“It was a real fruitful learning experience for us and I would not hesitate recommending Just Cause to any charities who are looking to strengthen their impact assessment processes”
Carol Liew, Former Head International Programmes, Mercy Relief
CASE STUDY: MERCY RELIEF
Just Cause worked with Mercy Relief to review the impact of a disaster relief programme in Palawan, Philippines.
We developed a clear set of evaluation criteria, based on the widely used OECD DAC evaluation guidelines for development assistance, focusing on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the programme. Our assessment was based on focus group discussions and interviews with members of the community, staff interviews and a review of project documents.
We produced a report summarising our findings and providing practical recommendations on how to further improve the programme.
Following this report, Mercy Relief has made improvements to the way it selects and manages projects, including:
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developing a new in-house evaluation framework for assessing all potential future projects;
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developing their own “resilience framework” to clarify the end goal for partners and stakeholders; and
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taking a more flexible and pragmatic approach to data collection with local partners to ensure measurement remains relevant through the project.
See here for a detailed case study of Mercy Relief’s approach to impact measurement.