Background, evaluation objectives and methodology
‘My Rights, My Voice’ (MRMV) is a multi-country programme implemented by Oxfam GB, Oxfam Novib, Oxfam Quebec and their partners with the aim of engaging marginalised children and youth in their rights to health and education services. The programme has been implemented in eight countries: Afghanistan, Georgia, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Tanzania and Vietnam. The programme started in 2012 and was initially planned to end after three years; it was, however, extended by 15 months in six of the eight initial countries1 and ended in March 2016, while some ‘global layer’ activities continued till August 2016. Sida funded the programme, including its extension phase, for a total budget of US$14,251,587, including a 10% contribution from Oxfam.
The overall goal of MRMV was to achieve sustainable changes in policies, practices and beliefs to meet the specific health and education needs and aspirations of children and youth, with a particular focus on the rights of girls and young women, and to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Central to this overall goal were four key programme outcomes that were dependent upon one another and included in all country programmes. They are related to: (1) increasing young people’s awareness of – and strengthening their voice in relation to – their health and education rights, needs and aspirations; (2) strengthening young people’s and their allies’ individual and collective skills, knowledge, confidence and resources to both organise and claim their rights in decision-making spaces; (3) ensuring that duty-bearers and those with influence engage directly with marginalised young people to improve access to and the quality of health and education; and (4) strengthening the capacity of Oxfam, partners and others to work on youth agency in country programmes, and the facilitation by Oxfam’s global campaigning force of youth claiming and accessing better health and education. To support these objectives, the programme also had a global-level component to drive and support learning and innovation, to communicate good practice, and to influence and partner with global actors to deliver better outcomes.
The main aim of this evaluation was to systematically analyse the actual outcomes of the programme and its underlying working mechanisms against the proposed outcomes and MRMV’s Theory of Change. An extensive analysis of the programme documents, interviews with key resource persons dealing with the global-level component of the programme, and field research in four countries have been the main components of the evaluation approach. For various reasons beyond the influence of the evaluation team and the client, the core evaluation team was only able to visit two countries (Vietnam and Mali). In two other countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan), a senior national evaluator conducted the fieldwork, with coaching from a distance by the core evaluation team. In line with the approach and philosophy of the programme, youth familiar with the programme were included in the field research as peer evaluators in three countries.
Several constraints challenged the smooth implementation of the evaluation process and the validity of its findings. These included: the low level of immersion of the core evaluation team in the complex realities of the country programmes; the shortage (in implementation reports) of outcome-related information; the complexity of the programme, with important changes occurring during implementation, which proved difficult to address comprehensively within the time and resources available for the evaluation; and severe restrictions to information-gathering activities in Afghanistan and (partially) in Vietnam.