Final Evaluation 
of the 
International Rescue Committee’s ESPOIR project 
in the North and South Kivu provinces of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
September 2014
Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE)
This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development.
It was prepared by Camille L. Evans, an independent evaluation consultant, who was recruited by the
International Rescue Committee’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment Program
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………….......Page 4
2. Project Background……………………………………………………………………………...Page 7
3. Evaluation Purpose and Questions………………………………………………………………Page 7
4. Evaluation Methods and Limitations…………………………………………………………… Page 9
5. Findings:
a. Effectiveness
i. Objective One - Gender based violence survivors in North and South Kivu are able to gain access 
to timely care and treatment services…………………………………………………….Page 13
ii. Objective Two - Service providers have improved capacity to respond effectively to GBV and 
facilitate the recovery of survivors in emergency and post conflict settings…………….Page 14
 Psychosocial Assistance………………………………………………………………Page 14
 Psychosocial Assistance: Challenges…………………………………………………Page 16
 Medical Assistance……………………………………………………………………Page 17
 Medical Assistance: Challenges………………………………………………………Page 18
 Legal Assistance………………………………………………………………………Page 20
 Legal Assistance: Challenges…………………………………………………………Page 21
 Social reintegration/economic empowerment assistance……………………………..Page 23
 Social reintegration/economic empowerment assistance: Challenges……………….Page 24
iii.Objective Three - Key stakeholders have improved capacity to lead and participate in community 
based social integration and economic recovery activities that include strengthening community 
response to and prevention of GBV……………………………………………………..Page 24
 Improved local capacity: Challenges…………………………………………………Page 25
 Improved local capacity to support women’s empowerment: Male discussion groups...Page 26
 Other Challenges: Access for girls (under 18)……………………………………….Page 28
b. Impact......................................................................................................................................Page 30
 Psychosocial Functionality……………………………………………………………Page 30
 Individual Questionnaire Analysis…………………………………………………….Page 30
 Social Economic Outcomes - Women for Women, International……………………...Page 34
 Community Based Organization Member Feedback………………………………….Page 34
c. Sustainability………………………………………………………………………………....Page 36
 Implementation via local women-led community based organizations and local community 
structures: Sustainable capacity building……………………………………………..Page 36
 VSLA, Social Reintegration and Income Generating Activities: Sustainable Economic 
Empowerment…………………………………………………………………………Page 36
 Increased capacity of women-led community based organizations to facilitate income 
generating / social reintegration activities and awareness building in the community…Page 36
 Increased awareness of women’s rights issues in the community……………………….Page 37
 Increased social cohesion as an impact of the VSLA…………………………………Page 37
 Sustainability Challenges............................................................................................. Page 37
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Table of Contents (continued)
6. Lessons Learned………………………………………………………………………………....Page 40
7. Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………….....Page 41
8. Appendices
 Appendix I: Documents Reviewed
 Appendix II: Evaluation Focus Group and Individual Survivor Questionnaire Sites 
 Appendix III: Key Informant Interviews – Names and Titles
 Appendix IV: Focus Group Discussion Interview Protocol with Community Stakeholders 
(including community based organization leadership, Relais Communautaire (RECO), health 
centers, civil/government actors, psychosocial assistants) 
 Appendix V: Focus Group Discussion Interview Protocol with Women and Girl Community 
Based Organization Members
 Appendix VI: Focus Group Discussion Interview Protocol with Members of the Village Savings 
and Loans Associations (VSLAs) 
 Appendix VII: Focus Group Discussion Interview Protocol with Participants from the EMAP 
Male Discussion Groups
 Appendix VIII: Key Informant Interview Protocol
 Appendix IX: Individual Questionnaire for Survivors
 Appendix X: Pre/Post Questionnaires Used to Interview Male Discussion Group Participants 
Before and After the Group
 Appendix XI: IRC/ESPOIR Psychosocial Functionality Tool 
 Appendix XII: Evaluation Statement of Work
 Appendix XIII: Signed Statement of Disclosure of any Conflict of Interest by Evaluation 
Consultant that Attests to a Lack of Conflict of Interest or Describes an Existing Conflict of 
Interest Relative to the Project Being Evaluated.
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1. Executive Summary 
With USAID support, the International Rescue Committee (IRC)’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment 
(WPE) program implemented a project called Ending Sexual Violence by Promoting Opportunities and 
Individual Rights (ESPOIR). The overall objective of the project is to promote the well-being of women and 
girls and to mitigate the consequences of gender based violence (GBV). The five-year project ended on 
September 30, 2014, including an initial three-year period (ESPOIR-1), then an extension for an additional 
two years (ESPOIR-2).
A performance evaluation of the five-year ESPOIR project was conducted. Data collection for the ESPOIR 
end of project evaluation was carried out from 18 August – 1 September 2014. The evaluation focused on 
assessing the effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project’s activities and outcomes. The evaluation 
design includes a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods based on participatory research 
methods. The following evaluation methodology was used to gather data on the indicators and evaluation 
questions included in the terms of reference for the evaluation: (a) Review of key documents; (b) Focus 
Group Discussions; (c) Key Informant Interviews; (d) Individual questionnaires with Women and Girl 
Survivors 
The ESPOIR project objectives include activities and outcomes pertaining to: timely care for survivors; 
improved capacity to respond to GBV and facilitate the recovery of survivors; and community stakeholders 
having improved capacity to lead and participate in social integration and economic recovery activities. 
Evaluation findings include progress made and outcomes obtained on the project objectives as they relate 
each of project’s activities: psychosocial, medical, legal and social reintegration/economic empowerment 
assistance. This report also discusses the sustainability of the project’s activities and outcomes.
Summary of Evaluation Findings
Timely Care - Since October 2013, Fifty-eight per cent (58%) of cases of rape were reported within 72 hours 
by community members and an average of ninety-eight per cent (98%) of cases reported within 72 hours 
were referred for medical assistance. In fiscal year 2014 1,860 survivors received at least one essential 
service (psychosocial, medical and/or legal) and 1,821 women participated in socio-economic /reinsertion 
activities. Over the 5-year period of the project, North Kivu showed more reporting of rape within 72 hours. 
Overall, there was a decrease in the percentage of rape reported within 72 hours from Year 1 to Year 5 but it 
this is likely to have been affected by the disruption of awareness raising activities during times of 
insecurity. There was, however, a steady increase in the percentage of survivors referred for an essential 
service which evidenced the increased capacity for community stakeholder to refer survivors for services 
within the referral pathway. There was also a strong retention rate over the course of the five year period for 
survivors and other women engaged in socio-economic / social reintegration activities (including VSLA 
activities). These outcomes all surpass the projected estimates set by the project and reflect that ESPOIR has 
been effective in providing timely care and treatment services.
Psychosocial Assistance - IRC/ESPOIR implemented the provision of psychosocial assistance by training 
and providing ongoing technical support to psychosocial assistants based within each of the ESPOIR-funded 
community based organizations (CBO). Feedback from focus group discussions with CBO members and 
community stakeholders confirmed that the psychosocial assistants are well integrated into the referral 
pathway for survivors both within the community. Analysis of a sample of 227 survivors who accessed 
psychosocial support confirmed a dramatic increase in psychosocial functioning of survivors, both in the 
ability to resume performing everyday tasks and decrease in symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, 
trauma or other forms of decreased psychosocial well-being. The impact on psychosocial functioning of 
ESPOIR supported survivors was also assessed via a questionnaire developed by the evaluation consultant. 
Analysis of the questionnaire results showed that in both North and South Kivu, a higher percentage of 
survivor respondents who completed the psychosocial support intervention consistently answered “yes” to 
friends, people or services in the community which could support them and generally, a higher percentage of 
survivor respondents who completed the psychosocial support intervention reported higher levels of self 
esteem.
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Medical Assistance - Health zones in North and South Kivu reported that the capacity of health zones and 
health centers had increased through training and provision of Post Exposure Prophylactics (PEP) kits. 
Training included the Clinical Care of Sexual Assault Survivors as well as training on the referral pathway 
for survivors. In over 90% of community leader focus groups conducted as part of this evaluation, 
community structures including the women-led community based organizations, health centers, chef du 
groupement and Relais Communautaire (RECO) demonstrated awareness of importance of referring to 
health centers. Challenges for the medical assistance provision include the sustainability of the service after 
the end of the project. With the ending of the ESPOIR project, there may be a challenge for health zones to 
fully step into the role of coordinating with UNICEF in regards to the ordering (i.e. monitoring how many 
PEP kits are available in health centers and making UNICEF aware when additional PEP kits are needed) 
and the distribution of the PEP kits from the health zones to the health centers.
Legal Assistance - There have been a number of challenges regarding legal services. In North Kivu, legal 
services stopped in October 2012 due to the escalation of conflict in the region. IRC/ESPOIR was not able 
resume legal assistance but completed a mapping exercise of other legal service provider in the region in 
June 2014. The final quarterly report will document whether ESPOIR partners have been able to integrate 
referrals to the newly identified legal assistance service providers into the established referral pathway in 
North Kivu. In South Kivu, IRC/ESPOIR had to change legal service providers due to performance issues 
but has now built a strong partnership with legal assistance partner, ADMR. ADMR reported that ESPOIR 
helped build the organization’s capacity by providing financial management training, assistance with 
governance planning and technical support in the form of training. From September 2012 through end of 
June 2014, ADMR, provided legal assistance to 184 survivors of gender based violence. This is compared to 
168 survivors who chose who pursue legal action in year one; 198 survivors in year two; and 165 survivors 
from February to September 2012. It is noted that there has been a shift in the perpetrator profile from 
armed actor to locally known perpetrator may provide some context for a decrease in the number of rape 
prosecutions. While the work of ADMR has surpassed its projected targets, the relatively low number of 
survivors receiving legal assistance (e.g. 57 cases of rape survivors assisted by ADMR versus 337 incident 
of rape reported under the ESPOIR project since January 2014) represents the difficulties faced by survivors 
and legal assistance providers when seeking legal prosecutions of perpetrators. Other challenges facing the
legal assistance provision include the sustainability of the service after the end of the project as legal fees 
and transport costs represent an area where there is an ongoing need for financial support.
Social Reintegration/Economic Empowerment Assistance - According to ESPOIR project annual reports, as 
of June 2014, a total of 140 VSLA groups were created; 16 in North Kivu and 124 in South Kivu. By the 
end of Year 4 in North Kivu, at the share-out, the average amount in savings per VSLA was $1,263 and the 
average rate of return for the loans that were issued was 38.51%. In South Kivu, at the share-out, the average 
amount in savings per VSLA was $996, and the average rate of return for the loans that were issued was 
51%, with the average amount shared-out for each VSLA being $1,506. IRC/ESPOIR worked with women￾led local community based organizations (CBOs) to implement social reintegration / income generating 
activities such as tailoring, soap-making, pastry-making, embroidery, knitting and animal husbandry. During 
focus group discussions with local community based organizations, members clearly demonstrated local 
expertise in facilitating and teaching social reintegration and income generating activities. In focus group 
discussions, it was confirmed that VSLA groups and social reintegration / income generating activities have 
a positive social and economic impact on the lives of women and their status in the community.
Challenges for social reintegration / economic empowerment assistance included the impact of periods of 
intense conflict. Armed conflict impacted how quickly Village Savings and Loan Association groups could 
be implemented. In both North and South Kivu, there were several start and stops to implementing VSLAs. 
This meant that there was an extended period to carry out EASE curriculum which supports the community 
implementation of VSLAs. In South Kivu, the third phase of EASE curriculum has yet to be implemented.
Impact - IRC/ESPOIR developed male discussion groups to facilitate behavior change for men and to reduce 
violence towards women. During focus group discussions, former male discussion group participants 
confirmed that the male discussion groups have been well received by community members. In all of the 
evaluation focus groups with former male discussion group members, men were able to give concrete 
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examples of behavior changes they had made and the impact of attitude changes in the community. In focus 
group discussions with CBO members, women were also able to give examples of behavior changes of men 
who participated in the male discussion groups. Some of the behavior changes included changes in 
household decision making, gender division of household tasks and welcoming women’s participation in 
public forums. 
IRC partnered with international non-governmental organization, Women for Women International – DRC 
(WfWI), to provide socio economic reintegration activities to ESPOIR survivors and beneficiaries in some 
areas in South Kivu. The WfWI intervention resulted in women having an improved understanding of their 
rights and saving money, an increased income and upon graduation from the WfWI intervention, 100% 
percent of ESPOIR participants report being employed or self-employed.
One hundred percent (100%) of CBO member focus group participants reported positive outcomes as a 
result of their involvement with ESPOIR activities. The impact on women’s lives described included: an 
improved relationship with their husband (including less physical abuse and more respect); contributing 
financially to the household including paying school fees (which has a secondary impact of more children 
going to school, including girls); more respect of women in the community (including community leadership 
seeking the opinion of women); secondary benefits related to improved hygiene and infant care gained from 
skills learned as part of vocational training (i.e. soap-making, knitting infant clothing), and improved 
psychosocial well-being.
Lessons Learned and Recommendations
A number of lessons learned emerged from the ESPOIR project which informed changes in program design 
and strategy over the fiver-year period of the project. This report includes a summary of those lessons 
learned which contributed to the more positive outcomes of the project. In addition, the following twelve 
(12) recommendations have been formulated to address the project’s challenges described in the report:
1. Facilitate regular Lessons Learned workshops between the North and South Kivu teams in order to 
facilitate best practice learning.
2. Consider more overlap and joint working between IRC/ESPOIR staff and Rapid Response to 
Population Movement (RRPM) teams so that ESPOIR staff benefit from the same training and 
coordinated planning as the RRPM teams. 
3. Disaggregate monitoring data regarding sexual violence from other forms of gender based violence. 
4. Support community based organizations to use some portion of generated income to maintain an 
organizational budget.
5. Consider formation of VSLA-like groups for community structures to facilitate the sustainability of 
their activities once project resources are no longer available. 
6. Implement child and/or youth specific programming which can access vulnerable and survivor 
children and youth. 
7. Include organizational capacity building along with building of technical knowledge of community 
structures to implement project activities. 
8. Consider building the capacity of local health centre staff and the local health zones to provide direct 
psychosocial support and provide training and quality assurance for the provision of psychosocial 
support by the women-led community based organizations / psychosocial assistants. 
9. Consider building the organizational capacity of the police by organizing gender based violence 
sensitivity training for police and recommending background screening criteria for the recruitment of 
police. 
10. Consider providing “training of trainer” training as well as facilitators training to facilitators of the 
male discussion groups so that training can potentially be cascaded.
11. Encourage the substantial involvement of government authorities and key ministries at the national, 
provincial, territory and community level in project implementation. 
12. Consider co-locating Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) programming with ESPOIR project 
sites to address multi-systemic development issues such as governance which can increase positive 
outcomes for project beneficiaries and communities.
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2. Project Background 
The International Rescue Committee (IRC)’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) program has 
been responding to and preventing gender-based violence and providing critical assistance to survivors of 
sexual violence and their families in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with USAID support 
since 2002. IRC projects aim to meet the safety, health, psychosocial, socioeconomic and justice needs of 
women and girls who are survivors of or are vulnerable to gender based violence (GBV) by 
institutionalizing effective short- and long-term protection from violence. Within this scope, on September 
17, 2009, USAID awarded IRC cooperative agreement AID-623-A-09-00012 to implement a project called 
Ending Sexual Violence by Promoting Opportunities and Individual Rights (ESPOIR), with the overall 
objective of promoting the well-being of women and girls and mitigating the consequences of gender based 
violence (GBV). The ESPOIR project seeks to ensure women and girls access the life-saving services they 
need, and empowering community-led GBV response and prevention in eastern DRC. The initial three-year 
long project (ESPOIR-1) was extended in September 2012 for an additional two years, and ended on 
September 30, 2014 (ESPOIR-2).
