Evaluering
Final Evaluation of Inclusion of Dalit and People with Disability Project
Background The Inclusion projects was designed to promote integration of the socially marginalized population of Dalit and disabled people in selected areas of Nepal into mainstream development especially in promoting their enjoyment of rights to health, education and economic independence through skills development. Plan Nepal implemented this project under the first Framework Agreement between Plan Norway and NORAD, since 2005 and covered geographic areas of Sunsari and Morang districts. The project is a result of community consultations and development plans in line with increased Human Rights awareness since the government of Nepal restoration of democracy in 1990.The overarching long-term development goal of this project is to build capacities of families, community organizations, local governance structures and other duty bearers to ensure:• Differently abled population enjoys their rights to basic services and realizes their full potential.• Rights to education of Dalit (socially marginalized) and differently-abled population and enhance their access to education.• Reduce socio-economic vulnerability of Dalit and differently abled population by improving their vocational skills in areas of their comparative advantage and according to available market opportunities. Purpose/objective The objective of the study is to assess the extent that the project has been able to achieve the stated goals and objectives and the impact it has had on the targeted socially excluded groups of the Dalit and differently 'abled' persons. The evaluation also assessed the overall project inception in terms of relevance of the set objectives and strategy to achieve the desirable results of social change and empowerment of the marginalized groups targeted in this project. Methodology The assessment methodology applied both quantitative and qualitative techniques structured questionnaires, Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and case study(s). A validation workshop was also conducted prior to concluding the evaluation report. Review of relevant literature documents was done at the beginning of the evaluation assignment. Human Rights and Social Inclusion Frameworks were used to guide the evaluation as benchmark for assessment. Both core and non core Plan program areas were targeted in this study. Field testing and review of questionnaire was done and necessary adjustments were made prior to full administration of the structured interviews. The evaluation team was diverse culturally, professionally and by gender. Key findings General findings1. The Project was not implemented in line with principles and strategies for social inclusion. Although the Country Strategic Plan is rights'based and is quite clear on the term social inclusion and its implication, the evaluation brought out the need for internalisation of concepts and practices both for staff and partners.2. The situation of the Madhesi Dalits in the core areas of Plan operations was still worse off than the rest including the Dalits from other settlements in spite of continued Plan interventions in the Madhesi Dalits areas, which is indicative of the deep rootedness of the social exclusion of the Madhesi Dalits.3. The evaluation revealed that there was limited application of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and was rather more inclined toward service delivery than engagement of duty bearers in accordance with the constitutional provisions in line with International Human Rights Instruments.4. The evaluation also stated that, at the time of the beginning of the project, the term inclusion was still taking shape in Nepal. The project can thus be regarded as one of the pioneer projects of Nepal to start working directly with dalits and disabled.5. The Medium Term Evaluation of this project failed to apply the HRBA and Social Inclusion conceptual frameworks in its assessment and conclusions.6. The final evaluation states that one of the important areas of the programme intervention was capacity enhancement of partner organisations belonging to excluded groups, such as DNF and Janjajyoti Samaj of Dalits and NFDN of Disabled. These three organisations reported partnership with Plan Nepal has increased their organisational capacity in managing their own organisation as well as project.7. The regional level conference/workshop on "Present status of the Dalit and disable in social inclusion" became a landmark event. The outcome was the signature of the "Biratnagar declaration 2007" for social inclusion of dalit and disabled people reiterating their commitments. A ten points declaration paper highlighted the need for effective implementation of acts and regulation that were declared by the state and political parties in the past.Dalits8. More specifically the project produced the following positive results….i.e. a journalist who is now working for BBC Nepali Service in Kathmandu and also a Computer Engineer. More others of the excluded and disadvantage from the Dalits and differently abled are on their way to a more successful career in the future. The project also successfully assisted in supporting the establishment of Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children regional office in Itahari.9. The project failed to influence positive structural changes at institutional levels, which is pivotal to the success of an intervention of this nature.10. Plan Nepal's Strategic Plan clearly articulates the Rights Based Approach but this understanding is lost as it lacks clear strategy(s) for its operationalization as evident in the Inclusion project under review. Most of the Plan Nepal partners in this project were not conversant of the Rights based and social inclusion concepts.11. While the project attempted to empower the socially excluded e.g. by engaging them in income generating activities for instance, the project failed to mobilize the socially excluded groups into a force that can bring authorities to account and the budget allocations are too small in comparison to population size. The majority of the Dalits are also not aware of the available budget allocations which weaken their bargaining capacity.12. The overall health situation of the population in Plan working area did not show any improvement in comparison to non Plan working areas. This is mainly because the project did not work directly to improve the overall health situation through preventive and curative health, and also that the project has concentrating on the southern part of both districts, where the concentration of Madeshi dalits is higher. In the norther part of the district not covered by the project, the concentration of hill dalits is higher who have higher awareness in health, therefore, their situation seems better despite non-intervention.13. Plan Nepal has supported significant number of students to access scholarships including scholarship support for some students attending higher education. Most of the targets of scholarships have been achieved and in many ways gone