Evaluation of the Participatory Rural Development Planning Project (PRDPP)

Client: Ireland Development Cooperation (Representative of Ireland to Palestinian Authority)

Detailed project description: Participatory Rural Development and Planning Project (PRDPP) is a three years development project and one of UNDP assistance projects to Palestinian people. It was implemented in Jenin district (87 localities) jointly by the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development (MOPAD), and Ministry of Local Government (MOLG) during the period between Jan 2006- Dec 2008.

The project idea revolved about how is is critical to improve sustainable development planning capacity at the local level (district and village level) to alleviate poverty; and to enable citizens to participate in decision-making, strengthening accountability and transparency and making local leaders more directly accountable to communities they serve. PRDPP tackled these issues by building the capacity of a wide range of Palestinian institutions including local government units (LGUs), Joint Councils (JCs), Ministry of Planning &Administrative Development (MOPAD), local communities and civil society organizations (CSOs), private and academic sectors in order to be engaged in participatory district planning processes.

In accordance with that , PRDPP aimed mainly to institute participatory local democratic governance at the regional level by strengthening the planning capacity of authorities and organizations at national, regional and local levels in carrying out the participatory strategic development planning.

For the purpose of conducting final evaluation for PRDPP achievements and its interventions impacts, UNDP has contracted GCT to implement the required evaluation study in professional and objective manner. The main objectives of this evaluation was to conduct an independent assessment of the performance and achievements of the PRDPP program, by assessing the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of its operations and activities in Jenin District, as well as to draw lessons learned, recommendations that may be incorporated in future development plans.

Type:

• Contextual reviw to the projects documents, reports, project management (design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases and staffing issues).
• In-depth interviews with the majority of stakeholders involved in designing and developing the Jenin strategic plan including senior committee members, technical committee members, area development committee (ADC), donors’ representatives, District Planning Unit (DPU), Governor of Jenin and his key staff, and Al-Najah University Consulting Group.
• Focus group workshops with representatives of PA directorates, members of civil society organizations(active women and academic persons that participated in the strategic plan), and with municipal officials and local bodies,
• Evaluating of small scale projects funded through PRDP for quick impact and response to community’s needs through conducting approx 18 field visits and interviews for all funded project.
• Analysing the collected data and discussing the initial findings , lessons learned, recommendations with the project’s partners to gain their feedback and final comments.
• Submission and present the evaluation draft report that summarizes the main findings to be verified and initially approved by UNDP, and the Irish representative to Palestinian Authority.
• Submission of the final evaluation report, in both English and Arabic language (hard and soft copies) that describes the main findings , lessons learned and practical recommendation for further improvements in coming interventions.