 |
| A Lion fish spotted under A Frame nursery at Kaviak. Picture by Bonny Wadui. |
MAKATA Inc. UNDP BCF on coral reef restoration in Kaviak village, Ward 4, North Karkar LLG, Sumkar District in Madang Province.
By Mr. Alois Ralai (Independent Consultant)
aralai@alumni.dwu.ac.pg
Declaration
I, Alois Ralai, the Independent M&E Consultant
engaged in this M&E activity in Trance 5, declare that the following report
is my own work, assessment and interpretation of the overall exercise are in
compliance with the Terms of Reference (TOR) as well as the United Nations
Evaluation Guidelines (UNEG). I take the responsibility to respect and maintain
confidentiality of the participants. I
also take responsibility of all data collected, analyzed and reported with the
highest ethical standards.
Mr. Alois. Ralai (MRM,
PGCHTEL, PGDPM, BA, Dip A)
M&E Consultant
03/05/2026
Acknowledgements
The M&E team wishes to acknowledge the
following personnel in ensuring the exercises were successfully implemented.
·
MAKATA
Inc. Especially Mr. Wenceslaus Magun for engaging the Independent Consultant to
fulfil this trance. As well as the support from his incredible team, especially
the MAKATA’s Community Liaison Officer, Mr. Bonny Wadui for his guidance and
support.
·
Kaviak
Ward 4 Councillor, Mr. Micah Malol for his great hospitality in accommodating
the M&E team. Extending the gratitude to his beautiful wife, and their amazing
children for providing catering and supporting the team.
·
Interim
Chairman of the CBO, Mr. Tobias Mosen Duk for arranging the venue and
participants to participate in the Focus Group Discussions and In-depth
Interviews.
·
Participants
from Kaviak village and respective clans and wards for the participating in the
discussions. Thank you for all your
kindness and magnificent gestures in a way or the other.
·
Boat
skipper Mr. Loufa Panufon for his effective navigational skills as well as his
crew Mr. Samson Dabel to bring the team safely from Madang to Karkar Island and
back.
· Donors: UNDP BCF, CEPA and the New Zealand Government for funding this trance.
This trance would not be possible without all your support and involvement. Thank you so much!
List of acronyms
BCF Bio-diversity Conservation
Fund
CBO Community Based Organizations
CEPA Conservation & Environment
Protection Authority
CPU Community Policing Unit
DAC Development Assistance
Committee
FBO Faith Based Organization
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FP Female Participant
IDI In-depth Interviews
LLG Local Level Government
MAKATA Mas Kagin Tapani Association
MP Male Participant
M&E Monitoring & Evaluation
NGO Non-Government Organization
OECD Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development
PNG Papua New Guinea
STRP Sea Turtles Restoration Project
TIRN Turtle Island Restoration
Network
UNDP United Nations Development
Program
UNEG United Nations Evaluation
Guidelines
Executive Summary
Monitoring
and Evaluation is a significant phase in any grants management cycle to
identify and assess the key lessons learned from the project implementation. Thus,
the lessons learned would inform the performance of the project whilst
determining the future steps to take. Having
to assess and draw out the key lessons learned from the implementation of the
four (4) trances of the MAKATA’s project implementation in Kaviak, Karkar
Island, it was identified that the community gained a lot in all the four (4) trances
both directly and indirectly.
In
the first trance, local capacity was built when participating in the community
profiling as well as self-realization of the need of climate change mitigation,
resilience and ocean conservation. The second trance, saw an intense increase
in knowledge in blue economy as well as climate change displayed by both
genders and age groups to protect, restore and sustain endangered ocean
species. The third trance conveyed a profound knowledge, attitudes, and best
practices to restore the marine life through the establishment of coral reefs nurseries
in both A Frames and Table Frames. The
result has seen endangered species of fish and corals been restored again. In addition, the sharing of knowledge gained
during the workshops was luminously learned during the exercise. The fourth
trance through, the basic sewing training resulted in women and girls gaining
new skills of sewing to earn income during prohibiting fishing in the conserved
coral restoration site. It also gave opportunity to empower women’s skills, inclusive
of people living with disabilities, and transformed patriarchal inequalities in
the male dominated society.
