Signs of transformation
Evaluation report of Discipleship Centre’s post-tsunami development projects and housing project in MGR Nagar (funded by Tearfund UK)
[
Timmo Gaasbeek
together with
Kavitha Gunalan Uma Devi R. Vasanthi Shanmugam Kolappan Tamilkumar
November 2008
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Executive summary
Introduction This report documents the findings of an evaluation of the post-tsunami development projects that Discipleship Centre (DC) implemented (with funding from Tearfund UK) in Pethankuppam and Kanniyakumari, as well as a housing construction project that was implemented in MGR Nagar. The evaluation took place in June 2008, in Pondicherry/Cuddalore and Kanniyakumari. The evaluation team consisted of a team leader and three co-evaluators, who were ably assisted by the staff and animators of DC in Pondicherry and Kanniyakumari.
The objective of the evaluation was: 1. To inform the parties on what has been achieved by DC and to allow the parties to meet the information needs of the different stakeholders in United Kingdom and India. (accountability) 2. To allow the two parties to learn and make decisions on future improvements in their work 3. To assess the role of Tearfund UK and the work done by DC. 4. To assess the activities of DC on aspects such as effectiveness and impact.
The projects implemented by DC were evaluated looking at relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, focus on marginalised groups, and gender-related issues. Apart from that, DC itself was evaluated looking at organisational capacity, DC’s capacity to learn, co-ordination and coherence, and compliance with standards for humanitarian practice. Lastly, the relationship between DC and TFUK was examined briefly. This evaluation builds on the larger evaluation of DC’s post- tsunami projects that was done in June 2007 by the same team leader.
Methodology The evaluation started with preparatory document study. This was followed by a workshop to prepare the field work. The actual fieldwork took place over a period of 5 days, in three teams: one team looking into the social aspects of the evaluation in Pethankuppam and MGR Nagar, one team looking into the social aspects of the evaluation in Kanniyakumari, and the team leader looking into project management issues, technical aspects of the housing projects, and specific data analysis. After the fieldwork was over, debriefings were held with the district teams and with DC’s management. A draft report was written subsequently. Feedback from DC and Tearfund UK (TFUK) were incorporated in the final version of the document which lies before you.
For the evaluation, the following methods were used: • (limited) document study • interviews with DC staff, animators and key outsiders who were involved in the project (such as Fr. Joseph Justus in Kolachel and Mr. Julian and Pastor Joseph Salathraj and his wife in Pethankuppam) – mostly semi-structured and semi-formal, but with DC staff also many unstructured and very informal conversations were held, • conversations by e-mail with Mr. George Samuel, • focused group discussions individual family visits were discussed with those present • on-site observation and verification quantitative data analysis
Findings 1: the development project in and around Pethankuppam The development project in Pethankuppam originally started in one village, but parts of the activities spread to five other villages after June 2007, which is a sign of the efficiency with which the project was implemented. The health and hygiene activities are a continuation of activities that were started under the livelihood project. In terms of knowledge and health practices, clear changes could be observed. People are healthier, and the village is much cleaner than it used to be.
In order to stimulate people to live good lives, DC organised sessions for children, youth and adults in which topics related to family life and values were discussed. These sessions are very popular, and seem to have really given people tools to work on themselves. A key issue for many villagers was their low self-esteem, caused by their status as dalits. Particularly among the youth, who have been
i Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 organised in a ‘Boy Power’ and a ‘Girl Power’ group, changes can be seen. It was very impressive to see the new-found self-confidence of the people we spoke to.
The tuition classes (which have spread to five villages) seem to be bearing fruit: but particularly the weakest students benefit. There are some concerns however over the sustainability of the classes in Pethankuppam, now that DC has stopped paying the tuition teachers. In the other villages, the teachers were volunteers from the start, and sustainability seems not to be a problem. Computer classes only started in January 2008, but have the potential of changing the lives of many of the youth. One major consequence of the improved incomes and the enhanced awareness on the importance of education has been that more and more children are going to private schools outside Pethankuppam. . Originally, the plan was to set up 20 SHGs. However, when DC realised that other NGOs were also supporting SHGs in the village, the target was reduced to six. DC provided a lot of training, and towards the end of the project a paper bag manufacturing line was set up that involves several dozen women in Pethankuppam and surrounding villages. This seems to have seriously taken off after the evaluation was over, and as long as a market is available, this has good potential. The family diaries that were distributed have ended, but about 25% of the families still continue keeping household cashbooks. Many beneficiaries said that the diaries had helped them to understand their income and expenditure patterns better, and to spend their money more wisely.
137 youth completed various skills trainings. Of these, 24 had found jobs by the time the project ended, and more are expected to find jobs in the near future (because they only finished their courses close to the end of the project). Nine of the girls who completed tailoring training have joined a tailoring unit in the village. At the time of the evaluation, this unit was running well, but marketing remained an issue. If a bigger market for the products can be developed, incomes will increase. Cows were distributed to each family under the livelihoods project. While cattle rearing has potential for generating income, it was found that not everybody is equally capable at doing it. By the end of the project, only about 40% of the cows were remaining, but those families that still had cows were looking after them well. This seems to have been a process of self-selection, and those who still have cows are likely to benefit from them.
The disaster preparedness work started under the livelihood project continues. The Disaster Management Team is active and maintains its state of readiness by engaging in mock drills and by helping in village festivals.
In the original proposal, it was planned to introduce biogas plants into the village. However, this activity was cancelled due to lack of funds, and because the state government promised everybody a gas connection for cooking.
The Village Information Centre has been completed, and is still being developed. Once the local government appoints someone to be responsible for the centre, it is expected that it will be used even more intensively than it is.
The project is considered relevant by those involved. Since DC started working in Pethankuppam, a visible transformation has taken place that is very impressive, and that has radiated to some extent to the surrounding villages. It is expected that part of the project activities will be able to continue after the project finishes, but for some activities that require funding, a cost-benefit analysis is required so that detailed phasing out strategies can be worked out.
Findings 2: the housing project in MGR Nagar Because fewer houses were built in Pethankuppam than was originally planned, DC expanded its housing construction programme to other sites. The last of these was MGR Nagar, where 92 houses and a community hall were built for families of the Irular scheduled tribe. These families had been basically living under the trees for decades, and belong to the most vulnerable families in Tamil Nadu. At the time of the evaluation, the houses were still under construction; construction finished in October 2008. Apart from the construction of the houses and a community hall, 45 families received a goat for income generation.
ii Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
The house design was thoroughly revised based on discussions with the beneficiaries, and is definitely the most appropriate house design that DC built in Tamil Nadu after the tsunami. The beneficiaries were highly appreciative of the lay-out, and of the fact that they had been involved in the design process.
The construction was found to be generally solid.
The project is extremely relevant to the beneficiaries, who will have a proper house for the first time in their lives. It would have been good if DC had had been able to implement more income generating activities, but funding limitations prevented this.
In Kanniyakumari, construction at two housing sites was not completed yet due to problems with the contractors, and in one case due to inter-caste tensions. At the time of the evaluation, construction had just started again, and the houses were expected to be completed soon. For these sites, the findings are the same as those that were documented in the 2007 evaluation report.
Findings 3: the development project in Kanniyakumari The project in Kanniyakumari was implemented in nine villages (with funding from another donor, the same project activities were implemented in a tenth village). The transformation in the villages in Kanniyakumari has been a bit less dramatic than in Pethankuppam, simply because Pethankuppam was a much poorer village. Still, there have been clear changes in the Kanniyakumari villages as well. A key element in the success of DC’s work in Kanniyakumari has been the involvement of animators from the villages, who were selected by the Village Development Committees themselves. This ensures continuity after DC leaves, because the knowledge and skills of the animators will remain within the villages, at least until the animators get married and move to their husbands’ village.
DC provided tuition classes for some classes in each village; other classes were already covered by other actors. For those classes where support is provided, there seems to have been some impact (especially for the weaker students), but the main impact seems to be that students have a calm place to study. Adult literacy classes provided 271 people with the skills to read and write. This has greatly increased their self-confidence and feeling of independence, and the activity was much appreciated.
Under the skills training activity, 573 students completed various skills training programmes. Of these, 22% had found jobs by the end of the project. More are expected to find jobs in the near future, as many courses only finished towards the end of the project, and it takes time to find a job. Other students were so motivated by the trainings that they decided to go for higher studies (including one who enrolled in a course in England!)
Perhaps the most innovative element of the project has been the distribution of family diaries, which was an idea of the Kovalam parish priest. In these diaries, that have also been distributed in Pethankuppam, families can record their daily income and expenses, which will give them insight in their household budgeting. The diaries ended in December 2007, but about 25% of the families still maintain their own household cashbooks. Many people reported that the diaries had given them insight in their income and expenditure patterns, and had helped them to spend their money more wisely. Expenditure on fancy items, expensive clothes, alcohol and entertainment has reduced (and visits to the cinema have been replaced by soccer and cricket tournaments, which contribute to people’s physical health as well), although expenditure on status symbols (motorbikes, mobile phones, DVD players, televisions and jewellery) has increased.
A total of 48 SHGs have been supported by the project: 30 regular SHGs, 3 SHGs of HIV/AIDS patients and their caregivers, and 15 SHGs of people who completed skills trainings and wanted to start up their own businesses. DC’s contribution is comparatively limited, but with DC’s contribution, the SHGs can access a much bigger bank loan. Proper cost-benefit analyses are however required. An analysis of income and expenditure for the 30 regular SHGs that were supported shows that only one has yielded its members a profit of over Rs. 50 per member per day; eight others yield a profit of between Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 per member per day, and twenty yield a lower profit. This is not sufficient if the SHGs are to seriously contribute to people’s incomes.
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The health camps that were organised were a point of concern, because they duplicated an existing system. Most of the villages are very close to existing and functioning health facilities. The problem is that government facilities are not very good, and DC has basically enabled people to access private healthcare for free. On top of this, health statistics in Kanniyakumari are exceptionally good, so one may wonder whether there is a need at all to invest in health activities other than maybe some health and hygiene awareness. DC took on the lessons that were learnt during the mid-term evaluation, and adjusted its health programme accordingly, with good results. Of particular importance is the awareness that has been created about HIV/AIDS. The topic has been drawn out of the taboo sphere, which is a major achievement. However, the next step of de-stigmatizing AIDS victims needs follow- up attention.
Village Information Centres (VICs) have started up in all villages, and are being actively used, though at a lower rate than DC had originally planned. This is mainly because DC’s standard for success was too high. People who use the VICs consider them very useful, which is also proven by the fact that in most places the parish councils have taken over full responsibility (in one or two cases, another local NGO has taken over responsibility).
Disaster preparedness activities in Kanniyakumari focus mainly on sea safety. A leaflet has been developed and distributed, and a video has been produced. While the activity is useful in itself, we found that fishermen are generally already very much aware of sea safety issues, and have very good reasons (for example a lack of dry storage space on the boat, or lack of funds to buy equipment) if they don’t take particular precautionary measures.
In all, the project in Kanniyakumari is considered to be relevant. DC has contributed positively to the lives of many people in the target villages. Bigger issues are however developing (inter-caste rivalry, the decline of fishing and the increase in tourism with a related shift in power balance) that need careful attention in the future.
Findings 4: organisational assessment DC has done a good job implementing the projects that were evaluated, despite having comparatively small numbers of staff, and very limited logistical facilities. Key factors in the success of the projects are the leadership that was provided by Mr. George Samuel, the motivated staff, and the animators who were trained to become important change agents in their villages. Unfortunately, it was not always easy for DC to provide sufficient support from Delhi. In part, this was due to the sheer physical distance from Delhi to Tamil Nadu, and also because DC was very busy with other projects (including two flood relief operations in Bihar). However, for a programme of such volume, DC Delhi should have made a little more time and support available. Having one overall manager for the entire post-tsunami programme was a good choice given Mr. Samuel’s capacities and commitment, but he has remained chronically overburdened right until the end of the project. It might be good to look at reducing excessive workloads in future programmes.
The programme was implemented with comparatively very little expenses on staffing, logistics and office costs, which is commendable.
The quality of information flows between DC and Tearfund UK remained a source of concern right throughout the project.
In general, DC has adhered pretty well to humanitarian standards.
When looking at earlier evaluation documents, it can be seen that DC has taken many recommendations to heart, though smaller, more practical suggestions run the risk of being forgotten if they slip off the agenda. Relations with Tearfund UK have generally been good (apart from the reporting issue). The frequent donor visits did however take up a lot of the time of DC’s management, and it might be good if donors reconsider the frequency that is required for field visits.
iv Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Table of contents Executive summary ...... i Table of contents ...... v 1. Introduction ...... 1 2. Methodology ...... 2 2.1 Team set-up ...... 2 2.2 Preparation ...... 2 2.3 Fieldwork ...... 2 2.4 Debriefing and reporting...... 3 2.5 Limitations of the evaluation ...... 3 3. Context analysis ...... 4 3.1 Pethankuppam ...... 4 3.2 MGR Nagar ...... 5 3.3 Kanniyakumari ...... 5 4 The development project in and around Pethankuppam ...... 7 4.1 Project summary ...... 7 4.2 Relevance ...... 7 4.3 Effectiveness ...... 7 4.4 Efficiency ...... 10 4.5 Impact...... 10 4.6 Sustainability ...... 15 4.7 Focus on marginalised groups ...... 15 4.8 Gender-related issues ...... 16 5 The housing project in MGR Nagar ...... 17 5.1 Project summary ...... 17 5.2 Relevance ...... 17 5.3 Effectiveness ...... 17 5.4 Efficiency ...... 17 5.5 Impact...... 18 5.6 Sustainability ...... 18 5.7 Focus on marginalised groups ...... 18 5.8 Gender-related issues ...... 19 5.9 Other ongoing housing activities ...... 19 6 The development project in Kanniyakumari ...... 20 6.1 Project summary ...... 20 6.2 Relevance ...... 20 6.3 Effectiveness ...... 20 6.4 Efficiency ...... 23 6.5 Impact...... 24 6.6 Sustainability ...... 31 6.7 Focus on marginalised groups ...... 32 6.8 Gender-related issues ...... 32 7 Organisational assessment ...... 33 7.1 Organisational Capacity ...... 33 7.2 DC as a learning organisation ...... 34 7.3 Co-ordination and Coherence ...... 34 7.4 Compliance with standards for humanitarian practice ...... 34 7.5 Relations with Tearfund UK (and, for the housing, Tear Netherlands) ...... 35 8 Conclusions and recommendations ...... 36 8.1 Conclusion ...... 36 8.2 Recommendations to Discipleship Centre ...... 36 8.3 Recommendations to the community leaders in Kanniyakumari (especially the Catholic priests)...... 37 8.4 Recommendations to the community leaders in Pethankuppam (especially the pastors) ...... 37
v Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 1: Terms of Reference for the evaluation Annex 2: Case study 1: Tuition classes (updated) Annex 3: Case study 2: Cows in Pethankuppam (updated) Annex 4: Case study 3: Village Information Centres (updated) Annex 5: Documentation used during the evaluation Annex 6: Persons consulted during the evaluation Annex 7: List of abbreviations
vi Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
1. Introduction After the tsunami hit India on December 26th, 2004, Discipleship Centre (DC) got involved in its biggest ever emergency response programme. After the initial emergency relief (in a wide range of affected communities) was over, DC continued with a livelihood programme and a housing construction programme in the districts of Cuddalore and Kanniyakumari, in Tamil Nadu1. The last phase of DC’s involvement in these areas consisted of two community development projects (one in Pethankuppam (Cuddalore) and one in Kanniyakumari) that officially ran from August 2006 to March 2008. Both these projects were funded by Tearfund UK (TFUK).
This report documents the results of the final evaluation of these two projects. DC’s housing project in MGR Nagar, which had barely started at the time of the last evaluation was also included, as were DC’s remaining outstanding house construction activities in Ramanthurai and Melmidalam in Kanniyakumari District.
The objective of the evaluation as stated in the Terms of Reference (see Annex 1) is: 5. To inform the parties on what has been achieved by DC and to allow the parties to meet the information needs of the different stakeholders in United Kingdom and India. (accountability) 6. To allow the two parties to learn and make decisions on future improvements in their work 7. To assess the role of Tearfund UK and the work done by DC. 8. To assess the activities of DC on aspects such as effectiveness and impact.
I, Timmo Gaasbeek, was asked to be the team leader of the evaluation team. Via contacts, DC found three additional team members: Mrs. Kavitha Gunalan, Ms. Uma Devi R., and Ms. Vasanthi Shanmugam. Mr. K. Tamilkumar, who had been hired by DC to document case studies and lessons learnt from the overall tsunami response, also joined in the evaluation.
This report contains the findings of the evaluation. In section 2, the methodology used in the evaluation will be discussed, followed by a brief analysis of the context in which the projects were implemented in section 3. Then, for each project separately, the following aspects are discussed: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, focus on marginalised groups, and gender-related issues (sections 4-6). Refer to the ToR in Annex 1 for an explanation of what is meant with the specific issues. This is followed in section 7 by an assessment of organisational aspects: the capacity of DC to implement the projects, co-ordination with other stakeholders, coherence with policies, and the relationship between DC and Tear Netherlands and Tearfund UK. The report finishes with a brief concluding discussion, and a set of recommendations (section 8). The annexes provide additional details for those who have time and are interested in digging deeper into specific issues. This report does not stand alone; it is in many respects a continuation and completion of the report that I wrote in June 2007, and should be read in conjunction with that report.
Before continuing to the actual report, a word of thanks is in place. First of all, I would like to thank the various DC staff (and animators!) in Pondicherry and Kanniyakumari for the hospitality that was provided, for their open attitudes to our sometimes rather critical questions, and for their genuine friendliness. A special word of thanks goes out here to the people in charge of the projects: George, Joseph, Bibin, and Saiju. Then, of course, the beneficiaries and their representatives. The projects were meant for them, and many took time to freely share their opinions about the projects. Without them making some of their time available for us, it would have been impossible to do this evaluation. Also a word of thanks to Rachel and Ben from Tearfund UK for their support and their positive attitudes. Finally, I want to thank my fellow team members: Kavitha, Uma, Vasanthi and Tamilkumar.
