Results and Recommendations from the South Africa Umbrella Grants Management (UGM) End-of-Project Partner Evaluation

1. Results and Recommendations
from the South Africa Umbrella
Grants Management (UGM) End-
of-Project Partner Evaluation
Nokuzola Mamabolo, Senior M&E Advisor
FHI 360 South Africa Umbrella Grants Management Program
March 19, 2013

2. UGM Project Background
• USAID-funded; Oct. 2007 – Nov. 2013
• Customized capacity strengthening support
to 14 partners, over life of project, focused
on OVC and HIV prevention in South Africa
• Core technical areas: grants and financial
management, organisational capacity
strengthening, and monitoring, evaluation
and reporting (MER)

3. End-of-Project Evaluations
• 7 partners’ programs evaluated (6 OVC, 1
GBV) to assess:
— Extent to which target population needs
were met
— Most significant changes for beneficiaries
— Key enablers and barriers
• Methodologies: desk review, FGD, in-depth
interviews, most significant change

4. End-of-Project Evaluations – learning and
benefits
• Evaluation process became a capacity
building exercise
• Strengthened basis for partners to
review and refine program logic and
design
• Highlighted importance of planning with
evaluation in mind
• Promoted evaluation culture among
partners

5. Outcomes – Individual Level – essentially
about people and social systems
• Three outcomes identified as significant
changes for OVC:
– Improved psychosocial well-being
– Improved school performance
– Improved food security
• For GBV survivors, outcomes were system
improvements at police station, courts,
hospitals, and the community

6. Outcomes – Household and Community
Level – essentially about the environment
• Household-level changes: interventions
were seen as valuable where implemented,
but it was recommended that these
interventions be significantly strengthened.
• Community-level changes:
– Increased community awareness
– Strengthening of community-based forums
– Increased capacity of CBOs

7. Recommendations and Lessons Learned
• Formally determine what kind of results
count as outcomes at design stage
• Plan for collection of baseline data for
comparative purposes
• Emphasize sustainability in program
design and implementation
• Include household- level interventions

8. Recommendations and Lessons Learned
• Support partners in developing
relationships with government and
community stakeholders
• Determine priority - capacity
strengthening or service provision?
• Measurement of Prevention
interventions would strengthen learning
for further design and programming