Evaluation database

Evaluation report

2004 MOZ: Evaluation of the Care and Support of Orphaned Children by the Elderly project in Tete Province

Author: Bockel, N.

Executive summary

HAI has been implementing a project which aims to strengthen the capacity of Community-based organizations (CBOs) and the community to deal with OVCs, elderly carers, and vulnerability. The first action undertaken by the project has been the identification of basic needs and distribution of food, cloth, school material and domestic items to OVC and old carers. 973 old carers and 2709 OVC benefited of these distribution that represents 78% of old carers and 83% of OVC Project documents. The living together project is being implemented in communities where HAI contributed to create CBO’s in order to promote problem solving mechanisms since 1996. That includes Social Action Committees (SAC), credit committees and older people councils that supervise the activities of the others committees and to which problems are submitted for decisions.

Purpose/Objective:

• The project to be evaluated had completed a two-year phase, and is of significant interest to UNICEF and Help Age, as it is a pilot project where the two agencies have worked together in a common purpose. The intention of the evaluation was to provide important data on the successes and constraints of this project as it would provide valuable material in implementing future initiatives that were being planned between the two agencies.
• Gather quantitative and qualitative evidence on the 4 expected outputs of the project to identify impact and change amongst the target population.
  Document major challenges, lessons learned and good practices to assist the organization to plan for replication in other geographical areas. 
• Provide concrete recommendation on way forward: activities that may be added, enhanced or adjusted.

Methodology:

Participatory techniques involving community groups and individuals, staff members and other key stake holders. Focus group discussions and case studies

Individual and group interviews using semi-structured guide question and questionnaires to derive qualitative and quantitative information
Pre evaluation training workshop for all the evaluation team.

Pre testing of interview guides and questionnaires using:

Findings and Conclusions:

The distribution of food, cloths and domestic items was generally well appreciated by the OVC and old carers, as well as the integration of the OVC at school. The inclusion of OVC at school contributed to suppress the necessity of childrens contribution to the family income. But, at the same time, that contributed to develop a reliance on external support, especially on food distribution which is being distributed by other support agencies.

The OVC, old carers and the sick are now integrated in the solidarity mechanisms in place in the community. The SAC is following the vulnerable families caring for OVC or sick, providing advice and, when necessary, the concerns are submitted to the older people council, so that community level solutions can be implemented. In some cases, the CBO’s have difficulties to respond to new needs, lacking of initiative capacity and the tendency is to rely on the project, while community solution exists, as for of the maintenance of older people houses. Among the CBO’s, the older people council is potentially representative of the interests of OVC, the sick and vulnerable older people, but it is not recognised by the target population as an interface with the government. The lack of accountability mechanisms of the CBO’s to the target population is an other matter of concern.

Credit is an important tool for the development of income generation activities that condition the sustainability of the maintenance of OVC at school. Measures to improve the selection of beneficiaries and the reimbursement of the credit have been taken, indicating the importance given to this instrument by the community. The problem is that most of the older people, including the carers, fear to contract credit, lacking of self confidence. This is mitigated in Mufa Caconde thanks to the commitment of the credit committee and the SAC.

The attempt of the project to improve the food production didn’t have a important impact due to the reduce number of beneficiaries of the irrigated plots and the drought. The ox plough provided by the project could have mitigated the vulnerability to drought but the fact to have only one per community didn’t allow lot of carers to benefit of this service.

Regarding the HIV/AIDS component of the project, it contributed to increase strongly the awareness on HIV/AIDS issues. But still remain the difficulty to establish a link between HIV/ADS and the increased adult mortality. As a result, there is no mobilisation around HIV/AIDS related issues. The limitation of the capacity of the CBO’s to support infected people, especially when transport cost is involved, is an other matter of concern.

Recommendations:

• The CBO’s need to become more autonomous and accountable
• Strengthen solidarity in the community
• Strengthen the link between older people Council and government
• Increase the confidence of the old caregivers to contract credit
• Develop a strategy to sustain school integration
• Increase awareness of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS at community level
• Coordination with the program “geração biz” a programme that provides HIV/AIDS prevention education to youth.
• Develop a strategy to provide health assistance for HIV infected people
• Improve the sustainability of horticulture associations
• Coordination and refocusing strategy to food access at provincial level
• Analyse with OVC and older people ways to overcome the difficulties they expressed during the data collection

Full report in PDF

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