Evaluation of the CAFOD 2008-2011 Partnership Programme Arrangement November 2010 FINAL REPORT Trish Silkin with Georges Tshionza Mata This is an independent evaluation report of CAFOD’s 2008-2011 Partnership Programme Arrangement which has been prepared for CAFOD and for the UK Department for International Development. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CAFOD or of DFID. Table of contents Acronyms and terms .................................................................................................................i Summary.................................................................................................................................. ii Introduction...............................................................................................................................1 Results .....................................................................................................................................3 CAFOD’s approach ..............................................................................................................3 Impact on people’s lives .......................................................................................................3 Building Church capacity to address poverty and injustice ..............................................3 Building interfaith alliances to increase reach and effectiveness .....................................5 Supporting partners to improve responses to HIV............................................................6 Impact on policy ...................................................................................................................7 Impact of the PPA on gender and social exclusion ..............................................................9 Impact of the PPA on CAFOD’s organisational development ............................................10 Value for money .....................................................................................................................11 Finance management.........................................................................................................12 Audit ...................................................................................................................................12 Procurement.......................................................................................................................13 Public financial reporting ....................................................................................................13 Effectiveness in international programmes ........................................................................13 External validation of CAFOD standards............................................................................14 Lesson Learning.....................................................................................................................14 Building support for development...........................................................................................16 Issues to be addressed ..........................................................................................................18 Annex 1: Terms of Reference for 2010 CAFOD PPA Evaluation...........................................21 Annex 2: Persons consulted...................................................................................................26 Annex 3: Selected Documents Consulted..............................................................................28 Annex 4: Timeline for the Evaluation......................................................................................32 Annex 5: CAFOD PPA Performance Framework...................................................................33 Annex 6: Results against PPA indicators ...............................................................................41 Annex 7: Case study of CAFOD’s PPA work .........................................................................45 Annex 8: Engagement Framework.........................................................................................51 Acronyms and terms ACEAC Association des Conférences Episcopales de l’Afrique Centrale (Central Africa Bishops’ Conference) AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome CAFOD Catholic Agency for Overseas Development DEC Disasters Emergency Committee DFID UK Department for International Development DRC Democratic Republic of Congo ECHO European Commission – Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection HAP Humanitarian Accountability Partnership HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus IDP Internally Displaced Person INSET In-Service Training (for teachers) LRA Lord’s Resistance Army MDG Millennium Development Goal NBRIA National Board of Religious Inspectors and Advisers NGO Non-Governmental Organisation OECD- Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development DAC Assistance Committee PCM Programme Cycle Management PPA Partnership Programme Arrangement SPLA Sudan People’s Liberation Army UN United Nations CAFOD_PPA evaluation report_101130.docx i Summary a) This is the report of an external evaluation of the April 2008 – March 2011 Partnership Programme Arrangement (PPA) of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). CAFOD has received a total of £13.18 million in PPA funding during this funding period. The evaluation’s objective was to assess progress towards outcomes in the PPA Performance Framework. The evaluation involved document review and consultations with key stakeholders within and outside CAFOD. UK-based work was enriched by fieldwork carried out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Impact on people’s lives b) CAFOD programmes presented within this PPA are concerned with governance, humanitarian response, HIV and AIDS, and advocacy. Partnership with Church organisations is central to CAFOD’s approach because the Church’s reach and authority makes it a key actor in combating poverty and injustice. CAFOD recognises that Church organisations need to be strengthened to fulfil roles in development, humanitarian response and advocacy. The PPA highlights work in northern Kenya and in Eritrea where the Church is almost the only provider of services. In the first case, CAFOD’s partner supported communities to make local government more effective; benefits included improved health and sanitation services. In the second, CAFOD built its partner’s capacity almost from scratch so that it was able to work to international standards in managing nutrition programmes. c) CAFOD’s approach in the DRC has focused on establishing effective and well- coordinated national and diocesan structures. This is consistent with principles of engagement with fragile states, adopted by the OECD-DAC. The national Justice and Peace Commission has played a key role in rolling out decentralisation, from developing a decentralisation handbook (adopted by the government), to promoting effective governance at local level that has led to improved infrastructure and security, and a greater willingness by citizens to pay taxes1. CAFOD partners have often been the first to respond to humanitarian crises in eastern DRC and the only agencies willing to work in highly insecure areas. They are now recognised by the international community as key humanitarian actors and are providing models of good practice in humanitarian response that are being taken up elsewhere in the DRC. d) CAFOD’s partners are working with more than 100,000 men, women and children living with or affected by HIV. CAFOD promotes holistic responses to HIV and has developed a tool that enables partners to map the comprehensiveness of provision. This helped a Ugandan partner specialising in home-based care to secure the services of a legal NGO to provide rights education and legal representation for the women and children within their programme. A partner in Mexico set a legal precedent by winning a case to reinstate a soldier who had been discharged after testing HIV-positive. As a result of lobbying by another partner, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference published a pastoral letter opposing stigma and calling for a more inclusive response to HIV from the Church. e) CAFOD wishes to increase the scope and effectiveness of its work through forming interfaith alliances. The main activities under this objective have been support for Islamic Relief’s emergency programmes and to African Church leaders to combat religious conflict. Some useful activities have been carried out (support to emergency programmes in Gaza; a reflection on Christian/Muslim relations in Africa) but CAFOD’s strategic intentions for this objective are not well-defined and its impact is difficult to judge. CAFOD is reviewing its approach with a stronger focus on multi-faith initiatives that add value to programmes. 1 This work was carried out within the framework of CAFOD’s Action for Better Governance Programme with support from DFID’s Governance and Transparency Fund. CAFOD_PPA evaluation report_101130.docx ii Impact on policy f) CAFOD has developed an Engagement Framework2 to assist in building partners’ capacity and to monitor their progress in advocacy. CAFOD’s partners have had significant success in advocacy. In coalition with around 100 other CSOs, partners in Brazil were able to delay a reform to social security spending that would have adversely affected more than 20 million people and stalled the progress that is being made in reducing inequalities.