beyond what was planned. However, is still of concern that 20% of school age children are still out of school.14. The project has managed to provide skills training to expand income earning opportunities for the targeted households in the Plan areas, though reach is still limited. Driving is still a popular skill preferred amongst the communities. The evaluation revealed that the programme outreach was low (only 14% of the dalits), but good to note was that 65% of the trainees now are either self employed or earning from the skills they acquired.15. There has been no specific program for creating awareness on Human Rights by Plan and partners amongst the targeted population, hence the reason why most of the evaluation respondents displayed no knowledge or awareness of the various human rights declarations and related legal provisions.16. Focus group discussions with children revealed that children involved in children's clubs are more aware of their rights.People with Disabilities17. Majority of families with person(s) with disability(s) have been exposed to agencies that provide rehabilitation assistance. However, a health and sanitation practice in these households still has a lot to be desired. For instance, 23% of households with persons with disability still don't have access to toilets, and even though more than 50% of the family of disabled have toilet in their homes, these are not disable friendly, and over 60% dispose off household waste in streets.18. 82% of respondents in households with persons(s) with disability impressions on their health situation over the past three years were that it had improved a factor which the evaluation team attributes to an indication of improved access to health services and incomes which increased their capacity to pay for medical expenses.19. The habit of taking preventive measures against disability is good among the respondents. Awareness about immunization is quite high among the respondents and 67,3% use iodized salt. However, a significant proportion of the households with people with disability don't have the practice of taking preventive measures. For instance, 1/3 of the respondents with female members that were pregnant at time of interview never completed the required vaccinations against tetanus still more over 15% of households with children under five children in families with a disabled person, never took their children for immunization.20. 88% of disabled are receiving assistance in form of medicine, physiotherapy and surgery. Majority of these received assistance from the CBR (Community Based rehabilitation), who is the key partner of Plan Nepal in this program. Nevertheless, there are still others who have not received devices for supporting / aiding their everyday lives.21. The evaluation observed that in general households with person(s) with disability(s) indicate that they experienced support and encouraging attitude from other members of their community(s) even though the majority (72%) feel society is indifferent toward them.22. The project attempted to provide skills training to some of the disabled persons some of who managed to get self employment. However, access to credit has been challenging for the disabled persons.23. Plan and partner facilitation of a civic awareness and human rights workshop for implementation of policies and constitutional provisions to uplift lives of persons with disabilities is commended. However, the evaluation team observe that opportunity of participating in events and taking membership in institutions dealing with issues of disabled persons is still very low and majority of the persons with disability(s) are still unaware of the various policy and legal provisions for protecting and promoting the rights of people with disabilities.24. Plan is doing commendable job in supporting the rehabilitation and education of disabled persons however little emphasis is made on encouraging local resource mobilization as a component of its phase out strategy. Recommendations 1. Plan Nepal should internalize and translate the intentions of its CSP into its program operations if it is to achieve the desired rights based development outcomes .2. There is need for Plan should to devise and implement an integrated health strategy both for preventive and curative health, in collaboration with suitable strategic partners in this sector.3. Plan Nepal should continue its scholarship support to reach more children and also ensure it covers both formal and non formal education.4. Since driving has proved to be the most effective skill transferred to the targeted communities as compared to other skills, there is need to conduct a market assessment to widen the scope of viable skills options and also there is need to increase reach overall.5. There is need to build capacity of partners in this project on human rights instruments and create the necessary links between victims, advocates and those with responsibility to protect those rights.6. There is a need of incorporating the component of child rights at all levels and promote the child clubs.7. Incorporate awareness on health and sanitation component for households with persons with disability in next phase of the project and encourage families to make the facilities friendly for use by disabled persons.8. The project needs to increase awareness intervention about disability prevention in the next phase.9. The next phase of the project should consider reaching the disabled persons who are still in need of support devices.10. The project should have a systematic approach to addressing the economic empowerment of people with disabilities, integrating both skills training and enterprise development.11. In the next phase of the inclusion project, it should include a package for civic and political rights for people with disabilities and strategies for their mainstreaming.12. Component of Rights of people with disabilities and duty of the duty bearers should be discussed extensively and strategies be made and implemented in the next phase of the programme. Comments from the organisation 1. The inconsistent use of language by the evaluation team in referring to persons with disabilities has been noted as something to be improved upon in future evaluations. Some minor language adjustments were done e.g. In some case where original report read disable friendly it has been edited to read disabled person friendly, and where 'disables' was used to refer to persons with disabilities this has also been adjusted to give the statements more clarity2. While social exclusion and Human rights framework have been presented as separate conceptual frameworks, we recognize that social exclusion finds its location with the Human Rights Framework as a subject that needs addressing mainly in line with the Human Rights principles of equality and non discrimination and participation.3. The evaluation highlighted gaps in terms of human rights based programming, and helped to readjust and rights-base the next phase of the project. The revised project implementation plan shows great improvements in this respect