Sierra Leone Evaluations
 | Evaluation – Town Hall Meetings – December 2020Search for Common Ground Sierra Leone, with support from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, implementing the Town Hall Meetings (THM) project over an eighteen-month period with the goal to contribute to better governance of constituencies through citizens’ participation. This project was implemented in a post-election period – a very crucial moment to consolidate peace, security and stability. Rather than responding to frustration and the effects of violence from the recent general elections, the THM project sought to address the accountability of elected leaders in response to the demands of electorates. The project contributed to strengthening CSOs’ capacity in promoting Members of Parliaments (MPs) accountability within their constituency. Improvement in CSOs engagement with local leaders led to improving interactions between MPs and their constituents. 54.4% of respondents recognized that CSOs were helping in promoting MP’s accountability within their constituency. 96.5% of respondents were aware of THMs held in their constituencies and 94.9% of respondents reported their MPs paid visits to their constituencies (as compared to 60.2% during the baseline). The introduction of an Election Promise Tracker as a monitoring and accountability tool was qualified as a “Game Changer” in the evaluation. |
| Hybrid Project Evaluation and Baseline Report – Enhancing Social Dialogue and Political Engagement Across Ethnic and Political LinesIn 2018, while Sierra Leone was preparing for parliamentary and presidential elections, Search for Common Ground initiated a project and received funding from a donor to implement activities in selected constituencies. Every effort made to implement the Hybrid project geared towards accountability through social dialogue and political engagement. Most importantly, political violence at that time was rife. But that could not prevent Search from reaching the constituents. As the project was about creating a platform to support the right MP candidates into office, the basis of accountability was established through Community Action Plans (CAPs) together with the voters. Following the implementation of the first phase of this project, an evaluation was conducted with sample respondents from almost all constituencies the project targeted. It will interest anyone who is concerned about the accountability of elected MPs especially at constituency level, to learn from the results of the evaluation conducted by an independent institution (Inspiration Lifeline). This report captures key findings some of which serve as a benchmark for the next phase of the project. |
| Project Evaluation – Women Unite! Strengthening Women-led Social Cohesion and Accountability in Post-Election Sierra Leone ProjectSearch for Common Ground (Search) in partnership with the 50/50 Group, the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR), and Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) implemented a 12-month Women Unite! Strengthening Women-led Social Cohesion and Accountability in Post-Election Sierra Leone Project which was funded by Irish Aid. The project sought to promote social cohesion and accountability within the post-election environment, with women’s empowerment and participation streamlined throughout five districts in Sierra Leone: Kenema, Port Loko, Kambia, Tonkolili and Kono districts. With the aim of strengthening women-led social cohesion and accountability in post-election environment, the project hinges on three specific objectives which targeted change from the structural, community to individual levels. |
| Midterm Evaluation – United for Greater Governance and Participation: Empowering Rural Communities to Strengthen Local Governance and Accountability Processes – November 2018Search and its local partner, the Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA), are implementing a three-year European Union (EU) funded project titled: “United for Greater Governance and Participation”: Empowering Rural Communities to Strengthen Local Governance and Accountability Processes” targeting six districts – Koinadugu, Port Loko, Kono, Kambia, Pujehun and Moyamba in Sierra Leone. This project was premised on the effects of long year’s poor governance structures in Sierra Leone, weak and fragile democracy that critically challenged rural communities in local governance and accountability issues. The central goal of this project therefore is to contribute to increase accountability and citizens’ participation in local decision-making around service delivery in rural Sierra Leone. The midterm exercise was designed to ascertain whether or not the project is on the right path to contribute to the project’s expected results, and suggesting ways for improvement for the remaining period of the project. Evidences showed that project activities such as policy dialogue and community engagements had positives effects as elected officials now demonstrate willingness and commitment to participate in discussions that respond to citizens’ demands.The project’s 24 beneficiary CSOs are contributing to efforts that enhance community participation in decision-making and accountability processes. The project has further strengthened the District Budget Oversight Committees (DBOCs) to engage with the decentralized district local councils on budgeting issues. Through Community Scorecard trainings and processes, have proven to be a means of enhancing collaborative decision making between education service providers and service users. Overall, stakeholders at the local level consider the intervention as significant and positive for consolidating good governance at the local level. |
