PHOTO: JUAN RUIZ DEVELOPMENTAL EVALUATION COLOMBIA COMPLEXITY-AWARE M&E Fifth Iteration CONTRACT NO. AID-OAA-I-15-00017, ORDER NO. AID-514-TO-17-00010 DISCLAIMER: This is an external evaluation. The view expressed in this document are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the view of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Submitted to: USAID/Colombia Submitted January 2021 Contractor: Democracy International, Inc. 7600 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1010 Bethesda, MD 20814 Tel: 301-961-1660 www.democracyinternational.com EXTENDED SUMMARY INTRODUCTION Under its contract with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Democracy International (DI) is responsible for conducting the Complexity-Aware Monitoring and Evaluation (C-AME) activity to monitor and evaluate the USAID/Colombia Reconciliation Activity, PAR (Programa de Alianzas para la Reconciliación), implemented by ACDI/VOCA. As part of this activity, DI presents in this document the results of the fifth iteration of the developmental evaluation (DE). The DE is a systematic effort to track and analyze program results that emerge under conditions of complexity, to document and interpret the dynamics, interactions, and interdependencies that occur and inform results during the implementation of PAR. This DE report package includes three documents: 1) an extended executive summary, which presents an overview of the analysis from primary and secondary data collection used to address the core questions of this evaluation, along with recommendations and lessons for the implementation and programmatic levels. 2) an annex with the detailed analysis of implementation and context (including a separate section on gender issues); the introductory section of this annex includes details about the evaluation scope, methodology, and an overview of the context trends in the Colombia-Venezuela border municipalities. 3) an annex comprising the case-by-case analyses, in which each case covers a specific implemented activity selected for this evaluation. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS This report synthesizes the meaningful observations, data gathering, and results of the mixed-method analyses that C-AME has completed to date and leverages this body of work to address three primary questions about the Reconciliation Activity: Q1. What is considered working and not working (and by whom) as the intervention unfolds? Q2. How is the Reconciliation Activity connected to and affected by the wider context? Q3. How and why do contextual factors influence results and what are the trends in the wider context? Field data collection and analysis for this developmental evaluation are limited to municipalities where PAR is implementing a set of projects selected for this exercise. For this iteration of the DE, C-AME worked with USAID and PAR to prioritize specific interventions in three municipalities located on the border between Colombia and Venezuela: Arauca (department of Arauca), Cúcuta (department of Norte de Santander), and Maicao (department of La Guajira). C-AME selected the seven projects outlined in table 1 (details about rationale for project selection are available in Annex 1 – Evaluation Scope). Understanding the highly nuanced dynamics of each region of Colombia, in addition to the more recent context trends as they relate to the influx of Venezuelan migrants into Colombia, allows C-AME to draw preliminary conclusions about what works and does not work as PAR’s interventions unfold. Further, triangulating results across all cases (Q1) in combination with the analyses of contexts (Q2 and Q3) allows C-AME to formulate meaningful lessons learned and recommendations that PAR and USAID may wish to consider in future interventions (see Annex 1). Table 1. Projects selected by C-AME for DE 5 PAR Location Project title Implementing partner Code Propuesta de integración económica y Corporación El Minuto de PAR- Arauca reconciliación “Integración Construimos Dios – Arauca (CMD-Arauca) 03-157 Futuro en Arauca” 1 PAR Location Project title Implementing partner Code Generación de ingresos, independencia Cámara de Comercio de PAR- económica y entornos de protección a Arauca (CCA) 03-166 migrantes, retornadas, jóvenes y mujeres Propuesta de integración económica y Corporación El Minuto de PAR - reconciliación: Integrándonos construimos Dios – Maicao (CMD-Maicao) 03-155 futuro - Maicao Reconciliación e inclusión socio productiva a Asociación de Agricultores partir de la siembra de melón para la PAR - independientes de la vereda Maicao exportación a la isla de Curazao en el 03-171 Atnamana (Atnamana) municipio de Maicao La diversidad, elemento clave para la construcción de iniciativas de convivencia y PAR- Nuestro Flow S.A.S. (NF) reconciliación con población étnica, migrante y 03-180 de