Midterm Performance Evaluation of the USAID Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced (SEA) Project
Country: Indonesia
PRIMEX was engaged by USAID/Indonesia to carry out a Mid-term Performance Evaluation (MTPE) of the project. The PRIMEX Evaluation Team was composed of the following experts: (i) Team Leader/Marine Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Specialist; (ii) Senior Evaluation Specialist; (iii) Senior Survey Specialist/Statistician; (iv) National Evaluation Specialist; and (v) National Fisheries Expert. The Team was tasked to: (i) conduct a review of USAID SEA’s midterm performance and analyze the factors and conditions that enhanced or diminished the achievement of these results; (ii) to identify the challenges and influencing factors of selected midterm results (policies/regulations, trainings, livelihoods, and marine tenure) by analyzing achievement against selected strategic approaches and theory of change (TOC) and to which extent the project has been or is able to address these challenges; (iii) based on findings in objectives (i) and (ii), provide recommendations to improve project implementation effectiveness; and (iv) based on findings of objectives (i) and (ii), provide recommendations to USAID for future project design in building Indonesia’s capacity and ability to effectively manage their own resources. The Team utilized three data collection methods, namely: (i) desk review of available project documents; (ii) key informant interviews (KIIs); and (iii) focus group discussions (FGDs). The Team assessed the project’s mid-term performance based on progress indicators reported in the project’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan (supported by project reports/documents) and validated using the KII and FGD outputs. The Team compared the midterm achievements of the project with its targets (according to their strategic approaches and corresponding result indicators) for the first three years of implementation (March 2016 [as baseline] to September 2019). They also identified and described the facilitating and hindering factors impacting project performance and offered recommendations to improve implementation effectiveness in selected project SAs.