The objectives of the ESPOIR project include:
x Objective 1: GBV survivors in North and South Kivu gain access to timely care and treatment 
services
x Objective 2: Service providers have improved capacity to respond effectively to GBV and facilitate 
the recovery of survivors in emergency and post conflict settings; and
x Objective 3: Key stakeholders have improved capacity to lead and participate in community based 
social integration and economic recovery activities that include strengthening community response to 
and prevention of GBV 
The ESPOIR project aspires to meet its objectives by:
x Building the capacity of local women-led community based organizations to provide economic and 
social reintegration activities; 
x Building the capacity of psychosocial assistants within local CBOs to provide case management and 
psychosocial support to survivors of violence;
x Building the capacity of health centers to respond appropriately to the medical, psychosocial and 
referral needs of survivors;
x Increasing the capacity of local community structures and leaders to respond and recognize to the 
needs and rights of girls and women, including vulnerable women and survivors
x Providing opportunities for economic empowerment through Village Savings and Loan Associations 
(VSLA); 
x Advocating for the legal rights of survivors by supporting a local NGO providing legal assistance 
and increasing community knowledge.
The project operates in North Kivu (Rutshuru territory) and in South Kivu (Kabare, Kalehe, Walungu, Fizi 
and Uvira territories).
3. Evaluation Purpose and Questions 
A performance evaluation of the five-year ESPOIR project was conducted over a 4-week period from 
August to September 2014. The evaluation focused on assessing the effectiveness, impact and sustainability 
of the project’s activities and outcomes. Each of these areas is addressed through the following evaluation 
questions:
a) Effectiveness: Has the project attained its objectives? 
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The project aimed to promote the well-being of women and girls and mitigate the consequences of GBV, 
through actions outlined in the three project objectives (see above). 
Sub-questions: Have all activities been implemented effectively? Has the project been managed effectively? 
What were the challenges in implementing the project? Were there common challenges faced across 
programmatic areas (access to medical, psychosocial, legal and income generating activities) and how were 
they overcome? Did the risk mitigation matrix anticipate these challenges? How were the risks mitigated? 
What were the main lessons learnt from activities implemented? What best practices have been identified on 
design and implementation of holistic GBV programming? How has the programming been the same or 
different in conflict-affected areas and in cases where perpetrators were associated with armed forces or 
armed groups? 
b) Impact: What were the main positive and negative changes produced by the project implementation? 
The IRC has outlined the following expected outcomes from the implementation of the project: 
x Survivors of GBV receive timely and appropriate care and support; Community members know what 
services exist, why they are important, and how to access them in a timely manner 
x Women-led CBOs and local service providers provide timely referrals for survivors of GBV 
x GBV coordinating bodies identify and take action to address gaps in service delivery in North and South 
Kivu 
x Service providers provide quality case management, psychosocial, health and legal services, and 
socioeconomic support 
x The capacity of IRC and its partners to rapidly respond to sexual violence in emergencies is reinforced 
x During emergencies, minimum interventions are implemented to meet the immediate safety and health 
needs of women and girls 
x Women and girls participate in basic social integration and empowerment activities 
x Communities take action to improve the safety and well-being of women and girls, including promoting 
support for survivors 
x Women participate in economic recovery activities, including credit and savings projects, and carry out 
joint decision making with their partners. 
Sub-questions: What outcomes can be identified as a result of the project implementation? What unintended 
positive and negative changes took place? What part of the project was most important in catalyzing the 
change? What has been the impact of the project on survivors’ daily functioning and psychosocial well￾being (analysis of functionality tool used)? What has been the impact of the project on women and girls’ 
social and economic functioning/empowerment (self reported in discussion with women and girls) and 
reintegration into community life? How did the project activities address gender issues during project 
implementation, such as how were women/survivors economic empowerment/reintegration activities 
perceived in the communities, including by male members? What was the effect of the male engagement 
activities using the Engaging Men in Accountable Practice (EMAP) curriculum? What were the overall 
project outcomes and effect on males and females in target communities and the rates and trends of gender￾based violence cases reported over time? 
c) Sustainability: Did the project implementation promote lasting solutions by strengthening, through 
systematic capacity building, mentoring and follow-up, local institutions to promote the well-being of 
women and girls and mitigating the consequences of GBV. 
As outlined in the project’s sustainability and exit strategy, the IRC committed to local capacity building, 
partnership strategy, and a diverse funding base for its Women’s Protection and Empowerment program. 
Some specific sustainability focus has been put on working with local organizations to offer case 
management to survivors, provide medical care through referrals to medical structures, using the Economic 
and Social Empowerment (EA$E) model with VSLA methodology for women’s continued access to 
financial resources. The other two key activities mentioned in the sustainability and exit strategy (legal 
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support and Men’s Dialogue Groups) were described as less likely to continue after the ESPOIR project. 
The evaluation should asses challenges related to sustainability of legal support for survivors of GBV. 
Sub-questions: Did the IRC’s technical support to local service providers including non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs) and community based organizations (CBOs) (trainings, ongoing technical visits, 
mentoring) provide demonstrated increase in the partners’ organizational and technical capacity to provide 
essential services to gender-based violence survivors? If so, to what extent would this capacity permit the 
partners to continue providing quality services if there was no further funding from the IRC? What is the 
level of local ownership by community stakeholders (e.g. CBOs, Relais Communautaire (RECO), health 
centers, in ensuring that the activity or service (medical, psychosocial, legal and income generating 
activities) continues after project funding ends? What was IRC’s contribution to GBV strategies in external 
coordination mechanisms, both at the national as well as provincial level? To what extent did project 
activities contribute to local capacity development of governmental and civil society actors to analyze, 
implement, and evaluate GBV prevention and response in target geographic areas?
4. Evaluation Methods and Limitations 
Design and Implementation of Evaluation 
Data collection for the ESPOIR end of project evaluation was carried out from 18 August – 1 September 
2014. The evaluation design includes a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods based on 
participatory research methods. The evaluation questions were developed according to the terms of reference 
of the evaluation consultant which respond to each of the evaluation objectives. The evaluation questions
also reflect OECD-DAC evaluation criteria1 indicators related to relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact 
and sustainability of the project’s activities and of the project model. The evaluation methodology used to 
gather data on these indicators and respond to each of the evaluation questions included:
x Review of key documents (e.g. weekly and/or monthly reports, proposal documents, GBV IMS 
database)
x 41 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) (10 sites in North Kivu; 10 sites in South Kivu):
 16 FGDs with community stakeholders (including community based organization leadership, 
Relais Communautaire (RECO), health centers, civil/government actors, psychosocial assistants) 
 16 FGDs with women and girl community based organization members
 5 FGDs with members of the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs)
 4 FGDs with participants from the Engaging Men in Accountable Practice (EMAP) male discussion
groups
x Interviews with key informants (civil/government actors, UN coordination agencies, key IRC 
ESPOIR project staff)
x 162 Individual questionnaires2 with women and girl survivors (comparison of newly referred 
psychosocial assistance cases as control group with cases where survivors has completed the 
psychosocial assistance intervention)
 72 questionnaires in North Kivu (6 sites; 36 new cases, 36 old cases) 
 90 questionnaires in South Kivu (9 sites; 41 new cases, 45 old cases, 4 not marked old or new)
The review of key documents provided program statistics used to evaluate year to year progress towards 
targets set by the project. Focus group discussions with community stakeholders focused on questions 
regarding implementation and sustainability of project activities and capacity building of community 
stakeholders. Focus group discussions with women and girl community based organization members 
focused on the activities accessed by women and girls and the impact of those activities on the lives and 
status of women and girls. Focus group discussions with the Village and Loan Associations (VSLAs) 
 1 The DAC (Development Assistance Committee) Principles for the Evaluation of Development Assistance, Organisation for 
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (Paris, 1991). 2 Both categories of survivors, newly referred cases and cases where the survivors completed the psychosocial intervention, 
completed the same questionnaire. Please see Appendix IX for a copy of the questionnaire used.
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focused on the processes, impact and sustainability of the VSLAs. Focus group discussions with the EMAP 
male discussion groups focused on topics discussed, the recruitment process, impact and the sustainability of 
the male discussion groups. Key informant interviews focused on coordination mechanisms for ESPOIR 
activities and capacity building of community stakeholders. Finally, the individual questionnaires for 
survivors focused on the psychosocial functioning and social connectedness of those who were starting and 
those who completed the psychosocial support intervention. Please see Appendices II - III for a table 
outlining the documents reviewed, focus group and survivor questionnaire sites, and the names/titles of all 
key informant interviews. Please see Appendices IV - IX for samples of the focus group discussion and key 
informant interview questions as well as the individual questionnaire for survivors3
.
The evaluation consultant conducted 2 one-day assessment training workshops with each of the evaluation 
teams in North and South Kivu. The evaluation team in North Kivu consisted of 4 project staff including 2 
field officers (2 male), 1 monitoring and evaluation officer (male), 1 monitoring and evaluation assistant 
(male). The evaluation team in South Kivu consisted of 8 project staff including the Manager of Gender 
Based Violence (GBV) Services (male), 1 monitoring and evaluation officer (female), 1 psychosocial officer 
(female); 1 health officer (female), 4 other field officers (2 male, 2 female) The assessment training covered 
general research methods, confidentiality, informed consent and a review of the specific data collection tools 
used for the evaluation. The assessment training also included a focus group discussion with staff to review 
understanding, appropriateness and cultural relevance of the questions included in the informed consent 
document and the focus group discussion data collection tool. With feedback from project staff, the
evaluation consultant chose 9 project sites in each province in which to conduct the evaluation. The project
sites were chosen based on having a representation of each of the targeted focus groups (i.e. CBOs, 
community leaders, VSLA and EMAP male discussion group). Sites were also chosen based on geographic 
location and logistical factors related to what sites could be reached within the time frame allotted for the 
evaluation. In addition, the evaluation consultant reviewed the questionnaire developed to interview 
individual survivors with the psychosocial officers in North Kivu to confirm relevance, understanding and 
appropriateness. Changes were made to these documents based on the feedback received from the staff. The 
evaluation consultant also incorporated feedback from the Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) 
Program Advisor and the WPE Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Coordinator into the data collection 
tools. 
All staff who attended the training were involved in data collection. The four ESPOIR project staff in North 
Kivu, the 8 project staff in South Kivu staff and the evaluation consultant made up the members of the 
evaluation team. During key informant interviews, the WPE Program Advisor, the North Kivu WPE 
Program Coordinator, the North Kivu WPE Community Education Supervisor, and the South Kivu GBV
Services Manager identified ESPOIR external partners. Based on the information from these key informant 
interviews and the review of proposal and annual report documents, the evaluation consultant compiled and 
confirmed a list of external partners and arranged for additional key informant interviews of the external 
partners. Field officers were assigned to organize focus groups according to their domains of work (i.e. field 
officer working with VSLA organized VSLA focus groups, field officer working with CBOs organized
CBO focus groups, etc.). The psychosocial officers in North and South Kivu were asked to work with a 
sample of psychosocial assistants based in the ESPOIR-supported community based organizations to carry 
out individual interviews with survivors using the questionnaire developed by the evaluation consultant. The 
evaluation team sought informed consent, obtaining signatures4
on consent forms, from the participants of 
the focus group discussions prior to beginning the discussions. The psychosocial assistants also sought 
informed consent from survivors prior to completing the questionnaires with survivors. Various project staff 
that made up a part of the evaluation team assisted the evaluation consultant to facilitate focus group 
 3 A summary of selected questionnaire results in provided in Graphs A - D in the Findings: Impact – Individual Questionnaire 
Analysis section of this report. The evaluation consultant has recorded the full questionnaire results in an Excel database which 
will be turned over to IRC Women’s Protection and Empowerment program with a copy of this final evaluation report. 4 The informed consent form was read aloud and explained in the local language of participants. Participants were given an 
opportunity to ask questions. Focus group discussion participants and questionnaire interviewees with limited literacy skills were 
assisted to create a mark or make an ink fingerprint on the consent form denoting their signature.
11
discussions by providing translation from French into local languages. The Monitoring and Evaluation 
Officer in North Kivu and the Manager for Gender Based Violence Services in South Kivu provided overall 
oversight for data collection and coordinated logistics for travel to each of the project sites. 
The focus group discussions targeted girl and women members of community based organizations, members 
of VSLAs, community leaders, and members of the EMAP male discussion groups
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. The evaluation 
consultant and the evaluation team facilitated each of the focus groups in a question and answer format 
using the questions from the focus group discussion protocol developed by the evaluation consultant (see 
Appendices IV - VII for the focus group discussion protocols used). Each focus group was assigned at least 
two members of the evaluation team; one person to facilitate the discussion, the other to record the responses 
from the focus group participants. ESPOIR project staff members of the evaluation team were able to 
conduct the focus group or interpret the focus group questions for the evaluation consultant into Swahili or 
local language of the group being interviewed.
The evaluation consultant, in consultation with the psychosocial officers, chose six sites in North Kivu and 9 
sites in South Kivu where survivors would be interviewed. Psychosocial assistants in each of the selected 
sites were instructed to randomly select 3 survivors who had recently started receiving psychosocial support 
(1 visit or less) and 3 survivors who had received several sessions of psychosocial support (3 visits or more). 
Questionnaire respondents were randomly selected among survivors available in the project site locations during 
the evaluation period. Selecting survivor questionnaire respondents via the psychosocial assistants was done in 
order to protect the confidentiality of survivor respondents and not to cause undue risk or increase vulnerability 
of survivors by gathering them in one location or identifying them by name outside of the survivors’ relationship 
with the psychosocial assistants. Comparison of the data from the two groups of survivors is intended to 
provide a snapshot of the impact of psychosocial assistance provided to survivors. 
The focus group questions were developed based on evaluation questions listed in the previous section. The 
survivor questionnaire was designed to collect demographic information, information regarding income and the 
ability of respondents to meet their basic needs, survivors’ social support network as well as survivors’ sense of 
self-esteem and security. The questionnaire includes questions from the Rosenberg self esteem scale6 . The 
questionnaire was developed in French and translated into Swahili. Interpretation of the questionnaire into 
local languages was also provided by the psychosocial assistants on an as-needed-basis7 by each of project 
staff collecting data.
The evaluation consultant also had a feedback session immediately after the data collection period to review 
and receive feedback about the initial findings of the evaluation. The feedback session was with USAID 
Agreement Officer's Representative (AOR) Marcel Ntumba, several of his USAID colleagues covering 
women’s protection, health and education programming and senior management of the IRC WPE program. 
Written feedback was also received from USAID in regards to the evaluation plan. The feedback from 
USAID has been incorporated into the focus of this evaluation report. 
The use of the project staff as members of the evaluation team was not optimal as it posed a challenge as far 
as insuring objectivity of the data collection process. However, due to time constraints, limited resources to 
hire specific staff to conduct the evaluation and the benefit of using data collectors who could easily engage 
respondents due to being familiar with the community and having knowledge of the local language, the use 
of project staff proved more beneficial than not. To minimize potential bias, field officers were assigned to 
collect focus group data using a structured interview protocol where focus group facilitators were required to 
seek answers to every question in the protocol as well as potential follow up questions depending on the 
 5 See beginning of Evaluation Methods and Limitations: Design and Implementation of Evaluation section for the question themes 
covered with each FGD group.
6 Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. The Rosenberg Self￾Esteem Scale is a ten item Likert scale with items answered on a four point scale - from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Five 
of the items have positively worded statements and five have negatively worded ones. 
7 Psychosocial officers reviewed the questionnaires with the psychosocial assistants to clarify meaning and to review how to 
conduct the individual interviews with survivors prior to the psychosocial assistants completing the questionnaires with survivors.
12
responses of the focus group. This format also helped to reduce the level of subjectivity in the data 
collection and data interpretation process. Research ethics were reviewed as part of the assessment training 
session with the evaluation team. This included the necessity of reporting exactly what is said by focus 
group respondents. The same potential challenge existed in regards to having the psychosocial assistants 
interview survivors. However, the individual questionnaire for survivors includes multiple choice responses. 
This reduced the level of subjectivity in documenting and interpreting responses. 
