Mid-term evaluation of the LRRD project in southern Chad

An LRRD project in southern Chad to reinforce the socio-economic integration of the local population and the refugees from the Central African Republic

This project was part of a funding agreement between the European Commission and the Chadian government, in connection with the European Development Fund (EDF).

It was designed after the Chadian government requested funding to tackle the transition between a camp that had been set up to provide emergency relief to the refugees from the Central African Republic and their integration into the socio-economic fabric of their host region due to the continued crisis in CAR and the observation that the refugees were providing for their own needs to a great extent. It therefore aimed to adopt an LRRD approach to limit the risk of conflicts between the refugee and host populations.

The mid-term evaluation of the southern Chad LRRD project thus had several objectives:

• Evaluating the agreement’s implementation methodology in relation to the specific characteristics of LRRD approaches and the procedures of the 9th EDF;
• Analysing the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the projects implemented and planned, and estimating the sustainability of current action, particularly in terms of actors’ recovery and management capacities;
• Assessing the visibility of the donor and evaluating the level of satisfaction in this programme among stakeholders and beneficiaries;
• Proposing possible improvements in order to ensure that the planned results are achieved;
• Proposing a possible orientation for the rest of the project.

A mid-term evaluation to adapt the project to changes in the context

The LRRD approach requires the capacity to adapt rapidly to changes in the context. This evaluation was therefore requested due to the desire of the actors involved to adapt the programme based on lessons learned from the first three years. Groupe URD made the most of this willingness to learn by choosing a participatory methodology: involving the staff in charge of the programme at every level of the collective discussions and the beneficiaries.

Sessions to present the findings were organized in Maro and in N’Djamena in order to share the lessons learned with the teams involved in the project but also with the other actors active around the camp.