livelihoods assistance. The overall objective of the project is to provide immediate access to integrated WASH and food security and livelihoods support to the cyclone-affected population.

The consortium conducted an internal final evaluation survey in ward 1 & 4 of Chipinge district and wards 10, 13, 14, 16, 17 & 21 of Chimanimani district for all the interventions to facilitate evidence-based monitoring and evaluation as well as to match targets with the expected project outcomes. The results will be used to draw lessons learnt for future programming. This survey adopted a quantitative and qualitative methodology. A survey questionnaire with close ended questions administered through KoBo collect. Qualitatively, Focus group Discussions with project beneficiaries and Key Informant interviews were sources of data for this assignment. A review of project documents was also done in assessing the intervention. In selecting project beneficiaries to engage in the end line survey, proportional stratified random sampling was employed.

Acknowledgements
The compilation of the project evaluation report was made possible by individuals who dedicated their valuable time. Sincere gratitude to the CARE International and International Rescue Committee (IRC) project staff for their tireless efforts throughout the course of the evaluation. Appreciation goes to the recruited enumerators who participated actively in the collection and processing of the survey data. Special mention also goes to the project staff and managers for the administrative and logistical support during the exercise. The respondents (Cyclone Response and Recovery Project beneficiaries) in Chipinge and Chimanimani are specially thanked for their participation as units of analysis for the evaluation, without them the exercise would not have been possible. Special mention also goes to the CARE & IRC Monitoring and Evaluation unit for analysis and report writing. Read More...

Integrated Basic Emergency Assistance to Conflict-Affected and Vulnerable Communities in Yemen Project

CARE Yemen has been implementing an OFDA-supported “Integrated Basic Emergency Assistance to Conflict-Affected and Vulnerable Communities” project in four districts (Sudah, As Sawd, Jabal Yazid, and Maswar) of Arman Governorate; two districts (Ash Shagadirah and Ku’aydinah) of Hajjah Governorate; and three districts (Alrujum, Jabal Mahweet, and Hafash) of Al-Mahweet Governorate Yemen. The goal of the project is to improve the basic living conditions, and facilitate early recovery and resilience of internally displaced persons and host communities affected by conflict in Yemen. This project seeks to meet the critical WASH and basic living needs of the most vulnerable households living in the targeted districts so that lives are saved, suffering is alleviated, and human dignity is maintained. The specific objectives of the project are: reduce morbidity from WASH-related diseases of vulnerable IDPs and host communities; enable the most vulnerable IDPs and host communities to meet their basic and immediate needs, and increase their asset base; and improve the food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable host communities. Read More...

Baseline Survey Report for a WASH project in West Mosul

This is a baseline survey report for the "Improving Sanitation, Hygiene, Renovation of Sewage System" project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
There are two priority issues to be addressed by this project: a) significant health risks posed by accumulation of solid waste in key arteries of West Mosul (Cree stream), precluding the effective flow of gray water towards the river as well as damaged pipes which serve to remove black water from residential areas (Al-Thawra neighborhood), and b) limited civic engagement and ownership of residential environment, resulting in poor communal hygiene practices and a high burden on local authorities, which are operating under severely reduced capacity to address needs.
A base-line survey was conducted to identify the current water, hygiene and sanitation conditions in the neighborhood, beneficiaries’ specific needs (disaggregated by men, women, boys and girls) and overall awareness towards water, hygiene and sanitation measures. In order to measure the impact of this projects base line data will be evaluated against end line data collected after project closure. Read More...

Endline evaluation of WASH project in West Mosul, Iraq

This is an endline evaluation for the "Improving Sanitation, Hygiene, Renovation of Sewage Systems" project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
This project addressed critical needs for sanitation services in West Mosul, as a direct contribution to enable the affected populations to return home. The project aimed to repair two vital sanitation resources/infrastructure in West Mosul and to support the municipal authorities to build their capacity to eventually recover their costs, once the situation allows. Finally, the project intended to mobilize local communities towards greater ownership for their local environment, to avoid the recurrence of such sanitation risks and maintain a cleaner, more habitable environment. In addition to mitigate a number of health risks related to poor sanitation in urban areas, CARE’s engagement aimed to promote social cohesion and community participation among vulnerable populations affected by the conflict.
The End-line project Evaluation is intended to assess the relevance, performance, management arrangements and success of the project. It looks at signs of potential impact of project activities on men,
women, girls and boys identified as vulnerable and the sustainability of results, including the contribution to capacity development. The Evaluation also identifies, and documents lessons learnt and makes recommendations that project staff and the stakeholders might use to improve the design and implementation of other related projects and programs. Read More...