acogida Integrándonos construimos futuro, estrategia Corporación El Minuto de PAR- de reconciliación e integración económica en Dios – Cúcuta (CMD-Cúcuta) 03-149 Cúcuta Cámara de Comercio de PAR- Cúcuta Incluyente, Emprendedora y Solidaria Cúcuta Cúcuta (CCC) 03-146 La diversidad, elemento clave para la construcción de iniciativas de convivencia y PAR- Nuestro Flow S.A.S. (NF) reconciliación con población étnica, migrante y 03-180 de acogida The data for this DE come from primary sources (i.e. PAR staff, implementing partners, project participants, and context actors), and C-AME collected these data through individual and group semi- structured interviews and focus groups. C-AME obtained 93 interviews (focus groups and semi- structured interviews) with 150 participants including PAR staff (headquarters and local officers), PAR implementing partners and beneficiaries, and context actors (for more information see Annex A). C-AME analyzed demographic, socio-economic, and security data to characterize and further analyze PAR’s implementation environment and used this data to highlight possible contingencies that may have a positive or negative impact on its work. C-AME applied textual statistical and qualitative analysis procedures to its unique databases of beneficiary, implementing partner, and stakeholder narratives to systematically examine interviews and identify key themes to develop a method for coding the data. We used NVivo 11 to organize and to conduct the first level of primary data analysis: text analysis and text mining. Using codes for analysis and identification of emerging issues, C-AME team explored relationships between categories and concepts, to further identify learning opportunities and formulate recommendations for improvement. THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING RECONCILIATION ON THE COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA BORDER This developmental evaluation focused on the analysis of PAR implementation on the Colombia- Venezuela border and, as such, C-AME considers it relevant to start by laying out some aspects of the context in the border area to set the stage for the contents of the project-level, gender, and context analyses sections. In its fourth year of implementation, PAR expanded its territorial focus to include five municipalities located in three departments of the Colombia-Venezuela border: Norte de Santander, La 2 Guajira, and Arauca.1 The change in geographic focus also implied a thematic adjustment, from a focus on, “…incidence of violence, socioeconomic conditions, presence of victims and demobilized persons, and local state institutional capacity,” from PAR’s foundational documents, to a focus on the emergent tensions that exist in border areas, with an emphasis on, “new conflict scenarios related to xenophobia, intolerance, and discrimination, stemming from the high rate of migration from Venezuela.”2 This new scenario of implementation on the Colombian-Venezuelan border poses a series of challenges for PAR, as activities implemented in this context face common unresolved issues stemming from historical problems in these locations. These common unresolved issues combined with the influx of people fleeing the political and economic crisis from Venezuela into Colombia has increased the need to focus the efforts of the GOC and international donors to assist migrants; this in turn deepens existing social tensions around access to the provision of goods and services for vulnerable populations from both national resources and international donors. Emerging tensions create an environment that negatively affects people’s willingness to engage in reconciliation. In the next section, C-AME presents the key findings of the DE, highlighting the main successes and learning opportunities at the project and program implementation levels. These helped C-AME to draw recommendations for future PAR and other USAID reconciliation programming. Additional aspects of implementation, context and explanations that allow C-AME to produce this summary of results are available in Annexes 2 and 3. SECTION 1: IMPLEMENTATION AND SURROUNDING CONTEXTS SUB-SECTION 1.1: IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS WITH EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH VULNERABLE POPULATIONS (CMD) C-AME created a category called “implementing partners with experience working with vulnerable populations,” which includes projects implemented by the partner Corporación Minuto de Dios in the cities of Arauca (CMD-Arauca, PAR-03-157), Cúcuta (CMD-Cúcuta, PAR-03-149), and Maicao (CMD- Maicao, PAR-03-155). According to CMD’s mission statement, they work under a unique development model designed to promote community development by supporting community engagement, conflict resolution, and mutual aid that constantly improves the quality of