Project HHELP & SAVE2 Benin

Real Time Evaluation: CRS Project HHELP Final Version 25 October, 2011 Real Time Evaluation: Project HHELP & SAVE2 Benin RTE Team Co-Leads: Heather Dolphin, West Africa Regional Technical Advisor for M&E Graziella Lokoun, M&E Officer, Project HHELP, CRS-Benin CRS-Benin and Caritas Data Collection Team: Thomas Carrena Raphael Bessan Qawiyy Ahounde Hilda Quenom Fabrice Hermus Madode Special thanks to Emily Wei, LRP Consultant who contributed to tool development, data collection and field level analysis and all photos in this report. Real Time Evaluation: CRS Project HHELP Final Version 25 October, 2011 Table of Contents Executive Summary i Background 1 Objectives 1 Status of the Program the Week of the RTE 2 Methodology 2 Findings 3 I. Relevance/Appropriateness 3 II. Program and Management Effectiveness 4 III. Connectedness and Sustainability 14 IV. Coverage 15 Conclusions 16 Recommendations 17 Annex A. Photo Gallery 24 Annex B. Participant Selection and List of persons interviewed 38 Annex C. Terms of Reference for RTE 40 Annex D. Itinerary 45 Annex E. Data Collection Tools 47 Annex F. Methodology for Reflection Workshop 81 Table of Figures Table 1: Data Collection Methods 2 Table 2: CRS Staffing Increases 5 Table 3: Challenges/Good Practices 8 Table 4: Scenario 1: Staff Reductions in weekly markets for monthly distribution 10 Table 5: Scenario 2: Staff Reductions in the case of monthly markets 10 Table 6: Advantages and Disadvantages of Weekly Markets 12 Table 7: Printing Savings 13 Table 8 Printing Costs in terms of Overall Project Budget 13 Table 9: Action Plan 19 Real Time Evaluation: CRS Project HHELP Final Version 25 October, 2011 Acronyms CFA Communauté Financière d’Afrique CLCAM Caisse Locale de Crédit Agricole Mutuel CRS Catholic Relief Services NGO Non Governmental Organization OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OFDA Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Project HHELP Helping Households in Emergencies with Local Purchase RTE Real Time Evaluation Save2 Saving Assets With Vouchers In Emergencies 2 WARO West Africa Regional Office WFP World Food Program Real Time Evaluation: CRS Project HHELP Final Version 25 October, 2011 Executive Summary CRS-Benin and partner Caritas Benin are currently intervening in Mono department via Project HHELP (Helping Households in Emergencies with Local Purchase) and SAVE2 (Saving Assets with Vouchers in Emergencies) to provide assistance to households in the form of vouchers for food and agricultural tools and seeds. The interventions of Project HHELP began in June and will continue until October 2011, while Project SAVE2 began in May and will continue until January 2012 This real time evaluation examines the relevance, appropriateness, effectiveness, management, sustainability and scope of the response with a particular focus on Project HHELP in an effort to provide information quickly that will benefit the final 10 weeks of that project. Relevance/ Appropriateness Temporary food assistance from Project HHELP has provided a relevant and appropriate response to the urgent needs of 10,025 households in Mono Department following the floods of 2010. Thanks to the food assistance, families are once again eating 3-4 times per day. With the income they receive from supplementary income generating activities, they can now better afford health care for themselves and their children, they can manage unforeseen expenses and can pay debts. Some are able to invest in agriculture and livestock activities for the future. Although there has not been a change in gender roles as a result of this brief intervention, both men and women report more peace and less conflict within the household because of the reduction in stress over financial issues and the confidence that all family members are receiving regular meals. Vendors (almost exclusively women) more frequently mentioned having autonomy in the household to make purchases. Because they bring home larger profits since the project began, they can take on more responsibility for household expenses, reducing stress for the men. Men also are benefiting from the increased business in the markets as push cart operators, zem (motorcycle taxis) and taxis. Effectiveness The response was effective in reducing the impact of the floods and started 7 months after the flooding. A large part of this delay was due to the final agreement from Food for Peace which was received March 21, 2011, Nonethelesss, CRS-Benin has identified ways to accelerate their future emergency responses. (See Action Plan, Table 9) The decision to use vouchers was appreciated because of the choice and transparency it offers and because of the benefits it brings to indirect beneficiaries (vendors) in the markets. Furthermore, the vouchers allowed beneficiaries to