I have written this report on the basis of everybody’s input, both during the evaluation and during the debriefing sessions. The draft version of this report has been distributed for comments, and these have been incorporated wherever possible. The evaluation was very much a team effort. Any mistakes in the documentation of the evaluation in this report are however my sole responsibility.
1 These projects were evaluated in January 2006 (report by Alive), April 2007 (report by Rahul Ghai) and June 2007 (report by myself). I would like to refer anyone who is interested in more background information to those reports.
1 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
2. Methodology
2.1 Team set-up The evaluation was conducted as an external evaluation, but in close co-operation with the (remaining) DC staff and animators. I as the team leader focused on institutional aspects, on some of the statistical analysis, on the technical aspects, on the overall co-ordination of the evaluation and on writing the report. Mr. George Samuel, Programme Manager for the post-tsunami projects, was my counterpart. The rest of the team (Ms. Kavitha, Ms. Uma and Ms. Vasanthi) focused on the social aspects of the evaluation. They were supported by the remaining staff and animators of DC. In Pethankuppam, Mr. Venkatesh, who has been instrumental in the transformation of his village, actively assisted the evaluators.
2.2 Preparation As this evaluation built on the mid-term evaluation that was done of the same projects in 2007, the preparation that was needed was limited. Unfortunately, the selection of my co-evaluators was only finalised just before the evaluation started, which meant that they did not have much time to read up on project documentation.
The evaluation started with a preparation session in Pondicherry on June 18th, where the evaluators and DC’s core staff were present. Copies of the logframes and of the end-of-project reports were distributed to the evaluation team, and a briefing was given on the projects. After that, we worked out a list of questions that needed to be asked.
2.3 Fieldwork During the fieldwork period, which lasted from June 19th to June 24th, various methods were used: • (limited) document study – of proposals, progress reports, various evaluation and review documents, all available project documentation in the Pondicherry and Kanniyakumari, and the available documentation in selected Village Information Centres, • interviews with DC staff, animators and key outsiders who were involved in the project (such as Fr. Joseph Justus in Kolachel and Mr. Julian and Pastor Joseph Salathraj and his wife in Pethankuppam) – mostly semi- structured and semi-formal, but with DC staff also many unstructured and very informal conversations were held, • conversations by e-mail with Mr. George Samuel, • focused group discussions – thematic, semi- structured interviews with groups of beneficiaries who were involved in particular aspects of the projects, • individual family visits – informal visits to individual houses, where various aspects of the project were discussed with those present, • on-site observation and verification – other than a few specific checks, this mostly meant keeping our eyes open for any clues that might present themselves, • quantitative data analysis – where records were available, samples were taken for later analysis. Key examples of quantitative data that were analysed are budget versus expenditure statements, income and expenditure statements of SHGs, attendance records of VICs, records relating to the cattle stock and milk production in Pethankuppam, and records of test results of tuition students. Where possible, data were analysed in combination with data that were collected in 2007.
During the mid-term evaluation, several topics were studied in more depth than in the final evaluation – as time was limited, the evaluation team was compelled to limit itself. Where possible, follow-up analysis of the findings of the mid-term evaluation was done to assess trends. There where relevant
2 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 findings from the mid-term evaluation were found to still hold, that is mentioned. There is no point rewriting things that have already been written, and the reader will find that here and there I have copied text from the mid-term report, or refer to it.
2.4 Debriefing and reporting On June 25th, a group discussion was held in which each evaluator presented his/her findings, and the conclusions were jointly agreed on. This was subsequently presented to a group of DC staff, animators, three parish priests, and a few others. After all was over, I travelled back to Chennai together with Mr. George Samuel, and on the way discussed the findings with him. The draft report was finalised after my return to Sri Lanka, and sent around for feedback. Unfortunately, both the writing process and the feedback process took a lot more time than planned, and therefore the report was only completed in November 2008.
2.5 Limitations of the evaluation As it was impossible to see all villages where DC has worked, a selection had to be made. The mid- term evaluation of the development projects had been done in Pethankuppam (the project only expanded to neighbouring villages after the mid-term evaluation) and in Kanniyakumari mostly in four of the nine targeted villages (Melmidalam, Kovalam, Arockiyapuram and Chinnamottam). It was decided to stick to the same villages because that made comparison easier, but where time permitted, brief visits to the other villages in Kanniyakumari were also made. Apart from that, Ms. Vasanthi visited the new target villages around Pethankuppam in one afternoon. For the housing activities, MGR Nagar (near Killai, in Cuddalore District) and Ramanthurai (in Kanniyakumari District) were visited, as well as the ongoing housing construction in Melmidalam.
As with the previous evaluation, this evaluation has a few more limitations.
Firstly, the analysis on efficiency has by necessity had to remain fairly limited. As none of us are financial specialists, no audit was conducted. An audit was not included in the ToR, but without an audit, making statements on efficiency does become a little more difficult. On top of this, none of the evaluation team members had in-depth knowledge on the costs of materials and goods, so it was difficult for us to assess how cost-effective projects have been.
Secondly, we did not meet any NGOs other than Stella Maris, so it is not possible to compare DC’s work with the work of other NGOs in the area.
The third limitation of the previous evaluation was that the entire evaluation team was male, which made it difficult to avoid a gender bias in the evaluation. This time, all my fellow-evaluators were female, which may have skewed the gender bias the other way. However, as it is a lot easier for men to speak freely with female evaluators rather than for women to speak freely with male evaluators, I do not think this was a serious problem.
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3. Context analysis On December 26th 2004, a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast caused a tsunami that devastated thousands of kilometres of coastline in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and even Somalia. In India, the affected area covered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the coast of the mainland, from West Bengal to Kerala (see the map, which was taken from the UN’s one year report) . About ten thousand people died, another three thousand remain unaccounted for, and many hundreds of thousands lost their house and livelihood.
Survivors were affected because relatives lost their lives, because some got injured, because houses (and the assets within them) were damaged or destroyed, and because they lost their livelihoods: fishing boats and gear was washed off, some agricultural lands became saline, and other sources of income (shops, workshops, etcetera) were also affected. On top of this, having to experience such a massive event was traumatic, and left many people in fear.
The affected areas largely consisted of fishing villages, but in some areas the tsunami entered backwaters and affected villages further inland that are mostly populated by vulnerable communities that have nowhere else to live.
The task of providing immediate relief and then restoring livelihoods and living spaces was daunting, and the Indian government, humanitarian agencies and private individuals took it up with fervour.
In comparison with other affected countries, the main problem was the fact that such a vast stretch of coastline was affected. This meant that long distances needed to be bridged both for implementing work and for co-ordinating the response at the level of the state or higher. On the other hand, key infrastructure was largely unaffected, though time consuming, getting people and goods to the affected areas was not impossible.
In terms of the political context, the response in India was very different from that in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In India, the government (both at national and at state level) took charge right from the beginning, and did quite a good job at co-ordinating, particularly at the district level. Sri Lanka and Indonesia saw much more chaotic scenes, made worse by the armed conflict that waged in large parts of the affected areas. Also, a fairly tight control was kept on new agencies entering the scene, which made dividing the work easier, and limited the extent of competition to some extent.
In this context, Discipleship Centre, a Delhi-based NGO with thirty years of experience in emergency relief and development, got involved in the tsunami response in South India. With funds from Tearfund UK, Tear Netherlands and several other donors, work commenced almost immediately. After an initial emergency response, DC started with projects to restore livelihoods and provide permanent housing. By September 2006, this was followed by two development projects that were to be implemented over the course of twelve months and link the relief and rehabilitation phases with long-term development. These projects were funded by Tearfund UK, and implemented in and around the village of Pethankuppam near Cuddalore, and in nine villages around Kanniyakumari. As the housing projects got delayed, DC was able to stretch its development projects until March 2008. The last bits of construction work were being wound up by the time of this evaluation, six months later than the deadline that had been set for the projects. While the delay may not have been good from a donor’s perspective, it was a blessing in disguise for DC. The delay offered DC an opportunity to provide a few extra months of low-input follow-up assistance in its target communities, and thus improve the sustainability of the projects.
3.1 Pethankuppam Pethankuppam, located in Cuddalore District, is a village in the heart of the ‘Dalit belt’ that straddles the shoreline between Chennai and Nagapattinam. The Dalit communities living in this area have a long history of suffering due to neglect, discrimination and at times open violence. Because of this, many members of the community had adopted a very subservient and shy attitude, not even daring to take initiative because it had been punished so often. One of the consequences of this was that the people of Pethankuppam rarely ventured out of their village for work (other than labour in the paddy fields). Even though there are many factories nearby, nobody from the village was employed there.
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Most of Pethankuppam’s inhabitants were agricultural labourers or small-time river fishermen. A few owned small plots of paddy land, and a few owned some cows and buffaloes.
Though Pethankuppam is not on the seashore, it was indirectly affected by the tsunami waves that rushed up the river Uppaar that flows next to the village. The salt water flooded the ricefields and destroyed the crops, and also damaged the small vessels that were used for river fishing. This affected the livelihoods of Pethankuppam’s inhabitants. Apart from the tsunami, Pethankuppam was affected nearly annually by the flooding of the Paravai river, whenever a tank upstream filled up and started spilling. Because part of the village is on fairly low land, this meant that many of the huts got flooded every year, and every time the people were forced to take shelter in the small school. The flooding was not just inconvenient. As there is a lot of heavy industry (particularly the so-called SIPCOT industrial zone, but also other factories) just upstream from Pethankuppam, the river water gets badly polluted. During the floods, the pollution is brought right up to people’s doorsteps. The pollution of the village and of the groundwater, and severe air pollution http://gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=122), caused many health problems.
In this context, DC started its intervention. Initially, emergency relief was provided, and then DC started on the construction of houses and a village information centre, and the provision of support for livelihoods, education, health and disaster mitigation. As these projects approached their final stages, it was decided that a community development project was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the work that DC had already done, and to strengthen the community to take their own responsibility for their future development.
3.2 MGR Nagar MGR Nagar is a newly developed settlement on the outskirts of Killai, a town not far from Chidambaram. The settlement is being developed on the initiative of the local government. The idea is to provide several hundred families of the Irular caste, a so-called ‘Scheduled Tribe’ (see picture on the right), with a permanent place to live. According to the people we spoke to, this community seems to have moved to the area from Andhra Pradesh at least four generations ago. After settling around Killai, the community became trapped in debt, and ended up being bonded labourers for the big landlords in the area. They lived an itinerant existence of shifting from one coconut garden to the next, and did not even have a hut to call their own. As they had no permanent place of residence, they were unable to obtain legal documents. This in turn deprived them of education and other support from the state. As the number of houses that DC ended up building in Pethankuppam was less than planned, DC decided to build 64 houses in Ponnanthiththu, but even after that DC had spare capacity to build houses. When the government learnt of this, DC was requested to contribute to the development of MGR Nagar by taking the responsibility for a cluster of 92 houses.
3.3 Kanniyakumari The nine villages that DC selected around Kanniyakumari (on the advice of its partner Stella Maris) are all fishing villages. Six of the villages (Arockiapuram, Chinnamuttom, Vavathurai, Puthugramam, Siluvainagar and Kovalam) straddle the shoreline around the little town of Kanniyakumari. Three other villages (Vaniyakudi, Simon Colony and Melmidalam) are located about 40 km west of Kanniyakumari, near the border with Kerala. DC had not yet been working the last three villages during the relief phase. On the request of the district administration, fishing gear was distributed during the rehabilitation phase, and fifty houses were planned in Melmidalam. Because these villages are comparatively neglected and in need of assistance, they were included in the development project.
5 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
The population of these villages is predominantly Roman Catholic, as is the case in most fishing villages in Kanniyakumari District. The interior agricultural villages are predominantly Hindu (mostly of the Nadar community), as is the little town of Kanniyakumari, which houses a famous temple for the goddess Kumari Amman that attracts large flocks of pilgrims and tourists throughout the year. Socially, the fishing villages, the agricultural villages and the town (which has a strong presence of North Indians) are pretty much separate worlds.
In all target villages, the Roman Catholic Church has a very direct role in the village leadership: the Parish Council also fulfils the role of the Village Development Committee, and is in charge of the affairs of the village. Within each parish, the people have been grouped into Basic Christian Communities or ‘anbiams’. These are a kind of cell groups of up to 20 families that are expected to look after each other, and have compulsory weekly bible studies. Apart from the catholic families, there are small groups of non-catholics: protestant Christians, Hindus, and (in Melmidalam) a few Muslims. In none of the villages do these groups constitute more than a few percent of the total population.
The catholic population of the coastal villages in the district belongs to two caste communities: Paravar and Mukkuvar. Both communities have been Roman Catholic since the middle of the seventeenth century. Generally, these communities do not intermarry, and by and large they live in separate villages. While the relationships between the communities generally seem to be relatively limited and not very strained, the growing importance of (fairly scarce) non-fishing jobs in the villages’ economy seems to have brought about some more open competition. Over the course of the three visits that I made to the area (October 2006, June 2007 and June 2008), I could notice a distinct hardening of positions between the two communities: in late 2007, there was even some open violence in Vaniyakudi, and in Ramanthurai (where DC is building some houses) the situation is still a little unsettled. Also, Vavathurai has now started building its own church building. We were told that this is because the community in Vavathurai wants to be separated from the surrounding settlements, with which it is in the same parish but which are of a different community. Interestingly, while in an earlier visit I was told that there are sometimes conflicts between villages (of different communities) over fishing grounds, this time the fishermen we spoke to stressed the point that the sea is everyone’s, and that people fish based on how far their boats can take them from their village. We were told that while at sea, caste is no factor. Fishermen are dependent on eachother: if someone goes missing, all hands are needed to look for the person. However, caste ís an issue when it comes to non-fishing jobs and the running of the parishes. Because more and more youth are now continuing their education, this means that fewer people become fishermen (you need to learn fishing at a young age to be able to manage the tough working life)2. This in turn means that the need for the different communities to have at least some basic trust is reducing, while at the same time competition for (still scarce) non-fishing jobs will increase. It will require careful and wise leadership to steer the village communities through this period of change without descending into communalism, and I would strongly recommend the Church leadership to take an active role in working towards breaking down caste barriers.
Apart from the relationships between the Mukkuvar and Paravar communities, there is another division line that may become increasingly important over the coming ten years or so. As I said earlier, since the male youth from the fishing villages is slowly moving out of the fishing trade, other jobs are needed. The non-fishing sector with the largest growth potential in Kanniyakumari is tourism. As the four-laning of the highway from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir takes shape, it is to be expected that the number of (mostly North-Indian Hindu) tourists will increase significantly. Even though Kanniyakumari is only a small town, the temple (right at the southern extremity of India) is among the most revered in India. When I asked around a bit among staff of hotels and shops catering to tourists, I realised that most of the staff are Hindus, and many are from out of the district. As tourism grows and fishing declines, there is a very real chance that there will be a shift in the economic and political balance in and around the town. This complicates matters, as the long-term planning for livelihoods development is at risk of becoming open competition along communal or religious lines. Here also, careful and wise leadership is needed to develop livelihoods without becoming entangled in conflict.
2 Another factor that was mentioned several times is the construction of a nuclear reactor several kilometres North of Kanniyakumari, which the fishermen fear will affect the sea, and severely reduce the fish stocks once it is in operation.
6 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
4 The development project in and around Pethankuppam
4.1 Project summary After starting the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects, DC became convinced that in order to produce lasting change in affected communities, it was necessary to continue with a development project in Pethankuppam (Cuddalore) and in targeted villages in Kanniyakumari. TFUK was willing to fund the proposals up to the end of 2007, as the tsunami money needed to be spent by then. After December 2007, it was possible for the project to be budget-neutrally extended by three months, by which time the project officially ended. However, as DC was still implementing some housing activities in MGR Nagar, DC kept its office in Pondicherry open, and staff kept visiting the village once in a while until June. This meant that low-intensity follow-up could continue for another three months, which has been really good for the village.
As described in the logframe, the development project for Pethankuppam had the following structure: • Health and hygiene: HIV/AIDS awareness; provision of health care during floods, MCH check-up camps, and waste management • Family and value education: family life guidance sessions, de-addiction, sex and value education, support to youth groups • Children’s education: moral classes, computer education, tution classes (including peer support) • Women’s empowerment: SHG formation and strengthening, awareness on family communication and household budgeting, homegardening • Skills training: embroidery and tailoring, driving, motorbike repair, wiring and plumbing, computers, beautician, animal husbandry • Disaster preparedness: training, exposure visits, awareness • Biogas plants: construction, training, exposure visits • Village information centre: construction, supply of furniture and equipment, training of volunteers.
By July 2007, the team working on the project decided that they were able to expand the health, education, skill training and disaster preparedness activities to five neighbouring villages within the available budget. This meant that parts of the project had a much larger group of beneficiaries than originally planned.
4.2 Relevance The project was developed in clear response to existing needs in the community, and was very relevant to the beneficiary families. It served a very neglected target group and clearly contributed to the ongoing transformation that is happening in the village. Because of this, it is very much within the mandate of DC and TFUK.
4.3 Effectiveness A comparison of the planned and actual output of the project is given in the table below. The data on actual output are based on DC’s end-of-project report, survey data, and our observations during the evaluation.
