Evaluation of the Naseej project to stop gender-based violence in Iraq, Yemen, and Palestine

Title NASEEJ Connecting voices and action to end violence against women and girls in the MENA region

Location Yemen, Iraq, Palestina

Duration 2019-2023

Project leader Oxfam Italia, Oxfam GB

Partners  Oxfam Novib and the Oxfam International MENA Regional Platform, Gender Development Research and Studies Center – GDRSC– IWS, Associated partners: KAFA,  MenEngage Alliance.

Funding co-financed by the European Commission

 

Context

Naseej is a four-year multi-country EU funded project, implemented in Yemen, Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which runs between March 2019 and February 2023. Main project goal is to contribute to more gender-equitable societies in which women and girls live free from violence across all spheres of life.

More specifically, the project pursues the following intermediary outcomes:

  • Capacity Strengthening of Women Rights Organizations and Civil Society Organizations to deliver prevention, response and advocacy on ending SGBV
  • Awareness on SGBV with men and women, boys and girls
  • Lobbying and advocacy to influence national and international policy and decision-makers on SGBV and legislation and international humanitarian law (IHL) obligations.

Naseej project applies a feminist approach, where changes must take place at multiple levels: individual (capacities, sense of agency, agency), community (micro-transformative), systemic and organisational (macro-transformative). Moreover, it applies a multi-country approach, so to increase effectiveness, impact and efficiency in the long-run, while deeply engaging local organizations. This whole structure contributes to reinforce an Enabling Ecosystem for Sex and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) prevention and response in the target areas which are:

  • Governorates of Diyala and Anbar (Iraq)
  • Aden, Taiz, Laj (Yemen)
  • West Bank/Area C, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip (Occupied Palestinian Territory)

 

General Objective

To prove the effectiveness and the impact of the project actions in achieving the foreseen goals and therefore to contribute to the reduction of SGBV, Oxfam appointed the M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit to carry out a thorough project evaluation as well as the project Endline data analysis.

 

Our Contribution

The final project evaluation focuses on the three implementation countries (OPT, Yemen and Iraq) and takes into consideration the whole project implementation period, from March 2019 to February 2023. The study returns a comprehensive analysis of the project achievements with the aim of accountability and learning, by addressing the OECD DAC criteria (2019) of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact (qualitative).

The evaluation applies the following approaches:

  • Participatory feminist research approach in tools’ design and administration; participatory definition of gender, inclusion, intersectionality and empowerment has been the first operational step of the evaluation, people-centred focus, inclusive and intersectional evaluation design (gender, ethnicity, age, disability). Participation of relevant stakeholders was ensured at all stages of evaluation, from evaluation design to data collection tools creation and administration, and outcomes validation.
  • Evaluating Human Development approach, based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, EHD uses a set of multidimensional indicators related to the Sustainable Human Development paradigm co-defined in a participatory way by involving evaluators, partners, men and women targeted by the intervention

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Read more on our M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit