Final evaluation report : education for income generation project (EIG)

The evaluation has focused on four components namely, literacy (Component 1 or C1), vocational (Component 2 or C2), agricultural productivity and enterprises (Component 3 or C3) and scholarship to Dalit (Component 4 or C4 ). This final evaluation has focused on all four components and has been framed in order to answer the six key evaluation questions namely: (1) how well the EIG approach increased disadvantaged youth's access to employment and incomes?; (2) how have literacy, numeracy and entrepreneurship skills enhanced women's empowerment and increased agricultural productivity?; (3) how relevant was vocational education program to the short, middle, and long-term development needs of Nepal? (4) what were the key challenges to the project?; and (5) what are the prospects for sustainability of the end results produced and how effective was the program in building the capacity of Nepali organizations. The evaluation study shows that the EIG program approach was innovative; it linked basic literacy with life skills and agricultural entrepreneurship and productivity leading to employment and income generation. Vocational training program was unique as it entailed training providers to find employment for trainees unlike other general trainings. Furthermore EIG program leveraged resources (about $1.4 million) for infrastructure and capacity building activities. The program was integrated; it initially provided basic literacy and numeracy skills to disadvantaged farmers, arranged services and resources to increase agricultural productivity and promoted marketing of products for income generation. (Excerpt, modified)