Mid-Term Evaluation – RESTORING COASTAL LIVELIHOODS: BUILDING SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN MANGROVE ECOSYSTEMS IN SOUTH SULAWESI

Consultants: Henri Sitorus and Leonardo Marbun

Overview of The Project
The project of Restoring Coastal Livelihood (RCL): Building Social and Ecological Resilience in Mangrove Ecosystems in South Sulawesi, Indonesia is a project being implemented by Oxfam GB in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The project that is funded by CIDA with some contribution from Oxfam has duration of five years, starting from 2010 to 2015.

The overall goal of the project is to increase incomes and economic activity in vulnerable coastal communities in 4 District in South Sulawesi through the restoration and sustainable use of renewable natural resources, thereby increasing the local economy’s resilience to economic and climatic shocks. It aims to achieve equitable and sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable households in the area by using a multi-stakeholder, collaborative approach to sustainable use and management of coastal inter-tidal resources. A special focus is placed upon empowering women, securing their rights and improving their well-being.

Evaluation Objective
The mid-term evaluation objectives are as follows:

1. Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the process of the program implementation, achievements and benefit of the community
2. Identify and track project achievement against Project Monitoring Framework of the project based on the Project Implementation Plan
3. Identify any constraints and gaps of the project
4. Provide recommendations and innovative ideas for improvement of program implementation to achieve its goal and produce more sustainable results, based on the findings of the evaluation.

Methodology
Conducted during March 2013, this evaluation employed mix-methods (qualitative and quantitative) to gather primary data. Qualitative data collection employed includes focus group discussion, in-depth interview with key informants and observation. While quantitative survey was administered for 60 samples in the 4 selected villages.

Qualitative Data Collection

Specific methods were employed by the evaluation team, as follows:

• Focus group discussions (FGD)

FGDs were organized with project beneficiaries in the selected 4 villages representing 4 project sites district.

• Key informant interviews

In-depth interview with key informants were organized for:

1. Oxfam Eastern Indonesia (EI) staff and management
2. NGO partners
3. District Government
4. Village Government.

• Observation

This evaluation used observation to enrich the data and findings. In particular, the evaluation team observed coastal resources in the project sites, typical existing livelihoods, visible groups activities, project supported livelihood initiatives.

•  Document Review

The evaluation team conducted an extensive review of documents.

Quantitative Data Collection
While for quantitative, rapid survey was organized in which questionnaires were distributed to selected samples. Sample is selected from 4 villages since it would have not been feasible to include the entire beneficiaries, hence evidence from sample of 60 beneficiaries was considered adequate to reflect the mid-term period of the project. The 60 sample are distributed equally among selected random from list of beneficiaries in each selected villages.