Another limitation of the evaluation was the inability to randomly select survivors from a list of 
beneficiaries as opposed to the psychosocial assistants choosing survivors to interview. This leaves the 
potential for selection bias. However, this could not be avoided as it would not have reflected ethical 
practice to breach the confidentiality of survivors by asking them to self-identify outside of their relationship 
with the psychosocial assistants. This also has implications for establishing a control group of survivors who 
did not receive psychosocial support. The preference would have been to make the comparison with 
survivors who did not receive the psychosocial support intervention. This could have been possible if there 
were survivors available to interview who did not choose psychosocial assistance. However, due to the
limited time allotted for the evaluation, the stigma and sensitive nature of being a survivor, it was not 
possible to arrange for survivors who did not choose to have psychosocial support to be interviewed (i.e. via 
the health centre or other point of access within the GBV response referral network). Thus, the non￾engagement of survivors who chose not to be referred for psychosocial support acted as a barrier to access 
this group of survivors for comparison. Instead the evaluation sought to compare the functioning of 
survivors at the beginning of the psychosocial support intervention and those who had more significant 
psychosocial support. There are other variables which might account for an increase in functioning among 
survivors other than the number of psychosocial support sessions (i.e. individual resiliency, level of 
functioning/trauma at time of referral, etc.). However, the comparison between newly referred survivors and 
survivors who had significant intervention is meant to provide a snapshot of the potential impact of 
psychosocial assistance.
The evaluation is meant to examine the five year period of the ESPOIR project. However, there was no 
baseline data collected at the start of the project8 and no previous independent evaluation done during the 
five-year period of the project. This evaluation’s data collection looks at the cumulative impact of the 
project at the end of the 5-year period as opposed to the impact made year to year and subjectively measures 
impact based on the current feedback of focus group participants. This provides limited information about 
what specific strategies or project changes contributed to project impact and decreases the objectivity of 
measuring impact by comparing baseline and endline results. To evaluate the impact made year to year, the 
evaluation consultant examined key data from project reports and the GBV Information Management 
System (IMS) database maintained by the project. This includes key indicators such as number of new cases 
identified, percentage of cases seen within 72 hours by health centers, source of referrals, number of 
girls/children (under 18) who have been able to access services, etc. The evaluation consultant analyzed this 
data from year to year over the five year period. As no baseline / endline comparison of data is possible, the 
evaluation consultant has attempted to triangulate data on the impact of the project by gathering information 
from multiple sources (i.e. multiple groups of community based organization members, community leaders, 
VSLA groups, male discussion groups; key informant interviews with external partners, project staff, etc.). 
This attempts to increase the objectivity of the reported impact by describing the project’s impact from 
several sources confirming the same impact rather than one subjective source. 
 8 Although a needs assessment was done at the start of the project, there was no formal baseline assessment of the overall project 
which would allow comparison using measures or data collection tools which could be used for an endline assessment. Instead the 
project uses baseline/endline measures to measure individual progress in a specific activity (i.e. psychosocial functionality tool for 
the psychosocial support provision) or a periodic review of service provision using a Quality Care Checklist (QCC).
13
5. Findings
a. Effectiveness
i. Objective One
A key measure of the effectiveness of the ESPOIR project is its ability to meet its project objectives. 
Objective 1 states, “Gender based violence survivors in North and South Kivu are able to gain access to 
timely care and treatment services”. According to the Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in 
Humanitarian Settings9
, timely care refers to care provided within 72 hours of the incident of violence. To 
document striving to meet these standards, IRC/ESPOIR set estimates for the number of survivors who 
would potentially receive timely care based on the project’s experience in the previous year (i.e. average per 
month per site)10. 
According to monthly and annual reports reviewed by the evaluation consultant, since October 2013, an 
average of ninety-eight per cent (98%) of rape survivors in ESPOIR assisted communities who reported 
cases within 72 hours of the incident were referred for medical assistance by community partners which 
make up the referral network. Fifty-eight per cent (58%) of cases of rape were reported within 72 hours by 
community members. This surpassed the project estimate of fifty-five per cent (55%). In fiscal year 2014 
(September 2013 – August 2014), 1,860 (1,855 female; 5 male) gender based violence survivors received at 
least one essential service (psychosocial, medical and/or legal). This surpasses the Fiscal Year 2014 estimate
of 1,830 survivors. In addition, 1,821 women participated in socio-economic /reinsertion activities in 
community-based organizations. This surpasses the fiscal year 2014 estimate of 1,300 women. 
Table 1 (below) looks at three indicators for gaining access to timely care and treatment services over the 5 
year period of the ESPOIR project. The table shows that North Kivu has consistently had more reporting of 
rape by survivors or community members involved in the referral pathway within 72 hours of the incident. 
ESPOIR annual reports suggests that this is because the North Kivu ESPOIR sites overlap with pre￾established IRC Health Program sites which previously conducted community education around the 
importance of seeking treatment within 72 hours of an incident. One would expect with increased 
community awareness over time that the percentage of survivors reporting rape within 72 hours would 
increase. However, the table below shows a decrease. This is likely because of the insecurities which 
occurred in North and South Kivu towards the end of Year 2 and during Year 3 led to survivors and 
community members being displaced and services being less accessible as survivors and community 
members flee to areas where are not as accessible. The displacement of community members who were a 
part of the referral pathway also meant that community education activities may have been disrupted. In 
Year 4 and 5, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of survivors reporting within 72 hours. This 
is likely due to the stability of the population and increased community education activities. 
When examining the percentage of survivors receiving or referred for one essential service, it is clear that
there is a steady rise in these percentages over the 5 years of ESPOIR, indicating increased awareness of 
service providers within the referral pathway and increased accessibility for survivors once they make 
contact with a service provider within the referral pathway. As mentioned previously, ESPOIR has 
surpassed its fiscal year 2014 estimate of 1,300 women accessing socio-economic activities. Table 1 shows 
the steady increase year to year of women participants in socio-economic / social reintegration activities 
(including VSLA activities). This increase represents increased accessibility as well as the strong retention 
of women who once they became involved with an ESPOIR assisted activity or community based 
organization remain involved with the activity or organization. This strong retention rate has implications 
 9 Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings: Focusing on Prevention of and Response to 
Sexual Violence in Emergencies, Inter Agency Standing Committee, September 2005.
10 Only estimates can be set based on previous experience as it is impossible to predict how many women will suffer violence and
seek assistance.
14
for increased positive impact for individual women over time but also for social and community cohesion 
built between women and the community during the 5 years of the ESPOIR project.
Table 1: Year to Year Analysis of ESPOIR Objective One Indicators (Year 1 to 5)
Year Rape reported within 72 
hours by survivor / 
community member
Survivor 
received/referred for 
one essential service
Women participants in socio￾economic / social reintegration 
activities
North Kivu South Kivu North 
Kivu
South 
Kivu
North Kivu South Kivu
Year 1 87%11 28% 68% 96%12 333 209913
Year 2 77.5% 22% 100% 96% 772 393714
Year 3 Not 
reported15
Not 
reported16 96% 94.5% 97217 141818
Year 4 50.3% 49.8% 100% 100% 1,19719 1,77120
Year 5
(January 
to June)
62% 55% 100% 100% 1243 578
ii. Objective Two
Objective 2 states, “Service providers have improved capacity to respond effectively to GBV and facilitate 
the recovery of survivors in emergency and post conflict settings”. To meet this objective the ESPOIR 
project has taken the approach of implementing key activities via women-led community based 
organizations and other community partners. These activities include provision of psychosocial, medical, 
legal and social reintegration/economic empowerment assistance.
Psychosocial Assistance
Under ESPOIR-1, the psychosocial support provision was originally implemented via local non￾governmental organizations. However, with ESPOIR-2, IRC adjusted its project design strategy to include 
implementation of the psychosocial support provision via women-led local community based organizations. 
It was found that the women-led community based organizations already had a presence in the community 
 11 The higher percentage of rape reported within 72 hours in North Kivu is reflective of ESPOIR overlap with IRC Health 
Program where previous community education was in place regarding the importance of accessing care within 72 hours.
12 The higher percentage of survivors accessing one essential is South Kivu is reflective of the higher percentage of rape cases in 
South Kivu during Year 1 of ESPOIR.
13 Includes 5 VSLA pilot groups x 25 VSLA members per group = 125 VSLA members + socio economic activities facilitated by 
community based organisations.
14 Includes 42 VSLA groups x 25 VSLA members per group = 1050 + socio-economic activities facilitated by community based 
organisations.
15 Of the 3,106 cases of GBV reported during the third year of implementation, 76% reported cases of rape, and among these 
cases, 50% of survivors reported within 72 hours of the incident. These percentages represent the average between North and 
South Kivus.
16 Ibid. 17 Includes the 772 beneficiaries of socio economic activities facilitated by community based organisations from Year 2 + 8 new 
VSLA groups x 25 VSLA members per group
18 Includes beneficiaries of socio economic activities facilitated by community based organisations from Year 2 + 5 new VSLA 
groups x 25 VSLA members per group 19 Includes the 772 beneficiaries of socio economic activities facilitated by community based organisations from Year 3 + 17 new 
VSLA groups x 25 VSLA members per group
20 Includes beneficiaries of socio economic activities facilitated by community based organisations from Year 3 + 5 new VSLA 
groups x 25 VSLA members per group
15
prior to involvement with IRC/ESPOIR and would therefore be more likely to continue activities after the 
ESPOIR project period21. 
ESPOIR has implemented the provision of psychosocial assistance by establishing psychosocial focal points 
(psychosocial assistants) community volunteers within the ESPOIR-funded community based organizations.
The model of using local community volunteers to provide psychosocial support is the preferred model in
developing country, emergency setting contexts, according to the Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) 
Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings22. The Interagency Standing 
Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings 
discourages the use of foreign mental health professionals as they do not represent a long term sustainable 
intervention and may not have an understanding of local psychology and culture. Instead, the IASC 
Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings encourages the recruitment 
of local volunteers with good engagement skills who have an understanding of local culture, customs and 
traditions. For the IRC/ESPOIR project, two to three psychosocial assistants were recruited from the 
membership of the community based organizations. The IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and 
Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings recommends that community volunteers receive the 
appropriate training in providing psychosocial support. IRC/ESPOIR psychosocial focal points received 
training and ongoing support from psychosocial officers who are IRC / ESPOIR project staff. The IASC 
Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support provides training resources which can be used by 
non-governmental organizations for community volunteers. The IRC/ESPOIR training of the psychosocial 
assistants reflects the training recommended by the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial 
Support in Emergency Settings.
Quality assurance of the psychosocial assistance provision is facilitated through a Quality Care Checklist 
(QCC) which includes indicators around having a private space to see survivors, the skills the psychosocial 
assistant utilizes to engage, listen, share information and do follow up with survivors as well as indicators
assess the psychosocial assistants ability to explain the importance of receiving medical assistance within 72 
hours of an incident of violence, document counseling sessions appropriately and the length of counseling
sessions. The ESPOIR psychosocial officers review the QCC with the psychosocial assistants periodically. 
This guides the individual development of psychosocial assistants as well as the development of additional 
training for the psychosocial assistants as a group. Part of the training of the psychosocial assistants includes 
understanding the referral pathway for survivors to access response and support services. 
During the focus groups conducted as part of this evaluation with community based organizations and 
community leaders in both North and South Kivu, psychosocial assistants and representatives of the 
community structures were clearly and consistently able to identify the referral pathway23 as well as the 
 21 Women led community based organisations appeared to be a more sustainable implementing partner than local non￾governmental organisations. Local non-governmental organizations’ presence in the community appeared to be more dependent 
on the availability of funding for implementing and sustaining activities.
22 The Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) (2007) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency 
Settings. Geneva, IASC. 23 The Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings: Focusing on Prevention of and Response to 
Sexual Violence in Emergencies (Inter Agency Standing Committee, September 2005) recommend a “referral pathway” of 
service providers to assist violence survivors. Services include medical assistance, psychosocial support assistance, legal 
assistance and safety/security assistance. As part of best practice, women’s protection programs identify, train and/or build the 
capacity of service providers that can provide these four types of services for survivors then set up a coordination/communication
16
psychosocial assistants’ role within the referral pathway. In fact, psychosocial assistants are often identified 
as the entry point into the referral pathway. Community leaders, whether within local community structures 
or the leadership / membership of the women-led community based organizations, often refer survivors who 
approach them to the psychosocial assistants or the health centre. Psychosocial assistants are also 
approached directly by survivors. This is evidence that the psychosocial assistants are well integrated into 
the referral pathway for survivors both within the community based organizations and the community.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a specialized mental health intervention which has been 
implemented by IRC/ESPOIR as an extension of the individual counseling and case management support 
provided by psychosocial assistants as part of the psychosocial support provision. In 2011, the IRC 
partnered with John Hopkins University (JHU) and the University of Washington (UW) to introduce group￾based Cognitive Processing Therapy to women who were wither raped or witnessed rape, had high 
symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD and were struggling to complete daily tasks, such as caring for 
children or working. CPT groups are facilitated by psychosocial assistants who are supervised by mental 
health specialist trained in the CPT methodology. Survivors are referred by the psychosocial assistants to the 
CPT groups if after several sessions of individual support sessions, the survivor is still showing high levels 
of trauma and a low ability to complete everyday tasks. 
IRC, JHU and UW undertook an impact evaluation24 using randomize control trials in 2011 to evaluate the 
effectiveness of CPT in the North Kivu, South Kivu, DRC context. The research study showed that CPT was 
effective in reducing symptoms associated with trauma, depression and anxiety as well as increasing 
functionality or survivors’ ability to complete everyday tasks associated with healthy psychosocial 
functioning and well-being (J. Bass et al, 2013)25. Furthermore, the study provides some evidence that a 
mental health intervention, such as CPT, can have some secondary benefits on economic functioning. The 
research study showed that when CPT is combined with a socio-economic empowerment intervention, like 
the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), CPT participants can have better socio-economic 
outcomes such as increased hours of economic work and food expenditures. 
During the course of the research study, one hundred fifty seven (157) survivors received the CPT group 
intervention from April to July 2011. The progress of these survivors were tracked six months after the CPT 
intervention and they continued to show improved psychosocial functioning as a result of the CPT 
intervention. In addition, a sample of CPT group intervention survivors were enrolled in VSLA groups after 
the six month follow-up period. These survivors showed higher socio-economic outcomes than compared to 
their non-CPT counterparts.
Psychosocial Assistance: Challenges 
During the evaluation focus group discussions with community based organization membership, 
psychosocial assistants expressed that the paperwork requirements, case management responsibilities and 
the time needed for counseling support requires a significant time investment from the psychosocial 
assistants. Psychosocial assistants emphasize that this impacts their ability to earn an income whether it is 
 
mechanism so that all of service providers know how and when to refer survivors to each other. The process of ensuring referrals 
for survivors and between these services providers is referred to as the referral pathway.
24 This impact evaluation was supported by multiple donors- USAID, World Bank, SIDA, ECHO and Open Square Foundation. 25 Bass, Judith K., Ph.D., MPH, Jeannie Annan, Ph.D., Sarah Mclvor Murray, M.S.P.H., Decra Kaysen, Ph.D., Shelly Griffiths, 
M.S.W., Talita Cetinoglu, M.A., Karin Wachter, M.Ed., Laura K. Murray, Ph.D., and Paul A. Bolton, M.B. B.S. (June, 2013). 
Controlled Trial of Psychotherapy for Congolese Survivors of Sexual Violence. The New England Journal of Medicine 2013; 
368:2182 – 91.
17
working in the fields to cultivate crops or selling goods in the market. A psychosocial assistant in Katana, 
South Kivu commented: 
“Don’t forget the PSAs (psychosocial assistants) for training and help them with a bit of soap and pay. We 
pass the day here, completing the tools, counseling others and we don’t have time to take care of our own 
families. I am starting to have problems at home”. 
