Jul 12, 2019

EnCompass LLC; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation;

Since 2015, the MacArthur Foundation's Big Bet On Nigeria is investing in efforts to reduce corruption in Nigeria by supporting Nigerian-led endeavors that strengthen transparency, accountability, and participation. Corruption, impunity, and lack of accountability in Nigeria have far-reaching impacts on access to and quality of public services, the well-being of Nigerians, and overall development. The On Nigeria strategy builds on Jonathan Fox's "sandwich" theory,1 which recognizes the importance of the combination of a push from below and a squeeze from above to effect change and sustain momentum. The push from below is the "voice"— representing citizens' actions to demand change and develop local solutions to corruption, while the squeeze from above is the "teeth"—representing the efforts of government and other high-level actors to develop and enforce laws and regulations, using incentives to discourage corruption and sanctions to punish it. The On Nigeria theory of change harnesses the "voice" of Nigerian citizens and the "teeth" of Nigerian public and private institutions, and combined with capacity building and collaboration, intends to address the problem of corruption in Nigeria.The On Nigeria evaluation and learning framework seeks to answer three overarching evaluation questions: (1) How is the MacArthur Foundation's strategy contributing to changing transparency and accountability of government and private-sector actors? (2) How is the MacArthur Foundation's strategy contributing to changing social norms and citizens' behaviors related to corruption? and (3) What kinds of adaptation or changes are needed in the theory of change and/or strategy to achieve better results? The framework is designed to provide specific information related to On Nigeria's landscape, outcomes, impacts, and feedback on the strategy to assess progress and adapt the strategy as needed.

Jan 31, 2019

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; NORC at the University of Chicago;

The International Connections Fund (ICF) was established in 2008 with the goal of helping Chicago nonprofit organizations advance their work by collaborating with peer organizations abroad. While eligibility criteria for ICF grants have shifted over the program's lifespan, this core mission has remained unchanged. During the life of the ICF program, MacArthur has administered 14 grant cycles, making 141 grants totaling more than $5.8 million. The majority of these grants—133 in all, totaling $5.4 million—have been awarded to support arts and culture projects. These projects have enabled Chicago artists, audiences, and arts and culture organizations to participate in international exchanges with counterparts from 63 different countries on six continents.Ten years into the program, MacArthur commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to take stock of how the program has operated; learn what impact it has made on ICF grantees, their collaborators, and audiences; and consider how the program can best serve future grantees as ICF enters its second decade. The evaluation reviewed 12 ICF grant cycles that took place between 2008 and 2016, during which 114 grants were made to 91 different arts and culture organizations.

Jan 08, 2019

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation;

MacArthur Foundation's Population and Reproductive Health Program in Mexico entered a final phase from 2015 – 2019. Since entering the field in 1986, the program aimed to contribute to Mexico's progress in reducing the national maternal mortality ratio. In the 1990s, it helped create and strengthen a national movement that followed two of the field's most important international conferences for reproductive health: the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995).The Foundation contracted with Consultores Colibrí an external evaluator, to conduct the evaluation of its midwifery initiative. A baseline evaluation was completed in February 2016. It explores the landscape and baseline information related to the four thematic areas of the final phase of our work: legal and normative framework, recognition and demand, education, deployment and quality of care. And a progress report was completed in 2018. The progress report focuses on the same four areas of work: documenting knowledge and acceptance of the concept of midwifery, professional midwives who attended labor and delivery in the public health care system, evidence-based practices used in midwifery training, and the quality of care provided by midwives and physicians. Both reports represent the use of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and analysis techniques.

Jan 08, 2019

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation;

MacArthur Foundation's Population and Reproductive Health Program in Mexico entered a final phase from 2015 – 2019. Since entering the field in 1986, the program aimed to contribute to Mexico's progress in reducing the national maternal mortality ratio. In the 1990s, it helped create and strengthen a national movement that followed two of the field's most important international conferences for reproductive health: the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995).The Foundation contracted with Consultores Colibrí an external evaluator, to conduct the evaluation of its midwifery initiative. A baseline evaluation was completed in February 2016. It explores the landscape and baseline information related to the four thematic areas of the final phase of our work: legal and normative framework, recognition and demand, education, deployment and quality of care. And a progress report was completed in 2018. The progress report focuses on the same four areas of work: documenting knowledge and acceptance of the concept of midwifery, professional midwives who attended labor and delivery in the public health care system, evidence-based practices used in midwifery training, and the quality of care provided by midwives and physicians. Both reports represent the use of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and analysis techniques.

