Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives and Resource Management Project (NMCIREMP) Immediate Impact Assessment Study

Background

The Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives and Resource Management Project (NMCIREMP) is assisted by a loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and is supervised by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) as the cooperating institution. This Project is being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as lead agency through the Project Facilitation Office (PFO) together with the cooperating agencies: National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), partner local government units (LGUs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and Community Institutions.

The strategic goal of the project is to alleviate the poverty situation of around 58,500 households located in 243 barangays both in the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) and non-CADC areas situated in 44 municipalities and 1 city in 6 provinces of CARAGA Region and Region X. The target sectors are men and women Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), Upland Farmers (UF), Fisher Folks (FF), Indigenous Peoples (SIP) and Women.

Objectives

The general objective of the immediate impact assessment is to present relevant information that are useful for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of project performance in achieving its intended outcomes and impact; contributing to the Government of the Philippines and IFAD’s commitment to the MDGs.

In support of the general objective abovementioned, the specific objectives are the following:

1.     assess the extent each of the project component has achieved its intended outcomes as stated in the Objectively Verifiable Indicators (OVI) of the Project’s revised logframe both in the CADC and non-CADC areas, and to what extent these component outcomes contributed to the overall project outcome;

2.     determine the immediate impact of the project interventions, both intended and unintended, segregating interim impact in CADC and non-CADC areas, and comparing changes in the target households in relation to the baseline study conducted in 2004 and the RIMS impact survey conducted in mid-2006 on the following impact areas:

• poverty incidence reduction,
• reduction in child malnutrition,
• reduction in the incidence of mortality due to water borne diseases,
• increase in attendance (boys and girls) in primary education,
• improved/acquisition of household assets,
• sustained food production from sources e.g. crop, livestock and fisheries production, and off-farm activities,
• improvement in the management & utilization  of natural resources in a sustained manner,
• expansion of livelihood opportunities to achieve food security and increased incomes,
• improved participation of women and IPs in the planning and implementation of development projects,
• security of land tenure by legitimate IPs over their ancestral domain and mainstreaming IP communities in the local and national economy;

3.     present divergence in scale of or differences in outcomes and impact between CADC and non-CADC target groups and households and explain why such exist;

4.     discuss how the outcomes and immediate impact are influenced by factors such as socio-economic-political conditions, policies, project inputs and processes;

5.     assess the sustainability of impact or outcomes;

6.     document thematic experiences, lessons learned and good practices that could be adapted by the PFO in order to facilitate implementation of the project’s activities and in implementing other similar projects in the future; and,

7.     recommend improvement in project monitoring and evaluation for future impact assessments or studies and similar project implementation