Evaluation Report: Small Project Assistance (SPA) Performance Evaluation in Ukraine

The program focuses on developing local community groups, including local associations, local government entities, schools, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Volunteers work with NGOs to improve services to surrounding communities, and participants learn key development skills, including program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, integrated planning and service delivery. The SPA projects address a variety of community-identified priorities, including education, social welfare, tourism and museum development, youth and economic development, English language acquisition, and access to new communication technology and equipment. The projects were implemented by PCVs together with non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurial associations, schools, local citizen initiatives, libraries, vocational schools, condominiums, youth centers, social service centers for youth, and universities. The approved projects focused on all citizens and museum workers, community, artists, children and young people with disabilities, foster parents, families with many children, families in crisis, tourists, disabled women, unemployed, single mothers, farmers, teachers, former prisoners on probation, tour operators, pensioners, representatives of mass media, business, NGOs, representatives of public councils. The evaluation results show that the SPA projects were designed and implemented with significant community involvement. The majority of local organizations were engaged in all stages of the proposal development, and PCV involvement peaked at the writing the proposal and proposal review stages. During the project management phase, PC volunteers were primarily engaged in monitoring project progress, operational planning and procuring materials, supplies and equipment. Local organizations were actively engaged in all key stages of the SPA projects' management/implementation. The SPA projects achieved their expected results, with 63% of respondents believing that their projects' objectives were fully achieved and 28% claiming projects' objectives were achieved to an average extent. The factors that hindered the achievement of outlined objectives included bad project design and incorrect approaches to project implementation, low participant engagement, scarce resources (time, human and financial), incorrect partner selection and other external factors. As a result of the SPA projects' implementation, counterparts/partners and beneficiaries/participants gained, mastered, and now use a range of professional skills, including project and human resource management, project design and planning, generating ideas and conducting needs assessments, teamwork and activity planning, budgeting and financial management, report writing and monitoring. The majority of local organizations improved their capacities and have since designed and implemented new projects, developed new partnerships and activities, worked to solve community issues, and spread their experience. 98% of counterparts/partners verified that the local organization that served as their local PCV's partner organization still exists and that there is a continued need for activities like those provided by SPA projects. 71% of respondents reported that the SPA projects had a positive impact on their community, and 64% reported that the projects had a positive impact on their personal lives. The evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SPA program in supporting local community development in Ukraine.