Dec 04, 2018

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; RTI International;

In 2015, MacArthur Foundation launched the Safety and Justice Challenge—an initiative to tackle over-incarceration, one of America's greatest social problems. The over-use and misuse of jails disproportionately impacts communities of color, people with low-incomes, nonviolent offenders, and those with mental illness. The Challenge supports systems change efforts aimed at safely reducing incarceration and racial and ethnic disparities in jails.In 2015, the Foundation engaged RTI International to develop an evaluation framework focused on learning. The evaluation of the Safety and Justice Challenge is at the initiative level, thus it does not examine a single program or set of programs but instead seeks to understand how the Safety and Justice Challenge activities contribute to long-lasting and sustainable change within participating jurisdictions' criminal justice systems. Rather than looking at all aspects of the initiative, the evaluation examines the elements that will provide an understanding of what is and isn't working and why and the extent to which efforts are resulting in meaningful change across the multiple jurisdictions and levels of the initiative.The evaluation design uses quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and includes activities to measure the outcomes and impact of the initiative. Outcome evaluation activities assess the effects of the Challenge on criminal justice measures within the funded sites relative to a series of comparison sites. Impact evaluation activities document contributions from the Safety and Justice Challenge toward broader national changes in jail populations, increasing public awareness of jail misuse and overuse, and support for systems reform.

Nov 13, 2018

C&A Foundation; Li & Fung Foundation; Philanthropy Advisors;

In January 2015, the Li & Fung Foundation and C&A Foundation jointly set up a trust fund, the Tazreen Factory Victim Workers' Children Welfare Fund (TCWF), to provide financial support covering basic needs for the 89 children of missing or deceased workers from the 2012 Tazreen factory disaster in Bangladesh. The financial support from the TCWF is distributed to the beneficiaries in the form of both a monthly allowance and a fixed deposit released when children turn 18. The fund is being managed by Caritas Bangladesh on a first five-year agreement (July 2015 to June 2020). In August 2018, C&A Foundation and Li & Fung Foundation commissioned this independent evaluation with the primary purpose of assessing the initiative's performance so far in terms of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability, as well as identifying case studies, key lessons learned and providing recommendations in order to improve and adapt the execution of the fund for the next phase (2020-2025).

Oct 02, 2018

C&A Foundation;

The Accelerating Organic Cotton in China by Replicating Behavioral Change initiative, implemented by RARE and funded by the C&A Foundation, had an implementation period from March 2016 through February 2019. The initiative had five programming objectives: 1) developing a partner implementation network using a hub-and-spoke approach; 2) implementing farmer training and delivery using a train-the-trainer and farmer field school model to promote organic cotton methods; 3) promoting sustainable behavior change; 4) creating sustainable models and lasting relationships based on agricultural best practices and full realization within the value chain; and 5) building demand for subsequent scale of organic production through the cultivation of networks and relationships with relevant governments and industry leaders to encourage and support investment in the scaling of organic cotton.This evaluation assesses the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and results, and sustainability of the initiative. Qualitative and quantitative data from reports and interviews have been triangulated through site visits including observations, key informant interviews, and farmer interviews/group discussions. The evaluation also draws on selected key program indicators (KPI) and their evolution over the implementation period, comparing these indicators with program outcomes. The evaluation used data from the following two broad sources: 1) program documents and data provided by the C&A Foundation and Rare, and 2) views as triangulated among a variety of different stakeholders to be interviewed during the evaluation process. The evaluation contains sections on the background of the initiative, scope and methods of the evaluation including a ratings scale by criteria, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations.