Overall,
the lessons learned were incalculable because of careful planning, operative
collaboration of partners and stakeholders, and standard project implementation
by MAKATA Inc. It was recommended that:
· Kaviak
CBO should annually update the community profile and leverage that with
potential partnerships both locally and externally as well as maintaining the
good works of the CPU to monitor the protected shoreline; improve its
administrative functions to maintain efficiency and accountability; build
community trust; and continue encouraging members to build their community
resources centre.
· MAKATA
Inc. should support the locals explore further capacity building opportunities
to enable them to proceed to the next steps; and to conduct an evaluation
research in the future to assess the impact of the project overtime.
· All stakeholders involved should maintain effective communication and reporting mechanisms to address future issues, ensuring accountability and maintaining excellence in this special project.
The M&E trance has successfully divulged the key lessons learned from the project implementation as per the TOR outlined in the Annex 1.
This
report presents the key findings of the monitoring and evaluation exercise for
Mas Kagin Tapani Association project implementation through the support of the
New Zealand Government, UNDP BCF, and CEPA in Kaviak village in the North
Karkar LLG of Sumkar District in Madang Province. The aim of this Monitoring
and Evaluation was to carry out an end of the project phase’s assessment,
analysis, conclusions, and recommendations, on the coral reef restoration to
improve climate change resilience, adaptation and economic empowerment for the
project beneficiaries. The results of this evaluation is also significant for
MAKATA in its planning and preparations into its future interventions in the
province as well as PNG as a whole.
The
first trance was the participatory community mapping and profiling led by the
members of the four clans under the auspicious of MATAKA’s project team. The
second trance involved the participation of selected participants (by gender
and age groups) who have attended trainings on climate change and blue economy.
The third trance involved the coral reef and climate resilience and adaptation
workshops, followed by the fourth trance on basic sewing skills training. The
goal of the sewing skills training was to complement the villagers’ economy as
they focused on conserving the nearby coral reef conservation. Consequently,
the monitoring and evaluation exercise followed after in the fifth trance to
identify the key lessons learned from the four trances.
Figure
1 below summarizes the implementation of the five trances.
Purpose and scope of the M&E
The
purpose and scope of the monitoring and evaluation exercise was to assess the
outputs and the immediate outcomes of the four tranches of the project
implementation in Madang Province for Kaviak village, Ward 4, North Karkar LLG,
Sumkar District in Madang Province;
·
Trance1:
Village Profile research activity,
·
Trance
2: Climate Change and Blue Economy workshops,
·
Trance
3: The coral Reef and Climate Resilience Adaptation Workshop and the
establishment of the Coral Reefs Nurseries in Kaviak village, Coral Reef and
Climate Resilience Adaptation Workshop and the establishment of the Coral Reef
Nurseries in Kaviak village Training within Coral reef restoration to improve
climate change resilience, adaptation and economic empowerment; and
·
Trance
4: Basic sewing skills training.
 |
| 20 active participants in the Basic Sewing Training at Kaviak dressed in their sewn meri blouses. Picture by Bonny Wadui. |
Figure 2 below elucidates how this M&E transects within the four trances.
By
assessing the outputs and outcomes of the four trances, both positive and
negative results have been obtained and will be presented in the results
section in this report. Henceforward, the
scope of the M&E ties within the purpose of the M&E to avoid entering
into the outer perimeters of the project implementation.
Methodology
To effectively assess the outputs and the outcomes
of the four trances, Focus Group Discussions
(FGD) and One to One Semi Structured Interviews were the main instruments used
to obtain qualitative data where it was then themed deductively as per the
desired outcomes of each of the four trances. Hence, these methods and approaches exposed
the participants’ views, perceptions, and experiences (negative, positive and
unintended) results of the outcomes of the four trances.
|
Data collection method |
Number of female youths |
Number of female adults |
Number of male youths |
Number of male adults |
|
One to one
semi-structured interviews |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
Focus Group
Discussions |
4 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
|
Total by gender |
15 |
20 |
||
|
Total
participants |
35 |
|||
The age group of the participants were 18 to 24 classified as youth and 25 to 60 classified as adults. Henceforth, the sessions were separated by age groups and gender to ensure that the participants expressed themselves pedantically.