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 1. Health and Hygiene 1.1 Identification and 5 people trained 20 people trained, 5 training of Village Health selected as Village Health Workers and HIV/AIDS Workers awareness providers 1.2 Dialogue/discussion 18 monthly dialogue 68 dialogue meetings held meetings with the SHG meetings conducted for the six SHGs that were members on different started by DC, and one health issues and dialogue meeting held for HIV/AIDS women from other villages who got involved in income generation activities 1.3 HIV/AIDS awareness Awareness conducted for Topic was raised during programs conducted all SHG members SHG meetings
7 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 1.4 Awareness on Awareness conducted for Awareness conducted for epidemics that spread all villagers all villagers during the floods 1.5 Community based 5 campaigns conducted 4 campaigns conducted in campaigns for sanitation Pethankuppam and 4 in promotion neighbouring villages 1.6 Mother and child health 3 camps conducted 3 mother and child health check-up camps programmes conducted as part of general health camps. 1.7 Set up garbage dumps 5 vermiculture pits and 5 3 vermiculture pits, 25 Initially, five pits were put and vermiculture pits garbage dumps garbage dumps set up up, but they were damaged. Later, three pits were put up in the cattle shed. 2. Family and value education 2.1 Conduct 8 family life 50% of the families Looks like the entire End-of-project report guidance courses participate in the family village participated in the states that 7 courses life guidance course sessions. A lot more than were provided. 8 sessions were conducted. 2.2 Conduct 6 de-addiction 6 de-addiction 5 campaigns conducted in This activity was revised campaigns campaigns conducted, 2 Pethankuppam, video when it was realised that AA groups formed presentation on smaller-scale counselling alcoholism done in the approaches would work neighbouring villages. No better AA groups formed 2.3 conduct 5 awareness 5 campaigns conducted 5 campaigns conducted campaigns on sex and (including one for the girls value education for in the tailoring course) adolescents 2.4 support youth groups No specific output target Continuous support Youth groups are also (impact target: youth provided; youth groups involved in the DMP groups are active and (“Boy Power” and “Girl team and in the tailoring self-confident) Power”) are very active unit and self-confident 3. Children’s education 3.1 Three trainings held on 50% of children aged 5- 3 trainings conducted; positive thinking 12 years attend trainings 100% attendance reported 3.2 Ten-day moral school 50% of the children aged Moral classes conducted classes held annually in 5-15 years attend each twice. Near 100% the vacation year attendance reported. 3.3 Conduct 72 sessions 50% of the schoolgoing children are in process of Computer classes only (in 18 months) on children from classes 5 to being trained; students started in January 2008, computer education in the 12 attend the programme from 8th to 12th standard after the VIC was village attend regularly completed. 3.4 Conduct evening 50% of the schoolgoing 40 students (45% of student to student learning children from classes 5 to students from 5th to 12th programme 12 participate standard) participated 3.5 Start evening coaching 50% of the weak 136 students (88% of classes for students who students attend total) in Pethankuppam are weak in their studies attend; also, 611 students in five other villages attend. 4. Women’s empowerment 4.1 Formation and 20 SHGs formed 6 SHGs formed; 10 Other NGOs had already strengthening of SHGs groups formed in other started some SHGs; villages for income therefore, there was no generation purposes need for 20 SHGs 4.2 Conduct 18 leadership 50% of SHG members 18 leadership trainings, 2 trainings, 2 legal literacy trained legal literacy trainings and programmes and 2 micro 2 entrepreneurship entrepreneurship trainings organised. programmes
8 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 4.3 Conduct 3 awareness 50% of SHG members 4 awareness classes classes on family trained and practice it conducted for the entire communication village 4.4 conduct 2 awareness 50% of families practice 3 streetwise classes were campaigns on family effective family budgeting conducted on family budgeting budgeting. In 2007, almost all families used the diaries that were provided; at the time of the final evaluation, about 25% were still keeping household accounts 4.5 promote vegetable 50% of families started Coconut saplings and The final evaluation was gardens for each family vegetable gardens vegetable seeds were conducted during the off- distributed to all families. season for vegetables, Almost all families planted and we only observed a the saplings and the few vegetable gardens; it vegetables is likely that more families grow vegetables in the rainy season 5. Skills training for alternative employment 5.1-5.6 Training facilitated 115 youth trained and 117 youth trained, 25 12 of the 17 youth who and conducted in six skills employed youth reported employed followed a Tally course in the end-of-project also followed an MS report Office course. 5.7 Six-monthly training on Regular training provided On-the-job training was animal husbandry for milk society members given to milk society staff and members 4 de-worming camps organised for calves Veterinary assistance made available whenever needed. 6. Disaster preparedness 6.1 Conduct 4 disaster 4 trainings conducted; 80 4 trainings conducted in In total 236 members of mitigation trainings youth trained Pethankuppam and 5 the six DMP teams. (one each) in neighbouring villages; 80 youth trained in Pethankuppam and 190 in the other villages. 6.2 conduct 2 exposure 2 exposure visits 2 exposure visits visits to other disaster- conducted conducted for DMP team affected areas and VDC members 6.3 Two presentations 2 presentations given 2 presentations given in conducted for the whole Pethankuppam and community on DMP neighbouring villages. 7. Biogas and environmental protection 7.1 Build one biogas plant 190 biogas plants Not implemented Beneficiaries did not in each house provided contribute the money that was required for this activity; later on, the government of Tamil Nadu promised to tive free gas connections to each household. 7.2 Conduct 3 awareness Monthly awareness 1 awareness seminar was programmes on using programmes conducted conducted biogas plants and for the first six months environmental protection 7.3 Exposure visit 1 exposure visit 1 exposure visit conducted conducted to Auroville
9 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 8. Village Information Centre 8.1 Identification of suitable 1 VIC constructed and 1 VIC constructed and 30% of the youth location equipped equipped between 15 and 25 use 8.2 Set up one VIC the VIC per month; 8% of 8.3 Provide equipment to the total population VIC 8.4 Training of youth and 10 youth and 5 animators 2 animators trained village animators to run the trained and running the VIC VIC on a daily basis
By and large, the quantitative targets that were set for this project were exceeded. Some of the activities were expanded to five neighbouring villages after June 2007, because DC felt that they could do more with the same resources. Where targets were not met, there are generally good reasons. VIC use is still a little low, but the indicator may have been too optimistic.
4.4 Efficiency In the mid-term evaluation, I wrote “the organisational set-up is fairly ‘light’ – because of DC’s decision to work mainly through selected key youth from the villages who get trained to do the work, the staffing and logistics could be kept to a minimum. As Cuddalore was found to be an inconvenient place for the staff to reside, it was decided to shift the office to Pondicherry just before the development project started. The staff have appreciated this move a lot. However, the consequence of the move is that the travel time from office to Pethankuppam has gone up from about 20 minutes to nearly an hour. In combination with the fact that a devotion and a brief staff meeting is held every morning before anyone goes out, this means that staff are rarely in Pethankuppam before 11. On top of that, Monday mornings and Saturday mornings are spent on team meetings, and Monday afternoons and part of the Thursdays and Fridays are spent on meetings with the village youth who are involved in the project. This means that the effective staff time in the village outside planning and review meetings is limited to about 16 hours a week, while the staff rarely make working weeks of less than 40 hours. On the other hand, as many responsibilities have been handed over to people in the village, direct staff input can reduce so it is not immediately clear if there is a serious problem. Monitoring and documentation needs strengthening. Much information is being collected and is available in the office, but very little gets processed into usable management information. For example, after many training programmes, a feedback survey is done among the trainees, but I haven’t seen a summary sheet where the answers on the survey forms are summarised. In this way, possible lessons learnt don’t get documented, and should there be any staff turnover, then all this knowledge will be lost.”
I need to correct this assessment in two points. Firstly, the DC staff may have reached the office fairly late in the morning (although DC always tried to have at least one staff member in the village by 9 in the morning), but they often left the village very late in the evening. This was actually more efficient than sticking to regular office times, because the beneficiaries mostly had time in the evenings. In the mornings, almost the only activities that happened were construction and milk collection, while after lunch the women staying at home had more time, and after working hours those going out for work were available. Secondly, DC has acted on the lack of solid monitoring and analysis of data by employing mr. Tamilkumar towards the end of the project, with the objective of documenting the projects and the lessons learnt. This was a good initiative. For future projects however, I would recommend to set up a stronger monitoring and analysis process right from the start.
4.5 Impact
4.5.1 Health and hygiene Not much can be said about the extent to which the project has caused a reduction in the occurrence of diseases in Pethankuppam, as insufficient data are available. However, when I compare photographs that I took in Pethankuppam in October 2006, June 2007 and June 2008, very obvious differences are visible. Cleanliness and hygiene in the village have dramatically improved, and people look after themselves better.
10 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
On top of that, the fact that the railway bridge is being made bigger will probably reduce the force of the river in the rainy season, which will cause a reduction in flooding and flood-related diseases.
People clearly are much more aware of health and hygiene-related issues than they were at the start of the project. The VDC members have played a crucial role in ensuring health and hygiene of the community. They visited the SHGs on regular basis and disseminated information on different health related issues.
In the mid-term report, I wrote “The HIV/AIDS awareness activities have had a clear impact, because the issue has become discussable. This is a big improvement. There is a visible awareness among women on MCH issues. Perhaps an even stronger sign that the activities have worked is the fact that the husbands are also becoming aware of the issues. With all the attention that has been given to health and hygiene, the village has visibly become cleaner, and people look after themselves better. A few examples: garbage dumps are used, children stay neat and tidy when they go to school, people don’t bathe in the open anymore, and people bathe daily.” This assessment is unchanged. If anything, the situation has improved further.
Five vermiculture pits were initially set up, but after they were damaged by some land sliding, three new pits were set up in the area that was prepared to keep the cattle during floods (see picture). The treated manure that came from these pits was initially used for the school garden, but plans were to make it available for people’s own gardens in the future.
4.5.2 Family and value education Family life guidance sessions were conducted regularly by Mr. Julian, a retired accounts officer at a reputed medical training college in Pondicherry, who had been doing this kind of work for years. It was clear that his sessions were very popular, particularly among women. Mr. Julian also conducted trainings for the staff of DC Pondicherry. Attendance rates at his sessions were consistently high, and during the evaluation many people spoke very positively about Mr. Julian’s work. It was however very difficult to really measure whether or not any changes had happened in the village because of Mr. Julian’s trainings. In-depth follow-up was only done to a limited extent, and the survey that was conducted at the end of the project was too general to give valuable information on this issue. People did mention that some of the husbands have started treating their wives better, that youth and children have become more respectful to others, and that extramarital affairs have reduced. Even if Mr. Julian was not the only cause of such improvements, he seems to have played a valuable role in this process of moral upliftment.
The de-addiction activities have had a limited impact in terms of people who have totally given up alcohol, which is not surprising because alcohol addiction is very difficult to get rid of. However, we were told that quite some men had reduced their alcohol consumption, which in itself is a big improvement.
Sex and value education has made the topic discussable among youth in Pethankuppam, which is a big achievement. Unfortunately, there is very little follow-up documentation on this.
The “Boy Power” and “Girl Power” groups seem to have been very effective in improving the self- esteem of the youth in the village. Several of the boys have became confident enough to go and find permanent jobs outside the village, which is a big change. In the mid-term evaluation I stated that is regrettable that such a good activity is so little documented. This remains the case.
One group that seems to have fallen out of the general improvement in the situation are the older men. According to the staff of DC, while almost everybody else had become more invigorated, you could still see some of the older men lazing about in their front porches (see picture) or on the porch of the community hall. It must be said though that they are probably the hardest group to reach.
11 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
4.5.3 Children’s education The moral classes which were conducted for the children seem to have had remarkable effect. Many people reported appreciatingly that children have become a lot more polite and respectful towards others.
Computer classes only started in January 2008. By the time we visited the VIC in June, classes were going on on a regular basis, but with only two computers available, it will take some time before larger numbers of students have been trained (there are three more computers available, which will be placed in the VIC once the district administration appoints a person to look after the VIC). Nevertheless, having computers in the village creates previously unimaginable opportunity for youth of the village to familiarise themselves with computers and some of the commonly used software packages.
In the mid-term evaluation, an in-depth analysis was made of a sample of the report cards of the tuition students. The main conclusion was that particularly the weaker students clearly benefited from the tuition classes. A benefit that was not mentioned in the proposal is generated by the fact that all students now have a place where they can study without being disturbed by television and other detractions. Unfortunately, the monitoring system for the 2007-2008 school year was different, and even though data are available, they cannot be compared with the earlier data (see annex 2 for some analysis of the new data). The main conclusion from the new data is the same however: particularly the weaker students benefit from the tuition classes.
A negative point of the tuition classes that was identified during the mid-term evaluation, is that students were spending so much time studying (they were in school until 5 pm, and then went for tuition classes from 5.30 to 9 pm), that they had no time left for playing. Unfortunately, this issue was not looked into during the final evaluation, so I cannot say whether this point is still valid or not.
One major consequence of the improved incomes and the enhanced awareness on the importance of education has been that more and more children are going to private schools outside Pethankuppam. Every day, five school buses come to pick up children (see picture to the left). Since this means that these children get a better education, this can be considered positive. However, for those children whose parents cannot afford sending them to private schools, the risk is that the government school in Pethankuppam will become smaller and smaller, and that the quality of education at this school will actually reduce.
While in Pethankuppam, the tuition teachers earlier received an allowance, this was never the case in the other villages. After the project ended, the involvement of the tuition teachers in the other villages has remained unchanged, but we were told that in Pethankuppam the tuition teachers no longer come as regularly as they used to. This is an interesting issue to reflect on for future projects.
4.5.4 Women’s empowerment As reported in the mid-term evaluation, “the situation with SHGs in Pethankuppam is a little complicated. Three other NGOs, Dhan Foundation, Goodwill and Ideal, have set up 14, 1 and 1 SHGs respectively, and given them loans of Rs. 50,000/-, 40,000/- and 35,000/- respectively. However, these NGOs seem to have focused mainly on the number of SHGs they can report on, and rarely visit the village. Therefore, the SHGs have divided the money among the members, and very little in terms of structural income generation seems to have happened. DC decided to form its own SHGs, but provide training support to all SHGs in the village.” At the time of the mid-term evaluation, DC had not yet started any income generating activities with the SHGs. in the year that passed after that, several trainings were organised and contacts were established with other actors for the production of electric chokes, FM radios, paper and banana fibre
12 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 bags, etcetera. Unfortunately, despite the fact that each of the activities that was started looks promising, DC had not yet been able to secure reliable contracts that will actually ensure an income for the SHG members by the time of the evaluation. One of the DC staff continues to be involved in the village (in co-operation with the Marketing Unit of Stella Maris), and at the time of the final evaluation, DC staff were still confident that one or other of the options that had been looked into would materialise3. In November 2008, Mr. George Samuel informed me by e-mail that the paper and banana fibre bag production had taken off, and that there was by then a steady demand for the bags from Bangalore (the picture to the right shows a stock of bags ready for transport to the buyer). DC’s commitment to making this work (even beyond the project period) seems to have paid off, and DC is to be commended for this. It is a little sad however that DC has not been able to get income generation off the ground earlier, as DC had to wait until over half a year after the project ended before serious results in terms of income could be shown to the donor.
The family diaries that were distributed in 2007 have been used by quite a lot of the people, and even such fairly sensitive expenses as alcohol were being recorded by part of the families. After the diaries ended (in December 2007), about ¼ of the families is estimated to have continued with their family budgeting in notebooks. There were some indications that people had reduced their expenditures on alcohol etcetera, but the biggest change seems to have been that quite a few families have seen a significant increase in their income. The additional income is being spent on things like children’s education (sending a child to a private school costs about Rs. 3,000 per year) and on status symbols like motorbikes, televisions, mobile phones and DVD players. There is some concern about the extent to which this will last. Several dozen people have been earning comparatively good incomes (not so much because the salaries were higher than what they were used to earlier, but because the jobs were year-round and not seasonal) working on construction projects after the tsunami. Even though they will definitely be able to find work on other construction projects after the tsunami housing boom is over, indications were that people were returning to the village and reverting to seasonal agricultural labour.
Homegardening was promoted by the distribution of coconut saplings and vegetable seeds. At the time of the evaluation, the tree seedlings (not only coconut but also other fruit trees) were clearly visible, but not very many people were seen to be growing vegetables. It must be said though that June was the middle of the dry season; I would expect the number of people growing vegetables to increase during the rainy season.
4.5.5 Skills training In total, 137 youth completed various skills trainings (though some girls were unable to obtain a tailoring certificate because they lacked the educational qualifications that were required). Of these, 24 had found jobs by the time the project ended. That is about 18% of those who had completed their training at the end of the project (129 youth). Some of those who did the computer training decided to go for higher studies instead of looking for jobs. Though the percentage of youth who found jobs so far is not very high, it needs to be taken into consideration that many courses only finished pretty close to the end of the project. It is to be expected that a lot more of the youth will find jobs over the coming year.
3 In November 2008, I was told by Mr. George Samuel that the paper and banana fibre bag production had taken off, and that a steady demand for the bags existed from Bangalore. It looks like the long post-project
13 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Nine of the girls who completed tailoring training have joined a tailoring unit that is headed by the wife of a pastor who works in Pethankuppam. At the time of the evaluation, the unit had been operational for 2 months. The girls were motivated, and the unit seemed to be managed quite well. However, when I had a discussion with the pastor’s wife about production capacity, income and expenses, it became clear that the productivity of the unit is only enough to earn about Rs. 15-30 per seamstress per day (the highest profit margin is for churidars). The rates that were charged for the different types of clothes were slightly below market prices, but half of the income was set aside to cover the rent of the building and the cost of materials. In the first two months, the marketing had not yet been fully set up, and production was limited. The actual income per person per day for these two months was about Rs. 5 per seamstress per working day. It is clear that for this unit to become sufficiently profitable, first the marketing needs to be improved in order to increase demand. DC was already working on this, and it is to be expected that demand will increase over the course of 2008. Secondly, the productivity per seamstress needs to be at least doubled. Whether this is actually possible or not is not clear. As with other income generating activities that were looked at during the 2007 evaluation, this is yet another example of an idea with very good intentions but insufficient prior analysis of its feasibility. I would once again like to stress the need for DC to build up capacity to do serious feasibility studies of any future livelihoods activity, because livelihoods activities that are not sufficiently profitable are only going to end up making the beneficiaries very frustrated. In mitigation, it must be said that DC did not yet have much experience with strategic livelihoods interventions in Tamil Nadu, outside the fishing sector. The DC team has definitely learnt a lot, now it is up to DC headquarters to take the learnings and use it for future projects.
The institutions that were selected for the courses were of good quality. As part of its follow-up support, DC conducted a one-day training for the trainees on what job opportunities are available, and on how to apply for a job. Topics like ‘how to make a CV’, ‘how to attend an interview’, etcetera were covered.