This has implications for the sustainability of the psychosocial support provision as psychosocial assistants 
are volunteers of the community based organizations and must find a way to balance their psychosocial 
assistant duties, their ability to earn an income and manage their own household responsibilities. At present, 
community based organizations are not able to offer psychosocial assistants a salary. It would be 
understandable for psychosocial assistants to choose to pursue finding a source of income rather than 
continuing in their role as a psychosocial assistant. This would have a devastating impact on the ability of 
the CBO to provide psychosocial support as psychosocial support training and the skills development of the 
psychosocial assistant is focused on the individual psychosocial assistants themselves. Psychosocial training 
support comes from the ESPOIR/IRC psychosocial officers, not the CBOs. So, the departure of a 
psychosocial assistant would also the departure of knowledge and capacity to provide psychosocial support. 
Without the ESPOIR funding of the psychosocial officers, there would be no capacity to train replacement 
psychosocial assistants.
IRC has attempted to address some of the work load issues experienced by the psychosocial assistants by 
reducing the length of the psychosocial functionality tool. This has been received well by the psychosocial 
officers and psychosocial assistants as far as reducing the amount of time it takes for psychosocial assistants 
to carry out their duties. However, the issue of sustainability rest in the ability of psychosocial assistants to 
establish a source of income. The evaluation consultant attempts to address this in the Recommendations
section of this report. 
Medical assistance
Medical assistance is a critical part of gender based violence response. The ESPOIR project has integrated a 
high quality, timely medical response to gender based violence by incorporating and building the capacity of 
existing health structures. The ESPOIR project design chose to target project sites which were already being 
supported by IRC’s Integrated Health Program26 in South Kivu. In key informant interviews with two 
Superviseurs de la Zone de Santé (health zone supervisors) and the Gestionaire de la Zone de Santé (health 
zone manager) in Rwanguba, North Kivu and the Chef de Zone de Santé (health zone chief) and a 
Superviseur de la Zone de Santé in Ruzizi, South Kivu, these representatives of the local health zone
reported that the capacity of health zones and health centers had increased through training, provision of 
Post Exposure Prophylactics (PEP) kits and financial supplements in support of healthcare staff. Training 
included the Clinical Care of Sexual Assault Survivors27 as well as training healthcare staff on the referral 
pathway for survivors. Referral pathway training included joint training with other service providers on 
available support services and referral mechanisms for psychosocial support and social reintegration / 
income generating activities via community based organizations. The effectiveness of medical treatment for 
survivors of sexual violence is linked to survivors receiving timely care (within 72 hours of the incident of 
violence). Outreach efforts and awareness building is necessary in order for potential survivors and 
community members to know to access medical care within 72 hours. 
The Relais Communautaire (RECO) serve as community health outreach workers. They are part of the pre￾existing healthcare structure. The ESPOIR project supports RECOs, community structures such as the chef 
du groupement (local community chief) as well as the community based organizations to do outreach 
 26 The Integrated Health Program is funded by USAID and falls under IRC larger Health Program sector. 27 Clinical Care of Sexual Assault Survivors is multi-media teaching curriculum developed by IRC to improve the clinical and 
psychosocial quality of care provided by health care providers to survivors of sexual violence in humanitarian settings. The 
teaching tool is utilised in IRC’s gender based violence and health programs around the world.
18
emphasizing the importance of referring survivors to health centers. In over 90% of community leader focus 
groups conducted as part of this evaluation, community structures including the women-led community 
based organizations, health centers, chef du groupement and Relais Communautaire (RECO) demonstrated 
awareness of importance of referring to health centers. This supports the previously reported data 
highlighting that ninety-eight per cent (98%) of rape survivors in ESPOIR assisted communities who 
reported cases within 72 hours of the incident were referred for medical assistance by community partners 
which make up the referral network and fifty-eight per cent (58%) of cases of rape were reported within 72 
hours by community members.
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kits are a critical part of the medical treatment provided to survivors of 
sexual violence. IRC/ESPOIR coordinates with UNICEF, the cluster coordinator responsible for the 
distribution of PEP kits in health centers and the health zones. In addition, the IRC Health program
purchases PEP kits and other essential medicines in order to insure that they are available in the health 
centers and health zones for distribution.
Medical assistance: Challenges
In North Kivu, funding for IRC’s Health program is currently coming to an end. In South Kivu, IRC’s 
Health program funding will come to an end in March 2015. Part of IRC health funding provides financial 
supplements to healthcare staff salaries. As IRC Health program’s support for the health zones ends, this 
may impact the motivation of healthcare staff to continue participating in the referral pathway. During key 
informant interviews with the health zones in Rwanguba (North Kivu) and Ruzizi (South Kivu) healthcare 
representatives expressed their concern that healthcare structures will continue to receive referrals for 
medical treatment of survivors, with increased outreach bringing potentially increasing number of survivors 
to present for care. However, healthcare staff will receive significantly less pay, medical supplies are likely
not to be consistently available and the cost of care for survivors is likely to rise as heath centers try to 
decrease the gap in funding by requiring payment from those seeking care, including survivors. During the 
key informant interviews and focus group discussions with community leaders, health centre staff reaffirmed 
that they would continue to provide care to survivors but they emphasized that staff would be less motivated 
which ultimately could impact care. It is likely that there will be a decrease in the availability of well-trained 
staff as staff turnover increases and training opportunities decrease with the ending of IRC Health and
ESPOIR funding.
As mentioned, IRC/ESPOIR is a key player in coordinating the distribution and purchasing of PEP kits. 
With the ending of the ESPOIR project, there may be a challenge for health zones to fully step into the role 
of coordinating with UNICEF in regards to the ordering (i.e. monitoring how many PEP kits are available in 
health centers and making UNICEF aware when additional PEP kits are needed) and the distribution of the 
PEP kits from the health zones to the health centers. During a key informant interview, the North Kivu 
UNICEF Child Protection Officer / Protection Cluster Coordinator advised, “There can be insecurity that 
cause (health centers) not to be able to get PEP kits and other (necessary) medication from the health 
zones”28.
In South Kivu, the UNICEF Child Protection Officer / Protection Cluster Coordinator advised:
“(Getting) feedback from the (health) zone is difficult. There is a problem with (UNICEF) partners reporting 
back the numbers of hospital / heath centers that have (PEP) kits. Also, (there are) distribution problems 
(due to the problems) with the feedback between the zone and health centre. This includes difficulty 
distributing to / accessing (health centers in) conflict zones”. In addition, “coordination can be difficult as 
people change too often. There is no institutional memory and (staff) are not specialists in this area (medical 
response to sexual/gender based violence or reproductive health)”.
 28 This refers to insecurities which originate from armed conflict or the presence of armed groups and bandits on the route between 
the health zone and the health centres.
19
The South Kivu Protection Cluster Coordinator explained that health zones and health centers often wait 
until there is an incident of rape before a request for PEP kits is made. So, the supplies of PEP kits in the 
health zones and health centers often run out before more PEP kits are ordered although the protection 
cluster has recommended that regular inventory be taken and sent to the Protection Cluster Coordinator. This 
means that UNICEF is at a disadvantage in terms of planning for the ordering and distribution of PEP kits 
because they do not know beforehand how many kits are needed and where they need to be sent. This also 
means that a survivor may not be able to get access to a PEP kit within 72 hours because it may take longer 
than 72 hours to find, order and/or distribute the PEP kit to the health center where it is needed. Better 
coordination requires that the health centers and health zones become more proactive in feeding back 
information to UNICEF regarding their PEP kit inventory. However, this has not been possible due to the 
transport and communication difficulties29 between the health zones and health centers and due to a 
diminished administrative capacity within the health zones and health centers. Although the protection 
cluster has advocated building the administrative capacity of the health zones and health centers, many 
remain dependent on the infrastructure and administrative capacity of international non-governmental 
organizations, like IRC, to keep track of inventory and coordinate the ordering and distribution of PEP kits 
with UNICEF.
IRC/ESPOIR has attempted to address these challenges. In North Kivu, IRC Health Program has left a stock 
of PEP Kits with the health zones. The North Kivu UNICEF Child Protection Officer / Protection Cluster 
Coordinator advised, “IRC/ESPOIR can orient other actors to cover the zones where IRC (ESPOIR) is 
currently operating if support ends”. IRC’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) together with UNICEF has 
developed a contingency plan for the distribution of PEP kits, particularly for hard to access areas in conflict 
zones. The North Kivu UNICEF Child Protection Officer / Protection Cluster Coordinator advised:
“For some health centers that are far, there are supposed to have satellite sites to distribute to sites that are 
far away. (This is also the case where) there is insecurity that cause them (health centers) not to get the PEP 
kits or medication from the health zone. In addition, “PEP kits have been given to the health minister as a 
back-up measure. There is also a depot with (access to) a MONUSCO helicopter which can deliver to 
certain locations”.
In South Kivu, this contingency planning does not exist. UNICEF expressed concern for the capacity of 
health centers in South Kivu to manage coordination and distribution of the PEP kits after the end of the 
ESPOIR project based on the difficulties with transport and communication between the health centers and 
health zones and the diminished administrative capacity mentioned previously.
Another challenge identified by the Rwanguba health zone is the coordination of community education and 
outreach efforts of the Relais Communautaire (RECO) and the community based organizations. In a key 
informant interview, the two Rwanguba nurse supervisors and health zone manager interviewed advised, 
“The psychosocial assistants /community based organization structure was previously integrated into the 
health structure. Now, it is a bit separate which has some challenges for coordination”. The nurse 
supervisors and health zone manager advised that although there is a weekly planning meeting that 
IRC/Health, IRC/ESPOIR and other international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) providing 
support to the health zone attend, the local community based organizations implementing the ESPOIR 
project do not participate so there is no forum for coordination between the RECO health outreach workers 
and the community education efforts of the community based organizations. 
“Right now the health centre staff are trained separate from the psychosocial assistants who are based in 
the community based organizations. It would work better if it (the trainings) were (conducted) together”. 
- Rwanguba health zone nurse supervisor
 29 Transport and communication difficulties between the health zones and health clinics were reported in key informant interviews 
with Nurse Supervisors and Health Zone Supervisors in North and South Kivu.
20
In South Kivu, IRC/ESPOIR staff report that community based organizations do participate in regular 
planning meetings with the health zones which allows coordination between RECO health outreach and the 
community based organizations’ community education efforts. Progress has recently been made in North 
Kivu on this issue. A joint training between the healthcare staff and psychosocial assistants has been 
scheduled for September 2014. The training will review the referral pathway and facilitate coordination 
between the two structures. It is noted, however, that there is still a need to increase coordination between 
the RECO health outreach workers and the community education efforts of the community based 
organizations in North Kivu.
Legal assistance
Legal assistance was part of the original ESPOIR project design. Originally it was implemented in both 
North and South Kivu. Alpha Ujuvi, a local non-governmental organization, provided legal assistance under 
the ESPOIR project until October 2012. The American Bar Association (ABA) was present in North Kivu 
providing legal clinics and capacity building to local non-governmental legal providers, at the start of the 
ESPOIR project, although their work was not funded by the ESPOIR project. By late 2012, ESPOIR￾assisted and other (i.e. ABA) provision of legal assistance ended due to insecurity caused by the armed 
conflict and presence of the M23. 
In South Kivu, IRC/ESPOIR originally implemented the legal assistance provision with another local non￾governmental organization, Arche d’Alliance. The partnership with Arche d’Alliance was ended due to 
performance issues. According to the annual report for year 3 of ESPOIR I:
“In South Kivu, the IRC confronted significant challenges throughout its partnership with its (previous)
legal partner, Arche d’Alliance, in terms of the quality of legal services provided and reporting outputs. To 
respond to these challenges, two new legal partners were selected (RADHF and ADMR) and signed 
partnership agreements in January 2012 with the IRC in South Kivu until October 2012.”
ADMR and RADHF continued to provide legal counseling and assistance to survivors until the end of 
October 2012. The partnership with RADHF ended at that time, as only ADMR corresponded to the 
geographical coverage sought for the ESPOIR-2 cost-extension30. Hence, after October 2012, ESPOIR￾funded legal assistance in South Kivu was implemented via local non-governmental organization, ADMR 
(Action pour le Développement des Milieux Ruraux). The legal assistance provided by ADMR in South 
Kivu covers two territories, Kabare and Uvira. Within Kabare, there are 3 ADMR sites (in Grunga, Katana 
and Murhesa) and within Uvira, there is 1 ADMR site in Luvungi. Each of these sites have a consultation 
office or maison d’écoute. These sites provide assistance to each of the 13 sites supported by the ESPOIR 
project. 
In each ESPOIR site, two female paralegal assistants are trained to do outreach and provide community 
education around legal rights and processes. These paralegal assistants are also part of the referral pathway 
(to respond to gender based violence). Some of the paralegal assistants are community based organizations
members or can refer to the ESPOIR-assisted community based organizations. The paralegal assistants make 
up local legal committees which operate in targeted ESPOIR communities. The ADMR/ESPOIR model is 
an example of an innovative implementation design that provides sustainable building of local capacity 
while facilitating local access to assistance, consultation and legal training.
In a key informant interview, ADMR reported that ESPOIR helped build the organization’s capacity by 
providing financial management training, assistance with governance planning (i.e. looking at how decisions 
are made within the organization) and technical support in the form of training. Training topics included: 
 30 From ESPOIR-2 first quarterly report 
21
advocacy with local leaders, the law (in general), Congolese legal procedure, penal law, gender based 
violence, how to organize legal service activities, how to conduct awareness building / community education 
campaigns and activities, information on service providers (within the GBV referral pathway), how to make 
a referral within the GBV referral pathway.
From September 2012 through end of June 2014 (under ESPOIR-2), ADMR provided legal assistance to 
184 survivors of gender based violence31. During a key informant interview ADMR reported that in the last 
8 months (since January 2014), they supported the prosecution of 57 cases of rape initiated by ESPOIR￾assisted survivors. ADMR reports that this surpassed the estimate of 44 set for the same period. This is 
compared to 168 survivors who chose who pursue legal action in year one; 198 survivors in year two; and 
165 survivors from February to September 201232. It is noted that at the start of the ESPOIR project the 
majority of sexual violence perpetrators were armed actors33. During the key informant interview, ADMR 
advised that more recent prosecutions involve perpetrators who are local and known to the local community.
This is also confirmed by the IRC/ESPOIR Gender Based Violence Information Management System 
(GBVIMS) statistics which tracks perpetrator profiles. GBVIMS shows a peak in armed actor perpetrators in 
fiscal year 2012 and a steady decrease in fiscal years 2013 and 201434. This shift in the perpetrator profile 
from armed actor to locally known perpetrator may provide some context for the decrease in the number of 
rape prosecutions. There may also be an overall decrease in the number of incidents of sexual violence as 
security in the community increases due to the decreased level of conflict in the province.
ADMR made 40 referrals to via the referral pathway for other support services. These 40 referrals were 
cases where there were other forms of violence (i.e. other than rape) experienced by the survivor. This 
shows ADMR/ESPOIR’s legal assistance provision is well integrated into the referral pathway and that there 
is reciprocity of referrals which originate from various actors within the referral pathway. While the work of 
ADMR has surpassed its projected targets, the relatively low number of survivors receiving legal assistance 
(e.g. 57 cases of rape survivors assisted by ADMR versus 337 incident of rape reported under the ESPOIR 
project since January 2014) represents the difficulties faced by survivors and legal assistance providers when 
seeking legal prosecutions of perpetrators. This is explained further in the Legal Assistance: Challenges
section.
The IRC WPE Program Advisor advised during a key informant interview that in June 2014 IRC/ESPOIR 
staff completed a mapping exercise of legal assistance providers active in North Kivu. The results of the 
mapping exercise identified that there are plans for the American Bar Association (ABA) to reopen a legal 
clinic and for local non-governmental organization, Dynamique des Femmes Juridiques, to provide free 
legal consultation35 in Rutshuru area of North Kivu. The mapping exercise was done in order to facilitate 
legal referrals for ESPOIR assisted survivors. Although the ESPOIR North Kivu legal assistance provision 
has faced challenges in its implementation, the mapping exercise represents a responsible effort on the 
IRC/ESPOIR to promote access to a needed service despite the limitations of implementation faced by the 
project.
