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Shan State: Peace reconciliation and development through community empowerment - Final evaluation

eval_number:

2377

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2377

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Programme implementation

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

Implementing staff, partners and beneficiaries would welcome a “less is more approach”.

challenges:

Such programme would require more robust monitoring, complexity management and time than interventions adopting a less holistic approach, constantly being updated on realities on the ground. This also requires an adequate budget allocation and management.

success:

Such approach would allow to avoid unintended negative effects due to the nature of the programme and its short duration, leaving beneficiaries with limited capacity to tackle upcoming challenges that can put sustainability at stake.

context:

The complexity of the context would need to be carefully taken into consideration, notably with regards to strategic planning and risk management. The programme would need to consider working in close collaboration and create synergies with other interventions, to notably leverage project resources and maximize programme impact. The quality of the programme design would be key to conduct more in-depth technical assistance. Such projects would need to be preceded by feasibility studies and ensure enough budget is allocated to each intervention, leaving room for flexibility based on needs assessments. It would be essential to adopt a systems approach were all elements as part of one system interact towards a common goal. This requires to very clearly define roles and responsibilities, robust monitoring, adopting a responsive project management approach with a strong focus on project outcomes. Enough time should be allocated to adopt a fully participatory approach.

description:

The 4-year programme managed to achieve a significant number of outputs across Shan State, reaching out to more than 154’000 beneficiaries across 104 villages in Shan State. More than 350 trainings were delivered to 82’859 people, among which 60% are women. However, the majority of beneficiaries remained somewhat satisfied with the programme outcomes due to the short duration of the programme operating in complex conflict-affected areas and the one-off nature of the technical assistance received. A “less is more” approach could have been more relevant to answer beneficiaries’ needs. (i) Communities would rather be involved in a more holistic community development intervention, tackling their needs more strategically for a longer-term impact. (ii) Schools would benefit from a robust and feasible business plan allowing them to develop their activities in the long-run, tackling the multiple issues in the start-up phase. (iii) Students and training participants would benefit from a consistent post-training follow-up ensuring they concretely improve their livelihoods based on sufficient training duration, small business advisory, and coordinated action with local partners.

administrative_issues:

A strategic plan to achieve less in quantity and more in quality could be tackled during the project design, ensuring administrative processes are well understood by all, and that resources and not underestimated. A feasibility study would be useful prior to programme implementation.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/201470

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location:

country:

Myanmar

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

Shan State: Peace reconciliation and development through community empowerment - Final evaluation