Jun 27, 2018

Oxfam GB;

This evaluation is presented as part of Oxfam's Effectiveness Review Series 2016/17, selected for review under the women's empowerment thematic area. The evaluation took place in August 2016 in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It intended to evaluate the success of the 'Reducing the Occurrence of Gender Based Violence' project in the region in reducing gender based violence (GBV) and promoting women's empowerment. The project operated with 10 partners in West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Jakarta. This Effectiveness Review was conducted only in East Nusa Tenggara due to budgetary constraints. In East Nusa Tenggara activities started in 2012 and the project was implemented by four partner organizations: SSP, CIS, YABIKU and LHB APIK. This evaluation was conducted in August 2016 in three districts in East Nusa Tenggara on the Timor island. The evaluation adopted a quasi-experimental impact evaluation design to measure the effect that is causally attributable to - and representative of - the project's intervention.

May 30, 2018

Oxfam GB;

The 'Citizen Participation in Adaptation to Climate Change' (CPACC) project aimed to build the resilience of farming households to climate shocks, through promoting conservation farming techniques and livelihood diversification, and through supporting disaster-planning activities and early-warning systems at the community level. This Effectiveness Review used a quasi-experimental approach to assess the impact of the project among households whose members directly participated in the project activities, in one of the three districts where the project was carried out. The results provide evidence that the project had a positive effect on the resilience of participant households, particularly through the community-level disaster preparedness activities. There is also evidence that the project had a positive impact on the adoption of conservation farming techniques, on the area of land cultivated, and on yields. However, the project does not appear to have had the positive effects it sought on engagement in non-agricultural income-generating activities, nor on participation in savings groups. There is no indication that the project had had a positive impact on households' overall material welfare by the time of the survey. This report is part of Oxfam's Effectiveness Review Series.

May 10, 2018

Oxfam GB;

The Resilience, Food Security and Nutrition Project (Projet de Résilience, Sécurité Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle, PRSAN) was carried out in the North and Centre-North regions of Burkina Faso between 2013 and 2017 by Oxfam and Christian Aid, together with two implementing partners, the Alliance Technique d'Assistance au Développement (ATAD) and the Office de Développement des Églises Evangéliques (ODE). The project was aimed at enabling particularly vulnerable households to increase their resilience and improve their food security and nutritional situation. Project activities included supporting households in crop production, market gardening, processing and household businesses, providing awareness-raising on good nutritional practices, carrying out community-level disaster assessments and establishing early-warning committees, and distributing livestock and cash transfers. The Effectiveness Review was aimed at evaluating the success of this project in enabling participants to build their resilience to shocks, stresses and uncertainty. This report is part of Oxfam's Effectiveness Review Series.

May 08, 2018

Oxfam GB;

The 'Building Resilience in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of Northern Kenya' project was implemented in Turkana County, in Northern Kenya, between July 2012 and April 2015. The project was designed to build the resilience of project participants to a number of shocks and stresses: droughts - which threaten the area annually - floods and outbreaks of human and animal diseases on the one hand, and anthropocentric risks on the other hand, such as fire, livestock theft, and conflicts. The project worked at different levels to try and reduce households' vulnerability to these risks, through Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and integration of community-level plans and committees into the work of the county government. This Effectiveness Review used a quasi-experimental evaluation design to assess the impact of the project activities, at the household- and community-level. The results provide evidence that the project had had a positive impact on households' resilience capacities. This report is part of Oxfam's Effectiveness Review series.

Mar 05, 2018

Grassroots Solutions; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; M+R Strategic Services;

The overall goal of MacArthur Foundation's Climate Solutions program is to work to ensure that global temperature rise stays well below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The working theory of change for the Climate Solution program is that the United States, India, and China must lead the world's efforts to address climate change. Each nation will have its own style, approach, advances and setbacks, and goals, though collectively they must ensure a steep decline in current and future greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade. If these three nations exert leadership on climate change, then other nations will be encouraged to follow suit, and humanity will be on a path toward ensuring global temperature rise stays well below 2 degrees Celsius. Leadership can come from government, the private sector, and civil society. It will be demonstrated through policies, actions, and investments by the United States, India, and China that decrease the carbon-intensity of their respective economies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons), and build political will and public demand for climate solutions.Beginning in 2016, Grassroots Solutions and M+R Strategic Services (the Foundation's evaluation and learning partner) partnered with the Climate Solutions program to evaluate its program.