Afghanistan. August 2016.
Program overview
Building Resilient Communities for Sustainable Development and Peace, funded by NORAD and implemented by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and its implementing partners, has three focus areas in Afghanistan: conflict mitigation, meeting development needs, and strengthening civil society. The project aimed at contributing to the resilience of targeted communities by enabling them to respond to the range of deficits and challenges which they face.
Evaluation overview
The present evaluation was commissioned to assess the effectiveness, impact, sustainability, cover- age, coherence, efficiency, and conflict sensitivity of the programme by paying special attention to the peace-building development integration aspect of the programme.
Key findings and recommendations
The project was effective in mobilizing traditional bodies so these could prevent and address destructive conflicts, which overtime decreased. Women’s role has also increased, despite experiencing challenges, especially in insecure places such as Uruzgan where the peace-building component was discontinued. Despite the various activities geared towards the diversification of income, the latter were less apparent, especially for women. Access to renewable energy and WASH represented a major success in terms of programme effectiveness. The remaining outcomes of an active civil society and transparent and accountable implementing partner were also notable.
The evaluation recommends several actions. The linkage between institutions should be formalized and more of the project should be more locally adapted. This is especially prominent in for example recruitment and learning facilities. More research should therefore be conducted at a local level and not through desk studies. The programme failed to provide a working definition of resilience and indicators to measure it where a composite score measuring the different components of resilience could be developed.