| dc.description.abstract | This study was carried out as a case study of a donor funded secondary school project in
Maridi County of South Sudan. The objectives of the study were to examine the income
generation activities of the E.A.V.A project and determine whether they are technically
appropriate; evaluate the administrative and management structures of the project tracing
how they have evolved over the project period and determine their effectiveness and
clarity and finally to identify the lessons learnt during the project implementation and
determine the extent to which they were applied later on. The research was carried out in
May and June 2005. The study presents the findings from the students, teachers, non
teaching staff, administrators, parents, local leaders and other stakeholders associated
with the project by either filling the questionnaire and being FOD participants and key
informants. Random and stratified sampling was used in the selection of respondents
while purposive sampling was used to select the FOD participants and key informants.
The data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods.
The findings revealed that income generating activities of the project were not technically
appropriate enough to generate income sufficient to push the school project to
sustainability. The findings further revealed that for most of the project period, the
administrative and management structures of the school project lacked the required
clarity and effectiveness to stir the school project to a reasonable level of sustainability.
Finally, the study revealed that for most of the project period, the key project
implementers were very slow in identifying lessons learnt and where identified, they
were rarely or belatedly applied to improve the project design and strategy. This
adversely affected the school project's quest and prospects of achieving a reasonable
level of sustainability.
The study recommends that donors and community development specialists should not
expect high level of sustainability to be achieved for donor funded secondary schools in
emergencies. The emphasis should be on preparing ground for better times by setting
infrastructure and capacity building of local institutions to support education. The study
further recommends that management of such unique secondary school projects in
emergencies should be thorough, participatory and as consultative as possible. Such a
process should ensure that the local context (social, cultural and economic) is factored
into every aspect of the management. Finally, the study recommends that the monitoring
and evaluation of secondary education projects in emergencies with high sustainability
goal should have a special project monitoring and evaluation plan. Such a plan should go
beyond shallow evaluation and emphasize the issues of appropriateness of strategies
employed, context analysis, project impact and consequently sustainability in complex
emergencies. In education projects where student labor is expected to contribute in
sustainability, the inherent inefficiency of student labor should be factored in while
working out the time frames for achievement of project objectives and consequently
sustainability. | en |