Legal Assistance Challenges:
In April 2012, a group of army soldiers mutinied and formed a rebel group called M23. The M23 fought the 
Congolese army for control of territory in North Kivu and were present North Kivu from April 2012 until 
October 2013. During a key informant interview with the IRC Women's Protection and Empowerment 
(WPE) Program Advisor, she explained that by the end of 2012, it became unsafe to fully implement many 
ESPOIR activities, including legal assistance. ESPOIR funded legal assistance via national non-
 31 From ESPOIR Year 4 annual report and quarterly reports for ESPOIR Year 5. 32 The number of survivors who pursued legal action quoted here was reported in the annual reports of Year 1, 2 and 3. 33 From the ESPOIR Year 1 annual report. 34 According to the IRC GBVIMS, in fiscal year (FY) 2011, 291 perpetrators (30%) were members of an armed group; in 
FY2012, 1063 perpetrators (41%) were members of an armed group. This decreased to 607 (33%) in FY2013 and 148 (25%) in 
FY 2014 (January to June 2014).
35 Dynamique des Femmes Juridiques is being funded by the American Bar Association.
22
governmental organization, Alpha Ujuvi, ended after October 2012. There has not been an opportunity to 
restart legal assistance activities since North Kivu became more secure in late 2013. As explained above, 
IRC/ESPOIR has addressed the gap in legal assistance provision in North Kivu by conducting the mapping 
exercise of existing legal services and incorporating these services/organizations into the referral pathway 
used by ESPOIR-assisted communities36.
In South Kivu, legal assistance ESPOIR partner, ADMR reported that the process of a survivor to file a 
complaint against a perpetrator has many barriers that a survivor must endure. First, the survivor must 
decide whether she would like to register a complaint against the perpetrator. This is often dependent on 
whether the survivor is able to identify the perpetrator. The police must initiate the investigation with 48 
hours of the complaint. Within this time, the ADMR lawyer must travel to where the survivor is to make 
sure that the police report is properly registered and possibly be present once the perpetrator is arrested. 
Once the perpetrator is arrested, the lawyer must decide whether or not to go to court. The trial usually takes 
place in the administrative head office of the court, usually located in Bukavu. So, both the survivor and the 
lawyer must travel to where the trial will take place. At court, both sides, the perpetrator and the survivor, 
are heard. After the trial, the survivor must await a judgment. If the judgment is favorable, it is often 
difficult to enforce. For example, if a fee is levied against the perpetrator, the likelihood is that the 
perpetrator will not be able to pay and the survivor will not receive this compensation. The perpetrator could 
be sentenced to prison but while in prison a perpetrator and his family can possibly pay a bribe to be let out 
of prison early or other circumstances can arrive which will result in the perpetrator not serving the entire 
sentence. At each step of the process, there can be a possible hurdle for the survivor to overcome37. In an 
already vulnerable state, the survivor can decide to proceed through the arduous process or discontinue. The 
entire process should take 4 months but can last much longer. Many survivors choose not to begin the 
process at all.
Other challenges faced during the process of prosecuting a perpetrator include the absence of a judge or 
magistrate at times. It can take 5 months for a judge or magistrate to be available to hear the case. The 
survivor’s lawyer must also pay a fee to execute the judgment. So, even if there is a favorable judgment,
there must be financial resources available to pay the fee to carry out the judgment. Full prosecution can be
diverted if the survivor is convinced to sign consent not to go forward with prosecution. In these cases, 
informal arrangements may be made with the family of the survivor in regards to compensation. Informal 
arrangements can also include the perpetrator being made to marry the survivor (although this appears to be 
happening less due to community education efforts). In other instances, the perpetrator’s family may pay a 
bribe to stop the police investigation. All of these challenges contribute to the derailment of the legal process 
and an increased sense of impunity. With all of these challenges, however, some survivors still choose to 
pursue prosecution and ADMR has been able to support the increasing number of survivors who choose to 
follow the legal process through.
Finally, sustainability of the legal assistance provision is a challenge. During the key informant interview, 
ADMR reported that although their capacity had been strengthened, legal fees and transport costs still are a 
barrier to sustainability of legal assistance continuing after the end of ESPOIR funding. ADMR also advised
that there experience has been that there aren’t many international actors that support legal assistance so they 
have had difficulty accessing quality technical support, training opportunities and organizational capacity 
building prior to the IRC/ESPOIR project. One suggestion made by ADMR was for IRC/ESPOIR to connect 
ADMR with other international legal assistance / technical support actors or assist ADMR to apply and 
secure funding from other donors after the end of ESPOIR project funding. Grant writing, developing 
 36 The final quarterly report for ESPOIR Year 5 will show the number of legal assistance referrals made to the legal assistance 
service providers identified in North Kivu as part of the mapping exercise. This will confirm if the referral mechanism for 
referring to these providers is truly integrated into the referral pathway used by ESPOIR-assisted communities. 37 During the key informant interview, ADMR described the challenges and hurdles involved in the legal process for survivors. In
focus group discussions with CBO members in North and South Kivu and with community leaders in Ntamugenga, North Kivu , 
focus group participants described that survivors could sometimes be threatened or harassed by perpetrators or perpetrators’ 
families. It was highlighted that children survivors were more vulnerable to this type of harassment and threats.
23
relationships with potential funders, grant management and mentoring throughout the grant seeking process 
are additional areas of capacity building which would help ADMR insure the sustainability of legal 
assistance programming. 
Social reintegration/economic empowerment assistance:
Social reintegration and income generating activities include Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) 
activities, literacy activities and activities training women and survivors in trades or skills which will allow 
them to generate income. The Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) methodology provides for 
loans to individual group members. VSLAs are governed by a set of internal regulations developed by the 
group members themselves following a template. They determine eligibility for loans, interest fees and the 
repayment period among other issues. Groups are structured with a management committee (president, 
secretary, treasurer, money counters) which answers to the general assembly (VSLA members). A VSLA 
member who would like a loan simply appeals to the general assembly specifying the amount desired, the 
use of the loan, and the repayment date. It is up to the general assembly to decide whether or not to give the 
loan to that member.
VSLA groups utilize the IRC-designed EA$E (Economic and Social Empowerment) curriculum, which 
includes business skills training for members and discussion groups between members and their spouses to 
promote women’s participation in household decision making and encourage a shift towards more equitable 
spousal power relations. The implementation of the Village Savings and Loans Associations include three 
phrases. The first phase is the establishment of the VSLA group. In this phase VSLA members are chosen, 
leadership of the group is chosen and members become familiar with the lending and repayment rules and 
processes of the VSLA. ESPOIR provided a small fund to begin the group. According to VSLA 
methodology, after the 1st cycle groups are considered to be independent and receive sporadic support.
Following the EA$E curriculum, phase two includes discussion groups with women and their partners and 
phase three includes Competency based Economies, Formation of Enterprise (CEFE) business skills 
training.
According to ESPOIR project annual reports, by the end of October 2012 a total of 122 VSLA groups were
created; 8 in North Kivu and 114 in South Kivu. As of June 2014, and additional 8 VSLA groups have been 
established in North Kivu and 10 additional groups in South Kivu. In focus group discussions with VSLA 
group members, respondents reported that in addition to the creation of “official” VSLA groups, a number 
of VSLA-like or “copycat” VSLA groups have also emerged in communities with community members 
emulating the success and benefits of established VSLA groups.
After the completion of the first cycle of savings and loans, VSLA groups have the option to share-out group 
profits and interest. By the end of Year 4 in North Kivu, at the share-out, the average amount in savings per 
VSLA was $1,263 (highest amount in savings was $1,952 and lowest was $790), and the average rate of 
return for the loans that were issued was 38.51% (highest rate of return was 61.5% and lowest was 33%). In 
South Kivu, at the share-out, the average amount in savings per VSLA was $996, and the average rate of 
return for the loans that were issued was 51%, with the average amount shared-out for each VSLA being 
$1,506. At the time of closeout, women noted that the VSLA had changed their lives in the following ways: 
creating small businesses, having enough resources to pay for basic needs and unexpected difficulties, being 
able to pay for children’s education, improving their quality of life in terms of housing and clothing, and 
ensuring food security for women and their families.
IRC/ESPOIR works with women-led local community based organizations (CBOs) to implement social 
reintegration / income generating activities such as tailoring, soap-making, pastry-making, embroidery, 
knitting and animal husbandry. The local community based organizations chose the income generating 
activities based on their knowledge or experience doing the activity or the availability of a local expert who 
could teach the activity in the local community. Please see Appendix X for a list of social reintegration / 
income generating activities reported CBO members in each evaluation site. During focus group discussions 
with local community based organizations, members clearly demonstrated local expertise in facilitating and 
24
teaching social reintegration and income generating activities. Many of the community based organizations
started activities prior to ESPOIR funding. This demonstrates the feasibility of the community based 
organizations sustaining activities after the end of ESPOIR funding. 
The formation of VSLA groups and implementation of social reintegration / income generating activities 
have both a social and an economic impact. The formation of VSLA groups require that community 
members who trust and make a commitment with each other and are within close geographic proximity, 
come together for a long term commitment to work and support each other within the community. In focus 
group discussions with VSLA groups in North Kivu, VSLA members described that because the VSLA 
process requires on-going cooperation and trust, if a disagreement arises between members of the VSLA, the 
other VSLA members come together to provide mediation between the disagreeing parties. Focus group 
participants described that it is in the best interest of the entire VSLA group membership to resolve any 
potential conflict as it puts the entire membership at risk of losing their investment and savings if someone 
leaves the community with the entire communal fund. 
When discussing social reintegration/income generating activities during focus group discussions, it was 
reported that women and survivors who were able to learn a trade such as tailoring, pastry-making 
(beignets), soap-making, etc were able to earn an income. Focus group participants reported that as a result 
of contributing income to the household that their husbands respected them more. Many reported that their 
husbands abused them less and that they are seen by their husband as more equal than before. Focus group 
respondents reported using their earned income to pay for school fees. Women and survivors paying school 
fees also experienced an increase in social status in the community. For example, focus group respondents
reported that school directors are more likely to listen and invite women to be part of school parent 
committees if they know they are paying school fees. Women’s increase in income and payment of school 
fees potentially has the knock-on effect of increasing the number of children going to school. This also has 
the impact of increasing the number of girls going to school. The secondary benefits of the social 
reintegration / income generating activities are described further in the Impact section of this report.
Social reintegration/economic empowerment assistance: Challenges
Periods of intensified conflict, particularly the presence and fighting between Congolese armed forces and 
the M23 rebel group in North Kivu and fighting between Burundi and Congolese rebels in South Kivu, led 
to displacement of people in local communities and the disruption and/or delayed implementation of 
ESPOIR activities. The periods of conflict impacted how quickly Village Savings and Loan Association
groups could be implemented. In both North and South Kivu, there were several start and stops to 
implementing VSLAs. This meant that there was an extended period to carry out EASE curriculum which 
supports the community implementation of VSLAs. In South Kivu, the third phase of EASE curriculum has 
yet to be implemented. The third phase includes business and marketing skills. This aspect of the VSLA 
implementation contributes to the sustainability of established VSLA groups as well as the ability for 
communities to establish other non-ESPOIR implemented VSLA-like groups which cascades the knowledge 
and benefits of the economic empowerment experienced in VSLA groups to others in the community.
iii.Objective 3: Key stakeholders have improved capacity to lead and participate in community based social 
integration and economic recovery activities that include strengthening community response to and 
prevention of GBV.
The IRC/ESPOIR strategy of implementing project activities via local women-led community based 
organizations and through supporting other community structures lends itself to improving the capacity and 
participation of key community stakeholders. ESPOIR capacity building efforts have focused on improving 
the quality of service provision, particularly services provided to survivors of sexual violence. In focus 
group discussions with community leaders and stakeholders (including ESPOIR supported community based 
organization, health centers and local government structure leaders), stakeholders were able to give specific 
25
examples of how ESPOIR has increased their capacity to respond to and prevent gender based violence. 
Community based organizations described the increase in capacity as the provision of the materials and 
training necessary for the social integration / income based activities described in the previous section. 
RECOs and local community leaders described increased capacity through training in concepts of gender 
based violence, the rights of women, and awareness-raising activities focused on how to respond to 
survivors, services available in the community and ways to empower and raise the status of women. RECO 
and local leaders also reported receiving the IEC (information, education and communication) materials to 
do awareness raising campaigns and training on how to conduct community outreach and awareness raising 
campaigns. Health centers reported increased capacity to provide a higher quality of clinical care to 
survivors through receiving the Clinical Care for Sexual Assault Survivors (CCSAS) training from IRC as 
well as receiving medication and additional training regarding making referrals for services available in 
community. 
Stakeholders also reported an increased capacity in the use of monitoring tools. This includes increased 
capacity to provide written reports on their activities as well as increased ability to gather data about 
activities which help with advocacy at the community level (i.e. appealing to governmental structures or 
other partners). All stakeholders highlighted the increased capacity to provide psychosocial assistance via 
the psychosocial assistants based in the community based organizations as a major outcome of the capacity 
building undertaken by IRC/ESPOIR. Ninety-four percent (94%) (15 out of 16 focus group discussions) 
described the increased capacity to provide psychosocial support as an example of one way communities 
now have increased capacity to facilitate social reintegration and to respond to gender based violence.
As part of the monitoring and evaluation plan established by IRC/ESPOIR, all of the community based 
organizations undergo an annual evaluation. During the data collection period of this end of project 
evaluation, IRC/ESPOIR staff were also conducting the annual evaluation for the community based 
organizations. The results of those evaluations will be included in the final annual report for the project.
Improved local capacity: Challenges
Although community stakeholders reported that their technical capacity has improved via training provided 
by ESPOIR, some community stakeholders described lacking materials to implement some of the work they 
had been trained to do. Community stakeholders specifically referred to materials to facilitate awareness￾raising campaigns. Although it was acknowledged that stakeholders receive “boites d’image” (image boxes 
or drawings used to illustrate the concepts of gender based violence or other related issues described in a 
questionnaire or during a community awareness building activity), community stakeholders cited that 
additional materials would facilitate the work, such as a megaphone, pens, paper, water-proof clothes and 
boots for awareness raising activities during the rainy season. This feedback came from the community 
partners of the women-led community based organizations (i.e. RECO, chef du groupement, etc.). It should 
be noted that some of this feedback may be based on local community institutions (i.e. health centers, local 
community chief, schools, etc) wanting more concrete / material support from IRC/ESPOIR in light of the 
women-led community based organizations receiving what is perceived as concrete capacity building 
support in the form of financial support and materials for social reintegration / income generating activities. 
Therefore the feedback during focus group discussions from community leaders may reflect some subtle 
degree of competing for resources which has the potential to decrease effective partnership working in the 
long term if community partners feel that they are contributing to work of caring for survivors in the 
community but not receiving the financial support that the women-led community based organizations
received under the ESPOIR project. Regardless the general request for materials to support awareness￾building activities is a valid one and the question of how can community structures sustain having the 
materials readily available is a question of sustainability and the capacity of community structures to utilize
or generate resources which will allow them to sustain community outreach activities. This is potentially a 
gap in current capacity building efforts.
26
Related to this, capacity building efforts of local community stakeholders focus on increasing technical 
expertise and knowledge to facilitate activities or raise awareness. However, many of the community 
structures themselves lack the organizational capacity to independent sustain activities. Besides a need for 
building technical or service provision capacity, there is also a need to build governance and organizational
management capacity to appropriately manage resources and staff in order to facilitate sustainability as well 
as full community integration and ownership of activities.
An additional challenge discussed in a focus group discussion with community stakeholders in Ntamugenga, 
North Kivu was with regards to the cascade of gender based violence sensitivity training for police and the 
recruitment and background screening process for newly recruited police. Ntamugenga community 
stakeholder focus group participants confirmed that the police commandant was invited to participate in 
gender based violence and referral pathway training along with other service providers and community 
stakeholders. However, it was suggested that the information learned within the training was not cascaded 
down to the police ranks that actually deal with survivors and conduct the investigation of potential 
perpetrators. In addition, a concern was raised that former prisoners, perpetrators and others in the 
community known to have committed atrocities have applied and become police officers. Focus group 
participants explained that this is possible because the local government has made an appeal to recruit police 
and the only eligibility criteria is being able-bodied and under 30 years old. Focus group participants advise 
that police officers do not undergo background checks or screening due to a lack of resources and 
infrastructure to conduct such screenings. This is a major challenge in regards to building local capacity as 
the police represent a major partner in providing legal assistance and in the overall referral pathway. These 
challenges highlight that the capacity of police is only superficially being addressed by including police 
commandants in capacity building training. More would need to be done to insure that the training reaches 
all of the police ranks and that newly recruited police are screened in order to safeguard and protect the 
interest and well-being of survivors.