Limitations
The following factors were rather limitations to
the results of the M&E and may contribute to the biases of the results.
·
Firstly,
the fifth trance (M&E) eventuated in a week after the completion of the
fourth trance, i.e. Basic sewing skills training. Hence, the results may not be
reliable as the timeframe was too short to measure the desired outcomes of the
training.
·
Secondly,
the participants of the M&E exercise were from Kaviak Ward (18 males and 15
females), Kulkul Ward (5 males and 3 females), and Wolan Ward (2 males and 2
females). There were no participants from Balang Ward because they had their
household and community activities to attend to during the M&E site visit.
However, participants of the M&E were more than 50% intervention
participants to limit the probability of biases, despite the lack of
participants from one sub-clan of Wolan namely Balang to express their views.
·
Thirdly,
due to the compliance issues with the strict timeframes expected by the donor
in terms of reporting, the M&E exercise had to be short, sharp and to the
point in terms of measuring the inputs, assessing the outputs and outcomes of
the project in Kaviak village.
Having to disclose these limitations, the next section below reveals the results of the M&E exercise.
Results
The results of the M&E are the findings and discussions which are presented as per the delivery of the four trances. MP stands for Male participant while FP stands for female participants. The number that follows after FM and MP means the estimate age. E.g. MP29 means Male Participant of 29 years old.
Results of Trance 1
During the implementation of the community
profiling and assessment, community members found the exercise to be very
constructive and productive. It made them realize what and how much they had
and didn’t have, why, when, where, what, and how to address those issues as a
community. MP57 expounded the
significance of the growing population in the village amplifying that such
collaborative assessments are needed because it updates the population by age
groups, gender, and visibly warns us about the dangers of the future
generations. FP50 also enlightened that
the community profile exercises made them aware of their own village in terms
of their strengths and weaknesses. MP4
also dodged the prominence of having a village profile that for the Ward, LLG
and District Development planning and prioritization.
“The
community profile will give the development partners data for potential
partnership and project implementation in the future,” MP45 purported.
“We
were happy to learn new skills in conducting community profiling. No one has
taught us those skills and information”, FP28 exclaimed.
The succinct inference towards the outcome of this
first trance is profoundly valuable to the participants as it contributed to
their learning and realization of their own community and what it needs. In essence, the capacity building and
realization created a state-of-the-art pathway for the implementation of the
second, third and fourth trances.
Results of Trance 2
To build the capacity of the project’s
participants is the positive outcome of the communities’ desire and commitment
to partner with our government and relevant stakeholders to work towards
achieving our common shared sustainable resource management and livelihood
vision, mission, goals, and objectives with the local communities involved.
This collaborative effort strengthens the global commitment to find sustainable
and lasting solutions to address climate change impacts and its rising global
warming and rising sea level effects. The training empowered participants to
engage in the blue economy by balancing sustainable marine resource use with
economic growth. It focused on implementing the Madang Provincial Fisheries
Master Plan and developing practical strategies to mitigate climate change
impacts. The program aimed to equip the Kaviak Community with the knowledge and
partnerships needed to protect their environment and livelihoods.
"I
finally understand how to turn our marine resources into a business without
destroying them for my children." MP39
"Attending
the workshops made the Master Plan feel like a real opportunity for our village
rather than just a document." MP59
“I did
not complete my education but the facilitators of the workshops were creative
enough to break down concepts and terminologies into tok pisin and tok peles
that made us the illiterate mothers to understand and follow through
effectively.” FP60
"Learning
about climate change adaptation gave us hope that there are small, practical
steps we can take to protect our shoreline right now." FP35
“After attending the workshops, I shared the information with the other young men in my clan, they were excited and made promises to work together to support the agenda. I can confirm that all the participants have understood very well and are advocating in the village” MP18
Most participants expressed positive outcomes on
the workshops on Blue Economy and Climate Change mitigation strategies.
However, there were insufficient comments on the negative aspects on its
outcomes.
