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Monitoring and evaluation of development projects are recognized as indispensable management tools. It helps to deliver quality service to service users and give a positive feedback to service providers. Therefore, monitoring and evaluation is a tailor-made toolkit that is important in project implementation and managers will get know-how to which extent their projects are meeting objectives and desired outcomes.

The goal of the Social Care Project is to establish a caring society. File photo

Monitoring actions must be undertaken throughout the lifetime of the project. Ad hoc evaluation might be needed when unexpected problems arise for which planned monitoring activities cannot generate sufficient information or when socio-economic conditions drastically affect the target area.

Project evaluation

Project evaluation represents a systematic and objective assessment of ongoing or completed projects in terms of their design, implementation and results. Further, project evaluation deals with relevance, effectiveness, efficiency (expected and unexpected) in the light of specified objectives as well as project impact and sustainability. Project evaluation could be performed at two levels, namely (a) periodic evaluations, to review implementation progress and (b) terminal (formal) evaluations, to assess whether project succeeded in meeting their objectives.

Project evaluation improves the learning process.

As in monitoring, evaluation activities must be planned at the program/project level. Baseline data and appropriate indicators of performance and results must be established. Evaluation goals and objectives should be determined by project management and staff. Evaluation could be implemented by internal evaluators or by external evaluators. The major setback in many organizations is that they do not have adequate resources to carry out an ideal evaluation.

Relationship between monitoring and evaluation

Though monitoring and evaluation are two different management tools, yet, they are closely related, interactive and mutually supportive. One can argue that good monitoring substitutes project evaluation. This might be true in short-term projects, or when the main objective on monitoring and evaluation is to obtain information to improve the process on implementation of an ongoing project. Project evaluations are less frequent than monitoring activities considering their costs and time needed.

What follows is an attempt to see how one of our new projects (Social Care Centre) is being implemented by our Ministry in collaboration with the Child Development and Women’s Empowerment Ministry.

Social Care Centre project was an initiative of the then Women Empowerment and Social Services Ministry to provide coordinated and comprehensive welfare services to service users through a friendly and enabling environment.

Therefore, it was felt to move away from the traditional “official service delivery system” to more accepting and empowering environment. As a beginning, it was suggested to build 60 SCCs along the tsunami affected coastal belt from Panadura to Jaffna. UNICEF and Save the Children in Sri Lanka provided funds to construct buildings. Further UNICEF provided furniture and equipment as well as funds for training to facilitate efficient functioning of centers. However, due to various constraints, only 27 centers were constructed during the project period. Initially, the project was for three years.

The Government approved the project and emphasized that SCCs will be built in all DS divisions of the country if the pilot project would show results. At the planning stage, it was suggested that all officers of the Women’s Empowerment and Social Services Ministry who were attached to DS office to be attached to the SCC.

However, at the implementing stage, the Ministry was split into two ministries as the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry and the Child Development and Women’s Empowerment Ministry. At present, service provision of SCC is a joint venture of both ministries. Tsunami devastation figures and information was the base line data for the project. Analyzing available data, locations were selected giving priority to severely damaged DS divisions.

At the initial stage officers were delivering services to address the issues of tsunami devastation such as placing rehabilitating of unaccompanied children, helping single parent families, re-establishing livelihoods, reintegrating displaced families and coordinating service provision with other stakeholders. At present, the officers are dealing with normal social welfare provision applying professional social work knowledge, skills and techniques.

Project components

The project had two components, building construction and capacity building of service providing officers. The constructioncomponent was undertaken by UNICEF and Save the Children in Sri Lanka, while funds for training and equipment were supplied by UNICEF and training was implemented by the SCC Project of the MoSS&SW and the Queen’s University of Canada through CIDA funding.

Goal of the project

The goal of the Social Care Project is to establish a caring society, Caring is the concern, humanitarian feeling and acting of oneself and towards others for their well-being. Caring is a survival strategy. Without care of oneself no one could exist in this planet. Therefore all living organisms are interdependent and interacting to fulfill their needs. It is a “social capital” existed for generations and generations.

However, the value eroded from the society for many reasons and the project aiming to reintroduce and promote the essential value of looking after oneself, others as the major responsibility of everyone. Thus the project is not only providing welfare services to the needy, but also replanting a value in the society.

All efforts are geared to realize this objective. There is no doubt that the effort will take years to fulfill its task, but it is not unrealistic. The experiences of service providers clearly indicate their dedication and commitment to operationalize the concept.

In the centre services provided by the Social Services and Child Development Ministry and Women’s Empowerment Ministry and Provincial Councils are available.

