THE NECESSITY TO CONSIDER IMPACT EVALUATION METHODS TO MEASURE A PROGRAM’S EFFECTIVENESS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH AND DATA IN CHARITY WORK

An Article from Passport For Education

Passport For Education (PFE) is a French charity that strives to promote the access and quality of education in India through the provision of material and financial support. We ensure that our projects are impactful by conducting thorough research and evaluation work to back them up.

Passport For Education was created by Diane Audras in 2017. During her previous charity work in international NGOs, she participated in fundraising events but was concerned about not being able to witness the impact of her actions. She therefore decided to create a charity led by young students interested in social equality. The first project was conducted in 2018 in partnership with the Lotus Flower Trust (LFT) in Ladakh, India. After a successful fundraising on a crowdfunding platform, the charity was able to distribute stationery and contribute to school infrastructure.

In Autumn 2019, the executive team reconstructed the charity and organised its expansion.

In the midst of the ambient social context, we wondered about our legitimacy to intervene in India. The logical first step was to redefine our missions. As we brainstormed about our actions, we came across literature on white saviourism and the negative impact that voluntourism had over local communities. It became clear that we had to do more to construct projects with long-lasting impacts, based on actual needs. We started researching impact evaluation and project development. We met with a charity helping kids in Burkina Faso “Les amis du Baobab”. Its President emphasised the importance to involve and consider the communities we are helping, and to elaborate long-lasting projects with positive impacts.

Due to COVID, we were unable to organise a project in person in 2020. This unfortunate timing gave us time to reflect on our charity and how we wanted to expand it. The first step was to undertake the J-PAL “Evaluating Social Programs” course. Learning from the course and our research, multiple teams were created such as a Sponsors team. It appeared clear that Research and Data had to be central when elaborating, completing and evaluating our projects. Hence we also created a Research and Data team whose role is to conduct literature research, data gathering and analysis. The team works closely with the project manager when developing a program.

The necessity of implementing Research and Data and Impact Evaluation tools

Facing the above-mentioned social challenges when constructing projects, we figured that conducting research and analysing our impact was paramount. By communicating directly with the communities to understand their needs and gather data, researching the literature surrounding our actions and evaluating the impact of our actions pre and post-completion, we are able to ensure respect of the communities and have a true impact. It became unconscionable for us to impose our own ideas to communities in which we do not live in. By communicating with the school we are helping, we also actively involve them in the projects, giving them both a sense of responsibility and pride. We understood that they could not be set aside as they know their environments best. By involving them, we make sure that they are part of the solution.

During the pre-completion of the project, data is important as it allows to better target the issues faced by schools and then allocate our efforts and money more efficiently. Data analysis allows us to tailor our projects. Post-completion, Data is paramount to analyse the impact that our project had. This Data is also useful when planning future projects. It allows us to improve our programs consistently.

Building a Research and Data Team

Building a Research and Data team was a logical pre-requisite to conducting impact evaluation. Hence, we made sure that the team was at the centre of project development and working closely with the project manager.

The team was created at the same time as the other new teams, which made its integration within our structure seamless. By creating a Research and Data team and allocating it sufficient manpower, we made sure that it had the capacities to be an impulsion group within the charity. The aim was to allow this team to radiate and be fully integrated to the other teams. In that way, Research and Data is at the centre of every action. The team is able to intervene efficiently on any matter.

After a few months establishing the team with the head of Research and Data and creating basic impact evaluation frameworks, we noticed that it had become central to the project elaboration process. The project manager and the team members are in constant communication and work in synergy.

When communicating with the Montessori School in India, we noticed the importance of having Indian team-members. We decided to tailor our recruitment process to spot talents very familiar with the Indian context and language. We consequently hired an Indian project manager. Having a team member that speaks Hindi and knows the Indian culture has been invaluable. As a result, we got to communicate better with our local contacts and understand better the country we are intervening in. Strong from this experience, we are currently recruiting more Hindi speakers and team members with India-knowledge.

Elaborating Projects

Over the past year, our team has grown exponentially. By including Research and Data and impact evaluation in our organisation, we are able to gain legitimacy in our actions. We can proudly say that we became partners to the communities we are helping as we understand that their participation is paramount to the effectiveness of our programs.

Currently preparing a bursaries program for the girls of the Montessori school, we are gathering Data such as fees, attendance, costs, drop-out rates to better understand the environment in which we are intervening. With impact evaluation and Research and Data comes humility. This humility pushes us today to do our best for the communities that we aim to help.

Global Changemakers has an unshakeable mission of supporting youth to create positive change in their communities. A global pioneer in supporting youth-led development, they have trained youth from over 180 countries and provided grants to over 360 youth-led projects, which have had a combined impact on over 6,2 million people. www.global-changemakers.net

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or Global Changemakers.