Somalia Impact Report: The World Citizens Panel

Overview

The “World Citizens Panel” (WCP) was established by Oxfam Novib to measure the impact of its programmes among people living in poverty and injustice. The approach combines quantitative research (impact surveys) with qualitative research (stories of change) and gives participants a voice in evaluation, and the opportunity to learn how programmes can be improved and to contribute to public debate on the effectiveness of development cooperation. 

This impact study of the programme in Somalia was carried out by Oxfam Novib, HIRDA and partners in Somalia in 2013/2014. The study included a broad set of indicators, covering major dimensions of poverty and injustice. Data collected by partners with the help of a smart phone app was transferred into a central data base, managed and analysed by the Oxfam Novib World Citizens Panel team. 

This report describes the process and presents the major findings of the analysis which include:

• Impact on livelihoods: Significant differences between target group and control group were found with respect to increased income, increased value of assets and months of sufficient food.
• Project participation has a positive impact on school enrolment, but still much to do with respect to the quality of education.
• Child mortality among the target group was significantly lower than among the control group.
• Surprisingly, for a country like Somalia that continues to be instable and insecure, a large majority of the respondents have mentioned that they had no experience of physical damage due to disasters and neither do they feel a threat. In addition, few people have taken preventive measures regarding possible future disasters. But also few people feel capable to do so. There were no significant differences between the target group and control group on this topic.
• Access to information and the ability to talk about women’s rights is very limited in Somalia. Violence against women is a problem according to the majority of respondents.
• Despite many projects on gender and empowerment, talking about sexual and reproductive rights is still a taboo in many communities, both for our target groups and the control groups.

The programme carried out a total of 6000 interviews: the major activities of respondents were sustainable livelihoods (27%), education (17%), humanitarian aid (12%), and women’s rights (12%).