VSLA

Meta-Evaluation report on Social norms, performance and prediction of MMD/VSLA achievements in Niger

Niger has developed a legal and institutional framework to fight against discrimination based on gender, age, ethnic group and other factors by 2027. This strategy was developed in a context where all gender indicators are well below the sub-regional average. This strategy is complemented by the efforts of development partners, including CARE International in Niger. In its vision 2030, CARE International places gender equality at the center of its organizing principle. Promoting gender equality and social justice are political goals, which require speaking the truth to public and private actors and standing in solidarity with those who seek to challenge the status quo and the unjust distribution of rights, power and resources. Thus, since 1991, CARE has initiated in a co-learning approach through the MMD (Mata Masu Dubara) model for women empowerment and poverty reduction. Due to its widespread success, the approach became a gateway for most of CARE's and other development partners' activities and has expanded to other sectors of socio-economic development, politics and women's empowerment in Niger. Many studies and evaluations of the approach have been conducted and the results generated are diverse and rich in lessons learned. This report aims to document the rigorous effects/impacts of the MMD approach on the resilience of individuals, groups and institutions at all scales, while also identifying relevant areas where further field-level research is needed. The methodological approach is based first on a meta-evaluation of relevant documents and a complementary data collection using the outcome harvesting approach. Four major current themes were addressed. They are: women's voice and leadership, men's commitment to reducing gender inequality, climate justice, social and economic justice for women. Read More...

Takunda Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) Outcome Mapping Baseline report

The main objective of Progress Marker Monitoring/Outcome Mapping is to assess, the extent to which gender transformative changes are taking place in Takunda Program areas among men, women, and youth based on age, life stage, socio-cultural norms, and religious practices. Takunda acknowledges that gender inequality is both a cause and consequence of food insecurity; hence gender equality is at the heart of the Takunda Program. To challenge gender norms that fuel food insecurity, the Program implements Social Analysis and Action (SAA), a key gender transformative approach that triggers shifts in gender norms at the individual, household, community, and policy level. This progress marker assessment specifically measured behaviors and practices at play for the different study participants before Takunda’s Social Analysis and Action (SAA) interventions and it confirmed some of the findings of the Takunda gender Analysis study held in December 2021. The progress marker assessment measured gender outcomes/behaviors as defined by the communities, whereas the gender analysis assessed program-wide challenges experienced by different groups as defined by the program. Read More...

2023 Participant Based Survey: Titukulane Project – PaBS Outcome Report

Despite decades of robust government and donor investments in livelihoods, food security, nutrition, and resilience, over 50% of the population lives below the poverty line. Previous activities have not sufficiently reduced the number of chronically food and nutrition insecure households nor effectively enhanced the capacity of local and government structures to implement resilience focused policies and actions. To address these issues, the Government of Malawi developed a National Resilience Strategy 2018-2030 (NRS) to guide investments in agriculture, reduce impacts and improve recovery from shocks, promote household resilience, strengthen the management of Malawi’s natural resources, and facilitate effective coordination between government institutions, civil society organizations and development partners. CARE and consortium partners designed the Titukulane Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) which means “let us work together for development” in the local Chichewa language—to support pilot implementation of NRS in Zomba and mangochi districts. The Titukulane RFSA, implemented by CARE International in Malawi (CIM), aims to achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient food and nutrition security for ultra-poor and chronically vulnerable households. Specifically, Titukulane is designed to increase households’ abilities to deal with shocks without experiencing food insecurity following a three-purpose approach:

1. Increased diversified, sustainable, and equitable incomes for ultra-poor, chronically vulnerable households, women, and youth.
2. Improved nutritional status among children under 5 years of age, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age.
3. Increased institutional and local capacities to reduce risk and increase resilience among poor and very poor households in alignment with the Malawi NRS.

To meet these three purposes, the Titukulane RFSA provides households with a package of interventions, including: Care Groups with Nutritional Cash Transfers (NCT), Farmer Field Business Schools and crop marketing support, Village Savings and Loan Associations, Adolescent nutrition, Irrigation farming, Youth vocational training including start-up capital and Gender dialogues. Read More...

GAP ANALYSIS AND LINKAGE READINESS ASSESSMENT FOR YOUTH/VILLAGE SAVINGS AND LOANS ASSOCIATIONS (Y/VSLAs)

The Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU), a Government of Uganda initiative with support from European Union, supervised by the Office of the Prime Minister is being implemented by a consortium led by CARE Denmark. The program is being implemented in the Karamoja sub region (covering 11 districts) as well as Kitgum and Katakwi districts. CARE Denmark commissioned gap analysis for Y/VSLA linkage to identify interventions aimed at contributing to improved access to credit through community saving and credit schemes.