They include: Public assistance, assistive devices such as wheel-chairs, hearing aids for persons with disabilities, casual relief, housing assistance and self-employment assistance, monthly financial assistance, community based rehabilitation (CBR) program, medical assistance, referral services, access facilities to persons with disabilities, special identity cards for elders and hearing impaired, counseling services, pension schemes for self-employed, awareness programs, women’s societies, welfare services, rehabilitation of drug addicts.

The beneficiaries of above services are children, women, persons with disabilities, elders, widows, victims of disasters, drug addicts, single parent families, people who are in need of psychosocial support and counseling IDPs in welfare villages.

Best practices of Social Care Centers

Operating SCCs with social work approach and using modern welfare service delivery methods and techniques, created much knowledge to the profession and to the service.

The service providers of SCCs are applying very effectively and creatively their learning experiences. Some of the interventions are cited as examples of “best practices” of the Social Care Centre Project. This will be a continuing effort to develop local literature on welfare practice based on care model.

Some of the SCCs are located in distance places from DS offices due to unavoidable circumstances. In some areas this created practical problems for service users as well as service providers. Instead of agitating and complaining about the transport difficulty, Manmunai North SCC service providers act to address the problem creatively. There was no public transport system to the area and through the DS, the service providers, requested from transport authorities to operate public transport on the road leading to the SCC. This effort not only facilitated arrival of service users, but also provided transport to the villagers of the area who were without public transport for many years. The famous proverb “Instead of cursing the darkness, light one lamp” is effectively practised by SCC service providers. The experiences of SCC service providers clearly indicate the use of introduced modalities in service provision and they were able to identify and highlight the difference between early compartmentalized interventions and present coordinated and comprehensive interventions. Following are few examples.

Thambalagamuwa Divisional Secretariat in Trincomalee district does not have a SCC, but the service providers were trained on social care model. There are only two service providers namely, the Women’s Development Officer (WDO) and the Program Assistant of the Provincial council. A woman who has six children and the husband is a mental patient requested to admit her children to a Children’s Home.

The request was referred to the WDO. She had preliminary discussions with her colleague and they were on the opinion that the real problem is poverty. They thought that the service user should seek family planning advice as she is having a big family.

The WDO in her field visit identified one child as having hearing difficulty and made arrangements to provide a hearing aid through the SSO. The husband was directed to Trincomalee hospital for medication and the initial expenses for transport were provided by DS office staff with the initiative of the service provider.

The WDO met with the Family Health Worker of the area and requested her to advice service user on family planning. She readily introduced family planning methods to the service user where she obliged to accept. To meet service user’s real need, WDO provided self-employment assistance where Service User (SU) utilized in “brick making”, which seems to be a cottage industry in the area.

The SU was advised to continue her husband’s medication and assistance was provided through the Provincial Social Services Department.

With the increased family income, the SU informed the SP that she wants to withdraw her request for admitting children to a children’s home as now she is able to look after them well. This case study illustrates the Case Management technique and its applicability and effectiveness in addressing SU problems and concerns. Further, it explains that with good assessment and creativity, institutionalization of children could be averted and vulnerability of families could be minimized or eradicated.

In Tissamaharama SCC, a person aged 85 years requested admission to a Home for the Aged. The Elders Rights Promotion Officer, (ERPO) who intervened found that the SU has eight children who are married and are willing and able to look after the father, but he refuses to be with them.

The wife of the SU had died years ago and since then he had been living with his children, but now says that children are not taking any interest of him and therefore hoping to spend his rest of life in an institution. As the person was in a destitute and desperate situation, the ERPO made arrangements to admit him to a Home for the Aged in the area. However, the SP did not stop there.

Instead she discussed it with her center colleagues and decided to meet all children and pursue them to take the father back and facilitate the SU to be with his children. The SP organized a Family Group Conference.

She promoted a “Private Time” (a technical strategy in FGC) where all children and father participating and openly discussing issues, concerns and problems. All the children were agreed to have the father with them, but father categorically refused the offer disappointing children. Hence the SP had to re-admit the SU to the institution.

However, ERPO informed children to visit their father in the institution frequently and fulfill his needs and wants and show their care for him. The ERPO emphasized care of parents as a moral and legal obligation of children. Within a very short time of two months the SU, decided to live in his eldest daughter’s house and said good bye to the home for the aged.

The SP of Tissamaharama SCC, identified the intervention as a result of new thinking. In their own comment, they say if social care model was not in operation, the ERPO would have institutionalized the SU meeting his request and terminate the case without making any effort to reunite with his family where he could lead a happy and contended life in his last stage of life.

This case study illustrates how to modify and adapt methodologies and techniques to suit existing situations. FGC is basically used in interventions with children.

Here the SPs have used the technique for working with individuals and families. The other interesting area is “paradigm shift” in their intervention.

This article is based on the presentation made as the Guest of Honour at the Sri Lanka Evaluation Association on July 18, 2009 by the writer who is Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry Secretary.

Welfare villages