Final Evaluation – Cooperative Communities – April 2020

This report captures findings from the final evaluation of the project “Cooperative Communities”, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by Search in Yemen in the three governorates of Abyan, Aden, and Lahj from July 2018 to February 2020. The project was an initiative aimed to re-establish trust between communities and local governance structures, through inclusive dialogue and cooperative action to enable communities to advance effective governance structures to revitalise social services, public order, and the local economy. This was achieved through two specific objectives:

• Empower communities and governance structures to constructively address conflict through the use of locally-led dialogue processes.
• Increase trust between local communities and governance structures through inclusive and participatory decision-making mechanisms.

The final evaluation focussed on three main aspects of the project: Relevance, effectiveness and sustainability.

The final evaluation highlights how the project was relevant to the priorities of the target groups in each intervention location. The evaluation findings show that the project activities and interventions were timely and technically relevant to the communities’ needs and existing issues. According to the surveyed community members, 90% of them know of at least one intervention related to the project that is currently being implemented to solve problems in their communities, and 73% of them directly benefited from these interventions. All community members stressed the importance of this project and similar projects that aim to solve community disputes and address community issues by involving community members in conflict scan meetings and listening to their problems.

Additionally the results of this internal final evaluation have revealed that participating Insider Mediators obtained the necessary skills, knowledge, and tools needed to support the process of resolving local conflicts through conducting conflict scans and using dialogue processes. Surveyed community members expressed appreciation for the Community Resolution Committees (CRCs) role in their communities, and they characterised the CRCs’ as having a stabilising role, creating connections between them and local authorities to raise concerns and conflictual issues.

The evaluation results have also revealed that the majority of IMs (88%) thought that CRCs were able to both mitigate and resolve local disputes because they are made up of actors able to influence community disputes and effectively resolve them (i.e. community leaders and local council members, in addition to trained IMs who are perceived as trusted and neutral local actors).

Finally, participants in the community members’ survey showed low levels of optimism towards the sustainability of the current interventions implemented during the project; only 13% think that the current interventions will be maintained over a longer period of time. However, all of respondents believed that CRCs could have an essential role in monitoring and maintaining interventions, thereby supporting the communities to improve their stability.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on December 21, 2020.

Final Evaluation – Reducing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion through Child Friendly Education in Yemen – July 2016

This report captures findings from the final evaluation of the project “Reducing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion through Child Friendly Education in Yemen” implemented by Search in partnership with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Yemen from May 2014 to May 2016. The project was implemented under a global initiative funded by the Government of Netherlands to establish an innovative program called “Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy Programme (PBEA)” in 14 countries around the world including Yemen. The project targeted six governorates; Al-Hodeida, Taiz, Ibb, Sana’a, Abyan, and Lahj. However, activities were only carried out in three goverberates Sana’a, Ibb, and Al-Hodeidah because of the ongoing conflict, which made some governorates inaccessible.

The main goal of the project was: Yemeni girls and boys, parents, male and female educators, and the Ministry of Education work collaboratively within the Child Friendly Education Programme to promote a culture of peaceful conflict management.

The final evaluation highlights how the project has successfully accomplished 89% of the planned activities under the three project outcomes. The evaluation findings show that the respondents achieved a 29% increase in knowledge about conflicts relevant to education and 58% increase in the level of knowledge about the procedures that could make education more conflict-sensitive. Of the respondents, 72% think that interventions were effective in promoting awareness of preventing violence and peace building. The findings show that the project contributed to sustainability after the end of the activities through setting up school-based training facilities managed by the trainers who participated in the training of trainers. The project also developed and distributed the training materials. Moreover, 56% of the respondents believe there are factors that enable promoting awareness of conflict prevention and peaceful conflict management in their schools or communities without support from others after the closure of the project. This has been confirmed by 62% of the respondents, who acknowledged that some teachers, students and community members had carried out such activities and initiatives after the project was completed.

Finally, the findings show that the project has significantly changed the attitude and performance of teachers and school administrators concerning the need to avoid violence in all its forms. Some of the changes discovered during the evaluation:

• Development of code of conducts that have been approved by students, teachers, school administrators, and parent councils and became an integral part of the school system.
• Establishment of Parent Councils, which agree to hold monthly meetings to discuss school issues and help solve them.
• Formation of school peace groups, consisting of teachers and students under the supervision of school administration.
• Throughout the school year one day per week of the school radio program is allocated to promote peace and its importance at school and in the community.
• Establishing links between local mosques and schools to increase community awareness of peace and violence reduction.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on December 21, 2020.

Final Evaluation – Strengthening Yemeni Youth Leadership for Conflict Transformation – September 2019

This report captures findings from the final evaluation of the project “A Future Called Peace: Strengthening Yemeni Youth Leadership for Conflict Transformation,” implementing by Search in partnership with four local organizations. The project was funded by USAID and implemented from December 2017 to July 2019 in three governorates of Yemen: Aden, Taiz, and Lahj.

The project aimed to enhance youth leaders’ role to transform conflict without violence by strengthening their capacity in conflict analysis and conflict transformation, and by fostering collaboration among youth leaders, and between youth leaders and elders across dividing lines.

The final evaluation highlights how the project successfully enhanced the role of youth leaders in transforming conflicts in their communities without violence. 98% of the respondents stated that youth participants managed the community dialogues skillfully and have acquired the necessary skills to facilitate dialogue around conflict. Women rated at a higher competency rate in managing dialogue sessions than their male counterparts. The project has also highly increased collaboration among community members. Around 98% of the respondents expressed the effectiveness of project activities in increasing collaboration among community across diving lines. In addition, 96% of respondents indicated that the community dialogues and other project activities strengthened the relationship between youth leaders and elders as well as reduced the gap between them. Finally, 60% of the respondents perceived youth-led dialogues strongly helped and impacted in reducing conflicts within the community; however, it was noted the importance to ensure that dialogue sessions are followed by the implementation of community initiatives to ensure higher impact.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on January 22, 2020.

