Youth, education, and security final summative performance evaluation : at-risk youth initiative

This report is the final Summative Performance Evaluation for USAID/DR ARYI. The ARYI activity, implemented by Entrena between July 2012 and June 2022, supported the Government of the Dominican Republic (GODR) and civil society organizations to strengthen and/or develop systems to support at-risk youth between the ages of 11 and 24. The Evaluation addressed the following four main questions: (1) Has ARYI targeted the right beneficiaries? (2) Was ARYI’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) plan an effective tool for planning, implementation, and learning? (3) How effective has ARYI been in achieving its objectives? and (4) Are the ARYI activities and results likely to be sustained after the activity ends? The Evaluation Team applied a mixed-methods approach to answer the research questions, using a combination of desk review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and a quantitative survey. The evaluation found that ARYI targeted at-risk youth and no group was missing from the beneficiary pool. Furthermore, the ARYI MEL plan was regularly updated and included a clear log of changes made to the document during implementation, although some aspects of the plan could have been strengthened. Overall, stakeholders believed ARYI was successful in achieving its goals, and several programs remained operational in some form after the end of the funding period.