Pathways Project End of Project Evaluation Report

Pathways aimed to increase productivity and income in equitable agriculture systems. CARE innovated an effective Theory of Change to address real issues affecting rural women farmers by providing them with capacities in agriculture; access to inputs, extension services and markets; empowerment to influence decisions; and an enabling environment for growth.

Pathways has met and, in most cases, surpassed targets set in its M&E framework. In the words of women themselves the project has worked very well, focusing on groundnuts and soybean as high-value cash crop substitutes for tobacco because of their high potential for markets, ability to replenish the lost soil fertility and strong nutritional value. It has grown from working with 9,000 to 14,282 farmers (hosting a population of 71,410 people), organising them into 1,528 groups. Women provide leadership to most of the groups after being transformed to become successful wives, farmers and entrepreneurs who can make independent decisions and speak in public.

In 2015 alone, collective sale revenues from groundnuts and soy amounted to MK128, 601,938 (US$233,821.7) and rose to MK854, 356,267 (US$751,511) by the end of 2017. Contract farming organized by the project contributed US$34,233 to these revenues. In 2014, the project conducted 188 community-wide gender dialogue sessions and reached out to 9,654 people, 7193 female and 2464 male, helping them to internalize and address gender inequalities. Men have generally started looking at women as partners in agriculture and development that is cementing marriage bonds and creating an enabling environment for women to succeed. Along with this, CARE Malawi linked women farmers to key players in the groundnut and soy value chains to help them excel.

As a consequence, by December 2016 a total of 246 farmer groups had accounts with OIBM and other banks through which they saved MK49, 175,577 and 6 VSLs accessed two group loans worth MK4,800,000 (US$7,804.88) which they invested in agriculture, business and VSL activities. VSLs profited and shared out US$871,178 in the year, with more benefits seen in 2017 when savings accumulated to US$3,756,435 e.g. earnings of MK47, 489.32 to MK204, 769.33 per household on average. In turn, per capita household monthly incomes and expenditures doubled by the time the project closed in December 2018. Although agricultural productivity continued to decline over the project life due to poor weather conditions, Pathways farmers remained food secure and continued to eat at least two meals a day. Household dietary diversity (HDDS) and women intra-household food access (AHA) data from this evaluation found levels of consumption to be acceptable and typical of food secure households. These results showcase that Pathways beneficiaries have grown their incomes, assets and food availability in the face of the changing climate and are better off even in difficult years. Read More...

Comparing sanitation delivery modalities in informal urban settlement schools

This 14 page journal article from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Hea... Read More...

Wash Plus- Supportive Environments for Healthy Communities Endline Report

The WASHplus project supports healthy households and communities by creating and delivering interventions that lead to improvements in WASH and household air pollution (HAP). This fiveyear project (2010-2015), funded through USAID’s Bureau for Global Health and led by FHI 360 in partnership with CARE and Winrock International, uses at-scale programming approaches to reduce diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections, the two top killers of children under age 5 globally. [30 pages] Read More...

Haraad reeb (quenching the thirst) ii final report

This 74 page report highlights the impacts of the German-government funded Haraad Reeb project. CARE and its principal partner, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) in Somaliland, have just concluded implementation of a 30-month project titled Haraad Reeb, which was funded by BMZ – Germany Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. The thrust of the project was to build the resilience of target communities against drought-related shocks. The project focused on rural semi-sedentary populations living in small village-towns and spread across the eastern regions – Togdheer, Sool and Sanaag. Some activities were also implemented in Sahil, Hargeisa and Awdal regions.
The project performance against set indicators was excellent; indictors were met or surpassed. Implementation effectiveness was evident in the wide coverage, beneficiary participation, gender considerations, coordination mechanism, and in monitoring and evaluation strategies. CARE-MoWR had a robust working relationship, outlined in a joint MoU and applied at all levels – national, regional, districts and village. CARE had sufficient, qualified and motivated project staff while MoWR attached an engineer to the project.
Backed by evidence, the project designers realized that insufficiency of investments is not the core problem facing the rural water supply subsector. The core problem was identified as poor strategies to support operation and maintenance of the established systems. Due to this problem, there has been little to show for millions of dollars that the INGOs and UN agencies have invested in the subsector over the last two decades (1995-2015).
At the policy level, the project addressed the institutional lacuna that has existed regarding community management of water systems. This was done by supporting the MoWR to develop the community water management manual. The evaluation found that the manual is a great step forward. However, it also found that the manual requires review, consensus, reediting and advocacy with a view to giving it a national appeal, acceptance and application. In particular, the proposed 3-person management unit is too restrictive and not adequate for inclusive and participatory regime. Read More...

Supporting access to better data emis trial+

This 42 page document highlights the results of testing digital data collection in the SWASH+ projec... Read More...

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