Evaluation of Sida Support to AWEN 2019-2022 (Call-off)

Albanian Women Empowerment Network (AWEN) is a network of 10 women rights organisations working all over Albania, which receives project support from Sida.

The objective of this evaluation was to evaluate the intervention “Protection and promotion of women rights in Albania” implemented by AWEN 2019-2022. 

The expected impact of the intervention is: “Women human rights are increasingly protected, promoted and respected in Albania” and has three outputs:

·       Output 1: Increasingly protected and promoted women´s human rights through improvement and implementation of policies and legal framework at national and local level.

·       Output 2: AWEN and members have strengthened institutional/ organizational capacities by becoming more democratic, accountable, independent, sustainable, and capable to promote and protect women human rights.

·       Output 3: Vulnerable groups of girls and women, especially gender-based violence and trafficking survivors are protected and empowered.

The purpose of the evaluation was to formulate recommendations and to provide Sida with an input to upcoming discussions concerning the support to women rights organisations during the new Strategy.

The primary intended user of the evaluation was the Embassy of Sweden in Tirana.

The evaluation questions were:

Relevance:

·       How has the programme addressed the relevant needs in the country? Have new, more relevant needs emerged and how the intervention has addressed them? 

·       How relevant is the programme to target groups? How relevant the intervention has been to addressing needs and opportunities for women rights defenders in Albania?

·       To what extent the initiative contribute to shaping women’s rights priorities in Albania?

Coherence: How well does the intervention fit?

·       How has the intervention’s design and implementation considered the work of other actors working in the same area? How well the intervention fits with other Sida funded interventions addressing similar challenges including interventions implemented by AWEN and members?

·       To what extent have AWEN have coordinated effectively and created synergies in their work?

Effectiveness:

·       To what extent has the intervention achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any differential results across groups?

·       Have the M&E system delivered robust and useful information that could be used to assess progress towards outcomes and contribute to learning?

Efficiency:

·       To what extent has the intervention delivered, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way?

·       Is the AWEN management team adequately resourced to enable the achievement of desired outcomes?

Impact:

To what extent has the project or programme generated, or is expected to generate, significant positive or negative, intended, or unintended, high-level effects?

Sustainability:

To what extent will the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue?  

Other questions:

·       Has the project contributed to poverty reduction? Which dimensions of poverty were addressed by the project?

·       Has the project been implemented in a transparent fashion? Are there accountability mechanisms in the project? How do they work at the level of member organisations of AWEN?