Advice and guidance on animal husbandry was provided on-the-job by two trained vets who were employed in Pethankuppam by DC. As the project ended, many people sold their cows. Though this significantly reduced the numbers of families with cows in the village (upsetting DC’s target of providing every family with a cow), it was found that those families that remain are the ones that actually have some feeling for looking after a cow. The milk yield of the remaining cows has increased, which is an indication that they are looked after better than the cows that were sold (see annex 3).
4.5.6 Disaster preparedness The Disaster Management Team was found to be as active and motivated as they were during the evaluation of June 2007. That this was the case despite the fact that no major disasters (floods etcetera) took place in the mean time is a good indicator for the level of motivation and empowerment of the team members. In order to earn some money for the DMT, the members are engaged in group activities such as the clearing of the roads for the village temple festival. Such activities are good teambuilding exercises, and will contribute to the sustainability of the DMT. In the mean time, the railway bridge just West of Pethankuppam has been taken down, and is being replaced by a bridge with a bigger opening. This will not reduce the amount of flooding as such, but because the water can flow through the bridge easier, there will be less erosion damage on the river banks, and the speed with which the flood waters will fill the village will be reduced.
4.5.7 Biogas plants The biogas plants that were planned to be constructed in Pethankuppam have not materialised. Since no dedicated budget was available for the activity, DC had planned to deduct the money in instalments from the income that the families were getting from the milk they sold to the milk society. However, it soon turned out that this would not be feasible because insufficient funds could be collected. In the meantime, the DMK, which is the governing party in Tamil Nadu, has started implementing an election pledge that thousands of families would be provided with free gas canisters so that they would be able to cook on liquid gas in order to reduce the demand for firewood. Pethankuppam is also on the list of targeted villages, which has made the idea of setting up biogas plants redundant.
14 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
4.5.8 Village Information Centre The Village Information Centre (see picture to the right) was officially opened in January 2008. Since that time, a limited but steady group of people has been using it, mostly to read newspapers and to read the study books that are in the library. At the time of the evaluation, no internet connection was available yet, and thus the information supply function of the VIC was not yet optimally developed. The VIC has been handed over to the local government. At the time of writing, it was not yet clear whether financial sustainability of the VIC could be guaranteed.
4.6 Sustainability It was to be expected that some of the activities will stop or fizzle out after the end of the project. Other than the milk society which has institutionalised the withholding of some funds to pay for the allowances of the two people who collect the milk and sell it (but which is running at a loss and will not be able to keep paying these allowances), it is unlikely that the people who were employed by the project (as animators, tuition teachers, etcetera) will be able to continue their work. Even though the tuition students have already started collecting contributions to be able to pay for the tuition teachers in the future, the amount that is collected is not sufficient to pay for all tuition teachers. As a consequence, the attendance of tuition teachers has already reduced. Interestingly, in the five villages around Pethankuppam where DC started tuition centres, and where the tuition teachers were never paid, there has been no reduction in the attendance of the tuition teachers.
Many of the awareness and training activities will have a lasting legacy. Examples of this are the disaster management activities, the health awareness activities and skill trainings – even though the trainings have ended, those who have been trained will continue to use their new skills in the future. But the biggest change is the change in mentality. Through the project, people have found new self- respect and vigour in life.
As mentioned earlier, many people have found jobs outside Pethankuppam. However, compared to the mid-term evaluation, the numbers employed outside seem to have reduced again by June 2008 (especially because tsunami housing projects are winding up). While the people in the village have clearly become empowered and will now keep their eyes and ears open for work outside, this is a cause for some concern.
The curative health activities (health camps) have in a sense been one-off activities. It is not clear how people are going to access health facilities in the future.
As mentioned above, none of the SHGs has as yet started any income generation. Good ideas exist, but it still remains to be seen whether they will materialise.
4.7 Focus on marginalised groups In the mid-term evaluation report, I stated that “Pethankuppam was a very marginalised village, and over the past two years, a very visible transformation has taken place. Not only does the village look much healthier and wealthier; it is the visible change in the self-respect and attitudes of individual people that really makes the difference.” If anything, this assessment has only been strengthened by our findings from the final evaluation of the project. During the mid-term evaluation, some concern was expressed as to whether DC was really focusing on the most vulnerable families within Pethankuppam. My impression at the end of the project is that this concern may have been a bit premature. Most of the activities focused on the entire village population, and particularly health activities and the tuition classes were particularly geared towards those who needed the assistance. One activity where this blanket coverage was not such a wise idea in hindsight was the distribution of cows (which strictly speaking was not part of this project). DC started by distributing cows to everybody, but it has become clear that not everybody is capable of
15 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 looking after a cow and earning sufficient income off it. The subsequent income generating activities that were developed (but which have not yet fully materialised) did mainly focus on the poorer women in the village, and if the contacts that have been established with potential buyers of the products yield results, this will provide quite a few families with a significant improvement in their income (because they will have income throughout the year rather than only during the cultivation seasons, not so much because the daily wages increase a lot).
4.8 Gender-related issues According to beneficiaries and project staff, the project has contributed to improved gender relations in Pethankuppam (we did not gather enough information to be able to say much about the other villages). Women have been empowered by many of the activities, which has helped them to claim their position in the household. Also, activities like (in particular) the sessions by Mr. Julian have made the men aware of the importance of respecting their wives. The fact that many men were able to gain more steady employment, in combination with a stronger emphasis on status symbols like telephones (which are expensive and thus require men to work more diligently) has contributed to men improving their overall attitudes: there is considerably less laziness than two years ago. This in turn has contributed to improving family relationships. If male employment outside the village reduces again (and there are indications that this is happening as tsunami housing projects are winding up), there may be a relapse. It would be good for the pastors and others who continue working in the village to keep following up on this, and keep the issue of men’s morality and family relationship in discussion at a low intensity.
In the mid-term evaluation, concern was expressed that women’s agendas might get very full with all the income generating activities on top of their household chores. There were no indications that this concern has been addressed, but there were also no indications that women have a problem with it. In that sense, it is good that the SHG income generating activities (like the paper bag manufacturing) can be done part-time, depending on the time that the women have available. I would recommend to keep this flexibility in the income generating activities, without compelling women to start working full- time if the production expands (even though this means that women’s incomes will not reach the maximum possible)
16 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
5 The housing project in MGR Nagar
5.1 Project summary As part of DC’s post-tsunami housing programme, 285 houses were originally planned to be constructed in Pethankuppam. Since detailed beneficiary surveys showed that only 191 houses were needed, this meant that DC had extra construction capacity available. On the request of the government, DC built an additional 64 houses in Ponnanthittu. The remaining construction capacity was used to build 92 houses and a community hall in MGR Nagar, a newly established settlement for Scheduled Tribe families near the town of Killai, not far from Chidambaram.
Construction in MGR Nagar started in October 2007, and is finished in October 2008. This delay was because the government took time to finalise the beneficiary selection.
Apart from the house construction, 45 families received one goat each for their livelihoods.
5.2 Relevance As the beneficiary families were basically homeless, providing them with a house is highly relevant to them. The provision of goats, though a much smaller activity, is expected to contribute to some extent to people’s livelihoods. Given the levels of poverty that the beneficiaries live in, this is relevant as well.
The selected target group is among the poorest and most vulnerable in Tamil Nadu, and therefore very much within the mandate of Discipleship Centre and of the donors.
The design of the houses is an improved version of the designs that were used for the first and second phases of DC’s post-tsunami housing programme. Clearly, the lessons from the previous evaluation were taken to heart, and suggestions from the beneficiaries (for a bigger kitchen, for an outside sitting space) were taken into consideration. This is another example of the learning attitude of DC’s tsunami team. In hindsight, the original design (which was developed by North Indians, and which was based on experience from mostly Gujarat) was not entirely appropriate in the context of Tamil Nadu, and it might have been better if DC had found an architect from the area to do the design work.
5.3 Effectiveness By the time the houses are completed, 92 families will live in a solid house for the first time in their lives. Though there have been some delays in the construction process, the planned targets are being met.
5.4 Efficiency I can say very little about the efficiency of the project, because none of the evaluators are familiar with the costs of housing in Tamil Nadu. For a more general assessment of the efficiency of DC’s housing programme, I refer to the 2007 evaluation report.
17 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
5.5 Impact
5.5.1 Housing Upon completion of the project, 92 beneficiary families will have a solid house with in-built toilet that is safe from tsunamis, earthquakes and floods. That is an unimaginable improvement for the beneficiaries, who never had a house in their lives. Even though the project is only a small part of DC’s overall post-tsunami work, it can be seen as one of the gems in DC’s crown.
5.5.2 Livelihoods The impact of the distribution of 45 goats on the incomes of the beneficiaries will initially be very limited. However, that is not really the point. The goats represent one of the first private income- generating assets that the beneficiary families have had for generations, and thus have a great symbolic value. If the families are able to keep their goats and expand their stocks over time, they will be able to earn a reasonable amount of additional income. There are however three preconditions for this. Firstly, the goats need access to grazing land or other sources of fodder throughout the year. Secondly, there needs to be access to veterinary services. Thirdly, there needs to be a market for the products (milk and meat).
5.6 Sustainability The houses are likely to last for a long time. In general, the designs that have been used are low- maintenance provided that the quality of construction is good. This did not seem to be much of an issue in MGR Nagar, with exception of the staircases, in which the reinforcement steel was seen to be exposed to the (salty) air before the plastering took place. If the plastering is not done carefully, the steel may get severely corroded, which undermines the strength of the staircase. However, DC did a follow-up check of all the houses, and found that in all cases, the plastering properly covers the steel.
DC have also explained to the beneficiaries on how they can best maintain and extend their houses, so that future additions do not undermine the structural integrity of the houses. It will be good though if something like a leaflet with the main concerns, and one or two sample designs, are distributed to the beneficiaries. EFICOR has developed such a leaflet, which might be used as a sample.
An issue that seems to be relevant, but which does not seem to have received much attention from DC staff is the fact that the beneficiaries in MGR Nagar did not have electricity before. This will mean an extra expense, for which at the moment no extra income is available. From Ms. Rachel Stevens (Tearfund), I learnt that she had raised this issue when she visited MGR Nagar, and that the beneficiaries were not too concerned. Earlier, the beneficiaries needed to buy kerosene for lighting, and they needed to rebuild their thatch huts every year. Now that they receive a permanent house, these expenses won’t be there, and these cost savings should be sufficient to cover the electricity bill.
5.7 Focus on marginalised groups The families in MGR Nagar were very obviously part of one of the most marginalised communities in the area. For several generations, they had been little more than slaves without any significant earthly possessions. DC did a good thing in getting involved with this community.
18 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
5.8 Gender-related issues Compared to the house designs for the first and second phases of DC’s tsunami housing programme, the design in MGR Nagar has a much more spacious kitchen, which makes life a lot easier for the women who will need to cook there. The point from the 2007 evaluation of women having more privacy because they will have toilets in their own house is valid for MGR Nagar as well. Otherwise, no significant gender-related issues were observed.
5.9 Other ongoing housing activities Houses under construction were also visited at Ramanthurai and Melmidalam, both located in Kanniyakumari District. In Melmidalam, the second phase of housing construction (50 houses) was started in June 2006, but due to problems with the contractor, the work came to a standstill. Ramanthurai is a late addition to DC’s housing project. DC had 28 houses left over from its commitment of 200 houses for phase II. The Collector allocated a site in the village of Ramanthurai for these houses. However, there were 48 houses needed there, and so DC was told to find additional money for the balance 20 houses. Work started in February 2007 - came to a standstill due to problems with the contractor and inter- caste conflict in the area.
By the time of the evaluation, work on both sites had resumed again, and the houses were expected to be completed shortly after the evaluation was over.
The designs at both sites are similar, and the comments that were made about the design in the evaluation of June 2007 stand unchanged. A particularly important suggestion that Mr. Karunakaran made at the time was to raise the level of the wall around the roof terrace, so that children won’t run the risk of falling over it.
The housing site at Ramanthurai is absolutely packed; there is barely any space around the houses (see picture to the right). It would probably have been better if the houses had been arranged in long rows (or at least in pairs); that would have given more space for front and back yards, and the sharing of walls would have reduced the cost of construction. Alternatively, the houses can be put diagonally across the plots, so that people won’t look straight into each other’s rooms, and again having a triangular front and back yard looks more spacious than having a very narrow strip all around the house. However, the beneficiaries did not want this, and thus all houses were put up separately. In future construction projects, I would suggest to refuse such lay-outs, simply because people have absolutely no privacy at all.
19 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
6 The development project in Kanniyakumari
6.1 Project summary The development project in Kanniyakumari was very similar to the project in Pethankuppam. In nine villages, it was implemented with funds from TFUK, while in one village in Thirunelveli District, a similar project was implemented with funds from World Relief Corporation (this village was not included in this evaluation). In the day-to-day management of the project however, the two projects were treated as one. The project had the following sectors and activities: • Education: awareness campaigns, tuition classes, literacy programmes • Skills training: computers, (engine and vehicle) mechanics, driving, phone repair, dance, plumbing • Household financial management: awareness, SHGs, family diaries, anti-alcohol activities • Health: HIV/AIDS awareness, MCH, vaccination, shared toilets • Village Information Centre • Disaster preparedness: training, development of materials, tree planting Though the final approval was only given in November 2006, DC already started implementing the project from August onwards, based on TFUK’s expressed interest in funding the project. This came as quite a surprise to TFUK, but it has enabled DC to spend four months extra on the project, and get into deeper contacts with the community than would otherwise have been possible. At the end of the project, a budgetneutral extension was given up to March 2008. As housing activities took more time than had been expected, DC remained involved on a small scale in Kanniyakumari until the middle of 2008. This has enabled DC to continue with low-intensity follow-up to some of the activities.
6.2 Relevance The assessment on the project’s relevance stands unchanged from the mid-term evaluation: “this project is shifting towards the edge of the mandate for […] TFUK and DC as the coastal villages in Kanniyakumari are much better off than other parts of the country4. However, as DC has got involved in the relief and rehabilitation phase, an ongoing commitment to the selected communities is a valid justification. Involvement of the protestant church is zero; involvement of and relevance for the local catholic parishes is high. The project is very relevant to expressed needs (but see the hesitations regarding effectiveness and coordination)”.
6.3 Effectiveness
A comparison of the planned and actual output of the project is given in the table below. The data on actual output are based on DC’s end-of-project report, survey data, and our observations during the evaluation.
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 1. Education 1.1 Eighteen campaigns 18 campaigns conducted; 8 rallies and 7 awareness Attendance was definitely and seminars on the 25% of families in each campaigns conducted; high, but was not counted importance of education village attend the reported total attendance during the rallies. conducted for parents trainings of 7,805 (44% of total population)
4 In its income generating activities, DC seems to be targeting the provision of incomes of about Rs. 2,500/- per month. An analysis of the monthly expenses for the period January-May 2007 as entered in 100 randomly selected family diaries indicates that 86% of these families are able to spend more than this, 48% of the families are able to spend more than Rs. 5,000/- per month, and 19% of the families are able to spend more than Rs. 10,000/- per month.
