QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES (ESS) PROJECT Quarter 1, Fiscal Year 2021 (October – December 2020) Submitted January 31, 2021 Contract Number: AID-521-C-17-00002 DISCLAIMER This report is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Social Impact and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. This document was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by Social Impact for the USAID/Haiti Evaluation and Survey Services Project. CONTENTS ACRONYMS III INTRODUCTION 1 1 PROJECT STATUS REPORT 2 PROJECT DELIVERABLES 2 TECHNICAL TASKS 2 TECHNICAL TASKS UPDATE 2 ANNUAL WORK PLAN 4 PLANNED TASKS FOR NEXT QUARTER 4 5 ii | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV ACRONYMS ATL Assistant Team Leader AVANSE Appui à la Valorisation du Potentiel Agricole du Nord, à la sécurité Economique et à l’environnement CO Contracting Officer COP Chief of Party COR Contracting Officer’s Representative DEC Development Experience Clearinghouse EGAD USAID Economic Growth and Agriculture Office ERP Early Reading Project ESS Evaluation and Survey Services ET Evaluation Team FGD Focus Group Discussion FY Fiscal Year HOME Homeownership and Mortgage Expansion HQ Headquarters IAHBP Increased Accountability in Haiti’s Budgetary Process IP Implementing Partner JSSP Justice Sector Strengthening Program LEVE Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement M&E Monitoring and Evaluation NIF Numéro d’Immatriculation Fiscale ONA Office National d’Assurance Vieillesse Q Quarter RAPID Reading for All: Promoting Inclusive Education RF MTE Reforestation Mid-Term Evaluation RFP Request for Proposals Santé Service Access, Nationwide, Technology, and Empowerment SI Social Impact, Inc. SMASH Smallholder Alliance for Sorghum in Haiti SOW Statement of Work TL Team Lead USAID United States Agency for International Development USD U.S. Dollar WATSAN Water and Sanitation iii | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV INTRODUCTION This report documents Haiti Evaluation and Survey Services’ (ESS) activities, including achievements and challenges for Quarter 1 (Q1) of Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, covering project activities between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. . 1 | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV PROJECT STATUS REPORT PROJECT DELIVERABLES ESS submitted its FY20 Q4 Annual narrative and financial reports on October 30, 2020. In addition, on December 8, 2020, ESS submitted a quarterly Accrual Report, including information on ESS’s expenditures, disbursements, and accruals. TECHNICAL TASKS TECHNICAL TASKS UPDATE During FY21 Q1, the Appui a la valorisation du potentiel Agricole du Nord, pour la Sécurité Economique et Environnementale (AVANSE) and Home Ownership and Mortgage Expansion (HOME) evaluations were finalized after receiving approval of the final reports on October 1 and October 20, 2020, respectively. The reports were posted to the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC). As usual, ESS had several ongoing tasks that continued from the previous quarter, including the Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) baseline, the Santé evaluation, the Increased Accountability in Haiti’s Budgetary Process (IAHBP) final evaluation, and the Results Framework Stakeholders Consultation. Two new tasks were launched during this quarter: the Haiti RERA (Rapid Education and Risk Analysis) and the Reforestation Project Mid-Term Evaluation. ESS details the progress and challenges related to each task below. WATSAN ACTIVITY BASELINE The initial report draft was submitted on April 27, 2020. However, due to a new change in the definition of “improved water sources” agreed upon by USAID and ESS in coordination with the implementing partner (IP), ESS reviewed and revised its analysis and related tables. The revised draft report was submitted on November 23, 2020 and is awaiting USAID’s feedback. The out-briefing was presented on December 2, 2020. AVANSE EVALUATION ESS submitted the AVANSE draft report on January 21, 2020, and USAID approved the report on October 1, 2020. On October 15, 2020, ESS shared the 508 compliant version of the report and posted it to the DEC. The AVANSE evaluation provides valuable insights into the efficacy and sustainability of the Activity’s promoted approaches and technologies, the strength of input systems, and partnership strengthening in the agriculture sector in the Activity area. More specifically, these insights highlight the importance of planning for the effects of global climate change, particularly drought. In line with the evaluation purpose, these insights are meant to inform how USAID approaches agriculture development in future Activity designs. 