Quarterly Report #11: October-December 2016

The report describes the status of all tasking requests received under the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance – Learning, Evaluation and Research Activity (DRG-LER) task order. Key activities conducted this quarter include a workshop in South Africa with USAID and implementing partners to present IE findings, receive feedback, and discuss evaluation utilization. SI also prepared for endline data collection in Ghana, revised the Uganda endline report based on a dissemination workshop held during quarter four of Fiscal Year 2016, and established Evaluation and Learning Working Groups in Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia in preparation for regional youth and citizen security impact evaluation activities in those countries. The report highlights several impact evaluations conducted by SI, including the Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (G-SAM) evaluation, which explores the impact of two local governance interventions on the accountability of district officials. SI posted the USAID-approved midline report to the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) and coordinated with Principal Investigator Erik Wibbels to plan for endline data collection. In South Africa, SI conducted an impact evaluation of the Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs), one-stop facilities designed to provide clinical and psychological services to victims of rape and other sexual assaults. The evaluation team presented findings to USAID staff at a dissemination event at USAID/Washington and is making minor revisions to the endline report to incorporate partner feedback. The report also discusses the Mozambique Voter Education and Political Accountability evaluation, which has been completed, and the Uganda SMS for Better Service Provision evaluation, which is ongoing. SI is conducting an impact evaluation of U-Bridge, an SMS-based service request system that provides citizens and local government officials with a tool to submit and respond to service-delivery requests. In addition, the report highlights the Eastern and Southern Caribbean Citizen Security – Community, Family and Youth Resilience evaluation, which seeks to reduce risk factors and increase resilience factors related to youth crime, violence, and victimization in communities across several Caribbean countries. The evaluation team prepared a design memo outlining a regression discontinuity design with a potential randomized controlled trial design component in a later implementation year. The report also discusses the Eastern and Southern Caribbean Citizen Security – Juvenile justice evaluation, which is an impact evaluation of USAID and partner government efforts to reform the juvenile justice system in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) region. The evaluation team held inaugural meetings of the evaluation working group in the ESC region with USAID to discuss the evaluation design and implementation plan. Overall, the report provides an update on the activities and progress of the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance – Learning, Evaluation and Research Activity, including the impact evaluations conducted by SI in various countries.