The Southeast Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (SIRP) is a partnership established and funded under the European Union’s Aid to Uprooted People Programme in Myanmar, with the main objective of improving the living conditions of the most marginalized and vulnerable conflict-affected uprooted people, and of their host communities, in the south eastern part of the country. The consortium of partners is composed of four agencies: The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Action Aid/Myanmar (AAM), and Knowledge and Dedication for Nation-building (KDN).
In 2016, the consortium contracted Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC) to conduct the Final evaluation of SIRP as part of the requirements under EuropeAid’s funding protocol.
The evaluation recognises the huge challenges facing NRC and its partners to deliver the programme in a highly complex context. It states that 'in implementing the SIRP, the consortium partners have effectively navigated a number of stakeholders, agendas, power struggles, mistrust, communities and beneficiaries in a very challenging context previously rife with conflict. The vast geographical area and remoteness of villages presented challenges to the project implementation, but the targeted areas aligned with the project design specifying “remoteness and limited availability of public services” as primary criteria’s for choice or areas.'
However, the context of the southeast presented significant challenges and constraints that were not adequately taken into consideration during SIRP’s project design and early implementation. The complexity of the consortium structure, with four distinct organizations with no previous experience of working together, was underestimated. Furthermore, the consortium partners miscalculated the time needed to archive both GoM and EAOs support for the project in the various parts of the implementation areas.
Initially, the consortium management lacked a precise and clearly defined scope of work mandate for the consortium partners, which in turn led to “misunderstandings” and hampered effective governance of the consortium, especially in the early stages of implementation. But also over the course of implementation have significant delays occurred, and despite a NCE, the project has underspent with approximately 1 million Euro.
A number of important gaps and challenges were identified. NRC will respond to the evaluation through a documented management response process in the coming weeks.