GOAL’s Irish Aid Programme Fund Final Evaluation

GOAL received framework funding from IrishAid under the Programme Fund (IAPF) from 2017 to 2021. With IAPF funding, GOAL aims “to work with the most vulnerable communities to ensure sustainable early response in crisis, and lasting solutions to poverty and vulnerability.”  

The IAPF program aims to achieve six goals: (1) people survive crises; (2) people have resilient health, (3) people have food and nutrition security, (4) people have sustainable livelihoods, and (5) strengthening public commitment and leadership to a fairer and more sustainable world, and (6) strengthening GOAL’s own organisational capacity. It operates in 10 countries – Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Niger, Iraq and Haiti – all of which can be considered fragile. In terms of approach, GOAL focuses on four primary methodologies: (1) facilitating social and behaviour change, (2) increasing resilience, (3) influencing systems and (4) fostering inclusion.

This evaluation was commissioned to assess GOAL’s performance and delivery of the IAPF according to selected OECD DAC evaluation criteria. It will help GOAL to document lessons learned and best practices generated through the programme and inform the design of a new programme. The overall objectives of the evaluation are to articulate and tests GOAL’s Theory of Change and associated assumptions, and to assess relevance, coherence, effectiveness and sustainability. It examines three specific questions: the degree to which the programme is responding to the needs of participants, evidence that results are being achieved and the extent to which GOAL is building the capacity of partners.