Mid-term performance evaluation of USAID/Caucasus advancing national integration (ANI) project in Georgia

The project is being implemented by the United Nations Association - Georgia (UNAG) between September 2011 and January 2015. The evaluation of ANI was conducted during the period October-December 2013. The overall purpose of evaluating ANI is to "determine the effectiveness of the project and to provide recommendations on corrective actions and new directions for the remaining years of project implementation and beyond." The main goal is to review actual progress toward achieving key expected results and identify accomplishments, delays, challenges, and their impact on the project, as described in the Statement of Work (SOW) for the evaluation. An integral part of the evaluation mission was to answer a set of four pre-determined questions, which are detailed in the body of this report. The questions concern: (1) the way that youth understand tolerance and national unity and how ANI has affected levels of youth civic engagement and participation in society; (2) the efficacy of ANI"s collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as hosts of the youth centers (YCs) in various cities and agents for mobilization of youth; (3) ANI"s effect on the capacity and effectiveness of the Tolerance Center (TC), Council of Religions (CR) and Council of National Minorities (CNM); and (4) the effect on ANI of the change of government in 2012. The conclusions reached and suggested recommendations will be used by USAID/Caucasus to: (1) improve ongoing interventions in the area of national integration and tolerance; and (2) contribute to the design of USAID"s next generation of support in that sector. (Excerpt, modified)