The objectives of the study included gap analysis of Y/VSLAs, linkage readiness assessment for mature Y/VSLAs and evaluation “digital readiness” of group members. A representative sample of 773 Y/VSLAs from drawn from all the project districts were covered the study. The sample was classified in three categories: Mature groups totalling 350 (45.3%) Mature and ready for Linkage groups, 390 (50.5%) and Watch Category/Maturing groups and 33 (4.3%)

The analysis revealed that the gaps identified in Mature and Ready-for-linkage Y/VSLAs were closely similar to those in Watch Category (Maturing Groups) category and required more or less similar interventions.
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Chomoka Savings Group Member Insights

Results from rapid surveys with 269 Chomoka members who use the Chomoka savings app to manage their group savings and record keeping from the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA). Some key results are:
* 35% said their quality of life was "very much improved"
* 30% spoke of investing in an existing business, and 16% investing in a new business.
* 36% said crop revenue very much increased, and 35% said crop production very much increased. Read More...

Farmer Field Business Schools and Village Savings and Loan Associations for promoting climate-smart agriculture practices: Evidence from rural Tanzania

A quasi-experimental data collection was used in Iringa Tanzania to investigate the impact of a community based approach to promote the adoption of climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Based on two community-based organizations, Farmer Field Business Schools (FFBS) and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), this approach combines interventions on farmer training, access to microfinance, and women’s empowerment in agriculture to introduce and enhance the adoption of the practices. We find a positive effect of the interventions on the adoption rates of CSA practices, including mulching, manure composting, crop rotation and rhizobium inoculation, and soybean production. This effect was more pronounced for farmers that participated in the trainings provided by the FFBSs and members of VSLAs. Farming households scoring high in terms of women’s empowerment are also more likely to adopt the introduced practices when compared to those scoring low. Soybean production results increased soybean sales and consumption, showing the contribution of the interventions to the incomes and nutrition levels of the farmers. These results show that FFBS and VSLA serve as promising community based platforms to introduce interventions on farmers training, microfinance, women’s empowerment to upscale the adoption of CSA practices. Read More...

KUKUA NI KUJIFUNZA (GROWING IS LEARNING) PROJECT

the knowledge and skills acquired by participating women farmers brought positive changes in their lives. About 72.5% and 61.87% of the female and male respondents respectively reported that the trainings were useful in their day to day lives while 27.5% and 37.35% respectively reported that the trainings were very useful. However, 0.78% of female respondents reported that the trainings were not useful. Enabling gender equality and empowering vulnerable and rural small-scale women farmers was an important aspect in the KnK project. Consequently, rural small-scale women farmers were the most targeted in the KnK project. Out of 341 respondents from 15 villages, 260 (76.2%) were female, and 81 (23.8%) were male. People with disabilities were 101 (2.6%) out of the 3,825 direct participants of the KnK project.
Participants in the KnK project were given an opportunity to engage in soya production as one of the strategies to eradicate malnutrition. During the endline evaluation process, it was revealed that a high proportion of the KnK participants (99.2%) engaged in soya beans production. Before the KnK project, soya was not ranked as a food crop implying that farmers did not know its nutrition value, and that the crop was not considered as a reliable source of household income. The endline evaluation revealed that farmers realized the value of soya crop production, in terms of nutrition value and source of income. The mode of operandi of the KnK project laid a solid foundation that could make it sustain for years to come. The legacy of the project in terms of knowledge and skills acquired by participants, as well as the positive changes in their lives, may encourage them to sustain
activities implemented during the project. In fact, there is cause for participants to continue to engage in economic and social activities implemented by the KnK project. The KnK project had good institutional arrangements in place, and this made it easier to coordinate the project activities. Strong partnership with other stakeholders contributed significantly to overall performance of the project. Read More...

LEFTEMAP SISTA II: PROMOTING WOMEN’S ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS IN VANUATU

The Leftemap Sista II (LS2) project has been implemented by CARE Vanuatu since 2017 with funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australia NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). The project purpose is “to support women, young women and girls, including those with disability, in rural and remote areas of Vanuatu to realise their rights to live free from violence, have increased economic opportunity and capacity to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives in peace time and disaster.”1 CARE International in Vanuatu (CARE Vanuatu) commissioned a formative evaluation of the project in November 2021. The formative evaluation was required to assess progress against project outcomes for promoting women’s economic empowerment and reducing tolerance of VAWG and to produce actionable recommendations to inform the design of follow-on programming in line with the CARE Australia ANCP Design Framework.

