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21. August 2019 - News

Evaluation in DR Congo: Partner organisation PAIF to improve women’s aid provision

An active commitment to providing integrated support has helped the Congolese women's rights organisation PAIF enhance the well-being of women and girls in eastern DR Congo who survived violence. In order to ensure long-term impacts, the final evaluation of the joint project with medica mondiale recommends a comprehensive expansion of the changes that have already been achieved.

Preventing stigmatisation, enabling advice, promoting vocational training: these are some of the ways PAIF supports many young women and girls in the conflict-ridden provinces of Kivu, contributing to their stability and opening up important prospects for them. If these impacts are to be sustained in the long term, PAIF needs to confront several challenges.

Women in DR Congo: Self-help capacity building and violence prevention

The aim of the recently completed project was to enhance the self-help capacities as well as the social integration and participation of survivors by providing integrated counselling along with training and income-generating opportunities. At the same time, authorities and communities in Northern and Southern Kivu were the targets of awareness-raising work and joint initiatives in order to persuade them to help prevent violence.

Countering sexualised violence and preventing stigmatisation

According to the external evaluators, most of the activities had been conducted in a satisfactory manner, although some of the desired impacts were less than expected. For example, in the area of advocacy, PAIF was able to implement a Code of Conduct to prevent sexualised and gender-based violence (SGBV) in schools, but so far it has not been possible to establish this across the whole project region. Targeted measures in communities succeeded in raising awareness of SGBV, but there is still a need to improve related activities, such as those intended to reduce or prevent stigmatisation or to support the youth clubs. Specialist training courses succeeded in increasing the knowledge of the psychosocial counsellors. However, their work is still negatively influenced by inappropriate working conditions and a high workload.

Evaluation: Continuity is important for effective long-term support for PAIF

In order to improve future impacts, the recommendations of the external evaluators for PAIF include the development of clear strategies for fields such as advocacy, communication and finances. These strategies should help PAIF carry out the activities in more targeted and evidence-based ways. Impact orientation should be stronger in the planning for all areas of intervention, supported and assessed by functioning instruments and documentation processes. Furthermore, PAIF should consider taking more advantage of guidance from experts, increasing its skill exchange with partners and other relevant stakeholders. medica mondiale, for its part, needs to ensure continuity in its project support in order to help PAIF achieve long-term, sustainable success.
 

Related Topics

Evaluation PAIF DR Congo 2015-2019 (german)

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