Final Evaluation – Yemen Common Ground Institute – July 2018

From December 2015 to April 2018, Search, in partnership with a local foundation, Tamkeen, implemented a 28-month project entitled “The Yemen Common Ground Institute”, with support from the European Union.

The project, implemented in six districts of Yemen, in the governorates of Abyan, Taiz, and Al Hodeidah, aimed to build the capacity of local civil society organizations (CSO) to resolve local-level conflicts in a collaborative and peaceful manner through the use of dialogue processes.

This final evaluation report highlights the relevance of the project. 75% of community members said that the interventions were relevant to their community needs. 97% of community members indicated that dialogue sessions had a positive effect on them and their community. This high result can be attributed to the effective design and implementation of the dialogue processes, which were inclusive and addressed priority conflicts of concern to target communities. 96% of community members said they recommend using dialogue as a medium for resolving conflicts to other communities, highlighting how dialogue brings people together and increases awareness of conflict issues. 62% of community members believed that dialogue sessions and interventions improved relations between conflicting parties and community members. Finally, 85% of participants considered that CSOs and facilitators conducted either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ work during the implementation of the dialogue processes. The sense of ownership among these actors was very high. Additionally, linking the dialogue sessions with tangible outcomes increased trust between CSOs and community members.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on January 21, 2020.

Final Evaluation – Promoting Social Cohesion and Conflict Transformation through Inside Mediators – July 2018

As part of the Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen Program, a United Nations joined program funded by the European Union, Search implemented the project Promoting Social Cohesion and Conflict Transformation through Inside Mediators in two governorates, Abyan and Al Hodeidah, from July 2016 to June 2018.

The project aimed to enhance community resilience to violence through effective, local dialogue processes led by Insider Mediators (IM).

The evaluation highlights that 90% of respondents believed that the activities were relevant to their local capacities and needs. 79% of the surveyed community members believed that IMs had succeeded in facilitating and conducting solution-oriented dialogues. 85% of the community members who were aware of the dialogue processes believed that these processes were effective. The project had a positive impact on social cohesion and peace: 74% of respondents believed that the project contributed to a large extent to promote social cohesion among community members; 81% believed that the project contributed significantly to disseminating a culture of dialogue in their regions; and 61% believed that the project contributed significantly to reducing conflicts in their areas. The project media strategy was somewhat effective: 81% of the sample population said they knew about the dialogue processes that took place in their areas, yet, 75% didn’t watch the videos produced. In terms of sustainability, 40% of the respondents had heard that IMs intervened to resolve other disputes outside the project framework and resolved them through dialogue, and 77% believe that IMs will be highly capable of intervening to resolve future conflicts.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on January 1, 2020.

The Community Peacebuilding Project – Final Evaluation

This is the report of a final evaluation conducted at the end of ‘The Community Peacebuilding Project’ funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and implemented over a 13-month periods in Yemen.

Search’s mission in Yemen is to promote a culture of dialogue and diversity through the involvement of all components of society, while reinforcing their capacities. Search-Yemen works in the ongoing conflict to help members of Yemeni society approach conflict and differences in a constructive manner, through cooperation and dialogue.

Since July 2017, Search-Yemen and local Yemeni CSOs have been using a Community Dialogue Approach (CDA) to significantly reduce the risk of inter-communal violence by training Insider Mediators (IMs) to repair and strengthen social cohesion. This is the second phase of a highly successful project following the CDA, targeting neighbouring districts in similar governorates. Evaluation results demonstrate that participants believe that the dialogue processes were effective in dealing with the community’s priority needs and concerns. They also felt that the project’s interventions helped strengthen positive relationships within communities and that the project helped increase collaboration among community members.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on August 30, 2019.

Final Evaluation – “The Partnership for Behavior and Social Change in Yemen” Project in Taiz and Hodeidah, Second Phase – December 2017

In partnership with and funded by UNICEF, Search implemented an 18-month project in June 2016 in Yemen, titled: “The Partnership for Behavior and Social Change in Yemen” Project in Taiz and Hodeidah, Second Phase.

This final evaluation report explores the results of of the 18-month second phase project in seven districts and in two regions of Yemen, in which the goal was to provide Yemeni children and their families with knowledge on safe health practices to reduce the impact of conflict in Yemen on children’s health. The project was implemented through the use of a multi-layer outreach campaign that used house visits, dialogue sessions with community leaders, mobile cinema, and mass media through radio broadcasting. Using community facilitators to moderate these events, the project aimed to raise communities’ awareness and encourage adoption of the key life-saving care and protective behaviors identified by UNICEF. The primary two objectives of this project were: for Yemeni parents and community leaders to have increased knowledge of life-saving care and protection strategies for their children and for Yemeni parents to believe that adopting the life-saving care and protection strategies is the right choice for their families.

The evaluation showed that overall, target communities responded positively to all components of the project. Data showed that the project actively supported national policies and strategies alongside Search and UNICEF’s country program efforts in maintaining the delivery of basic social services. In partnership with UNICEF, Search was successful in delivering immediate results in terms of awareness-raising, which led to impact in the short and medium terms. The community initiatives also served to gain trust and ensure the program’s credibility among Yemenis, parents, community members, and local leaders for more long-term interventions. 75,600 family members directly benefited from the program’s interventions and improved their knowledge on the lifesaving and health care practices related to health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and child protection.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged Children & Youth, Media Professionals, Radio, Yemen, Yemen Evaluations on July 13, 2018.