“We
need continuous support from the District, Province as well as other CSO’s to
help build on from what MAKATA has started here.” MP56
“We
need more of such workshops in this village.” FP22
Perhaps, the above quotes could imply on the rationale of efficient partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaboration for the future and sustainability of the project going forward for sustainability purposes. It could also infer the urgency of the need for information on other thematic areas such as catering, hygiene, healthy island concept, etc. Nonetheless, knowledge on blue economy and climate change resilience has dramatically increased after the implementation of this trance. This has positively resulted in admirable advocacy to the other villagers as well as behavioral and attitude changes in conserving, protecting, restoring and sustainably managing and using the marine resources.
Results of Trance 3
The week-long coral restoration and climate change
adaptation training facilitated by the ENB Sea Keepers had attracted a total of
63 participants from the four clans of Ward 4 in Kaviak village. The training
involved the establishment of 5 A-frames & 2 Table-frames coral nurseries,
strengthening of the coral restoration skills, completion of the community
threat mapping, and initiation of the customary closure discussions using community-led,
science-based, and grounded in indigenous knowledge systems. The participants
showed a gargantuan knowledge and skills upsurge in this trance.
“In the
past, I didn’t know about the corals and reef but after the workshop, I know
the different types with their names, I can distinguish if they are dead or
alive, and I know how and why they are important towards our livelihood.” FP30
“When I
want to catch octopus, I usually destroy the corals and reef with iron rods and
spears. After the training, I don’t do
that anymore.” FP19
“We
were taught to nurture reef outside and grow them in the sea, with continuous
monitoring. They are growing, so I am
happy to see the progress.” MP40
“As the
reef are growing, many islanders are saying that some of the fish types that we
have not seen are slowly returning to the shores.” FP53
“We
could have spent thousands of kina to attend a University to learn such vital
skills and information but MAKATA has made it possible for us through the
workshop on a golden plate without paying fees.” MP21
“We are
planning to extend the restoration to the borders of the shoreline as we
continue to see great changes within the very short period of time where the
revival of marine life is happening right in front of us.” MP59
“All
the youth participants like me have joined the CPU to continue to monitor the
shoreline to ensure no one fish are killed, or no disturbance to the reef.
There has been a very good cooperation from everyone in the community.” MP18
The participants expressed the upsurge of knowledge entails skills and knowledge acquisition and positive behavioral changes to embrace restoration and adaption measures. The construction of the A-frames and Table-frames nurseries serves as a permanent and monitorable asset in the community. Their ability to comply and maintain consistency resonates with dazzling ownership of the project. For that reason, this trance has had a prodigious influence to the beneficiaries of the project.
Results of Trance 4
To endow the restriction of fishing near the
shoreline and newly nurtured reef areas, the primer of the basic sewing skills
training was initiated to provide sustenance to local women to sew, sell and
earn their family or personal income. If they sew 10 blouses, they would
allocate two blouses to the local Kaviak CBO to sustain its operations as well
as to build community resource centers for hosting such community based
trainings. Thus, the weeklong training by a TVET Trainer, Elise Langpain, attracted
more than 20 girls and women as well as many observers including male
observers. This was accompanied with 2 manual sewing machines issued to each of
the four clans in Kaviak, namely Kaviak, Kulkul, Wolan and Balang by
MAKATA. Women in Kaviak were largely
excited to provide their feedback on the new skills acquired during the sewing
classes.
“I have
been sewing for many years, but I have never used proper measurements to cut
materials. After the training, all the material used and none is wasted.” FP48
“I was
slow to learn in the first two days but starting on the third day, I learned
and completed sewing my first blouse. The trainer was very skillful and helpful
towards my learning.” FP21
“The
training was awesome as I’ve learnt professional sewing skills by a certified
trainer. I am now very confident in
sewing blouse and other household items such as table cloths, curtains, rags,
sheets, and hemming torn clothes.” FP34
“Our
clan has made a schedule on when and who to use the machine. It is kept safely
in a secured house and when mothers need it, it is brought to the community
resource center to use and when they finish, they return it safely in the safe
and secured house” FP36
“My
wife is deaf, but she managed to grasp the skills without any difficulty. Now,
she pesters me to buy brand new materials for her to sew children blouse and
shirt as well as for selling. I am willing to invest and support her desires to
continue sewing.” MP58
“I
think if I sell those blouse after sewing them, I will make good money to
support my family needs. This skill has helped me not to focus on fishing alone
but to earn income differently.” FP44
I am
observing that all the spouses of the female participants are so helpful to
their female partners when it comes to sewing. MP60
Despite the huge positive impacts expressed by the
participants, there were some notable negative and unintended results captured
mostly on the amount of anticipated finance that it will bring as well as other
minor issues.