20 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 1.2 Nine tuition centres for 9 tuition centres started; 9 tuition centres Other NGOs already students who are weak in 50% of school children established; 893 students conducted tuition classes their studies are set up attend participate (25% of all for some most of the students) grades in each village; DC provided tuition classes for the remaining grades in each village 1.3 One adult literacy 30% of uneducated adults Two batches of adult Mostly women, as programme started in attend the programme literacy classes were fishermen did not have each village conducted in each village; time. Percentage 271 adults (22% of all coverage varies per identified illiterates) village (from 8% to 97%) participated 2. Skills training 2.1 486 youth receive 486 youth trained and About 635 youth enrolled, vocational training employed of whom 573 completed their training (about 10% of all youth in the villages); 22% reported to have already found employment by the time the project ended 3. Improved household financial management 3.1 Eighteen awareness 2 awareness seminars One person from each Training was done via seminars on savings per village; 1,386 families family (3,354 people) anbiams instead of in conducted in all villages attend attended training on using large groups because this family diaries was found to be more effective 3.2 Empowerment of 45 SHGs are empowered 48 SHGs selected and SHGs and giving and incentives are given supported incentives to SHGs and families 3.3 45 SHGs are trained 45 SHGs start new 48 SHGs were trained on entrepreneurial businesses and have started new development and start a income generating new business activities 3.4 Enhanced skills 18 SHGs receive 48 SHGs have been trainings given to SHGs enhanced skills training trained and were given already involved in and are provided with a grants of Rs. 50,000 business grant through a revolving fund 3.5 Teach accounting Two trainings conducted Training was conducted People from all anbiams and budgeting to each on accounting / budgeting for all anbiams attended, but it is not family entirely clear whether all members attended. 3.6 Awareness campaign One school in each Awareness campaigns conducted in schools village has an awareness conducted in all primary introducing saving campaign schools in the villages, schemes especially followed by the setting up among primary schools of savings schemes for students in the targeted schools 3.7 Two awareness 18 awareness campaigns 16 campaigns organised; campaigns and video and video presentations 5,009 people participated presentations on on alcoholism conducted (about 30% of the total alcoholism in each village in the community population of the targeted villages) 3.8 Two de-addiction 18 de-addiction 1,737 alcoholics were programmes conducted in programmes conducted in identified; 16 de-addiction each village and 9 villages programmes were alcoholics identified and conducted. encouraged to attend
21 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 3.9 Formation of one AA One AA group formed 625 addicts (36% of the This activity was changed group in each village and and functioning in each total group) underwent to small-group awareness counselling of male village counselling. In the final raising when it was found addicts survey, 46% of the out that that works better interviewed families with alcoholic family members reported that they have reduced their alchohol consumption, while 5% reported that they have stopped using alcohol altogether. 4. Improved health conditions 4.1 Three trainings on 45 youths trained on 51 youths were trained HIV/AIDS awareness general health and and became active as HIV/AIDS awareness (5 health volunteers. from each village); each volunteer gives 5 hours per week 4.2 One dialogue / One meeting with each 141 meetings were 4,486 people reported to discussion meeting SHG in each village conducted (not clear from have attended these conducted each month Community members the reports whether with meetings, but not clear with SHG members on take precautionary steps SHGs or with other whether there is double different health issues and to avoid infection of any groups like anbiams) counting HIV/AIDS kind of disease 4.3 Regular community- One community-level Awarenes programmes level awareness on meeting per month were conducted through HIV/AIDS through Volunteers visit one street plays, a cycle rally pamphlet distribution and house per day and auto rallies, and monthly meetings through the distribution of pamphlets. No information available on the number of family visits by the health volunteers. 4.4 Three workshops 3 workshops conducted in 41 workshops were 3,469 people (20% of the conducted on major each village; 50% of the conducted in the nine total population) reported health issues villagers attend villages. to have attended the workshops, but not clear whether there is double counting 4.5 Monthly check-ups One check-up per month; Monthly check-ups were and awareness on pre- 80% of pregnant and conducted with the help of and post-natal care lactating women attend the Catherin Booth conducted for pregnant Hospital and the and lactating women Kumaraswamy Hospital. 153 pregnant women (59%) and 257 lactating mothers (48%) participated 4.6 Vaccination All children under 5 566 children below five Vaccinations for TB and programmes run on a vaccinated against TB, years (36%) are diphtheria are done by monthly basis for children typhoid, diphtheria and vaccinated for hepatitis the government. It is not below 5 years hepatitis and 558 (35%) for typhoid clear from the available data whether or not the other 65% of the children were already vaccinated. 4.7 Three health camps Sick people are identified 33 health camps (eye 5,753 people (33% of the conducted in each village and treated camp, blood camp, total population) reported general health camp) to have attended the were conducted. health camps, but not clear whether there is double counting
22 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Sector / Activity Planned output Actual output Comments 4.8 Two workshops in 18 workshops conducted 50 workshops conducted 2,150 people reported to each village on hygiene Proper use of toilets and Villages are visibly have attended the and sanitation promotion reduction in open clearer; some villages workshops (12%), but not defecation decided to employ clear whether there is scavengers double counting 4.9 Construction of low- 180 low-cost toilets 180 low-cost toilets cost toilets (leach pit constructed constructed design, shared between houses) 5. Village Information Centre 5.1 One VIC equipped One VIC in each village 9 VICs set up and and set up with library equipped with computers, equipped books in each village internet facilities, weather forecast, newspapers, latest employment news, and books 6. Disaster preparedness 6.1 Conduct 2 disaster 20 youth trained in each 130 youth (100 male and mitigation trainings village 30 female) trained; 4 disaster mitigation 7 disaster mitigation teams formed teams formed in each Mock drills conducted in village – each team taking each village every 6 care of specific elements months of disaster mitigation No information on mock drills 6.2 conduct 3 workshops 80% of the fishermen are 33 workshops were and ToT on sea safety aware of sea safety conducted on sea safety, One ToT group trained in and leaflets were each village distributed; ToT was not implemented because fishermen had no time 6.3 Preparation of sea 1 video produced 1 video produced and safety video shown in the villages 6.4 Three training Community is motivated, Six trainings conducted programmes conducted plants tree saplings and with 212 participants. on social forestry and protects trees in the ecological balance village
In summary, the picture is a little mixed, but generally positive. For many activities, the planned targets were met or even significantly exceeded, while for other activities, the targets were not met. There were targets were not met (like tuition classes and the sea safety ToT activities), there are generally good reasons.
As indicated in the table, it is sometimes difficult to assess the true number of participants in a series of workshops or awareness sessions, especially if multiple sessions were held per village. From the available data, it was not possible to determine if a person who attends several sessions is counted once or several times.
6.4 Efficiency DC has found very capable village-based animators, which has helped tremendously in implementing the project. Budget allocations for staff, logistics and admin seem to be in pretty good proportions to the overall project costs. In the mid-term evaluation, I wondered if DC has enough logistical capacity with one vehicle and two motorbikes to cover ten villages. This does not seem to have been much of a problem however. In the mid-term evaluation, questions were raised regarding the efficiency of the working hours. The working days started fairly late at 9.30, and before the staff effectively got to the villages it was rarely before 10.30 (except in the villages that are immediately adjacent to the Stella Maris compound). However, when staff visited Melmidalam, Simon Colony and Vaniyakudi (which are about an hour away from the office), they often left much earlier. This is by no means meant to say that the staff
23 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 were lazy: they often continued until late in the evening, and the staff who lived in the office regularly worked at night as well. However, for future projects, the recommendation still stands that it might be more efficient however to start an hour earlier, have one fairly elaborate devotion a week, and give Saturdays off, especially if (part of) the staff are from far away and spend a lot of time travelling to get to their families.
6.5 Impact
6.5.1 Education Early in the project, DC has organised a string of campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of education. Such campaigns consisted of a march through the village by school children with placards stressing the importance of education, followed by a cultural show. Apart from this, the issue was raised more informally by staff and animators. In parallel to this (and partly due to DC’s advocacy on the issue), the parish priests made it compulsory for youth in their parishes to finish their schools. As a result, the number of drop-outs reduced to (almost) zero. To what extent DC’s awareness activities have contributed to this is hard to say. I have the strong impression that it is mainly the parish priests’ directives that have made the youth stay in school. But then again, DC also did its share in raising the awareness of the priests on the issue.
Tuition classes were conducted for different grades in different villages. This was allocated by the Parish Councils. Various other agencies (mostly church-related) were already involved in providing tuition classes, and the Parish Councils allocated the different grades to different organisations to optimise resource use and to prevent duplication. As was stated in the mid-term report: “Most of the students attend the classes, whether they are weak or not. The weak students are given special attention by the tuition teachers, while for the other students the centre simply provides a place to study undisturbed. This is a very positive thing, which is not mentioned anywhere in the proposal.” That assessment remains unchanged. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get access to any recent data on test results. It is therefore impossible to give a detailed analysis of the impact of the tuition classes.
As stated in the mid-term evaluation, “the adult literacy classes are considered to be very useful, but mostly target women. Men were the intended target, but it was found that they don’t have enough free time available to be able to follow a literacy course. Several of the women felt embarrassed to come to a classroom to follow a literacy course. In response to this, the literacy teachers (who are from the villages) have decided to do the classes at the women’s houses. This has significantly reduced the barriers for women to participate”. Some men also asked for private literacy classes, but since it would be highly inappropriate for young women to spend a lot of time in the same room with a man they are not married to, this was not done. By the end of the project, 271 people had learned to read and write (see picture to the right). This was much appreciated by the beneficiaries. Some stated that they were now able to sign formal documents, while others stated that they were now able to read the Bible by themselves. One formerly illiterate person had been able to read a tsunami warning on the newsbar on his television screen, and therefore was able to inform many people around him to be vigilant. A big change mentioned by several people was that they now can read bus signs by themselves, and thus can travel alone without needing to depend on others. In general, becoming literate has contributed significantly to people’s self-confidence. A point that was missed in the mid-term evaluation is the fact that the number of people trained per village was roughly the same (about 30 per village, give or take a few), despite the vast variation in the numbers of illiterate people per village. DC probably maximised its output in villages with small numbers of illiterate people like Puthugramam, Siluvainagar and Simon Colony, where between 71 and 97% of the illiterate people were trained. On the other hand, in villages with large numbers of illiterate people (especially Vaniyakudy and Melmidalam, but also Chinnamuttom), only between 8
24 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 and 14% of the illiterate people were trained. One may therefore wonder if a larger number of people could have been trained if more attention had been given to the Vaniyakudi, Melmidalam and Chinnamuttom.
6.5.2 Skills training The original target of training 486 youth in various skills has been exceeded quite a bit. In total, 573 people have completed their training, of whom so far a limited number (22% according to DC’s end-of- project report) have found jobs. As mentioned in the mid-term evaluation, DC was able to exceed the planned number of trainees because after good negotiations, several of the training institutes decided to give DC a discount on the course fees.
In total, about 10% of the trainees dropped out. This was mostly because students lost interest along the way. DC was worried about this, and asked new students to sign a form in which they stated that they would repay the course fee if they dropped out for invalid reasons. After this, the number of dropouts reduced significantly.
DC staff and animators have provided some follow-up support to the trainees when needed, in order to make it easier for them to find work.
About 100 youth have received training in tailoring and embroidery, which is likely to give most of them a near guaranteed seasonal income if they get access to sewing machines. The other trainings will give youth access to permanent jobs in sectors with a growing demand. So, even though at the moment limited impact can be shown in terms of people finding jobs, it is to be expected that a significant number of trainees will be able to make a living with the skills they have learnt in the programme.
The vocational training programme offers new opportunities for a generation of youth. As many people in the area expect that opportunities for making a living in the fishing sector will decline drastically over the next decade or so (due to overfishing and climate change; quite a number of people we spoke to were also worried that the nuclear plant that is being built to the North-East of Kanniyakumari will have dramatic consequences on the fish stocks), this comes at a good time. A problem here is that the educational qualifications that were required for most courses preselected those youth who already had managed to get quite far with their education. Those boys who dropped out of school at a young age to go fishing (who were the originally intended main target of the vocational training) were unable to enlist for most courses due to this, and it looks like they will have to stay in the fishing sector.
6.5.3 Household income One of the most innovative elements of the projects was the introduction of household bookkeeping diaries, which were distributed to all families in the targeted villages. The diaries were introduced and explained during awareness sessions. During the mid-term evaluation (when the diaries had been in use for six months), it was found that part of the families had made changes in their expenditure patterns. Especially women’s expenditure on fancy items and expensive clothes had reduced, while men’s expenses seemed to have remained the same. Other families were either unable or unwilling to keep accurate household accounts. This was influenced by the fact that animators regularly came and checked the diaries to see if people were doing the accounts properly. That was intended to help those people who had difficulty with keeping accounts, but the unintended side-effect was that it made some of the families very reluctant to document particularly those expenses which are considered shameful, such as alcohol. By the time the final evaluation was done, the diaries had run out (they ran from January to December 2007). According to estimates of the animators, about ¼ of the families continues to keep household accounts in notebooks. The others don’t, but that does not mean that expenditure patterns are back to what they were. According to the people we spoke to, women had reduced their expenditures on clothes, fancy items and make-up. Where earlier it was customary to buy three sets of new clothes for the two main festivals of the year, women now buy one set of clothes for each festival (for themselves and for the rest of the family). Where earlier women used to buy silk sarees when they could, they now more often buy cotton sarees.
25 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Men’s expenditure patterns have also started changing. We were told that earlier, men used to spend money on going to movies, on playing cards (for money), and on alcohol. Now, many men have reduced their expenditures on all these three items. Instead, youth have gotten actively involved in sports: almost daily, there are matches between teams within and between villages (see picture on the right for a banner announcing a cricket festival). The older men spend their time watching the games. Also, since the number of people who have got televisions has increased dramatically, people watch movies at home and no longer go out to watch them.
Expenditure on other things has increased. Over the past couple of years, almost every family has bought a television and at least one mobile phone. Quite a few families have more than one mobile phone, and also own DVD players. Dowries also seem to be increasing. Because people are under pressure to keep up their status, some have started borrowing money and buying things in instalments. The resultant repayment pressure also contributes to people’s improved budget discipline.
The thing with fishermen is that some days they earn a lot of money if the catch is good, while on other days (when the catch is bad or when the weather makes fishing impossible) they don’t earn anything. According to some of the people we interviewed, and according to staff and animators, people earlier used to live the good life during good times, and tighten their belts during lean times. While saving (in bank accounts) did not happen very much, excess income from good days was set aside for jewelry or for expensive sarees. In this way, in-kind dowries for the daughters were saved up over time. This saving up of assets has increased.
During the mid-term evaluation, 25 family diaries were randomly selected from each of the four villages that the social evaluation focused on (Arockiapuram, Chinnamuttom, Kovalam and Melmidalam). The monthly expenditures and incomes as indicated in the diaries were totalled and analysed, and each diary was looked at to try to discover trends in income and expenditure, and also to see how people fill in the data. One of the conclusions of the mid-term evaluation was that by far not all families can really be considered poor or very poor: about half of the families in the sample of family diaries had a monthly cash availability that was considered sufficient to manage. Therefore, the recommendation was made to target sharper within villages. In hindsight, this recommendation was not a very useful one, because the bulk of the beneficiary selection for the remaining income generating activities had already been done. Since a key criterion for people to become part of the Self-Help Groups of Stella Maris is that they are acknowledged to be living below the poverty line, DC’s decision to work with SHGs was a good one.
Data on income and expenditure was available for the 30 SHGs that were provided with a grant of Rs. 50,000 in the middle of 2007. The first thing that needs to be noted is that only one of the SHGs ran at a loss. The others made a net profit, and thus yielded income for the members. However, when looking at the profit per member per month, there are large variations (see table below)
Range of monthly profit Number of SHGs in this Profit per member per per member category (% of total) day (average per category, 22 days per month) Loss 1 (3%) - Rs. 1.12 Rs. 0 – Rs. 100 19 (63%) Rs. 2.81 Rs. 101 – Rs. 200 6 (20%) Rs. 6.91 Rs. 201 – Rs. 500 2 (7%) Rs. 9.76 Rs. 501 – Rs. 1,000 0 (0%)
26 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Above Rs. 1,000 1 (3%) Rs. 58.43
As the data that I have available are only the cumulative totals, it is not possible to separate investment costs from recurring expenditures. If there were large initial investment costs, that will weigh heavily on the total cumulative expenditures, and distort the income per day when only recurring expenditures are taken into account. For six of the SHGs, two sets of information are available: income and expenditure for August 2007 to May 2008 as well as income and expenditure for August 2007 to July 2008. This makes it possible to calculate the profit per member per day for the June and July 2008, and compare it with the profit per member per day for the earlier ten months. For all the six groups, the profit per member per day is significantly higher (up to four times) for June and July 2008 than for the period from August 2007 to May 2008. Still, the average profit per member per day for these six groups only increases from Rs. 3.11 (August 2007-May 2008) to Rs. 7.56 (June-July 2008).
Nevertheless, so far, with one exception, the official figures do not indicate that the SHGs have been able to generate sufficient income5. In that sense, the concern that was expressed during the mid-term evaluation has been confirmed. DC did pick up that issue, but it has proven difficult to really do much about it. This is an important lesson for Stella Maris: if you really want to help people who live below the poverty line, you need to not just bring them together but also be realistic in analysing how much money they will be able to earn. Otherwise, you run the risk of people getting very frustrated when they realise that their poverty is not reducing.
Having said this, there are obvious other benefits of the SHGs. From the window in the hotel where I stayed in Kanniyakumari, I could regularly see (and hear!) SHGs in Vavathurai gathering on rooftops (see picture to the left). From the laughter, it was obvious that they were having a good time together, and that the SHGs are a source of social support and relaxation. Then there is the saving (generally between Rs. 25 and Rs. 50 per member per month) and small-scale interloaning that happens, and which helps the members to have little buffers. Last, but definitely not least, the awareness raising and training of the SHG members by the animators and by Stella Maris is an important source of information for the members, and has contributed to the empowerment of particularly the women. Fifteen more SHGs were included in the programme towards the end of 2007. I do not have profit/loss details available for these SHGs, and have therefore not been able to analyse them. Three special SHGs of HIV-positive people and/or their relatives/caretakers were supported through the Centre for Social Reconstruction (CSR), a local NGO that is already working with these people. As HIV/AIDS is such a sensitive topic, this activity was done completely confidentially. Therefore, the evaluators did not meet these SHGs.
5 There is a possibility that the official figures do not show the true picture. Two of the evaluators spent some time with one of the SHGs [I have anonymised the data deliberately], and collected some detailed information on income and expenditure. According to DC’s figures, this SHG has made a net profit of a little below Rs. 30,000 between August 2007 and July 2008. This comes down to a little over Rs. 5 per member per day if the members work 22 days per month. However, according to the SHG members, they are presently working about 4 hours per day (due to a still limited – but growing – demand for their produce), and make about Rs. 25 per person per day in net profit, almost five times more than the official figures. It is not possible to say whether the SHG members are not keeping their books properly or whether they did not mention all expenses involved in making the mats in their conversation with the evaluators. In the mid-term evaluation it was found that not all SHGs had their accounts in order.
27 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
With the DC grants, the SHGs will be able to access further bank loans of Rs. 200,000/- (of which half will be given as a grant and half as a fairly cheap loan). This will help the SHGs to substantially increase their investments, which may increase their output if there is a bigger market for the SHG’s products (which is not always the case). As mentioned in the mid-term evaluation, another promising activity is joint purchasing by the SHG members at the wholesale market. Some SHGs have set up a grocery store in their village, but even if they only do this for their own household needs, wholesale purchasing will lead to considerable savings. It would be good for Stella Maris to promote this further.
The issue of alcoholism was initially addressed via ‘de-addiction campaigns’. However, the addicted men (who had been identified in each village) did not come for this. Their wives did, and seem to have found it useful, but no alcoholic quit his addiction due to this activity. DC has probably set itself an unrealistic target in the logframe, as getting people to quit alcohol addiction is a very difficult and long process. In response to the experiences, DC has now changed its strategy, and the focus is now on educating children on alcohol, and trying to empower them to question their father’s alcohol abuse. The idea is that the moral pressure coming from the children may induce some of the men to better their ways at least partly. The overall attention for the issue of alcohol abuse and its impact on family life and family income seems to have worked. According to the last survey that was done, 46% of the interviewed families with alcoholic family members reported that they have reduced their alchohol consumption, while 5% reported that they have stopped using alcohol altogether. Given the social acceptance of drinking (a fisherman is considered a sissy if he doesn’t drink) and the difficulty in getting alcoholics to totally stop drinking, the fact that so many of the men have reduced their drinking can be considered a big success. Also, it was noticed that the social acceptance of drinking is reducing. This moral imperative is likely to contribute to a sustained decrease in alcohol consumption in the villages.
