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Landell Mills completes Evaluation of the New Alliance ICT Challenge Fund Project

News 30.08.19 Monitoring, evaluation and learning

Landell Mills has recently completed a performance evaluation of the New Alliance ICT Challenge Fund Project. We are pleased to invite you to read a summary of the key findings in the evaluation brief and to download the full report here.

The NA-ICT Challenge Fund was established in 2014 to help improve agricultural productivity in selected food crops by smallholder farmers in six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania. The fund promotes the use of ICT-enabled channels, delivered by the public and private sectors. In each country several organisations are involved under the lead of the following grantees: Digital Green in Ethiopia, Grameen Foundation in Ghana, Catholic Relief Services in Malawi, NCBA CLUSA in Mozambique, Concern Universal in Senegal, and Farm Radio International in Tanzania. The project was funded by USAID, DFID, IFAD and Bill and Melinda Gates, and is a component of the broader political and policy international commitment New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

Landell Mills was contracted by the Department for International Development (DFID) between September 2017 and March 2019 to undertake a performance evaluation of the programme at a value of £299,000. Landell Mills mobilised a team of consultants with expertise in agriculture, agricultural extension, ICT for development, value for money, evaluation methods as well as national experts.

The team employed a mixed methods approach; in addition to desk based analysis, three field missions to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal were conducted. The team consulted grantee organisations, implementers and intended beneficiaries of the programme through stakeholder meetings, workshops and interviews. The evaluation developed a Theory of Change as an analytical framework and employed contribution analysis to assess causal pathways. It also conducted a partial Value for Money assessment to support the analysis.

Farmers in Tanzania using mobile phones to recieve information about improving agricultural productivity. Taken in January 2018 during Tanzania field mission led by Landell Mills' Evaluation team