| Final Evaluation – Standing Together for Free, Fair and Peaceful Elections in Sierra Leone – September 2018The project Standing Together for Free, Fair and Peaceful Elections in Sierra Leone was funded by the UK Aid through the Department for International Development (DFID) – Sierra Leone, and implemented between December 2016 and July 2018. The overall goal of the project was to contribute to creating the conditions for free, fair, and peaceful elections in Sierra Leone. The 2018 elections marked the end of the governing period of President Koroma, leading to internal conflicts both in the ruling APC party and its main competitor, the SLLP. This, as well as further challenges, made the electoral context tense, unpredictable and prone to violence. The initiative implemented a variety of capacitybuilding and violence-preventing activities. It employed information and education campaigns in order to increase citizens’ understanding of their civic rights, duties and obligations, and in order to empower marginalized groups in the context of the elections. Moreover, the project also helped with the monitoring of the elections. The project contributed to enhancing the knowledge of citizens and to building mutual trust among Sierra Leone’s civil society, citizens, institutions, and decision-makers. This, in turn, has minimized the immediate risks of violence as well as consolidated the capabilities of all stakeholders, including women, to engage in constructive policy-based dialogue. Despite the competitive nature of the elections and the close outcome, the party that lost and its supporters accepted the results. This was due to the credibility that the deployment of the project’s observers had lent to the election process. |
| United for Greater Governance: Empowering Rural Communities to Strengthen Local Governance and Accountability ProcessesThis study is part of the European Union funded project “United for Greater Governance: Empowering Rural Communities to Strengthen Local Governance and Accountability Processes” aiming to increase the accountability and citizen participation in local decision-making around service delivery and governance in rural Sierra Leone. Qualitative and quantitative data collection noted there is little inclusion of citizens in development planning and decision-making meetings.The majority of citizens do not engage with elected officials out of fear of political intimidation. Levels of participation in accountability processes around public services is also low and most community members report not having received any trainings or access to training opportunities. Based on the findings, the study recommended that Search target women and youth in rural areas and use participatory approaches to increase civic education among these target groups. Additionally, it is recommended to increase community engagement efforts through radio programming since it is Sierra Leone’s most popular information dissemination channel. |
 | Final Evaluation – Jan 2017 – “Engaging Children and Youth as Partners in Preventing Violence against Children”“Engaging Children and Youth as Partners in Preventing Violence against Children” was a regional project funded by the European Commission. It aimed at contributing to the eradication of all sorts of violence against children and youth in three border-sharing post-conflict countries of West Africa: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The external evaluation focused the effectiveness of the project and the quality of young people’s participation. It included a mixed methodology approach, with emphasis on qualitative methods. In each country, it included document review, surveys, semi-structured focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Youth were involved as researchers in the project and successfully conducted research which identified the worst forms of violence in the three countries and well as current approaches addressing them. Conclusions and recommendations were intended to be used broadly to influence country level programmatic and policy actions, and to mainstream findings at a societal level to enable communities to better prevent worst forms of violence. It was considered effective and useful but took place on a relatively smaller scale than planned. Unfortunately, was little to no evidence of changes of programmatic or policy actions in any of the countries, though there were evidence of project activities catalyzing significant community action projects to prevent violence against children. A key success of the project was the active involvement of youth researchers (YRs) which ensured the implementation of activities, as well as a strong impact on the YRs themselves who grew personally and professionally. There was an adequate gender balance, and the participation was deeply meaningful to them and to the project. Many children and youth felt their voice was valued for the first time in their lives, and the project’s youth-led and participatory innovation drew attention from many stakeholders. The YRs provided credibility, commitment, and creativity that helped the project succeed despite many obstacles, including the worst Ebola Crisis in history. However, poor communication and coordination hindered the project’s success. Further, cases of vicarious trauma among the YRs was identified by the evaluation consultant who had a background in child phycology, and SFCG identified adequate actions to respond to this serious issue. In terms of recommendations, the YRs should be well prepared emotionally and psychologically before going to the field, while in the field, and after returning from the field. The potential risks of vicarious trauma should be assessed, identified, and addressed during the project design phase, and future proposals related to child and youth participation should be reviewed by qualified professionals with contextually relevant child and youth participation experience. Further, SFCG and primary stakeholders should increase the usage and distribution of project outputs in order to optimize the effectiveness of similar projects. Resources:
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