2 | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV SANTÉ MID-TERM EVALUATION At the end of FY21 Q1, ESS is awaiting USAID’s response on the comprehensive proposal ESS submitted on August 28, 2020 to address USAID’s concerns regarding the draft report. ESS is expecting written confirmation from USAID regarding the next steps to finalize the report. HOME OWNERSHIP AND MORTGAGE EXPANSION (HOME) FINAL EVALUATION ESS initially submitted the HOME final evaluation report on August 2020. It revised the report after receiving USAID’s feedback on October 2, 2020 and on October 22, 2020, the final report was fully approved by USAID. The final report has been posted to the DEC. The evaluation revealed that HOME was largely successful in making a business case for commercially driven housing developments for a middle-class market segment, while not to lower-income Haitians. HOME used Pay for Performance incentives effectively, flexibly adapting the modality to the activity’s objectives and context and producing several positive outcomes despite some shortcomings highlighted in the report. IAHBP EVALUATION The IAHBP activity supports the Haitian civil society in its efforts to increase governmental transparency and accountability in financial matters. This evaluation is fully implemented through the Haitian research firm, IFOS, as a mechanism for building Haitian evaluation capacity. The combined inception/evaluation design was submitted by ESS on November 5, 2020 and USAID approved it on December 9, 2020. Training and data collection started on December 22, 2020. RESULTS FRAMEWORK STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS ESS presented its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to USAID in the Mission-wide out-briefing on August 24, 2020 and submitted its complete report on September 14, 2020. On September 28, 2020, USAID informed ESS that they were doing some additional key informant interviews with government officials that they would like ESS to consider incorporating in the findings, conclusions, and recommendations and final report. At the end of FY21Q1, ESS was waiting for these new inputs from USAID. REFORESTATION MID-TERM EVALUATION As scheduled, ESS submitted the Work Plan on October 8 2020 which USAID approved on October 22, 2020. The team was on-boarded and the kick-off meeting took place on December 2, 2020. During that meeting, the evaluation team requested a list of documents from USAID to guide their desk review. By the time the team submitted the inception report on December 23, 2020, as per the approved timeline, many relevant documents had not yet been received by the evaluation team. ESS is awaiting USAID’s feedback on the combined inception/design report and the documents to guide the desk review. 3 | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV HAITI RERA A RERA analysis observes educational institutions, learners, and their communities and investigates the dynamic risk factors that affect the school communities. RERA methodology is adaptable, which is highly useful for the Haitian context as it reviews the resilience of school communities and provides a focused investigation into the dynamics introduced by the pandemic and the volatile security situation in Haiti. The RERA evaluation will help USAID adapt education programming to better respond to the impacts affecting Haitian school communities. ESS received the draft SOW on October 7, 2020. After multiple meetings and revisions, USAID sent the final SOW on December 9, 2020. Given the need to complete this activity as quickly as possible so that recommendations could be incorporated into USAID’s activity design, ESS rapidly identified and onboarded a Team Leader and launched the recruitment of the three other team members. A request for proposal was also published on December 24, 2020 to identify a firm that will support data collection in the field. ANNUAL WORK PLAN The ESS Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) informed ESS that he will be sending an official Year 4 Work Plan soon. He further acknowledged that it may require another budget realignment as there will be several new tasks including the RERA, assessments for the Democracy, Rights, and Governance Office, and evaluations for the Economic Growth and Agriculture Office . PLANNED TASKS FOR NEXT QUARTER In FY21 Q2, contingent upon USAID approval, ESS intends to finalize the Santé evaluation and WATSAN baseline. In addition, ESS will submit a draft report for the IAHBP evaluation. ESS will also continue working on the RERA. Finally, ESS expects to begin the AREA (Appui à la Recherche et au développement Agricole) activity for which the SOW is expected. 4 | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS During FY21 Q1, ESS has several key accomplishments to highlight. • ESS successfully completed several tasks for which data collection was conducted remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, including the HOME evaluation and the Results Framework Stakeholder Consultations. • All new tasks assigned to ESS (IAHBP, RF MTE, RERA) are moving forward despite major security concerns such as COVID-19, kidnappings, etc. 5 | USAID/HAITI EVALUATION AND SURVEY SERVICES REPORT USAID.GOV