6.5.4 Health In the mid-term report, I wrote that “the HIV/AIDS awareness activities have taken the topic out of the taboo sphere in the sense that people are now not shy to attend awareness seminars on the disease, which is a great achievement6. Right at the start of the project, there was serious concern whether or not the parish priests would be willing to have the topic discussed, but at the moment the priests are among the key people promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. DC’s approach of having awareness sessions as part of regular BCC meetings, and having these sessions led by especially trained animators from outside the village, seems to have really worked.” This analysis was confirmed during the final evaluation. While in some of the villages, between 1/3 and 2/3 of the people were not aware of the mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS during the first survey, in the survey that was done at the end of the project over 99% of the interviewed people knew how HIV/AIDS is transmitted. DC has deliberately chosen to focus on abstinence as the key method for HIV/AIDS prevention (moral prevention), more than on issues of safe sex (practical prevention). Still, 75% of the people who were interviewed for the final survey were aware of safe sex as well. The topic of HIV/AIDS may have come out of the taboo sphere as a topic to talk about, but there is still a severe stigma attached to those who suffer from AIDS. Breaking this stigma is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. The parish priests will need to take the lead in helping people increase the acceptance of AIDS victims.
During the mid-term evaluation, concern was expressed about the organising of medical camps, as they seemed to duplicate existing systems that people were already using. Apart from that, “the indicators for this activity have proven to be unrealistic because the health indicators are already very good: virtually all births happen in hospital, maternal and infant mortality rates are extremely low, and incidences of disorders and diseases among pregnant women and children are also fairly low.
6 Between the survey of 2007 and 2008, people became a lot less reluctant to talk about the topic with their friends and relatives. While in 2007, only about 8% of the respondents (varying from 2.3% in Vaniyakudy and 2.7% in Melmidalam to 13.4% in Puthugramam and Vavathurai and 13.5% in Simon Colony) indicated that they felt confident to talk about HIV/AIDS even within their close circle of friends and relatives, in 2008 69% of the respondents (varying from 28% in Siluvainagar and 48% in Simon Colony and Chinnamuttom to 86% in Arockiapuram and Vaniyakudi and 93% in Melmidalam) indicated that they had been speaking with family and friends about the topic.
28 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
This may lead one to wonder whether there was a real need at all for DC to organise the health camps. During the immediate post-tsunami period, there was definitely a need as the existing healthcare system was overstretched, but since then the situation has normalised again.”
DC took these concerns to heart, and has phased out the medical camps. This does not seem to have led to any problems in the communities.
The awareness sessions that were conducted have had a good impact. Already during the mid-term evaluation, the DC staff and animators strongly pointed out that pregnant and lactating women have started paying a lot more attention to eating nutritious food than they did before. Hygiene awareness has also increased, which has led several VDCs to decide to hire scavengers (and to provide them with a house) to keep their village clean. Not exactly the intended impact of the hygiene awareness activities, but it has definitely improved the situation in the villages. The villages were visibly cleaner than during my first visit in October 2006.
The construction of 180 toilets in selected villages was a very good idea, as particularly in some of the more densely built-up villages there was a severe shortage of toilets, and there was no alternative space (like shrub jungle or gardens) where particularly the women could go in private. As a result, most women tend to hold up until dusk, which puts them at risk of getting bladder infections. The toilets have been constructed for individual families. The beneficiary families each contributed Rs. 1,500/-, and DC contributed the balance Rs. 7,000/-. The toilets are being used, and beneficiaries have taken ownership for their maintenance.
6.5.5 Village Information Centres The Village Information Centres have been opened up from September 2006 onwards. All have a library with among others study books, reference books and information on finding jobs, all have a daily supply of various Tamil and English newspapers, and all are equipped with two computers (see the VIC in Vaniyakudy in the picture to the right). Most VICs have an internet connection, though this was not possible in all places. The Parish Councils in the different villages made the buildings available for the VICs, and in most cases they also have taken responsibility for the VICs after DC’s involvement ended. The VIC in Kovalam is in the school and the school itself is also involved in the management of the VIC, and the VIC in Melmidalam has been taken over by Kottar Social Services Society (KSSS) in agreement with the Parish Council. The VICs are proving to be useful, particularly where there is an internet connection and where the parish priest takes an active interest. However, the number of people who come to use the VICs has remained comparatively limited. In the second quarter of 2007, each VIC had about 10-25 visitors per day, of whom several came more than once a month. On average, about 145 people visited each VIC per month (this varied from about 50 in Melmidalam, Puthugramam and Siluvainagar to about 480 in Vaniyakudy), mostly for reading newspapers. By March 2008 (the last month for which consolidated data were available), this had reduced significantly. Over the first quarter of 2008, the average number of visitors per VIC was only about 56 (varying from about 25 for Simon Colony and Puthugramam to 113 for Melmidalam). This was mostly caused by a massive drop in attendance in Vaniyakudy, where there was a communal problem, but in general the newness of the VICs seems to have worn off a little bit and some of the people who initially came out of curiosity seem to have stopped coming. Also, some of the VICs have a clear seasonality in the visiting numbers: male youth tend to come during the fishing off-season, while students come during the school holidays. A more elaborate analysis of trends is given in annex 4.
Of the category youth (between 15 and 25 years old), the usage of the VICs peaked in September and October 2007, when 10% visited the VICs. After that, the percentage dropped again to between 5% and 7%. This is much below the intended target of 50%. In hindsight, it was probably unrealistic to expect that half of the youth would come to visit the VIC once a week. There simply is not enough of
29 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 relevance for so many youth. The VICs are very valuable sources of information for youth and adults, but the frequency at which people need information is not so high.
One of the key objectives of the VICs was to help people find jobs, and this objective was shared by the villagers (31% of the people interviewed in the final survey indicated that information about employment was a benefit of the VICs – interestingly, this percentage varied from below 10% for Siluvainagar, Simon Colony and Vaniyakudy to over 70% for Kovalam and Melmidalam). At the time of the evaluation, the number of people who had found jobs through the VICs was limited to maybe a few dozen. This does not mean that the objective has failed. At the start of the project, there were only comparatively few people in the target villages who had had sufficient education to be interesting for the wider labour market. The significant reduction in school drop-out rates for particularly the male youth, as well as the vocational training activities, have considerably increased the numbers of people who are looking for work outside their villages. Another aspect that was mentioned regularly was that the VICs had helped to widen people’s horizons: where earlier youth would rarely look outside their district for employment or higher education, they now look at options in the whole of South India and beyond: some people have found jobs in the Middle East using the VICs7, and one youth even got himself enrolled in a course for Ship Officer in the United Kingdom. It is to be expected that the trend of people finding jobs and education outside Kanniyakumari District will increase further over the coming years.
In some of the VICs, relevant government information is actively searched for on the internet, and if anything is found, it is printed and put on the notice board for everyone to see.
Some VICs are also used for basic computer education. That will help a younger generation to develop their initial computer skills, which will make it easier to pick up advanced computer skills later on.
6.5.6 Disaster mitigation Disaster mitigation activities were mostly done in the last year of the project. Awareness was raised about sea safety, disaster response teams were formed in each village and trained, and trees were planted in some areas.
With regard to the sea safety activities, a number of conversations with fishermen on the seashore gave interesting insight. They (unanimously made two points. Firstly, equipment like global positioning system (GPS) and mobile phones (and for those who can afford it, echo sounders) was already in use from the moment it became available (well before the tsunami), because fishermen saw the need for safety measures, but also because this equipment helps them to reduce the time spent on looking for shoals of fish. A key factor determining whether or not fishermen use GPS and other equipment seems to be the type of boat. On wooden kattamarams, fishermen do not take GPS with them because there is no place where it can be kept safe and dry. While the safety aspect of this is very positive, the improved efficiency has contributed to overfishing and may severely undermine the sustainability of fisheries in the area. Secondly, other equipment (especially life vests) is rather bulky, and since it is rarely used, the fishermen prefer to leave it at home when it is not extremely necessary. The space thus saved can be used for keeping more fish, and also the risk that the equipment falls overboard is minimised. Even the fibre kattamarams do not have a lot of storage space available (as we experienced, perched on top of a pile of nets, during a small trip on the sea). Small things like torches are generally taken. The conclusion is that fishermen seem pretty much aware of sea safety issues. If there is equipment that they don’t take with them, this is for practical reasons more than for lack of awareness. One may thus wonder how necessary this activity really was.
The disaster response teams have been set up and trained. During a tsunami scare earlier in 2008, some of the team members were actively involved in keeping fellow villagers informed, and in preparing for eventualities. We did not learn of any mock drills being conducted so far (but the tsunami scare was pretty much an unplanned mock drill). Unlike in Pethankuppam, where flooding is a near annual event, disasters are fairly rare in Kanniyakumari, and it will be important to maintain the
7 There was already an existing flow of people going to the Middle East for fishing. The new and significant development that has taken place with DC’s project, is that some people now go to the Middle East for technical jobs, using the skills that they have learnt in the vocational training programmes that they followed.
30 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 preparedness of the disaster response teams. The problem is that if disasters don’t strike regularly, people’s motivation to be on a disaster response team will reduce gradually and the teams are likely to become dysfunctional within maybe two years.
Tree planting was done from a larger perspective of countering climate change. While every tree helps, it is impossible to measure the impact of the trees that were planted under this project.
6.6 Sustainability As mentioned in the previous report, “a very strong point of this project is the fact that the animators are likely to remain active in their villages (if they don’t move out to find jobs outside), which means the knowledge will probably remain in the villages. This is reinforced by the involvement of the Catholic church – it was the parishes and not DC who selected the animators, and it is likely that the parishes will continue to call on their services.” During the evaluation (which took place a few months after the project formally ended), this was visible. Many of the animators are still around and, though maybe a little less intensively than during the project, involved in their communities. It was very obvious that the animators have become strong, knowledgeable and empowered women (and men) during the project, and that they have an exemplary role in their communities. A risk to the sustainability of their involvement that was not noticed so strongly in the mid-term evaluation is marriage: since it is common for the woman to move to her husband’s family, female animators will move out of their village if they marry out. However, it is to be expected that at least some of them will get actively involved in development activities in their husband’s village.
The tuition classes are likely to continue. Collection of money to be able to pay for the teachers once DC leaves had already started in 2007. We were unable to find out if the amounts collected match the amounts that are required to pay for the tuition teachers.
The skills training activities are in a sense one-off, but if trainees find jobs this will have a lasting impact on their families.
The SHGs will most probably continue functioning with support from Stella Maris and from the government, but – as mentioned – concerns exist regarding the income that they will be able to generate.
In the mid-term evaluation, serious concerns were expressed regarding the sustainability of the medical camps. In response to this, DC has decided to stop with this activity. People seem to have gone back to accessing the medical facilities that they accessed earlier without much of a problem.
So far, it looks like the Parish Councils have taken full responsibility for most of the VICs. At the time of the evaluation, the VICs continued functioning pretty well. One VIC (in Melmidalam) had been handed over to KSSS, a local NGO linked to the Catholic Church, and was being run by the animators of KSSS. In Kovalam, the school is actively involved in the VIC that DC supported. For some of the services (like using the internet and membership of the library), fees are already being charged, but no analysis was available on whether or not the fees that were collected were sufficient to cover the costs of running and maintaining the VICs. At the moment, it looks like the Parish Councils are covering any additional costs, but it would still be good if some insight is gained into how much it will cost on the long run to operate the VICs, so that a proper planning of the financial management of the VICs can be made.
It is a little difficult to assess the sustainability of DC’s activities on sea safety. It is unlikely that DC’s advice will change fishermen’s practices much. On the other hand, fishermen (especially those with fibre boats and kattamarams) already were using fairly advanced sea safety practices, as long as the equipment fits on their vessels.
The disaster response teams need follow-up motivation and support, and they may need some additional tasks (like a special role in organising the logistics for church festivals, which is a good way of keeping a feeling with making rather complicated logistical arrangements under time pressure) to keep them active during periods when no disasters strike.
31 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
6.7 Focus on marginalised groups The targeted communities are all tsunami-affected, but not all are equally socially marginalised. This could be seen in the analysis of the family diaries of 100 randomly selected families that was done during the mid-term evaluation: only 14 of these families were very poor, and almost half of the families are capable of managing pretty well. A point of concern that was raised during the mid-term evaluation was that staff did not seem to be very aware of the importance of verifying whether there are any people in the communities who get excluded by fellow community members (or by the leadership). This issue has been taken seriously by the team, and the DC staff have shared the importance of including those who might be excluded with animators and parish priests. In villages where the leadership is so closely tied up with the Catholic Church, one would expect non- Catholics (Protestants, Hindus and Muslims) to be particularly at risk of exclusion. Much of this concern was taken away during an interview with a group of Muslims in Melmidalam. Even though the Muslims of Melmidalam are not involved in the Parish Council, they said that the parish priest made sure that the Muslims were always informed when there were activities of DC, and invited to participate.
Stella Maris focuses on SHGs for families below the poverty line. These SHGs are registered under the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (Limited), and for this registration being below the poverty line is a requirement. From among the many SHGs that Stella Maris is working with, there is no indication that the DC has selected the poorest SHGs. But then again, all selected SHGs are definitely poor, and Stella Maris and works with several other partners (among whom Care India) to support the other SHGs. The three SHGs for HIV-positive people (and/or their dependants/caretakers) that were supported clearly are an example of targeting of vulnerable people.
As mentioned in the mid-term evaluation, there is an issue with the targeting of skills trainings. While the objective was to offer alternatives particularly to those who had dropped out of school early to go fishing, the selection criteria are such that to be able to enter most of the courses, people need to have completed their secondary education. This means that a different group from the one that was originally intended has been trained.
6.8 Gender-related issues In the mid-term evaluation, we observed that “women are being empowered by the project. This ranges from simple things like eating more nutritious food during pregnancies to gaining significantly more control over their own finances. This last thing has helped women to become more confident. Through the SHGs, even poor and illiterate women have got used to interacting with bank and government officials, and to raise their issues and concerns publicly. Also, the fact that quite a lot of illiterate women are now becoming literate must be mentioned. It was observed that most VDCs have no more than 25% female members, and this only since fairly recently. The fact that now there are female members is a positive thing, but it would be good to further stimulate VDCs to have a more gender-balanced representation. One other issue that requires attention is that the group of young men who left school early to go fishing – who are one of the key target groups of the project – seem to end up being left out of most of the project because the activities don’t suit their time schedules. It must be said though that a lot is being done to keep the young boys who are presently schoolgoing in school – and the support of the parish priests in this regard is very important.” These conclusions stand unchanged.
32 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
7 Organisational assessment
7.1 Organisational Capacity In the 2007 evaluation report, I have given a rather elaborate assessment of DC’s organisational capacity. In this report, I want to keep this session fairly brief, and merely review the things I have said earlier.
In terms of staffing, the 2007 report mentioned that DC put a lot of strain on itself during the relief, livelihoods and housing projects by wanting to do more than the available staff would be able to do in a normal working week. This was primarily because of DC’s motivation and commitment to do as much as possible, and as such it is not necessarily a negative point. DC has been incredibly efficient with its staff, but the other side of the coin was that staff sometimes got very tired, and also that the flexibility to accommodate unexpected peaks in labour demand without causing delays in implementation was minimal. As stated in the 2007 report, during the development projects, the level of overstretched-ness reduced and things got a little calmer for the staff. Particularly in the second half of the project, as animators took on more and more of the project responsibilities, DC seems to have been able to find a more healthy balance. Having one overall manager (mr. George Samuel) for the entire post-tsunami programme was a good choice given Mr. Samuel’s capacities and commitment, but he has remained chronically overburdened right until the end of the project. I would recommend that in future programmes of this volume and geographical complexity, DC budgets some more funds for staffing to reduce the workload of its staff a bit.
In the 2007 evaluation, the absence of a detailed planning to match the staff availability to the staffing requirements for the various activities was identified as contributing to delays in project implementation. The recommendation that it would be good in future projects to do the fairly simple, but initially time-consuming exercise of plotting for each planned activity how much time is required by week or month, and then seeing if there are any periods where more staff is required than is available, still stands.
As stated in the 2007 report, DC built up two teams that consisted largely of recent graduates without too much experience. The motivation of the staff, the capacity building provided by Mr. Julian and others, and the leadership of Mr. George Samuel, Mr. Joseph and Mr. Dellish (although he left early on in the project) more than offset the lack of experience.
Communication with DC headquarters has remained an issue of some concern right throughout the project. First of all, there was the physical distance (which was indeed huge), but also the fact that Tamil Nadu was not part of DC’s natural core areas (and the fact that the levels of vulnerability in the targeted communities shifted towards the edge of DC’s mandate) may have contributed to this. The fact that communication about the project between Tearfund UK and DC ended up being directly between Tearfund UK and Mr. Samuel (with copies to DC Delhi) made the feedback lines regarding the project very short, but it does not contribute to a positive impression of the efficiency of DC’s internal communication. In mitigation, it must be said that during the project implementation period, there were two very serious floods in North India (mainly Bihar) that sucked up a lot of DC Delhi’s attention. Still, I would recommend that for future programmes (especially those with large budgets) DC institutes something of a contract between DC Delhi and the programme, in which DC Delhi commits itself for a certain amount of time and manpower to the programme. Also, DC Delhi would do well to take a more active (participatory, not necessarily directive) role in the communication with programmes and donors. That will strengthen the impression among both the programme staff and the donor that DC Delhi is seriously committed to its programmes.
In terms of financial management, the transfer to the Tally bookkeeping package has made things a lot easier for DC, as expenditure information is available quickly for everyone concerned. However, as was discovered with the remaining housing construction, the comparison with available funds and the forecasting of expenditures has not been worked out sufficiently. Even though serious concerns were expressed over the availability of funds for the completion of the houses, it proved to be very difficult to get an accurate overview of how much money was still required. As suggested in the 2007
33 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 evaluation, I would recommend that DC pays attention to developing a solid cashflow forecasting system.
In the 2007 report, I was very positive about the animators whom DC trained and used in the programmes. If anything, my admiration for the animators has only increased. DC did a very wise thing in choosing this method, both because it took a lot of work out of the hands of the DC staff, and because it put ownership for the project with a group of people who will (by and large) stay in their villages, thus enhancing the project’s sustainability. This approach is worthy of replication.