Improved local capacity to support women’s empowerment: Male discussion groups
This evaluation also looked at the male discussion groups, which included the “Men as Partners” pilot 
groups in North Kivu under ESPOIR-I (from 2012) and the current use of the EMAP (Engaging Men in 
Accountable Practice) curriculum, starting in 2013 in North Kivu with the most recent group cycle ending in 
August 2014 in South Kivu. The purpose of the male discussion groups is to facilitate behavior change for 
men and to reduce violence towards women, particularly as the social reintegration and income generating 
activities of ESPOIR empower women economically and could potentially make them vulnerable to abuse 
or exploitation. In all, there were 6 male discussion groups implemented in North Kivu and 5 groups 
implemented in South Kivu. The criteria for inclusion in the male discussion group include a commitment 
on behalf of the male participant to come to all 16 weeks of the group cycle and a commitment not to use 
violence. 
As part of the screening and group follow up process, IRC/ESPOIR staff visit group participants in each of 
their homes, meeting with the participant and their spouse separately. To recruit male discussion group 
participants, outreach presentations are made in the community and to community leadership. The husbands 
of women who are participating in ESPOIR assisted activities are not targeted but are often included in the 
discussion groups. The groups are facilitated by local community members who are trained as facilitators 
and supervised by ESPOIR/IRC community education staff. The EMAP curriculum is currently being
adapted to improve the effectiveness of the group in changing attitudes and behavior. The group originally 
included 16 weeks of sessions with men only. However, the group became focused on issues faced by men 
rather than the empowerment of women. Currently, the curriculum has been adapted to include 8 weeks of 
sessions with women before the 16 weeks with men to insure focus on issues impacting women’s well 
being.
The male discussion groups have been well received by community members. In the focus group discussions 
facilitated as part of this evaluation, participants described that there was a lot of interest from men in the 
27
community to join the discussion groups. In all of the evaluation focus groups, men reported that when 
outreach was initially done for the male discussion groups, more men came forward than could be 
accommodated in the group and there is still a lot of interest in the group from other men in the community 
now that they have seen the difference that the group has made in the lives of former participants. In all of 
the evaluation focus groups, men were able to give concrete examples of behavior changes they had made 
and the impact of attitude changes in the community. Some of these examples are listed below:
 “Before, I didn’t involve my wife in decision-making”.
 “Recently I asked her (my wife) what should we do with the money we earned from selling sugar 
cane”.
 “Previously, when I received my salary, I would go drink beer and bring the rest for my wife. Now, 
we go together to spend the salary... We have started working out together how we should allocate 
the salary”.
 “I didn’t want to become a part of the discussion group but wife insisted saying if I entered I would 
gain a lot. I joined the group and since then my household has changed”. 
 “I have found what I have learned allows me to organize my family”. 
 “For example, previously, I was at my friend’s house who gave me flour but I didn’t have anyone to 
carry it, and my friend’s wife asked me to call my wife to come to carry (the flour). I said no and I 
carried it to my house my wife was happy”.
Former EMAP participants in Cirunga, South Kivu
In response to, “How has the general view of women changed since the start of the male discussion group?”:
 “Women (can) speak freely in public and sometimes even disagree with the opinions of men”.
Former EMAP participants in Ceya/Tshengerero, North Kivu
The feedback from the former male discussion group participants above demonstrate the concrete behavior
changes made by men but also illustrate the potential impact to empower women whether it be at the family 
level or at the community level. For example, for the man in the comment above who carried the flour from 
his friend’s home, he not only empowered his wife but potentially the wife of his friend. In the evaluation 
focus group discussions, men also explained that they are empowered as a result of the group as well. This is 
seen in the comment, “I have found what I have learned allows me to organize my family”. The role of the 
man in the household becomes easier because the man can now share responsibility and share in the tasks of 
managing the household so neither the man or woman is overburdened by their gender roles.
The evaluation focus group participants agreed that the male discussion groups should and could continue 
and there is continued interest from men in the community to participate in the male discussion groups. 
There was a split among the participants of the focus groups as to how the male discussion groups might 
continue. Some respondents suggested that former male discussion group participants could be trained to 
become facilitators. Others commented that former participants wouldn’t have time to facilitate the group so 
a facilitator would have to be made available. Those that were interested in former participants running the 
groups advised that they would need training both on the content of information shared in the group as well 
as facilitation training. These focus group respondents suggested that IRC/ESPOIR provide the training, 
similar to the training provided to the community members who facilitated the current male discussion 
groups. This seems to imply that the current male discussion group facilitators were either not available to 
continue the male discussion groups or perhaps not able to cascade the training to potential facilitators. This 
may just be the perception of the former group participants but it perhaps also reflects that there hasn’t been 
formal planning of how to cascade the male discussion group facilitator training or how the groups might 
continue after the end of the ESPOIR project.
The male discussion groups have clear monitoring and evaluation tools which have been carefully designed 
to measure behavior and attitude changes in participants (See Appendix XI for pre/post questionnaires used 
to interview male discussion group participants before and after the group). The behavior and attitude 
change data gathered by ESPOIR is centrally collated and analyzed. During the period of this evaluation, the 
28
data was input for analysis and undergoing data cleansing, so it was not possible to assess the impact of the 
male discussion groups as part of this evaluation. However, the data analysis and impact of the male 
discussion groups will be included in the final report of the ESPOIR project.
Other Challenges: Access for girls (under 18)
During the focus group discussions with members of the women-led community based organizations, 
several questions were asked regarding girls under 18 accessing the survivor support, social reintegration 
and income generating activities available to women. Consistently focus group respondents reported that 
girls make up a small percentage of the beneficiaries of services. In a key informant interview with the WPE 
program Advisor, it was reported that children under 18 make up approximately 10-15% of ESPOIR 
beneficiaries. This was confirmed by ESPOIR field staff. In analyzing data from the GBV IMS database 
provided by the WPE Monitoring, Evaluation & Research Coordinator, it was confirmed that current 
number of children under 18 assisted by ESPOIR has averaged between 8.6 % to 14.5% in South Kivu and 
12% to 25% in North Kivu (see Table 2 below). 
Table 2 shows a higher percentage of children have consistently been able to access ESPOIR assisted 
support in North Kivu. This may be due to different outreach or awareness building techniques used by the 
community based organizations in North Kivu. The table also shows in increase in the percentage of child 
survivors accessing support from 2009 to 2012 then a drop from 2013 through 2014. This coincides with 
periods of insecurity in both provinces (i.e. November 2011 presidential elections; M23 in North Kivu; 
increased IDP displacement in South Kivu, increased insecurity in Fizi and Uvira, South Kivu). It is possible 
that as ESPOIR activities were established in 2009, outreach and awareness building activities increased and 
became reinforced allowing an increasing amount of children to know about and access ESPOIR support. 
With increased insecurity and displacement in the period from 2012 to late 2013, ESPOIR outreach and 
awareness building may have decreased with some ESPOIR activities being interrupted. This may have led 
to a lower percentage of children survivors being reached and therefore accessing ESPOIR support. The 
example of ESPOIR assisted legal assistance in North Kivu shows that ESPOIR activities have only recently 
begun to recover from the impact of M23 insecurities. It’s possible that as children appear to be the most 
vulnerable in accessing support, it would take more time of stable programming in a secure environment 
until children survivors would have the same level of access they had in 2011/2012. 
Table 2: Percentage of Children Survivors assisted by ESPOIR Support (2011-2014)
Year North Kivu South Kivu
2009 (October to December) 16.4% 14.5%
2010 19.7% 8.8%
2011 25% 15%
2012 24% 16%
2013 17% 14%
2014 (January to June) 12% 8.6%
When we look at the types of ESPOIR support services which children under 18 accessed in 2014 (January 
to June), it appears that children survivors currently more readily access medical assistance and economic 
assistance in North Kivu while in South Kivu children survivors more readily accessing legal assistance and 
psychosocial assistance (see Table 3 below). When North Kivu was able to offer legal assistance (until 
October 2012), it also appears that children were able to access legal assistance most readily. Until 2014, 
economic assistance was accessed by the lowest percentage of child survivors compared to the other types of 
ESPOIR support in North Kivu. This has changed in 2014, with more than one third of survivors currently 
accessing economic assistance in North Kivu being children. In South Kivu, with the exception of 2012, 
child survivors have been the smallest percentage of beneficiaries accessing economic assistance when 
compared to the other types of ESPOIR support. The types of support accessed by child survivors may 
represent their actual/differing needs when compared to adults as well the perceived needs of children in the 
community. Further study is needed to determine why, why not and how children survivors access the 
various types of ESPOIR support.
29
Table 3: Percentage of Children Accessing Each Type of Support (2011-2014)38
North Kivu South Kivu
Psychosocial Medical Legal Economic 
Assistance
Psychosocial Medical Legal Economic 
Assistance
2011 20% 23% 71% 15% 13% 11.5% 56.5% 0%
2012 19.6% 15.6% 44.4% 14% 13.7% 12.3% 34% 16.3%
2013 14.8% 21.4% - 10% 12.5% 12.1% 19.6% 8.3%
2014
(January to 
June)
9.6% 27% - 38% 20% 11% 60% 9.5%
A concern in regards to the percentages of vulnerable or survivor children accessing ESPOIR support is that 
children are believed to make up over 50% of the population39. In addition, according to the United Nations 
Population Fund in 2008 in DRC (just prior to implementation of ESPOIR), 65% of sexual violence 
survivors were children and adolescents younger than 18 years, with 10% of all sexual violence survivors 
younger than 10 years old40. Thus, the percentages of child survivors accessing ESPOIR support cited above 
appear to be low. During the focus group discussions, girls under 18 years old were described as being more 
vulnerable than older women to rape and abuse. It was also emphasized that children could only access 
support if their parents agreed. Focus group participants described the increased stigma that girl survivors 
have in relation to their peers and having future prospects of marriage. The presentation of a relatively low 
percentage of children participating in ESPOIR assisted activities in the context of these reports of stigma 
and increased vulnerability seems to point to possible barriers for girls (under 18) to access survivor support 
services and other social integration activities through the community based organizations.
When the evaluation consultant discussed this issue with field staff and the WPE Program Advisor, they 
explained that IRC/ESPOIR has already recognized that these barriers may exist. In partnership with 
Columbia University and with funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the 
IRC is part of a multi-country impact evaluation of violence prevention and risk reduction activities for 
adolescent girls in humanitarian settings. This research will look at whether adding a specific intervention 
with parents or guardians of 10-14 year old girls who are taking part in life skills curriculum will increase 
the impact on the girls’ empowerment or the reduction of the risk of violence they face. The research will 
also include studies of interventions with married girls and with girls in emergency settings to determine 
whether these interventions are acceptable and feasible within their communities. The grant will also fund 
interventions related to increasing access for girls to safe spaces in their communities and reinforcing the 
capacity of service providers, particularly for medical and psychosocial care, to respond specifically to the 
needs of adolescent girls.
The impact evaluation is currently in its data collection phase. Recommendations for program design will 
emerge from the research. This will help to unpick, understand and possibly address the potential barriers 
faced by vulnerable and survivor children under 18 and provide the context for a more targeted and 
specifically child-focused program design for children and young people accessing support.
 38 The GBV Information Management System (IMS) was established by IRC in North and South Kivu provinces in 2011. A 
breakdown of the types of services accessed by children prior to 2011 is not readily available. Thus the table above includes data 
from 2011-2014. 39 According to UNICEF DRC country statistics – demographic indicators, children under 18 years old make up approximately 
52% of the total populations. Adolescents (ages 10 – 19) make up 23.4% of the total population. The data source for the child 
population statistics is the United Nations Population Division. For more information, see UNICEF country statistics website at:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/drcongo_statistics.html#120. 40 Peterman, Amber, Ph.D, Tia Palmero and Caryn Bredenkamp, Ph.D (June 2011). Estimates and Determinants of Sexual 
Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. American Journal of Public Health. 2011 June; 101(6): 1060–
1067. This article quotes figures on sexual violence reported in the DRC in 2008. New York, NY: United Nations; Population 
Fund; 2009
30
b. Impact
The impact of ESPOIR activities ranges from the impact that the activities have had in the lives of women 
beneficiaries to the impact on the communities in which they live. This evaluation looked at the impact on 
women from perspective of a sample of women who accessed psychosocial support and completed the 
psychosocial functionality tool with a psychosocial assistant, the reported impact of women community 
based organization members who participated in focus group discussion during the evaluation, reported 
socio-economic outcomes reported by ESPOIR partner Women for Women International and the 
comparison of a small sample of women who have not yet accessed psychosocial support with those who 
have. 
Psychosocial Functionality 
IRC/ESPOIR developed a tool used with survivors accessing psychosocial support which measures the 
survivors’ ability to perform everyday tasks and symptoms associated with decreased psychosocial 
functioning at the start and at discharge of the psychosocial intervention. An example of the IRC/ESPOIR 
psychosocial functionality tool is included in Appendix XII. For the purposes of this evaluation, a sample of 
227 survivors who accessed psychosocial support and completed the psychosocial functionality tool at 
intake and discharge was reviewed. The functionality tool is divided into two sections: Section A looks at 
the everyday tasks that a survivor is able to perform – the higher the score the less the survivor is able to 
complete these tasks; Section B looks at symptoms associated with decreased psychosocial functioning such 
as insomnia, having flashbacks, decreased appetite, etc. – the higher the score the lower the psychosocial 
functioning of the survivor. The average score for the sample of 227 survivors at intake in Section A was 24, 
then 3.6 at discharge. In Section B, the average score was 22.6 at intake then 4 at discharge. This shows a 
dramatic increase in psychosocial functioning, both in the ability to resume performing everyday tasks and 
decrease in symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, trauma or other forms of decreased psychosocial 
well-being.
Individual Questionnaire Analysis
The impact on psychosocial functioning of ESPOIR supported survivors was also assessed via a 
questionnaire developed by the evaluation consultant (see Appendix IX). The questionnaire looks at the 
ability of a survivor to earn income to cover basic needs, social connectedness and questions related to how 
the survivor feels about her/his self or self-esteem. A comparison was made between survivors at the start 
of the psychosocial support intervention provided by the psychosocial assistants and survivors who have 
completed the psychosocial support intervention.
In South Kivu, eleven percent (11%) of respondents who completed the psychosocial intervention reported 
that they were able to earn income to meet their daily needs. Nearly 36% of “old” case respondents said that 
they earned enough income to meet their basic needs “sometimes”. This is compared to 4.8% of new 
psychosocial support case respondents reporting earning enough income to meet their basic needs and nearly 
41% reporting that they could meet their basic needs “sometimes”. In North Kivu, 2.8% of “old” case 
respondents said that they could earn enough money to meet their needs and 58% reported that they are 
“sometimes” able to meet their needs compared to 0% of “new cases” earning enough to meet their basic 
needs and 20% sometimes able to meet their basic needs with the money they earn41. These results show a 
slight trend towards survivors who completed the psychosocial support intervention being more able to earn 
income to meet their basic needs. As the sample size of survivors is small and no further statistical analysis 
was completed to determine statistical significance of the difference between the two respondent groups, the 
questionnaire results are only meant to provide a snapshot of trends within/between the two groups of 
survivors.
 41 One third of the North Kivu “old” case respondents did not answer this question. Over 71% of “new” case respondents did not 
answer this question.
