Our Findings
Although a program can influence the achievement of outcomes, it cannot control them because the ultimate responsibility rests with the people affected. It is a constant and continuous relationship between the people involved in project and beneficiaries of project. Change in this context cannot be controlled but influenced.
We have noticed a significant transformation in the behavior of the participants involved in the project. This shift in behavior, although not quantifiable, is indicative of the positive impact that our project has had on the participants. We are keen to further analyze the situation and determine the reasons behind the observed changes.
KEYS INDICATORS OF CHANGE
- Candidates and participants were women, accounting for 68% of the total.
- The significant representation of women reflects their interest and commitment to enhancing their entrepreneurial skills. This gender diversity among the candidates is a positive indication of women's inclusion in the business field and economic development. It highlights their willingness to seize growth opportunities and actively contribute to the local economy.
- Candidates were extremely happy to obtain a certificate of completion for training received they had no reading or writing knowledge this was their first diploma.
- 30% of men presents and accounted for were husband or companion who were sent to attend training because they believed that women they would not be taken seriously, being a majority women team was very surprising to them.
- 100% of the candidates mentioned the lack of funding to expand their businesses They consider the interest rates offered by banks to be too high, which is not advantageous for them. They have shown interest in various financial and gender-oriented challenges topics and would like to continue attending training sessions.
- 10% of candidates have expressed their interest in seeking the services of business advisors, particularly in the areas of Financial support, Regular coaching, Accounting assistance, and Business legalization.
Outcome Mapping
Changes in the well-being of intended beneficiaries can occur long after a program ends; additionally, they may not take the form anticipated, and they may be influenced by the actions of stakeholders who remain beyond the reach of the program. Social development in rural areas is highly complex, and changes are not unidirectional. Most outcomes interact with each other, and the causes of change usually cannot be isolated. It is, therefore, very difficult to attribute change to specific program components and to compare results across different initiatives.
To help us our team uses outcome mapping and behavior monitoring methodologies, among other traditional impact measurement tools.
The team starts by looking at how the local economy as a whole and families individually, benefited from the investment in a local business facilitated by program and then traces those benefits through the system measuring the improvement of their quality of life to see how the investment impacted community members. Our team probes further to see the benefits accrued to participants and their immediate surroundings.
The team uses this information to answer the following questions:
• What worked well? - What could have been done differently to create more impact?
• Did the investment facilitate positive or negative changes in terms of participation by women?
• Is there a need for improvement in our process? - What can we do better?
A key element of our evaluation process is to look at results as changes in behavior. We ask these questions:
• Are the participants better prepared to face an event?
• Are the participants able to save for future spending ?
• Did they apply techniques and strategies learned ?
• How is the relationship with the participants and their officer ?
• Are the participants more confident regarding the outcome of their business venture?
• Are they able to effectively project and anticipate threats?
• How are their peers reacting to their behavior change?
• Do they have a positive influence of their surroundings?
In our impact measurement we aim to express results and impact with behavior monitoring. We expect to see change in both ways: first change in behavior of beneficiaries and bounce back to programme, project, implementers. Thus, allowing constant feedback and adjustment of approach. With this approach, rather than looking to assign credit rating for achieving a particular milestone, the emphasis is on monitoring and reporting on changes over time in the actions of the participants involved.
As a team, we focus on how we are interrelating with community members involved, towards a common goal and not only for the final achievement of that goal. “We recognize that we may not be able to control change, but we can certainly influence participants evolution and progress on the way to a common vision.”
This process is continuous and we will update our community of partners and donors as we continiously gather evidence from our site visits.