A Mokoro team, led by Dr. Marlène Buchy, conducted the end-term evaluation of The Joint Programme on “Accelerating Progress towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment” (JP RWEE). The JP RWEE is a global initiative that aims to secure rural women’s livelihoods and rights in the context of sustainable development. Jointly implemented since 2012 by FAO, IFAD, UN Women, and WFP in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger and Rwanda. The JP RWEE builds on each agency’s comparative advantages to improve the status of women in rural areas.

The evaluation design was theory-based covering the period from October 2014 to 2020. Particular attention was paid to gender equality and equity considerations throughout. A theory of change was constructed to help the team to understand how the links between interventions and expected outcomes were envisaged and to identify the key underlying assumptions. The data collection process included a number of different steps: country and global level document reviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and an online-survey, across the seven countries of implementation. Three of the countries (Nepal, Niger and Guatemala) were in-depth country case studies with primary data collection at the beneficiary level and the other four countries were conducted as remote desk-based studies.

The evaluation assessed whether the Joint Programme had led to the desired outcomes (such as improved food security and nutrition, job opportunities, meeting social and economic needs, capacity building and leadership development for women), in order to inform development of the next phase. The team reviewed the governance and coordination of the programme, and the contributions of the participant agencies, and identified lessons that could strengthen partnership management.