The report provides evidence-based recommendations for UNHCR and its partners on the ground to continually improve the implementation and monitoring of the Graduation Programme and thereby increase its impact.
The mid-term evaluation triangulates multi-source field data with data provided by the partner monitoring reports. It analyzes this data to determine what components of the programme have and haven’t worked and why, with focus on the perspective of refugee program participants. In both Cairo and Alexandria, the Evaluation Team conducted a quantitative survey and focus group discussions for 300+ program participants in addition to 120+ eligible non-participants, who served as the comparison group. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with partners, trainers, employers and other project stakeholders. The representativeness of the sample as well as the comparability between participants and non-participants were confirmed by comparing the basic demographic characteristics of participants and non-participants surveyed to those described in partner reports. With a few exceptions, the findings of the mid-term evaluation field survey were generally also consistent with partner monitoring reports further validating the findings.
The Mid-Term Evaluation has shown that current Programme interventions have realized positive impacts to some extent in areas such as skills development, confidence building and communication abilities, employment generation, business development and income levels. These impacts are promising but primarily limited to the short-term; the Programme still lacks fundamental activities necessary for sustainable medium to long-term impact. It is crucial that the Project Team actively contribute to the development of appropriate and durable assets including strong networks, savings and marketable skills that will remain accessible to participants once they “graduate” from the Programme and/or funding runs out. The Mid-Term Evaluation suggests that the Graduation Programme can and should be used a tool to respond in a holistic manner to the specific protection risks faced by refugees in Egypt. To date, the Programme has functioned quite separately from protection, despite the fact that protection and livelihoods are fully interdependent. Though of the gaps identified during the first half of project implementation in Cairo and Alex, generally the graduation program is appreciated and needed for almost all refugees interviewed and surveyed to improve their pathways to better lives. All what is needed to capitalize on successes and efforts which has been put in place to further improve and scale up such critical and most needed support.
Photo Credit: Beit Al Karma Consulting
Access publication here: https://trickleup.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2016_UNHCR_Egypt_Midline_Evaluation.pdf