“I
don’t think that the selling of blouses will earn that much to sustain
families. We have to really trial it out and see.” MP29
“We
could have ventured into other projects such as poultry, piggery, or fish pond
rather than sewing in order to get a higher income. MP45
“Our
CBO Executives needs to be held accountable in all their administrative
functions by honestly acquitting funds, practice effective management roles,
displaying clear roles and responsibilities, effectively managing conflicts, as
well as stop taking drugs.” FP43
The above statements were seen as negative and
unintended results indicating the significance of establishing and maintaining
proper administrative functions such as proper code of conduct, clear job
descriptions of roles, and common understanding of initiatives of projects.
Villagers had their perceptions and preferences of various economic project
that were outside of the scope of the project and that was logical.
On the other hand, two of the four clans have
erected their community resource center recently. Although both were partially
complete during the time of monitoring, this signifies great ownership,
dedication, collaboration and seriousness towards improving community
livelihood project in Kaviak village. This trance positively wedged gender
inequality, enriched family and household economy, conveyed collaboration and
cooperation, and enhanced self-reliance.
Recommendations
The recommendations from the key lessons learned
are presented per the trances. It is recommended that:
·
Trance
1 and 2: The local CBO in Kaviak to take responsibility to annually update the
community profile as well as continue to seek further support and partnerships
with the LLG, District, Provincial Government, NGO’s, CBO’s, FBO’s,
Institutions, and statutory bodies for future partnerships;
·
Trance
2 and 3: CBO to be persistent in working closely with the CPU to ensure
compliance law and order in the community, as well as compliance to the
conserved shoreline, and no fishing around the perimeters of the nurtured reef;
·
Trance
2 and 3: CBO to maintain effective communication with MAKATA for technical
advice and vice versa;
·
Trance
2 and 3: MAKATA to identify further capacity building opportunities for the
dedicated and hardworking members to venture into the next steps of the
project;
·
Trance
4: To support the sewing skills training. It is vital to venture into fish pond projects
to boost local economy. This may have
repercussion to improve the water connection project to ensure operational fish
pond project is viable;
·
Trance
4: Local CBO to ensure that the two other clans build their Community Resources
Centre;
·
Trance
1, 2, 3, and 4: Local CBO to improve its administrative functions by
establishing its constitution or Stand in Order to maintain effective roles and
responsibilities, accountable functions, and trust is gained by the community. Create
assets registry and fix assets when malfunctioning;
·
Trance:
1, 2, 3, and 4: Continue and strengthen
collaboration with the local stakeholders such as the Ward Councillor, church
Leaders, clan leaders, and partners to observe future positive outcomes.
·
Trance:
1, 2, 3, and 4: MAKATA should conduct
another evaluation research in the future using the OECD/DAC Criteria to
further framework of seven core standards: relevance, coherence, effectiveness,
efficiency, impact, sustainability and value for money to evaluate the lessons
learned over a period of time after the intervention; and
· On that note, MAKATA should also publish the success stories to influence other neighbouring communities, province, country and region as a whole.
Conclusion
The project in Kaviak village in Karkar has
dexterously achieved its desired objectives, outputs and outcomes because of
the careful assessment of the community profile exercise, effective planning,
adroit delivery of the inputs. It sensitively embraced gender equality,
inclusion of persons living with disabilities, as well as positively impacting
the youth and elderly persons. The immediate results were flabbergasting
learning as well the model adopted in this project has proven to be
operational, valid and reliable as per the result of this M&E exercise.