7.2 DC as a learning organisation The evaluation team was not only asked to look at DC’s implementation of the tsunami projects, but also to look at the extent to which DC has learnt from previous evaluations. In the previous report, I have reviewed to what extent DC has incorporated recommendations from the Gujarat earthquake report, the evaluation report of the post-tsunami emergency relief phase by Alive, and Rahul Ghai’s report on community development. In last year’s report, the findings were summarised as follows:
“The general impression one gets is that programmatic recommendations tend to be taken over quite well, and there is clear ownership among DC’s senior and middle-level management for this. Apart from the examples taken from past evaluation reports, one also should look at in-project adjustments that are made based on feedback received from beneficiaries and staff. A good example of this is the adjustment of the house design for the second phase of construction in Kanniyakumari. DC is an organisation that seems clearly willing to learn. Practical recommendations however tend to receive much less attention and run the risk of being forgotten if they are not promptly attended to. This may be because of staff turnover, but also because practical suggestions generally require little discussion, and as such don’t receive much attention. Because of this, they fade from the institutional memory.” (Tsunami evaluation report June 2007, section 9.2.4)
In this report, I will limit myself to looking back at what DC’s tsunami team has done with the recommendations of last year’s tsunami evaluation report. A weakness in this section is that I have not gathered information on what DC Delhi has done with the recommendations. From conversations with the DC staff, it was clear that all recommendations for adjustments to the ongoing project activities (like advocacy to reduce the amount of milk that was rejected in Pethankuppam, moving away from health camp activities in Kanniyakumari, and a range of very specific recommendations for the housing projects) had been accommodated and at least partially implemented. Recommendations for (follow up on) activities that had already been closed (like a resurvey on boat ownership) have not been implemented, which is not surprising since it would keep DC’s team busy with things outside the ongoing projects. Practical suggestions that were made (for example with regard to housing) were implemented immediately, which for me is an indication that DC’s tsunami team has taken the evaluation process seriously.
7.3 Co-ordination and Coherence In the 2007 evaluation report, I wrote “as acknowledged and appreciated by government representatives, partner NGOs and VDCs, DC has been very pro-active and positive in co-ordinating.” This assessment stands unchanged. It must be said though that in comparison with the other post- tsunami projects, the development projects were much more community focused, and required less coordination with other actors.
7.4 Compliance with standards for humanitarian practice In the 2007 evaluation, DC’s compliance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership – International (HAP-I) standards was briefly discussed (as was compliance with SPHERE standards, which are not relevant for the development projects). The conclusion that DC has by and large been compliant with the standards (sometimes without being very aware of the (HAP-I) standards) stands unchanged.
34 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
7.5 Relations with Tearfund UK (and, for the housing, Tear Netherlands) In general, DC’s relations and TFUK (and TNL) seem to have been good. The donors respected DC for its work, and the relationships were reinforced by a basic trust in DC (despite questions that came about progress etcetera). Both TFUK and TNL have been positively impressed with the things that DC’s tsunami team has been able to achieve.
However, reporting has remained a bottleneck throughout the project period. The DC tsunami team did work on this, but was unable to entirely solve the problem. In this, DC was hampered by the fact that two of the key reportwriting staff left the organisation in late 2006, just after the development projects started. As mentioned earlier, support from the Delhi office was not always as intensive as one might desire, and in the end DC Delhi requested Tearfund UK to communicate directly with Mr. George Samuel. This improved the information flow for Tearfund UK to an extent, but it’s not the way things should be going within DC.
35 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
8 Conclusions and recommendations
8.1 Conclusion In conclusion, DC has implemented three useful and good projects, in challenging circumstances. Key strengths of the projects were the good leadership provided by Mr. George Samuel, the motivated staff and animators, and the attention that was paid to the relationships with the beneficiaries and their representatives. DC has contributed to significant changes in the communities, particularly in Pethankuppam. These changes are not just in people’s physical circumstances, but also, and perhaps most inspiringly, in people’s attitudes and mindsets. A lot of attention was paid to income generation activities, but partly due to insufficient analysis, these have not yet yielded sufficiently viable incomes. There has been a lot of learning here that could have been done quicker if there had been a little more thorough analysis earlier on in the project. DC’s experience in Tamil Nadu can definitely serve as a great source of learning and inspiration for the other programmes of DC and of Tearfund, especially there where DC and Tearfund want to link relief with longer-term development.
8.2 Recommendations to Discipleship Centre DC needs to build up its capacity to do serious feasibility studies of any future livelihoods activity, because livelihoods activities that are not sufficiently profitable are only going to end up making the beneficiaries very frustrated (section 4.5.5).
DC should build in flexibility in income generating activities for women, without compelling them to start working full-time if production expands (even though this means that women’s incomes will not reach the maximum possible), so that women also have time for their family duties (section 4.8).
It will be good though if a leaflet is developed for MGR Nagar with the main concerns related to the houses, and one or two sample designs for additions, and distributed to the beneficiaries (section 5.6).
DC should ensure that the wall along the roof terraces in Melmidalam and Ramanthurai is raised to at least 3 feet, in order to minimise the risk of children falling off the roofs (section 5.9).
In future housing projects, DC should ensure an optimal site lay-out with a maximum size for front and back yards, and with maximum privacy. This is especially important in housing sites where the plot sizes are very small (such as in Ramanthurai).
I would recommend that in future programmes of this volume and geographical complexity, DC budgets some more funds for staffing to reduce the workload of its staff a bit (section 7.1).
The recommendation that it would be good in future projects to do the fairly simple, but initially time- consuming exercise of plotting for each planned activity how much time is required by week or month, and then seeing if there are any periods where more staff is required than is available, still stands (section 7.1).
I would recommend that for future programmes (especially those with large budgets) DC institutes something of a contract between DC Delhi and the programme, in which DC Delhi commits itself for a certain amount of time and manpower to the programme, so as to ensure sufficient headquarters support for the programme (section 7.1).
DC Delhi would do well to take a more active (participatory, not necessarily directive) role in the communication with programmes and donors. That will strengthen the impression among both the programme staff and the donor that DC Delhi is seriously committed to its programmes (section 7.1).
As suggested in the 2007 evaluation, I would recommend that DC pays attention to developing a solid cashflow forecasting system (section 7.1).
The approach of using animators has been highly successful, and is worthy of replication (section 7.1).
36 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
8.3 Recommendations to the community leaders in Kanniyakumari (especially the Catholic priests)
It will require careful and wise leadership to steer the village communities through this period of change without descending into communalism, and I would strongly recommend the Church leadership to take an active role in working towards breaking down caste barriers (section 3.3).
Given the complex changes that are to be expected in the local economy around Kanniyakumari, careful and wise leadership is needed to develop livelihoods without Hindus and Catholics becoming entangled in conflict (section 3.3).
8.4 Recommendations to the community leaders in Pethankuppam (especially the pastors)
It would be good for the pastors and others who continue working in the village to keep following up on the issue of men’s morality and family relationships (at a low intensity), to sustain the change that has started taking place (section 4.8).
37 Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 1: Terms of Reference for the evaluation
Terms of Reference for the evaluation
Discipleship Centre Tsunami Cuddalore and Kanyakumari Development and MGR Nagar Construction Projects: Final Evaluation TOR
BACKGROUND
Background to programme
Discipleship Centre (DC) was involved in Tsunami relief work from 28th December 2004. After the initial relief period DC moved to Livelihood rehabilitation and then to reconstruction. While the reconstruction of houses was going on DC started a 18months (which extended for another three month and was over by 31st March 2008) development programme in nine villages in Kanyakumari and one village Pethankuppam in Cuddalore district. A midterm review was done, as part of an evaluation of DC’s tsunami livelihood and construction project in June 2007. After the review the development programme extended to another five villages around Pethankuppam village in Cuddalore district. The development programme aimed at developing the capacity of the community people, to create awareness on health issues, train the youth in different skill to prepare them for more employment opportunities and equip the women for entrepreneurial skills.
DC was also involved in construction both in Kanyakumari and Cuddalore district. Presently they are constructing 92 houses in MGR nagar Chidambaram for the Irula community people.
Partner profile and history
Discipleship Centre (DC) is a Delhi-based Christian organization that also have project bases in UP, Orissa, Rajasthan, Bihar and Gujarat. It has a 29 year history of relief and development in India. It is a member of the Disaster Co-ordination Committee, a network of 3 likeminded organizations – EHA, EFICOR and DC
Although DC had not been active before the tsunami in Southern India, DC decided to provide assistance to those severely affected districts in the state of Tamil Nadu and, to a lesser extent, Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, DC wanted to co-operate closely with local partners.
Stella Maris in Kanyakumari are specialized in developing SHG and training the groups in entrepreneurial skills. Stella Maris partnered with DC in Kanyakumari to develop SHG’s.
Justification for evaluation It is good practice to conduct evaluations in order to provide accountability to all and capture learning. This evaluation will be to see if the outputs and objectives/purpose of the two development and MGR Nagar projects have been achieved and if change has taken place in the community.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this evaluation is to: 9. To inform the parties on what has been achieved by DC and to allow the parties to meet the information needs of the different stakeholders in United Kingdom and India. (accountability) 10. To allow the two parties to learn and make decisions on future improvements in their work 11. To assess the role of both Tearfund UK and the work done by DC . 12. To assess the activities of DC on aspects such as effectiveness and impact.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
1. Relevance: Relevance for Tearfund UK, Discipleship Centre, Local Church: To what extent the selection of target groups and the project objectives have been compatible with the mandate and strategy of each of these three parties? Relevance for target group: to what extent the project objectives have responded to their needs? 2. Effectiveness: To what extent have the activities of the projects resulted in achieving the objectives and intended results? (see annex-1 Log frame of the two development projects and MGR Nagar Construction) 3. Efficiency: To what extent have the human, physical and financial resources been well allocated to implement the activities for achieving the intended results? 4. Impact: What positive and negative effects the project has had for the communities and on DC as an organisation, both foreseen and unforeseen? 5. Sustainability: To what extent will the projects’ activities and benefits continue after the project? How will the awareness and trainings given be used? 6. Coordination and coherence: How has the project been integrated with the activities and priorities of other agencies and organizations (including local and national government)? 7. Organizational capacity: To what extent has DC’s capacity to manage and implement the projects been adequate?8 8. Focus on Marginalized; to what extent project has reached to the actual marginalized and vulnerable? What efforts were done to reach this target group in the project?
The questions for all these eight evaluation criteria are generally formulated and therefore, on purpose, they leave sufficient liberty to the evaluation team to make these questions, according to the team’s expertise and knowledge, more ‘operational’. Therefore they have formulated, under the headings of the seven evaluation criteria, more specific questions that they would like to get answered by this evaluation. These questions can be found in annex 4
METHODOLOGY
Phase 1: Based on this ToR, we have draw up a Plan of Operations, that will also explain how beneficiaries’ involvement will be ensured.
Phase 2: Evaluation of the project by the evaluation team. Desired information will be gathered though: • Document study by evaluation team; • Interviews (individual, group): with management, field workers, beneficiaries and other stakeholders such as parish priests • Observations: during meetings, on-site field visits, administrative setup • Participatory exercises –Focused group discussion with the beneficiaries, matrix ranking of services, gender analysis, opinion poll, decision making exercise • Case-studies on representative villages where activities for both relief and rehabilitation were carried out • Debriefing session in Kanyakumari with DC management and the DC team in Kanyakuamri and Pondicherry on preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations before writing the evaluation report
After this, the draft evaluation report will be drawn up by the team leader. It should be made available to all parties for comments. An internal circulation period of one month is proposed. The parties concerned are to agree on the findings that are mentioned in the report. When disagreements exist on the conclusions and/ or recommendations the reservations and comments of those disagreeing are to be mentioned in the final report.
Phase 3: Final evaluation report distributed among parties concerned. In order to maximize its purposes the evaluation should be effectively communicated with all stakeholders. DC will - in consultation with the evaluation team leader, and Tearfund UK – inform all stakeholders in India of the outcome of the evaluation. Both DC and Tearfund UK will be requested to provide a Plan of Action in response to specific recommendations made. This PoA should be shared within one month of the evaluation report.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
SCHEDULING General evaluation: Wed 18 June Preparation in Pondicherry 1day
Thur 19 – Evaluation field work 5 days plus Tues 24 June Travel(2 days in Cuddalore, MGR nagar & 3 days in Sunday as KK) day off Wed 25 + Thu Consolidation day (Presentation of the findings and 2day 26 June discussions in DC-Kanyakumari ) Fri 27 June Travel 1 day Not specified Writing draft report; incorporating comments 4 days stakeholders in final version (team leader only) Total 13days
It is anticipated that all members of the ‘general evaluation team’ will travel to both of the project offices.
MANAGEMENT OF VISIT • The Client who is commissioning and approving the work is Discipleship Centre • The consultant should refer to Mr. George Samuel, Programme Manager, to resolve issues as they arise • In consultation with the Team Leader Discipleship Centre will make all the practical arrangements for the evaluation team including in-country transport.
EXPECTED OUTPUT The draft report is to be submitted 2 weeks after the final debriefing session in DC Kanyakumari. The document discusses and clarifies all the raised questions in this ToR. Conclusions are to be clearly based on findings and Recommendations are to be well based on conclusions. The report also should allow the two parties to learn and make decisions on future improvements in their work. A debriefing session for all stakeholders is proposed, with a specific focus on the beneficiaries.
The expected output of this assignment is a report of maximum length of 40 pages (excluding annexes) with the following sections: • Executive Summary (no more than two A4 sides) • Introduction / Background • Methodology • Context Analysis • For each Aspect, a section in the form o Findings o Conclusions o Recommendations • Annexes (indicative) o Terms of Reference for the Evaluation o Profile of the Evaluation Team o Evaluation Schedule o Protocols for the Evaluation o Documents consulted during the Evaluation o Persons participating in the Evaluation o Field data used during the Evaluation, including baselines o Bibliography
The Evaluation Teams
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
A core team will be formed of 4 people, including the Team Leader. The team leader should be familiar with the region. At least one of the team members should be female. The team will be selected to ensure the following activities and outputs:
• Community participation • Psychosocial • Environment • DMP/DRR • Cost effectiveness analysis • Donor response • Management of programmes and organizations • Minimum international standards
DC will contract the Team Leader to lead the evaluation team and produce the report. Team Leader will have overall responsibility for the management of the evaluation. The other Team members are identified by DC and their CVs were approved by the Team Leader.
DC will develop a detailed schedule to the assignment. The evaluation team will hold an initial planning meeting to finalise the schedule for the field work, and agree standard tools and questionnaires, and identify issues to explore in the evaluation.
REQUIRED INPUTS
Discipleship Centre will supply the following documentation to the evaluation team.
• DC Tsunami development projects Log frame. • MGR Nagar project logframe • DC Tsunami development projects completion reports (narrative and financial) • MGR Nagar reports as at 31 March 2008 (narrative and financial) • Copy of Mid Term Evaluation conducted in June 2007
Note: the ToR has four annexes: Annex 1: Log Frames of DC Kanyakumari development project, Cuddalore development project and MGR Nagar Construction Project Annex 2: Profile of the Team Leader Annex 3: Plan of Operation Annex 4: Evaluation questions and remarks formulated by Tearfund UK
[Annex 1 and 2 have been left out here.]
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
ANNEX 3: PLAN OF OPERATION FOR THE EVALUATION
1. Introduction
This document describes the detailed planning and methodology for the evaluation of DC’s development programme in Tamil Nadu.
The evaluation will look at a rather large spectrum of activities of the two development programmes in Kanyakumari and Cuddalore Districts. (Nine villages in Kanyakumari and five villages in Cuddalore).
The structure of this document is as follows: • Section 2 describes the organizational set-up of the evaluation, • Section 3 describes the general planning, • Section 4 describes the various elements of the log frames, and proposed methods of evaluation, • Section 5 describes the specific planning of the team leader, • Section 6 describes the specific planning of the Cuddalore team, • Section 7 describes the specific planning of the Kanniyakumari team, • Section 8 describes logistical requirements for the evaluation.
2. Set-up of the evaluation For conducting, the team will be split into three: 1) Cuddalore evaluation 2) Kanniyakumari evaluation 3) Institutional and overall evaluation (The team leader will link up with the other teams during part of his time in the field)
Each team will work independently, and send a daily report to the team leader at the end of each field day. This will enable the team leader to keep an overview of the evaluation, and it will enable communication about possible adjustments in the programme (if we find that particular issues need additional attention).
3. General planning The overall planning of the evaluation is as follows:
Table 1. Overall planning of the evaluation
Day & Date Team leader Team 1 Team 2 (Cuddalore) (Kanniyakumari) Wed, June 18th Travel to Pondicherry from Chennai Wed, June 18th Preparation meeting in Pondicherry Thur, June 19th Field work Team two takes Cuddalore train to Kanyakumari Fri, June 20th Field work Reach Cuddalore & Kanyakumari & MGR nagar start field work Sat, June 21st Field work & take Field work the train to KK Sun, June 22nd
Mon, June 23rd Field work in Field work Kanyakumari Kanniyakumari Tue, June 24th Compiling report Compiling report Wed, June 25th Debriefing in Kanyakumari Thur, June 26th Travel back Fri June 27th to 30th Evaluation final report writing by Team Leader
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
ANNEX 4 – EVALUATION QUESTIONS AND REMARKS FORMULATED BY TEARFUND UK
The first column indicates who can be asked (B=beneficiaries, DC=Discipleship Centre, G=relevant government agencies, P=partner NGOs). The second column indicates what methods can be used (I=interviews, GD=group discussions, O=observations, and D=documentation) The third column indicates by whom the questions are to be asked (TL=team leader, 1+2 are the field teams)
Question Ask who Ask how Ask by whom Tearfund UK 1. Is the project consistent with vision, values, strategy and DC D All resources of DC? 2. How were beneficiaries selected? DC I/D All 3. Is the project relevant in relation to the overall damage DC/G I/D TL (sectoral and geographic choices)? 4. How do beneficiaries appreciate the programs and B I/GD 1,2 projects in recovering their socio-economic position in terms of self-esteem, self-reliance and/ or empowerment? With a particular focus on women (SHG members) and youth (vocational skills training). 5. How do beneficiaries evaluate the outputs that were B I/GD 1,2 delivered (annex-1)? 6. Does the project use and enhance existing skills, DC/B I/GD/O All knowledge and coping strategies of the target group? 7. Is the project relevant to the church? DC/priest I TL 8. Has the project contributed to strengthening the local DC/priest I TL church in its mission and role to work with local communities? 9. How have the recommendations from the mid-term DC I TL review been incorporated in the remaining project timeframe for the two development projects? 10. How have the recommendations from the Construction DC I TL Project Evaluation been incorporated in the MGR Nagar Construction Project? 11. Have the difficulties and delays encountered with the DC I/GD All construction project(s) impacted on the two development projects? 12. Have the difficulties and delays encountered with the DC I/DC TL construction project(s) impacted on DC as an organization?