The LS2 project has been implemented in Tafea - the southern-most province of Vanuatu – in 11 communities on the islands of Tanna and Futuna. The Tafea islands are characterised by their geographical isolation, environmental vulnerabilities, including a high risk of natural and geological hazards as well as slow onset hazards such as drought, strongly traditional culture, and limited service delivery by national government across all sectors – especially on the outer islands. Since the project Mid-Term Review in 2019, the LS2 project has been implemented to deliver two long-term outcomes, focussed on:
Outcome 1 – Women, young women and girls in Women’s Economic Livelihoods (WEL) groups in Tafea have increased access to and control over decision-making on economic resources at the household level.
Outcome 2 – Reduced tolerance of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and better access to services for survivors. Read More...

Foster good health and economic resilience (in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond): Integrated Programme to Reduce the Medium-term effects of COVID-19 (IPIC) in Sudan

This is the final evaluation for the Kassala state-implemented "Foster Good Health and Economic Resilience (in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond): Integrated Programme to Reduce the Medium-Term Effects of COVID-19 (IPIC)". The evaluation's goal is to assess the project's impact on the targeted beneficiaries and to assess the project's level of achievement, as well as to provide project stakeholders with information about the project's performance in relation to its stated objectives, from January 2020 to December 2022.
Relevance: The project was found to be relevant and responding to the real needs of the targeted communities. The selected communities are among the most vulnerable people in the state, with the majority of them living below the poverty line. According to the baseline survey conducted in October 2020, most of the targeted beneficiaries (53%) have incomes ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 SDG’s per month, which is equivalent to 22 to 44 USD.
Efficiency: The project was carried out with good and acceptable efficiency; the project completed 100% of its planned activities with a high level of participation from the targeted communities and important institutions, particularly the state ministry of health.
Effectiveness: The project was determined to be very effective and resulted in many changes among the targeted persons, as well as a substantial contraption for preventing COVID-19 and reducing its harmful influence on the targeted people, as evidenced by the fact that:
During the project's implementation period, a total of 47,268 people received COVID-19 knowledge and capacity building. This includes all people in the targeted areas, with the possibility of duplicate counting because some people received the awareness more than once. These capacity building and awareness programs were carried out through the execution of awareness campaigns, and the trained community outreached played important roles in disseminating information to their community members. The community outreached were carefully selected with gender (50% women) in mind, and they were trained and provided with the necessary COVID-19 prevention items.
The evaluation witnessed high level of impact and effectiveness in health sector, this ensured by the feedback of all consulted people by direct interviews, FGDs and KII interviews, in addition to the observation of the evaluation team. Different sorts of support offered to the three health facilities enhanced access to health care for 3015 HH (21,105 people), this representing all HH in the three villages.
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Beyond Economic Empowerment The Influence of Savings Groups on Women’s Public Participation in Fragile and (post) Conflict-Affected Settings

Promoting women’s meaningful participation and influence in governance processes in fragile and (post) conflict-affected settings (FCAS) is necessary to achieve inclusive development. Existing evidence suggests that by economically empowering women, they will be able to better participate in public decision-making processes. One such mechanism for women’s economic empowerment in Sudan is through Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), which are savings groups that offer women a space to come together to save money, take out small loans, and make investment decisions.
The mixed methods study conducted in seven villages across three states (East Darfur, South Darfur, and South Kordofan) sought to answer the research question “To what extent does women’s participation in savings groups affect their public participation in governance or decision-making processes?” Additionally, this study investigated the differences between women who participated in VSLAs under the Every Voice Counts (EVC) and Latter Day Saints Charities (LDS) Recovery Support for Vulnerable Households programmes as well as the differences from participation in different community groups (VSLAs, community advocacy groups, and other community-based organisations). These comparisons helped to offer an explanation of how different programmatic approaches from civil society and different community groups did or did not affect women members’ public participation.
Through the findings of this study, it can be concluded that indeed women’s participation in savings groups (VSLAs) affects their public participation in community governance structures and decision-making. The extent, though, is dependent on a variety of factors including the gender composition of the VSLA, the support of family and community members, the support and resources contributed by programmes and partners, social norms and exclusionary practices within the communities, and the will of the women members themselves. Read More...

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