COVID-19 Pacific and Timor-Leste Preparedness and Recovery NGO Partnership: Final Evaluation Report

The COVID-19 Pacific and Timor-Leste Preparedness and Recovery NGO Partnership (the Partnership) was set up by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in June 2020 to support communities across multiple countries to become resilient to and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. The evaluation of the Partnership described herein was undertaken by Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG), in close partnership with the Institute for Human Security and Social Change (IHSSC) at La Trobe University, Collaborate Consulting (CoLAB) and consultants based in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Timor-Leste. It primarily focused on the interventions delivered by the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) – which received most of the funding – in five countries: Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu. The partnerships achieved significant benefits for affected communities. While travel restrictions and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic created significant challenges for implementing agencies, the evaluation found that the programming under the Partnership improved communities’ resilience to the impacts of the pandemic and supported recovery efforts across the five country contexts. It was evident that adaptability, coordination between agencies and program linkages were key enablers of the effectiveness of programming, with the AHP agencies achieving significant reach and providing short- and long-term benefits to communities. Focus group discussions, surveys and endline reporting with communities found that programming was largely relevant to their needs, an outcome made possible through feedback mechanisms, targeting of programs to specific groups, and aligning programming with national government priorities. The evaluation determined that women and people with disabilities benefited as a result of AHP programming. However, there were opportunities to better collaborate and partner with women’s organisations and organisations for people with disabilities. Evidence suggested that successful inclusive programming needed to be better leveraged to support the distinctive needs of people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Although it is difficult to have visibility over the long-term impact and viability of program outcomes, early evidence suggests that some activities are sustainable as a result of program linkages and the leveraging of strategic relationships. Effective coordination between country committees and local agencies resulted in positive steps being taken to localise programming, while the evaluation demonstrated a need for evidence to be captured more consistently across the AHP to strengthen localisation objectives. There was limited evidence of effective protection programming, with activities focused primarily on awareness raising and training, with minimal monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data captured to indicate how communities have benefited as a result. It became evident that protection programming can be strengthened through more integrated programming to more effectively support the needs of communities and households. The evaluation demonstrated positive outcomes that can be leveraged to support future programming, whilst uncovering key opportunities for AHP to improve areas of programming determined to be less successful in achieving community benefits.