31
The graphs below show the responses to questions related to social connectedness from “old” and “new” 
case respondents. In both North and South Kivu, a higher percentage of survivor respondents who 
completed the psychosocial support intervention consistently answered “yes” to friends, people or services 
in the community which could support them. It should be noted that in North Kivu, there is a marginal 
difference in the percentage of “new” and “old” survivor respondents who reported being able to identify 
where in the community to go for help if someone did them harm. These results are in line with the 
previously reported findings (see Findings: Effectiveness – Objective One section of this report) regarding a 
higher level of reporting of rape and presentation for services within 72 hours in North Kivu ESPOIR sites
where there was overlap with the IRC Health Program and extensive community education regarding the importance 
of accessing care. It is likely that extensive community education has increased the likelihood of survivors and 
potential survivors alike, regardless of having received a psychosocial support intervention, to be able to identify 
where they can go for help if harmed. ESPOIR community education activities may also contribute to the relatively 
high percentage of “new” case respondents in South Kivu who also identified somewhere in the community they can 
go if they were harmed. In this sense, ESPOIR community education activities may also be seen as contributing to 
increased psychosocial functioning outcomes like social connectedness.
South Kivu
Graph A: Comparison of Individual Survivor Questionnaire Respondent: Social Connectedness (South Kivu)
North Kivu
Graph B: Comparison of Individual Survivor Questionnaire Respondent: Social Connectedness (North Kivu)
32
Generally, a higher percentage of survivor respondents who completed the psychosocial support intervention 
also reported higher levels of self esteem42 in both provinces. In South Kivu, “old” case respondents reported 
higher levels of self esteem in 3 out of the 4 positive self-esteem questions asked in the individual questionnaire. 
South Kivu
Graph C: Comparison of Individual Survivor Questionnaire Respondent: Self Esteem (South Kivu)
 42 Levels of self esteem were measured by positive responses to the Rosenberg self esteem scale questions.
33
In North Kivu, the results of the comparison between “old” and “new” case respondents were more dramatic, 
with an average of 95% of “old” case respondents reporting higher levels of positive self-esteem43 and an average 
of over 90% of “new” case respondents reporting high levels of negative self-esteem.
North Kivu
Graph D: Comparison of Individual Survivor Questionnaire Respondent: Self Esteem (North Kivu)
The combination of the results reported from the individual survivor questionnaires related to ability to earn 
income to cover basic needs, social connectedness and self-esteem show a consistent trend towards 
increased psychosocial functioning of survivors who have completed the psychosocial support intervention 
provided by the psychosocial assistants. This provides further confirmation of the positive outcomes 
reported via the psychosocial functionality tool.
 43 These respondents responded that they “very much agree” with positive statements correlating with higher levels of self esteem.
34
Social Economic Outcomes - Women for Women, International
IRC partnered with international non-governmental organization, Women for Women International – DRC 
(WfWI), to provide socio economic reintegration activities to ESPOIR survivors and beneficiaries. WfWI 
provided life skills training, including modules on Sustaining an Income, Family and Community Decision￾Making, Health and Wellness, and Social Networks and Safety Nets. WfWI participants also participated in 
vocational training (including agriculture and animal husbandry, brick-making, beauty care, culinary arts, 
retail sales and bread making) with a focus on business skills, cooperative development, and technical skills.
Lastly, the WfWI intervention also included supporting groups of ESPOIR assisted women to develop 
cooperatives (shared funds of money to develop income generating activities). WfWI provided training on 
cooperative development focusing on practical understanding of what distinguishes a cooperative from other 
forms of business entities, the various types of cooperatives and how to use cooperatives for purchasing and 
marketing. This training also included decision-making processes and how to influence decision-making. 
By the end of Year 4 of ESPOIR WfWI provided life skills trainings to 5, 610 ESPOIR assisted survivors. A 
mid-term evaluation of the impact of the WfWI intervention showed that ninety-eight percent (98%) of 
participants could identify two benefits of saving, and 97% of them could elaborate on two methods of 
savings. In Year 4, at baseline, ESPOIR Year 4 program participants were earning an average income of 
$0.68 per day and saving an average of $1.23 per month. At endline, all women included in the sample 
reported earning more than $1/day. On average, women save $2.54 each month. Upon graduation, 100% 
percent of ESPOIR Year 4 program participants report being employed or self-employed.
An end of project evaluation of the impact of the WfWI project revealed that women in the program had 
acquired valuable information about their rights, with all women (100%) in the evaluation sample reporting 
an understanding of their rights, most women (96%) able to identify two property rights to which they are 
entitled, and (91%) able to identify three human rights to which they are entitled. Findings also showed that 
women share this knowledge with others, with a majority of women (80%) reporting that they have educated 
another woman about rights. Of the sampled women, 94% were able to describe at least one way to address 
gender inequality in their communities.
Of the sample, 94% of women could articulate what a cooperative is. In addition, a total of 647 women are 
currently participating actively in business groups, pre-cooperatives or cooperatives. These groups of 
women received mentoring on effective organization leadership and teamwork from WfWI to strengthen 
cohesion within the groups. 
Community Based Organization Member Feedback
During the focus group discussions with the women-led community based organizations, women expressed 
the impact that they felt that ESPOIR had for them as well as in the community. One hundred percent 
(100%) of participants in the women-led community based organizations in the 16 sites visited in North and 
South Kivu reported positive outcomes as a result of their involvement with ESPOIR activities. The 
spectrum of women participants’ feedback is reflected in some of quotes below:
“The love between me and my husband have grown”
- Amajambere CBO member / focus group participant in Kabanero, North Kivu
Women participants consistently reported that their relationship with their husband had improved. Women 
reported that their husbands had more respect for them because they saw that they could contribute to the 
household as well. Women reported that abuse from their husband decreased, although it didn’t totally 
disappear44. Women participants advised that a very small minority of men rejected women being able to 
contribute to the household. These husbands were described as refusing to eat the food cooked by the 
 44 Many women who reported that abuse from their husbands continued also described their husbands as drinking a lot of alcohol.
35
women and eating “outside” so as to not accept the food and other benefits that the woman had contributed 
to the household. However, women consistently described these situations as a very small minority.
“With the money I make from beignets, I can pay school fees and buy things for the house. My husband has 
more respect for me because I can contribute.”
- Femme lève-toi CBO member / focus group participant in Kamanyola, South Kivu
Over 90% of women who participated in focus group discussions (as part of this evaluation) who earned 
income from income generating activities or saved money as part of VSLA activities reported using earned 
income or savings to pay for school fees for their children. This had the secondary impact of more children, 
including girls, being able to go to school.
“The chief he comes to seek out the opinion of the president of the CBO and other CBO members. They 
didn’t do that before. Now we are given the right to talk”
- Twisenge CBO member / focus group participant in Ntamugenga, North Kivu
When asked about the difference for women in the community, in approximately 80% of focus groups with 
women-led community based organization members, women responded that women now have the right to 
speak their opinions in a public domain where they didn’t have the right before. In addition, community 
leaders were beginning to actively seek the opinions of women. Some of the increased right for women to 
speak in the community was attributed to awareness-raising done by the ESPOIR project with community 
leaders. However, women also described having an elevated status in the community due to having access to 
income. For example, school directors were interested in having women participate in parent committees at 
school because they are paying school fees for an increased number of children to attend school which raises
the amount of revenue for schools. Therefore, participation of women (paying school fees) has become in 
the best interest of schools.
“Along with economic benefits of IGA activities, there are also health benefits. For example, knitting clothes 
for newborns helps protect them from pneumonia; making soap means more sanitary hygiene and (self) care 
of women and children.”
- Health centre midwife / community stakeholders’ focus group participant in Ntamugenga, North 
Kivu
Besides an increased number of children having access to education due to the increased ability of women to 
pay school fees, there were other secondary benefits reported during the focus group discussions in regards 
to the skills learned by women as part of the income generating activities. One midwife/nurse participant in 
a community leaders’ focus group in North Kivu reported health benefits which impacted women and 
children. These secondary benefits have not been validated with empirical evidence but their description 
speaks to an increase in the quality of life for ESPOIR-assisted women and their children which go beyond 
purely economic measures.
“I couldn’t take care of the house. I was depressed then I received psychosocial support, a goat, a blanket 
for my baby and learned how to do embroidery. I used to fight with people but I learned (how to behave 
differently). Other people notice the change and approach me now.”
- IDJWI CBO member / focus group participant in Kabaya, North Kivu
The psychosocial support provided by the psychosocial assistants was consistently cited as making a 
difference in the lives of women. The psychosocial assistants are often described as a first point of contact in 
accessing support. The psychosocial support provided orients survivors towards services within the referral 
36
pathway (i.e. medical, legal, security/safety, and psychosocial service providers), provides supportive 
counseling then refers survivors to social reintegration activities including life skills classes and income 
generating activities. In the example above (IDJWI focus group participant in Kabaya, North Kivu), the 
survivor described how psychosocial support acted as a gateway giving her the confidence to participate in 
social reintegration activities. Life skills classes reinforced that confidence and the act of participating in 
group oriented activities gave her more opportunities to practice interacting with others and building
confidence. This combined with the economic empowerment of vocational skills training and income 
generating activities cemented her sense of confidence and recovery.
c. Sustainability
Sustainability describes both the ability of project activities to continue beyond the funding period and the 
ability of community structures to sustain the impact produced by project activities. Through focus group 
discussions and key informant interviews, this evaluation attempted to assess the organizational capacity of 
community structures as well as the aspects of impact on the larger community which were likely to have 
longer term effects on women and on the community.
Implementation via local women-led community based organizations and local community structures: 
Sustainable capacity building
IRC/ESPOIR’s strategy to implement project activities via women-led community based organizations, 
particularly those that operated and had a presence in the community before the ESPOIR project, has within 
it a plan for promoting sustainability. The women-led community based organizations are self-motivated and 
as previously mentioned (see Effectiveness - Objective Three: Key Stakeholders’ Improved Capacity to Lead 
and Participate in Community Based Social Integration and Economic Recovery Activities) demonstrated 
and described increased capacity during focus group discussions and observation visits which were a part of 
this evaluation. Local community structures also demonstrated increased awareness of women’s rights 
issues and collaboration with the women led community based organizations and their membership. In focus 
group discussions, this was demonstrated by local community structures’ knowledge of the referral pathway 
to assist vulnerable women to access support and descriptions of changes in the status of women and how 
women are seen, particularly around women’s participation in community life and decision making. The 
building of capacity of the community based organizations and the awareness-raising with local community 
structures contribute to the likelihood that project activities will continue after the end of the project and the 
activities will continue to have a lasting impact on the lives and status of women in the community.
VSLA, Social Reintegration and Income Generating Activities: Sustainable Economic Empowerment
VSLA share-out outcomes and Women for Women International (WfWI) social economic outcomes show 
increased income, savings for ESPOIR participants and use of income and savings to meet household and 
family needs as well as invest in small business or other income generating activities. As the increased 
income is based on a program of savings, investment in a communal fund and income generation, ESPOIR 
participants who continue to use the skills learned from the VSLA groups or WfWI activities can potentially 
continue to generate savings and income. The VSLA groups and other social reintegration/ income 
generating activities are self perpetuating as therefore create sustainability of both the impact for ESPOIR 
assisted women and the outcome of increased income after the funding period of ESPOIR. In all of the focus 
group discussions with VSLA groups and women CBO membership as part of this evaluation, focus group 
respondents confirmed their experience of having access to increased income, being better able to meet their 
household/family needs and their ongoing participation in income generating activities which continued to 
be the source of their increased income.
Increased capacity of women-led community based organizations to facilitate income generating / social 
reintegration activities and awareness building in the community
In focus group discussions with community stakeholders (including the women-led CBO leadership), all of 
the community based organizations reported receiving training in community mobilization, making referrals 
37
within the referral pathway and various income generation, vocational skills and social reintegration 
activities (i.e. soap making, agriculture, tailoring, animal husbandry, etc). In addition, the psychosocial 
assistants, who are based within each of the community based organizations, received specialized training in 
case management and supportive counseling as part of providing psychosocial support. The ability for the 
community based organizations to carry out these activities was demonstrated and observed during the 
evaluation and spoken about by CBO members and survivors during focus group discussions. Some of the 
community based organizations facilitated activities prior to ESPOIR support. However, the activities of all 
of the community based organizations have expanded significantly since the start of the ESPOIR project. 
This is evidence of the increased capacity of the women-led community based organizations to facilitate 
these activities. This increased capacity will stay with the community based organization beyond the funding 
period of the ESPOIR project. Even if the number or frequency of activities decrease after the end of the 
project, the technical capacity of those who received this training will remain and would have expanded to 
the participants of these activities. The choice of implementing the activities via community based 
organizations which were previously active in the community prior to ESPOIR support, contributes to the 
likelihood that these community based organizations will continue to be present and active in the 
community, but now with increased technical capacity.
Increased awareness of women’s rights issues in the community
Focus group discussions with community stakeholders, women CBO members, VSLA and male discussion 
group participants demonstrated and made reference to increased awareness of women’s rights and some 
degree of change in how women are seen in the community as a result of awareness raising activities and the
increased economic and social empowerment of women made possible by the ESPOIR project. Examples 
given of the change in the status of women include increased participation of women in public life (i.e. 
women being able and invited to speak in community meetings, women participation in parent committees 
in local schools, seeking the opinion and participation of the women-led CBO leadership in general 
community leadership decision-making, etc.). The integration of women’s opinions and voices has the 
potential impact to increase women’s overall participation in decision making and to integrate the needs and 
priorities of women in community planning and representation. Although this change was initiated by 
ESPOIR project activities, it’s integration into general community life and structures contributes to 
sustaining and building upon the positive impact for women beyond the funding period of the ESPOIR 
project.
Increased social cohesion as an impact of the VSLA
As previously mentioned, VSLA focus group participants described that it is in the best interest of the entire 
VSLA group membership to resolve any potential conflict as it puts the entire membership at risk of losing 
their investment and savings. Thus, the formation of VSLA groups require a level of trust and cooperation 
between VSLA group members which promotes social cohesion among VSLA members and potentially for
the larger community with the creation of other VSLA groups (see Effectiveness - Objective Two: Social 
reintegration/economic empowerment assistance section of this report). The reinforcement of social 
cohesion through the economic empowerment of the VSLA promotes the sustainability and expansion of 
VSLA groups.
Sustainability: Challenges
Although the strategy of implementing ESPOIR project activities via women-led community based 
organizations promotes the overall sustainability of activities, during focus group discussions, key informant 
interviews and observation made during the evaluation period, several points were highlighted as potential 
challenges to the sustainability of activities and their impact for vulnerable women.
During focus group discussions, leadership and members of the community based organizations confirmed 
increase technical knowledge which will contribute to sustaining ESPOIR project activities. However, 
concerns were raised in regards to the purchasing of materials needs for the social reintegration and income 
38
generation activities (i.e. fabric for tailoring, flour and oil for pastry-making, materials for soap-making, 
etc.). The expectation from CBO leaders and members appeared to be that they would need to continue to 
have funding in order to purchase activity materials. Without funding for materials, CBO leaders and 
members seem to imply that the frequency of activities and capacity to enroll new participants would 
decrease over time. There did not seem to be a plan or understanding that generated revenue from income 
earning activities or the income earned from those who have benefited from vocational training or social 
reintegration activities could be contributed towards purchasing materials for future activity cycles45.
Although the concept of re-investing generated revenue into sustaining project activities is implicit in the 
IRC/ESPOIR’s capacity building strategy, the concept of the community based organizations being self 
sustaining and eventually being able to operate independent of IRC/ESPOIR has not yet been imbedded 
within the community based organizations, local community structures or the community in general. In 
addition to capacity building of the community based organizations to lead and participate in community 
based social integration and economic recovery activities there is also a need for building the capacity of the 
organizational infrastructure to become more self-sufficient as a result of the social integration and 
economic recovery activities. This requires ongoing monitoring and mentoring during the life cycle of the 
project to insure that the community based organizations are oriented, planning for and moving towards self 
sustainability to maintain social reintegration and income generating activities after the end of the project. It 
is imperative that this type of capacity building begin at the start of the project life cycle in order to 
maximize the time spent supporting and monitoring the success of community based organizations moving 
towards self-reliance and sustainability.