have instant access to locally available products without experiencing the typical procurement delays associated with food distribution using imported products. Beneficiaries reported that different categories of vouchers helped improve the diversity of their diet. The data collection team did notice a few occasions of vendors and beneficiaries exchanging vouchers for food that didn’t correspond to the coupon. Because beans are not the preferred source of protein, these particular exchanges were made using the beans vouchers for more corn for example. Had fish been available, it would have likely been the preferred to beans since fish has traditionally served as the main source of protein for the beneficiaries in this region. To address the question of cost effectiveness, different cost savings measures were analyzed including providing monthly rather than weekly food distributions and limiting the categories and denominations of vouchers provided. Although significant cost savings are possible if rations are distributed on a monthly rather than weekly basis, during the evaluation, there was a strong preference for weekly distribution because of the reasons detailed in this report. A possible cost saving measure is limiting the i Real Time Evaluation: CRS Project HHELP Final Version 25 October, 2011 number of vouchers of multiple denominations provided in each food category reducing counting time and printing costs. Program Management Project HHELP operates effectively in the weekly markets due to Caritas’ the well-organized operations. They have also demonstrated they can learn and make adjustments to their process as they implement. Managing 500 vendors who on almost a daily basis are finding new ways to take advantage of the system requires a large team to enforce rules, supervise and mediate conflicts in the markets. Caritas has demonstrated they have the staff to monitor, enforce rules and set up new systems to thwart vendors’ efforts to take advantage. Areas for improvement include additional tools and training for CRS’ administrative and finance staff to accelerate processes in the case of short term and emergency programming; continue to find additional improvements to the CLCAM’s payment system, to ensure payment is available to vendors who arrive a day later than expected and reduce wait times further where possible. In terms of the M&E System, Caritas’ timely submission of data has recently improved. The area CRS and Caritas will begin addressing is the accuracy and overall quality of the data collected. To tackle this, a working group will be established to review the system, define a process for improving data quality and for resolving problems encountered. Fortunately, the communication problems CRS and Caritas faced at the beginning of the project are now largely resolved. Both teams report they now understand one another better and have changed how they operate in order to work together more harmoniously. CRS continues to work with staff internally to encourage relationship building and effective communication with partner. Connectedness and Sustainability Project HHELP is well integrated into the weekly market rhythm of the department. Although it was planned to end when the normal harvest period begins when people would be able to support themselves, the start of the rainy season has kept fields underwater. Many focus group participants expect little if any harvest. The project’s greatest impact has been the food security as well as a more diversified diet for beneficiary families. Vendors report that they and their children also eat better, they can afford children’s health costs, school fees, there is less stress, and they can pay off debts. They have re-invested in the inventories of their shops. The most sustainable aspects of the project are the educational messages related to nutrition, hygiene and water storage. Beneficiaries can recall and explain these messages and they report diversifying their diet and increasing the frequency with which they wash their hands (Attributable to information sessions conducted by both Projects HHELP and SAVE2). Coverage CRS/Caritas used a precise and comprehensive method to identify beneficiary households that included consultation with OCHA reports, other NGOs, local authorities and finally a door to door survey of 14,300 households in the Department of Mono. However a gap in coordination at the national level permitted various NGOs to conduct multiple assessments in the same communities which after a few assessments were conducted, created resistance and hostility on the part of community residents. As a result, some residents and some entire communities refused to participate in the Caritas door to door survey which made them ineligible to

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