¿MISION CUMPLIDA? EVALUACIÓN DEL PROGRAMA DE ... - Novib

¿Misión cumplida? Evaluación Programa ON-LAC
role in improving national legal frameworks. Women’s organisations, providing they are
technically prepared, have better instruments for claiming their rights. But the adequacy
of a legal framework is not in itself sufficient to ensure its implementation. Public policies
– including allocations from (federal) state budgets – generally remain short of putting
gender rights into practice.
Improvements at the institutional level materialised in some countries, in particular
Bolivia and Brazil. However, in the resolution of legal cases such as violence or violation of
women’s sexual and reproductive rights, impunity in the region is usually more common
than not. The number of cases brought to court has increased, but the resolutions doing
justice in terms of gender are largely falling short. At social, political and institutional
levels, inequity towards women is still strong.
Efficiency and sustainability
In terms of resource use, a total of € 16.8 million was spent under Aim 5 during the
evaluation period, which means an annual average of € 2.4 million. The amount is small in
terms of the results achieved in the period, the number of organisations and networks
strengthened in the region, as well as the number of final beneficiaries. Therefore, the
cost-effectiveness relationship is assessed as positive. 13
Overall, the results obtained so far appear to be sustainable, albeit in the face of an
uncertain future with countless challenges. With the retreat of ON from the region, the
capacity of the counterparts and their leverage in public policies will be reduced. Beyond
financial support, Oxfam Novib in the past provided technical and political assistance to its
counterparts on numerous gender issues. In some countries, this is sensitive given the
presence of strong conservative actors and an increasing tension between orthodox
religious groups and organisations working for gender justice.
Gender mainstreaming
Oxfam Novib has had a strong gender mainstreaming policy since the early nineties. Ever
since, both Oxfam and the LAC-region counterparts have invested time and resources in
gender mainstreaming that has led to much more attention for gender concerns in
counterpart programmes. This provided the basis for monitoring performance and a more
selective counterpart selection at later stage, formulated in the so called Gender Traffic
Light. The policy resulted in a portfolio of counterparts out of which, during the evaluation
period 2003-2009, over two-thirds adequately incorporated gender aspects into their
project operations. In nearly three quarters of the counterpart organizations gender
considerations are reflected in their organisational structure and policies. However, this
does not amount to having internally the right institutional gender policies, which among
counterparts was assessed as falling short.
At the start of the evaluation period the LAC Department strongly relied on the Traffic
Light. A number of counterparts were assessed as “red” (i.e. inadmissibly genderunfriendly),
but exceptions were granted when Oxfam Novib considered them as strategic.
By 2005 virtually all counterparts satisfied the Traffic Light criteria and qualified at least
as “yellow”. Although gender is included in the guidelines for project level evaluation, at
least a quarter of the external evaluations inadequately addressed gender issues or did not
address them at all. Alarmingly, some major counterparts operating between 2003 and
2009 under Aims 1 and 4 remained rather ‘gender blind’. They were allowed to do so due
to a generous application of the Traffic Light criteria, reflecting limited attention for
gender in monitoring and evaluation.
13 The ‘We Can’ campaign in the region is an exception, due to problems in the implementation of the strategy.
14