Similar sustainability challenges exist for the legal and medical assistance service providers. Legal fees and 
transport costs impact the sustainability of legal assistance and the need for an ongoing supply of medicines 
and PEP kits impact the sustainability of medical assistance. The difference with legal and medical 
assistance service providers is that they did not benefit from facilitating income generating activities or 
participating in VSLA groups during the ESPOIR project funding period. So, the legal and medical 
assistance structures are dependent on an outside source of funding to meet these essential costs. 
In North Kivu, IRC/ESPOIR has attempted to address this need by leaving a stockpile of PEP kits and 
medicines with the health zones. In addition, IRC/ESPOIR participated in coordination planning with 
UNICEF and the health zones in both North and South Kivu. As previously mentioned, even with 
coordination between UNICEF and the health zones challenges still exist in facilitating the distribution of 
PEP kits and essential medicines to the health zones (see Objective Two: Medical Assistance – Challenges
section). There is also the reduced motivation and retention of health care staff who, no longer receive a 
financial supplement from IRC Health programming, to continue to offer free health interventions to 
survivors as part of the gender based violence referral pathway. Even with these challenges which can 
potentially compromise the sustainability of access to medical assistance in the community, enough 
infrastructure and planning exist that is likely that some level of medical assistance provision will continue 
after the end of the ESPOIR project. In regards to legal assistance, however, the gap in funding to cover 
legal fees and transport costs is not addressed. Therefore, the sustainability of legal assistance after the end 
of the ESPOIR project is severely impaired.
Another key point for sustainability is the ability of the community based organizations and psychosocial 
assistants to continue to provide psychosocial support for survivors at the quality and standard set by the 
IRC/ESPOIR project. In order for this to happen, there is a need for on-going professional development and 
quality assurance monitoring of psychosocial assistants. Under the ESPOIR project, psychosocial assistants 
 45 It is possible that CBO leadership and members did not highlight using generated revenue for materials for future activities 
during focus group discussions as a way to advocate for the need for continued funding of materials for social reintegration and 
income generating activities.
39
receive quality assurance checks from IRC/ESPOIR psychosocial officers and on-going training from IRC 
as a larger organization. After the end of the project, there is no provision for quality assurance checks to 
continue. This combined with the lack of on-going training is likely to mean that the quality of the 
psychosocial intervention will decrease over time. In addition, psychosocial assistants currently advise that it 
is difficult for them to fulfill their duties in their roles as psychosocial assistants as well as their personal 
obligations and need to find income to support themselves and their families (see Effectiveness - Objective 
Two: Psychosocial Assistance: Challenges section). This sentiment is likely to increase after the end of the 
ESPOIR project thus jeopardizing the sustainability of the psychosocial support intervention which is solely 
dependent on the current psychosocial assistants continuing in their role with the community based 
organizations46. Unless there can be a way to balance the psychosocial assistants ability to earn income with 
the workload of the role, it is likely that there will be a need to provide some level of a financial incentive to 
retain the psychosocial assistants in their role in order to maintain the provision of psychosocial support.
Although IRC/ESPOIR has found it to be an effective strategy to work with community based organizations
and to support community partners directly working with survivors and women in the community, another 
aspect of sustainability would be to coordinate intervention efforts and to build the capacity of government 
authorities to monitor and support project activities. Key informant interviews and community stakeholder 
focus group discussions confirmed that IRC/ESPOIR coordinates project activities with local government 
authorities at the community level (i.e. chef du groupement, chef du village and health zone). Key informant 
interviews with the Bureau de Chefferie (territory level government leadership office) and the Bureau de 
Genre, Famille et Enfants (Office of Gender, Family and Children) in Rutshuru territory in North Kivu 
evidenced joint working and capacity building with government representatives. The Administrative 
Secretary for the Rutshuru territory leadership reported that his office benefitted from IRC/ESPOIR
training47 and participation in community stakeholder meetings to coordinate and plan ESPOIR activities. In 
South Kivu, government leadership for the territories where IRC/ESPOIR operates are informed of 
IRC/ESPOIR’s presence and activities but ongoing coordination and capacity building is focused on the chef 
du groupement, chef du village and health zone level48. The key informant interviews and focus group 
discussions did not provide evidence for IRC/ESPOIR capacity building and coordination efforts with 
community and/or territory level government authorities to monitor and provide technical support for 
activities after the end of the project. The capacity building efforts described were more focused on building 
awareness and sensitivity around gender based violence and participation in community mobilization to 
facilitate awareness raising campaigns. To truly imbed government support for project activities, 
IRC/ESPOIR would need more substantial involvement of government authorities at the territory and 
provincial level as well as project-specific advocacy and policy implementation49 with key ministries50 at the 
local, provincial and national levels. 
Many of the points highlighted above, while pertaining to the sustainability of project activities, also have 
implications for the need for community development focused interventions and programming, as opposed 
to emergency response. The ability to generate income to fund social services, build organizational
infrastructure and capacity to promote good governance over community and organizational resources, 
 46 This point is highlighting that the capacity building efforts for psychosocial support is focused on the individual psychosocial 
assistants which received training to provide psychosocial support. Capacity building was not particularly focused on building the 
capacity or infrastructure for the community based organisations or other community structures to provide psychosocial support. 47 Rutshuru territory leadership reported that IRC/ESPOIR invited representatives from their office to training on gender based 
violence and Congolese law. Rutshuru territory leadership reported that the chef du groupement and chef du village represented 
the local government at all other training offered by IRC/ESPOIR for community stakeholders.
48 Based on key informant interview with the IRC South Kivu GBV Services Manager. 49 IRC’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment program does engage in advocacy for policy implementation supporting 
women’s rights and empowerment at the national level. However, there was no evidence presented during the evaluation that 
showed an emphasis on advocacy at the national and provincial government level to facilitate government financial and technical 
support and capacity building to take over project activities after the end of the ESPOIR project.
50 Key ministries relevant to the IRC/ESPOIR project would include the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Gender, 
Family and Children, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. 
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promote participation in community decision making and socio-economic activities and the integration and 
retention of increased technical knowledge are all longer term community development outcomes.
The impact of larger development context issues on ESPOIR assisted communities was highlighted in the 
focus group discussion with community stakeholders in Bugobe, South Kivu. Bugobe is a community that 
did not have the benefit of having both IRC/ESPOIR and IRC Health programming overlap in the same 
location. Focus group participants advised that the community was currently experiencing a famine due to 
failing crops. In addition, the community was directly targeted during the most recent period of conflict. 
Focus group participants reported that during incursions with rebel forces, everything was taken, including 
clothes. Focus group participants explained that only since May 2013 had community members begun to
sleep in their houses rather than in the forest for fear of attacks from rebel forces. Many community 
members were described as traumatized. Community members only recently returned to cultivating their 
fields and thus have only recently been able to begin earning an income. At the time of the focus group 
discussion, medication had run out at the local health centre and the cost of medical care for community 
members and survivors had started to go up.
Focus group participants were able to describe improvements in the lives of ESPOIR assisted survivors and 
capacity building for the community based organization. Improvements included participation and 
facilitation of social reintegration and income generating activities, establishment of a “VSLA-like” group, 
availability of psychosocial support, increased respect for women, women being able to access their legal 
rights, participation of women in community discussions and decision making. However, high levels of 
stigma were still reported for women and children survivors51 and focus group participants saw the impact of 
ESPOIR activities as specific to ESPOIR beneficiaries not so much supported by or impacting the general 
community. The level and sustainability of improvements appeared to be tempered by what the community 
was experiencing as a whole52 in regards to economic deprivation, trauma and access to services such as 
healthcare. The overall vulnerable status of the Bugobe community and its infrastructure is likely to impact 
how well ESPOIR project advances for survivors, and women in general, can be maintained and sustained 
after the project. This highlights the need for a community development focused programming phase as a 
strategy for sustainability to capitalize on maintaining project outcomes after the end of the project and 
during periods of increased community security and stability.
6. Lessons Learned
Over the five-year period of the ESPOIR project, there were a number of lessons learned which informed 
changes in program design and strategy. Below is a summary of what has worked and contributed to the 
more positive outcomes of the project:
1. Co-location and overlap of multi-disciplinary programming focuses resources in a smaller number of 
communities and allows multi-systemic issues to be addressed. This increases the impact and 
sustainability of programming and outcomes.
2. Local community partners (i.e. women-led community based organizations) who may have smaller 
organizational capacity but history of working locally in the community may make more sustainable 
partners than local non-governmental organizations with larger organizational capacity. (Note: This 
is true for implementation of legal assistance or socio-economic activities as well as psychosocial 
support activities).
 51 There was some acknowledgement that there had been some change in the level of stigma, with it being less than before, but 
focus group participants emphasised that there was still a lot of stigma towards women and children survivors of sexual violence. 52 This is based on the observations of the evaluation consultant when comparing the feedback during focus group discussion from 
other ESPOIR assisted communities with the feedback received in Bugobe.
41
3. Men are key partners for changing community attitudes and ensuring the empowerment of women. 
The male discussion groups increased awareness around women’s rights and gender roles while 
nurturing a community environment which is more tolerant of women’s economic and social 
environment. This creates an increased sense of safety for women and facilitates change as gender 
roles shift.
4. Implementation of programming through local community partners is also best practice for 
sustaining program activities during period of insecurity. Local community partners can maintain a 
presence in communities when international agencies cannot. This can make the difference in local 
communities accessing essential services. Thus, it is important to build partnerships and the capacity 
of these local partners.
5. Psychosocial support and psychosocial education (i.e. life skills) is a key compliment to socio￾economic and social reintegration activities. Psychosocial support and psycho-education facilitate 
understanding that makes the individual and the community around the individual more available to 
learn and retain the skills taught as part of socio-economic activities. This increases the positive 
impact of social reintegration activities on the individual and the sustainability of these activities.
6. Community education determines whether a service will be accessible to survivors or beneficiaries, 
even more so than the quality of the service. Ongoing and consistent resources and training must be 
devoted to community education to ensure accessibility of the service.
7. Socio-economic activities and models, such as VSLA, can also promote social cohesion and good 
governance within communities.
7. Recommendations 
This report has provided an overview of the outcomes and activities which speak to each of the objectives of 
the ESPOIR project. The body of the report lists the strengths and challenges according to each of these 
objectives. From this, the following recommendations have been formulated to address the challenges. The 
recommendations below are organized according to the project objectives:
Objective 1: GBV survivors in North and South Kivu gain access to timely care and treatment services
1. Facilitate regular Lessons Learned workshops between the North and South Kivu teams so that the 
teams are able to learn best practices from each other and benefits from each other’s innovation.
2. Consider more overlap and joint working between IRC/ESPOIR staff and Rapid Response to 
Population Movement (RRPM) teams so that ESPOIR staff benefit from the same training and 
coordinated planning as the RRPM teams. This can be cascaded down to training, identifying and 
supporting community based organizations and community partners in emergency response and 
planning so that there is the least disruption of services possible during periods of instability and 
insecurity. Some of this is already happening in North Kivu but can be increased in both provinces.
3. Disaggregate monitoring data regarding sexual violence from other forms of gender based violence. 
Different forms of gender based violence require different responses and approaches to prevention. 
For example, responding within 72 hours of an incident is most critical for sexual violence survivors. 
It is difficult to track this response time for sexual violence survivors if monitoring data also includes 
varied response times for other forms of gender based violence. Monitoring the various types of 
gender based violence separately can also help to inform program design, prevention activities and 
how to prioritize community education activities.
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Objective 2: Service providers have improved capacity to respond effectively to GBV and facilitate the 
recovery of survivors in emergency and post conflict settings
4. Support community based organizations to use some portion of generated income to maintain an 
organizational budget, which would include funding to maintain activities and to pay a stipend to the 
psychosocial assistants.
5. Consider formation of VSLA-like groups for community structures such as health, community 
leaders, legal assistance and other service providers in the referral pathway. This may help facilitate 
the sustainability of their activities once project resources are no longer available. This may also 
promote necessary social cohesion to motivate and retain the various actors in continuing to provide 
services.
6. Implement child and/or youth specific programming which can access vulnerable and survivor 
children and youth. The current research study will provide more information on what the current 
barriers are and recommendations for overcoming them. Children and youth survivors have specific 
needs and appear to experience a different level of vulnerability and stigma. Coordination and 
integration with child protection programming will help to address ESPOIR objectives for the 
specific child and youth survivor context.
Objective 3: Key stakeholders have improved capacity to lead and participate in community based social 
integration and economic recovery activities that include strengthening community response to and 
prevention of GBV 
7. Include organizational capacity building along with building of technical knowledge of community 
structures to implement project activities. In addition, include organizational leadership in all aspects 
of technical training (i.e. psychosocial support training). This would ensure the sustainability of these 
community structures, promote better governance and incorporate the technical knowledge at the 
leadership level so that organizational technical capacity is not strictly dependent on the retention of 
members who have been trained in a particular technical skill (i.e. psychosocial assistants). This 
would help to increase the overall sustainability of project activities.
8. Consider building the capacity of local health centre staff and the local health zones to provide direct 
psychosocial support and provide training and quality assurance for the provision of psychosocial 
support by the women-led community based organizations / psychosocial assistants. Building the 
technical capacity of the health structures to provide and train in psychosocial support, creates more 
sustainability, increased coordination and additional quality assurance checks for the provision of 
psychosocial support. This would mean that health centre staff and the health zones would be trained 
and monitored by psychosocial officers the same as the psychosocial assistants and community based 
organizations. After the end of the project, the health structures, the community based organizations
and the psychosocial assistants could establish a psychosocial support working group to provide peer 
support, coordinate refresher training and quality assurance checks. This would lessen the 
dependency on individual psychosocial assistants to sustain the provision of psychosocial support 
and increase local resources for psychosocial support training within the community
9. Consider building the organizational capacity of the police by organizing gender based violence 
sensitivity training for police and recommending background screening criteria for the recruitment of 
police. Direct training rather than relying on police leadership to cascade training to police officers 
can help increase GBV awareness and decrease informal arrangements being made when survivors 
register complaints brought against perpetrators. Background screening can help to reduce the 
incident of former perpetrators being recruited as police officers.
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10. Consider providing “training of trainer” training as well as facilitators training to facilitators of the 
male discussion groups so that training can potentially be cascaded to male discussion group 
participants who may be interested in facilitating future groups.
11. Encourage the substantial involvement of government authorities and key ministries (i.e. Ministry of 
Social Affairs, the Ministry of Gender, Family and Children, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry 
of Justice and Human Rights) at the national, provincial, territory and community level in project 
implementation. Expand the current focus of capacity building efforts for government authorities to 
include being able to monitor and provide technical support for project activities after the end of the 
project. This can be done by: (a) including representatives from the key ministries at various levels
of government in training provided by the project; (b) creating an externship for key government 
authority personnel with the ESPOIR project where staff from Department of Social Affairs, the 
Office of Gender, Family and Children, and the Health Zone would receive the same training as IRC 
staff implementing the project and would work side by side with IRC staff implementing the project 
(i.e. field officers, program managers, etc.). This would facilitate government partners gaining 
practical experience and learning about the day to day implementation and operation of the ESPOIR 
project.
12. Consider co-locating Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) programming with ESPOIR project 
sites. IRC operates a large CDR program in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of 
Congo. Community Driven Reconstruction is a methodology that allows community to be drivers 
and owners of their own reconstruction and recovery through establishing community governance 
structures that stress choice and accountability. It is based upon community-driven development 
(CDD) models pioneered by the World Bank and community development/local governance 
initiatives under USAID and UNDP among others, but adapted for the specific context of conflict 
affected environments. It provides funds for implementation of community projects focused on 
building community infrastructure, contracted to the private sector and monitored by civil society 
groups
53. As stated under lessons learned, co-location of multi-disciplinary programming can help to 
address multi-systemic development issues such as governance which can increase positive 
outcomes for project beneficiaries and communities.
 53 International Rescue Committee – Post Conflict Development Initiative (February 2007). Lessons Learned on Community 
Driven Reconstruction – Version 1 (Revised Draft).