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 2: Case study 1: Tuition classes (updated) In the previous evaluation, an analysis was made of test results from Pethankuppam and Arockiapuram. In order to update the information, we looked for more recent test results. Unfortunately, the only results that were available for analysis were found in Pethankuppam. For all tuition students in VIth to Xth standard, cards were available with the results of tests that the tuition teachers conducted at the end of every period. These tests reviewed the material that had been taught in the classes. Unfortunately, no official test results were available, and therefore it is impossible to compare these results with the 2006/2007 results that were analysed the previous season.
The main conclusions of the analysis in the previous evaluation were: There is a trend of increasing marks over the year, especially for the weakest students. The marks of the best students hardly increase. By the end of the year, DC reached its target: over half of the students had marks of 50 or higher. The attendance rate does not seem to be linked to test results, except for the final (and most difficult) test.
The number of students was fairly small (46), so it was not possible to do an analysis by class. However, when all the students’ results are combined, and ranked for their marks at the first test, the trend is clear. The weakest 1/3 of students generally show a substantial increase in their marks, the middle 1/3 show some improvement in their marks, and the top 1/3 shows little or no improvement. This is made visible in the graph below, which compares the average results for all subjects from the first to the seventh test that was done throughout the 2007/2008 school year. This is a similar result to what was found the previous year, and confirms that the tuition classes work well, particularly for the weakest students.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 3: Case study 2: Cows in Pethankuppam (updated) This annex gives an updated version of annex 6 of the evaluation report of June 2007.
Cattle stock and productivity In total, DC distributed 252 cows and buffaloes in Pethankuppam, most of them with calves. Of these, about 90 were remaining at the time of the evaluation. As can be seen in the graph below, there has been a peak in mortality between October 2006 and March 2007, after which mortality has come down sharply (From Cattle deaths per month November 2007 to February 2008, the 16 last months for which I could find data have 14 no cattle deaths 12 recorded at all, but this may be a case of 10 under-reporting). Since an average cow 8 is kept for about 10-15 years, a mortality of a 6 little under 10% is to be expected in a 4 normal herd of cattle. 2 Since there were no old cows among the 0 purchased stock Jul-06 Jul-07 Apr-06 Apr-07 Oct-06 Oct-07 Jun-06 Jan-07 Jun-07 Jan-08 Mar-06 Feb-07 Mar-07 Feb-08 Aug-06 Sep-06 Dec-06 Aug-07 Sep-07 Dec-07 Nov-06 Nov-07 May-06 however, a ‘normal’ May-07 mortality figure should have been closer to 5% in the first year. On a total stock of 252 head of cattle, it should thus have been expected that about one cow or buffalo had died per month. Instead, during the 15 months from March 2006 to May 2007 a total of 64 cows and buffaloes had died (which comes down to an annual mortality of about 20%). This shows that either there was a serious issue with local diseases, or the kind of cattle that was selected was not suitable to the conditions prevalent in Pethankuppam. From the information gathered in interviews with the DC staff, the conclusion is that probably both were true. The selected cows are from a breed that does best in cooler conditions and with better fodder availability, but there also have been suspicions of problems with pollution of grass and/or water due to the nearby presence of heavy chemical industry. In February 2007, DC hired Ms. Jayanthy, a trained vet, who was in the village five days a week. As can be seen from the graph, mortality declined sharply from April onwards, and it is quite well possible that this can be attributed to the presence of Ms. Jayanthy, and later her successor Ms. Devadevi, in the village. This was despite the fact that there was another peak in disease from September to November 2007.
Around the end of 2007, there was a sudden and huge drop in cattle stock. Many people, expecting the project to end in December, sold their cows. It is not entirely clear why they did this. It could have been that people needed cash, or that they were unable to look after their cows. The impending departure of DC from the village meant that there would be no more outside social control, and people felt free to sell their animals. What is interesting is that most people sold the adult cow, but kept the calf. This is an indication that they did not abandon the idea of cattle rearing altogether, but probably not for the milk production. My impression is that the calves are mostly kept as a buffer in case of a financial emergency.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
The graph below shows the percentage of the total (living) stock that gave milk on each morning or evening for which data are available. As can be seen, there was an initial peak in the percentage of milking cows. This can be explained because all the cows that were bought were with a young calf. As the milking period finished, the percentage of the cows that was milked went down drastically. 100.0% percentage of cows milked in the morning percentage of cows milked in the evening 90.0% 14 per. Mov. Avg. (percentage of cows milked in the morning) 14 per. Mov. Avg. (percentage of cows milked in the evening) 80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0% 19-03-06 18-04-06 18-05-06 17-06-06 17-07-06 16-08-06 15-09-06 15-10-06 14-11-06 14-12-06 13-01-07 12-02-07 14-03-07 13-04-07 13-05-07 12-06-07 12-07-07 11-08-07 10-09-07 10-10-07 09-11-07 09-12-07 08-01-08 07-02-08 08-03-08 07-04-08 07-05-08 06-06-08 This drop in production stopped in January 2007, when a new generation of calves was born. In February, the milk yield dropped again, but this was not purely because more cows stopped producing milk. It was also discovered that outside milk vendors were coming into Pethankuppam to buy up the milk (against lower prices than those paid by the milk society, but they pay in advance). After DC staff discussed the issue with the beneficiaries, it was decided to only allow one milk vendor who used to come to the village before DC got involved, and who buys milk from cows that were not supplied by DC, to continue, while the other milk vendors were asked to leave. By the beginning of March, this problem was sorted out. The percentage of cows giving milk doubled from then on, probably because more cows gave birth during this period. It remained stable until the end of the year. However, from early 2008 onwards, there was once again a drop. Despite the inseminations that were done, no births were recorded from August 2007 onwards. Since some cows still give milk, the records are probably incomplete. The positive thing however is that those families who still supply milk to the committee supplied more milk per cow than before, despite the fact that it was dry season, during which cows have a hard time finding enough feed. This is clear evidence that those who still have cows are the ones who look after them well. My conclusion would be that a process of self-selection has taken place, where those families who didn’t really want to put all the time and effort into a cow have got rid of it, and those who are motivated remain.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
daily milk yield
average morning average evening 3.75 average for total adult cattle stock 15 per. Mov. Avg. (average evening) 3.50 15 per. Mov. Avg. (average morning) 15 per. Mov. Avg. (average for total adult cattle stock)
3.25
3.00
2.75
2.50
2.25
2.00
1.75
1.50
1.25
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00 20-03-06 19-04-06 19-05-06 18-06-06 18-07-06 17-08-06 16-09-06 16-10-06 15-11-06 15-12-06 14-01-07 13-02-07 15-03-07 14-04-07 14-05-07 13-06-07 13-07-07 12-08-07 11-09-07 11-10-07 10-11-07 10-12-07 09-01-08 08-02-08 09-03-08 08-04-08 08-05-08 07-06-08
Insemination requirements At the time of the first evaluation (June 2007), the adult cattle stock in Pethankuppam (as far as provided by DC) was 186, but as the insurance pays for replacement of dead cows, it was expected that a new batch of at least 50 cows would be added before the end of the project. This did not happen however. After delivery, the best period to re-inseminate a cow is in its second or third period (about 2 months) after delivery. Insemination is generally done in a cycle of three attempts at 21-day intervals. As a pregnancy takes about 9 months, this means that for every cow, three inseminations per year are required. Thus, in order to maximise the milk production, for a cattle stock of 186 a total of 558 inseminations per year (or 46.5 per month) are required. In the period from March to August 2007, an average of 8 inseminations per month was recorded (about 17% of the requirement). Since the stock reduced to about 90 by the end of the project, the insemination requirement is 270 per year (or 22.5 per month). Actual insemination rates were much below this target; on average 5.5 per month for the last six full months for which data are available (September 2007-February 2008). This is about 24% of the required insemination rate, and an improvement over the previous six months, but still way below what it should be. It might have been good to set up a more structured insemination schedule for each cow with the beneficiaries. That would probably have resulted in a higher birth rate, and thus a higher number of lactating cows.
Family incomes Since the number of cows producing milk has decreased significantly, the number of families who earn money with the cows has gone down as well. Because the milk yield per milking cow has gone up, this means that the income per day has also increased. However, with all the gardening activities that are going on in the village (and with the introduction of the vermiculture pits), more manure is being used within the village, and the direct income from the manure has gone down. On the other hand, manure that is used for gardening leads to a higher production of vegetables and thus a reduction in expenses, and manure that is used (as dried cakes) for cooking means that families save on their expenditure on firewood. In short, for those families who still have a milking cow the net income picture has improved a little.
The milk society In the evaluation of 2007, it was concluded that the milk society was going to get into financial trouble if the society wouldn’t manage to increase its income and/or reduce its expenditure. There were two
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008 problems. On the one hand, there was insufficient milk coming to the milk society. This situation has not improved. On the other hand, the Government Milk Co-operation, which buys the milk from the society, routinely rejected milk. This seemed to be a form of corruption, because the society tested the milk and found it to be good, and there were suspicions that the rejected milk (which the society did not get any money for) was sold anyway. DC and the milk committee engaged the Government Milk Co-operation over this issue, and after that, the frequency of milk being rejected went down significantly. In the second half of 2007, the milk society ran into trouble over its management, which was only resolved when the leadership was replaced. A relative outsider (the wife of Mr. Venkatesh, who had just moved into the village from her own village) was put in charge, because both DC and the village leadership (which includes Mr. Venkatesh) felt this would help to restore trust in the society. However, despite these improvements, the reducing amount of milk that is supplied to the society (from about 60 litres per day in 2007 to about 20 litres per day in the first half of 2008) means the financial death knell of the society. If the society keeps 1 rupee per litre to cover its expenses and to cover for any milk that is rejected by the Government Milk Co-operation, it will only have an income of about 600 rupees per month. This might cover the running costs, but will not cover any salaries, and if milk ever gets rejected more frequently again even the running costs can’t be covered. Therefore, despite the advantages of having a formal society in the village (formal recognition, a guaranteed milk price), it might be good to reconsider whether it would not be easier to simply sell to private milk buyers. The alternative is that the milk society should be turned into a totally voluntary society.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 4: Case study 3: Village Information Centres (updated) At the end of the development project in Kanniyakumari, the attendance records of all VICs were collected, and the data were entered into a massive spreadsheet. Unfortunately, apart from a number of summary tables that were produced, the wealth of data in this spreadsheet had not been analysed yet.
In this annex, some analysis of the data is provided. It must be stated that I was unable to verify the correctness of the original data, so I can’t fully guarantee the reliability of the analysis. In one of the VICs, the registers that I saw only documented the first visit of every person per month. If someone came more than once in the month, this visit was not registered. However, I was unable to verify whether or not this was corrected in the spreadsheet. The animators who worked on the spreadsheet told me that they typed all their data from the attendance records, and not from the register books (which are updated once every so many weeks based on the attendance records).
Total visits The table below gives details on the total number of visits and the total number of visitors, for the entire population, for the youth (people between 16 and 30 years of age), and for the ‘non-youth’: children and adults.
Age Total Visits Visitors Average Percentage category population in visits/visitor visitors of total the age population category All 17,624 13,387 3,037 4.4 17.2% Youth 5,803 6,321 1,770 3.6 30.5% Non-youth 11,821 7,066 1,267 5.6 10.7%
What can be concluded is that the percentage of youth that visited the VICs (30.5% over the project period) was much higher than the percentage of non-youth (10.7% over the project period). However, DC’s target (50% of the youth visit the VICs on a weekly basis) was not met9.
While for the total population, the percentage of people who visited the VICs is fairly similar between the villages (it varies from 12% to 25%), the percentage of youth who visited the VICs has a much larger variation between the villages: in Kovalam, only 9% of the youth visited the VIC, while in Simon Colony, 73% of the youth visited the VIC. In most of the other VICs, about 40% of the youth came for a visit.
Another interesting conclusion is that the non-youth who did come came more often (on average 5.6 times) than the youth who visited the VICs (on average 3.6 times). The impression I have is that there are a number older people who come regularly for reading the papers, while comparatively more youth come once or twice and then lose interest. In Melmidalam, the four non-youth who visited the VIC even recorded an average of 41.8 visits per person!)
The general trend in most villages is that in the first months after the VIC opened, a lot of people visited the place, but after about six months the number reduced a little and stabilised, because the new-ness of the VIC wore off, and those people who went out of curiosity stopped going. In a few villages, the number of visits dropped significantly in late 2007, after inter-caste clashes broke out. Even during the evaluation, half a year later, some of these villages were still tense.
Internet use Internet use was only recorded for youth, and only in six VICs that had internet connection during the project period: Arockiapuram, Chinnamuttom, Kovalam, Melmidalam, Simon Colony and Vaniyakudy.
9 The data that I have available are on a monthly basis, and show that the percentage of youth visiting the VICs per month slowly increased to 8% between October 2006 and March 2007. After that, it varied between 7% and 10% for much of the rest of the project period, but dropped again to 5% in March 2008. Note that the age boundaries for the category ‘youth’ are different for the spreadsheet (16-30 years) and for the indicator in the logframe (15-25 years).
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
On average 4.2% of the youth visited the VIC for internet use; this varied from 1.7% for Vaniyakudy to 7.9% for Kovalam. This probably reflects the difference in computer literacy between the villages. The fact that so few youth came to use the internet is no shame at all: at the beginning of the project there simply were almost no youth who knew how to handle a computer. These figures are possibly a little lower than the actual situation. We were also told that in some VICs, internet use was not recorded when someone came to the VIC and asked one of the animators to look something up on the internet because the person himself or herself was not computer literate. On average, the youth who used the internet used it 2.8 times during the project period. Over the course of the project period, internet use increased in the first half of 2007, and dropped significantly again in the first three months of 2008. The frequency with which internet is used is different for different villages. In some villages, youth come during the fishing off-season; in other villages, they come during school holidays.
Library visits Library use among youth varies quite a lot: in Vaniyakudy, Arockiyapuram and Kovalam, where other libraries are available, only 4%, 7% and 8% of the youth borrowed books from the VIC, while in Melmidalam and Siluvainagar, the percentage was 28% and 38% respectively. In Puthugramam, Siluvainagar and Chinnamutom, a sizable percentage of the non-youth population also visited the VIC libraries (14%, 8% and 8% respectively). These were probably mostly school children.
Conclusion The VICs have proven to be very useful for the target villages. Even though DC’s target (50% of the youth visiting the VICs on a weekly basis) was not met by far, this was probably more because the indicator was unrealistically high, rather than because the VICs were not managed well. It is to be expected that particularly internet use will increase over the coming years, as more and more people become computer literate.
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 5: Documentation used during the evaluation
DC documents • Project proposals • Progress reports • Final reports • Financial statements • Like a fish in the water – Evaluation report of DC’s tsunami-related projects (as far as funded by Tear Netherlands and Tearfund UK). Timmo Gaasbeek et al., August 2007
Field data (including surveys) The following data were studied in detail: • Baseline and follow-up surveys Kanniyakumari and Pethankuppam • Report cards tuition students Pethankuppam • Test results for the entire class of VIth standard, Arockiapuram • Records for milk production, milk sales, cattle births and deaths, and insemination, Pethankuppam • Records available at the VICs
Other than this, the documentation available in the offices in Pondicherry and Kanniyakumari was briefly reviewed.
External literature • Joint evaluation of the international response to the Indian Ocean tsunami (synthesis report and various sub-reports). Tsunami Evaluation Coalition, London, 2006 • Evaluating humanitarian action using the OECD-DAC criteria. An ALNAP guide for humanitarian agencies. Overseas Development Institute, London, 2006 • Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 6: Persons consulted during the evaluation
Pondicherry/Cuddalore • All DC staff in the Pondicherry office • Beneficiaries in Pethankuppam • Mr. Venkatesh, Panchayat member for Pethankuppam • Pastor Joseph Salathraj and his wife in Pethankuppam • Mr. Julian, consultant trainer for DC
MGR Nagar • All DC staff and involved with the MGR Nagar housing project • Beneficiaries in MGR Nagar • The contractor in MGR Nagar
Kanniyakumari • All DC staff and animators in the Kanniyakumari office • Beneficiaries in various target villages • Rev. Fr. Joseph Justus, former parish priest at Kovalam • Several parish priests • Rev. Sisters of Stella Maris • Rev. Sisters of the convent in Melmidalam • The contractor at Ramanthurai • Fishermen, shop owners and hotel staff in Kanniyakumari
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008
Annex 7: List of abbreviations
AA – Alcoholics Anonymous ALNAP – Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action BCC – basic Christian community CSR – Centre for Social Reconstruction, a local NGO in Kanniyakumari CV – Curriculum Vitae DC – Discipleship Centre DMK – Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu DMP – disaster management and preparedness DMT – disaster management team EFICOR – Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief GPS – global positioning system HAP-I – Humanitarian Accountability Partnership – International HIV/AIDS – human immunodeficiency virus / acquired immune deficiency syndrome KSSS – Kottar Social Services Society, a local NGO in Kanniyakumari MCH – mother and child health MGR – M.G. Ramachandran, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu NGO – non-governmental organisation OECD-DAC – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – Development Assistance Committee RCCC – Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct SHG – self-help group SIPCOT – State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Limited) TEC – Tsunami Evaluation Coalition TFUK – Tearfund UK TNL – Tear Netherlands ToR – terms of reference ToT – training of trainers UN – United Nations VDC – Village Development Committee VIC – Village Information Centre
Signs of Transformation Evaluation of DC’s post-tsunami development projects and housing in MGR Nagar November 2008