Impact Evaluation of the Integrated Humanitarian Assistance Project that aiming to Reduce the Secondary Impacts of COVID-19 on the Most Vulnerable Populations in South and East Darfur

The evaluation intended to assess integrated WASH, health, nutrition, and multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) programs. The evaluation conducted to answer questions related to quality and relevance of the project design, its activities and objectives in addressing the priority issues. This is in addition to assessment of project efficiency and to what extent the project resources have been used economically and in a timely manner. Moreover, the evaluation assessed the effectiveness and major achievements of the project to date. The evaluation also assessed the project impact and to what extent the project contributed to provision of sustainable, adequate, and lifesaving WASH, Health and Nutrition services to the targeted communities. This beside Identification of which positive outcomes that likely to continue after the project ends in addition to assessment of bottlenecks, opportunities and lessons learned to inform future planning.

Based on the desk review of available data, the evaluation was deploying different approaches to ensure rich data and triangulation of findings. These approaches were combining qualitative and quantitative methods to maximize validity and reliability. The main methods of data collection used were interviews with the primary stakeholders, observation, asking questions, review of documents and transect walking at sites. Different tools for data collections were used as well that included focus group discussions with different target groups, and observation check list, Key Informant Interview, questionnaire, asking open and closed questions with beneficiaries at water points and at health and nutrition centers.

The project is in line with national and State WASH plans. It was also found that, the project followed and complied with SMoH specifications and guidelines. The comprehensive community consultation indicated that all project activities, technology adopted, and outputs are quite relevant to the target communities and their actual needs and also appropriate for the selected areas. Generally, the evaluation team concluded that, the planned activities were completed with same allocated initial budget. Despite difficulties and challenges in the SLA areas and at sites located in territories between the government and SLA areas the evaluation team believes that, the project is efficient in terms of implementation of the planned activities and management of resources.