The evaluation team forwards the following conclusions based on the evaluation findings discussed above:
The development interventions that MRP implemented are relevant to the needs of the IDPs and adaptive to the complex environment of the project areas. MRP’s application of USAID’s guidance on co-creation processes, adaptive management, and local partnerships throughout the implementation of the project contributed to the relevance and adaptability of the interventions to the needs of the beneficiaries.
MRP’s business recovery and community micro-grants alongside its business and workforce development trainings addressed the economic recovery needs of the beneficiaries. Moreover, the social cohesion grants and trainings the project provided are relevant in easing out possible tensions in the operating environment where project’s beneficiaries are situated.
The project has significantly contributed to the ongoing efforts to rehabilitate Marawi by effectively collaborating with other actors in the project areas and by mainstreaming its efforts and activities. Its adaptive community-based approaches contributed to improving self-reliance among IDPs and HCMs, narrowing social gaps at the community-level, and providing enabling conditions for IDPs’ local integration.
MRP cushioned beneficiaries’ self-reliance from the adverse effects of external challenges particularly from the economic challenges brought about by COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the ramifications of the pandemic, the business grants, community micro grants and trainings received by the beneficiaries allowed them to generate income by starting businesses and by engaging in gainful employment. Thus, MRP created a stimulus for the restoration of individual and community capacities to engage in economic activities. Moreover, the project’s interventions contributed to the reduction of gender and social gaps particularly those that were noted during the baseline.
MRP’s social cohesion grants and trainings fostered civic engagement and community improvement among the IDPs and HCMs. Consequently, it has contributed to the improvements in the beneficiaries’ perceptions of social relations, connectedness, and orientation towards the common good. In particular, it has improved the perceptions of the IDPs and HCMs regarding the existence of polarization in their communities and their level of public participation in civic activities.
MRP’s interventions and processes offered opportunities for IDPs’ to locally integrate as a form of durable solution to their displacement. While the durable solution preference of the IDPs appears to be a “fluid” subject matter at present, the project has contributed to the preference of those who chose to locally integrate through the business and employment opportunities it has provided to IDPs during the period of their displacement.
MRP has established concrete sustainability mechanisms that are essential in sustaining the outcomes of the project. These mechanisms are aligned to USAID’s Local Systems Framework. Guided by the tenets of the framework, MRP strengthened the buy-in of strategic stakeholders by harnessing partnerships between and among them, which resulted to institutional complementation. It laid the foundation for the CSGs to be qualified for future government support and linked them to potential markets of their products through the sustainability policies and strategies it implemented. MRP developed building blocks for CSGs to continue to operate, serve their members, even scale-up their livelihoods after the conclusion of MRP by empowering and formalizing them into cooperatives and CSOs. MRP also established social fabric for the harmonious involvement, participation and interaction of IDPs and HCMs as they scale up their ventures by being purposive in targeting both groups in the project’s activities and interventions.
The capacity and partnership-building mechanisms that MRP carried out provided the impetus that could sustain the social and economic outcomes of the project. Moreover, MRP’s contribution through the business and livelihood grants and the workforce development training will allow the IDPs and HCMs to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by the resumption of business and livelihood activities in the localities where they reside.
The strengthening, consolidation, and social network expansion of the CSGs transformed them into advocacy/sectoral organizations serving as the strong foundation for sustaining economic and social cohesion gains. With these mechanisms, it is likely that the outcomes of the projects would be sustained after MRP ends.
The evaluation team recommends the following points for consideration by USAID, government agencies, and other development actors:
This report is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Panagora Group and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or of the United States government.
February 13, 2023
February 22, 2023
Evaluation Team