In December 2020, in Dakar Senegal, IWORDS Consulting presented the mid-term evaluation results for the IOM project ‘Bridging together youth, diaspora, and local authorities for an integrated approach to promote employment and address irregular migration in The Gambia, Guinea Conakry, and Guinea Bissau (YDLA)’. This multi-country project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), sought to promote safe migration and create alternatives to the irregular migration of youth. The project targeted three West African countries: The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Guinea Conakry. 

The objective of the regional meeting was: a) to report on the progress made on the final activities of the YLDA project and discuss encountered barriers; b) to disseminate mid-term evaluation findings and recommendations; c) to agree on the following step in the SLED project (continuation of YLDA); and d) to conduct a workshop with IOM staff on monitoring and evaluation processes. The mission chief from Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and LHD RTS; the M&E Regional officer; the project coordinator based in Guinea Conakry; two focal project figures from Guinea Bissau and Gambia; and two government focal figures from each country (ministers of foreign affairs and youth and others) all attended the meeting.

YLDA PROJECT FINAL EVALUATION

The final evaluation was also conducted by IWORDS Consulting between December 2020 and February 2021. The evaluation covered the total period of the project’s implementation (33 months from April 2018 to December 2020). The evaluation was implemented based on conversations with the IOM Guinea representatives, the participation in the abovementioned regional meeting (inception visit), the information collected in the field through local consultants, and the review of the information and documents available.  

The general objective of the final evaluation was to analyse the compliance degree of the goals established for YDLA, according to the information contained in the logical framework and based on OECD criteria. Additional objectives were to analyse the implementation processes and areas of improvement, measure the impact of the programme from the beneficiaries’ perspective, and analyse the strategy adopted for its implementation in order to extract lessons for the design process of this or other complementary initiatives. As a result, the consulting firm was able to do the following: 

1. a) determine the effectiveness of programmatic activities and alternative implementation approaches from the beneficiaries’ perspective if there are any perceived shifts in knowledge, attitude, and behaviour related to the project, as well as identify the strengths and weaknesses in the development and implementation that affected (positively or negatively) the project’s performance;
2. b) review the efficiency in conducting processes in the project with the resources available;
3. c) evaluate the extent to which the programme’s cross-cutting themes were addressed and integrated; 
4. d) examine the potential sustainability of established mechanisms and activities; 
5. e) identified the extent to which the intervention has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects, from the beneficiaries perspective; and
6. f) make suggestions and recommendations for IOM and the donor. 

MEAL PROCESS IN SLED PROJECT

As a result of the work and progress made with the client, IOM commissioned IWORDS Consulting to design and conduct the monitoring and learning activities for the initiative for the March–November 2021 period. In this sense, IWORDS is currently supporting the monitoring and evaluation process of the SLED project with Gambia, Guinea C., and Guinea Bissau country offices. The SLED project is the continuation of YLDA; it has three main components and a monitoring framework made up of a total of 19 indicators at the Input, Output, and Outcome level, plus three indicators at impact level to be considered for the final evaluation of SLED. The monitoring process will cultivate open communication that encourages discussions on areas of improvement and lessons learned. The IWORDS team encourages each Country Office (CO) to activate collective learning and enhance learning through direct communication and collaboration between country offices.