Evaluation of the Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Centre for ...

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6Executive SummaryBackgroundThe purpose of the evaluation is to critically assess the interventions undertaken bythe Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL)and which have been funded by Norway for over 25 years. Support originated withthe first post-graduate Diploma Course in Women’s Law that took place at theInstitute of Women’s Law at the University of Oslo in 1987. From 1990 the coursewas transferred to the Department of Private Law at the University of Zimbabwe(UoZ). The Centre was created as a regionally focused research and teachinginstitution in 2002/3 and called SEARCWL. The funding has come through theRoyal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) in Harare and with the Norwegian Agency forDevelopment Co-operation (Norad) participating in related activities such as reviews,annual meetings and appraisals. From 1993 to 2012, Norway supported theprogramme with approximately NOK 67,4 million. In addition to the funding fromNorway, the Centre has received support from UoZ. To date there have been 202students sent from countries throughout the region and, of which, approximately 195have graduated.The overall goal of SEARCWL (stated in the 2008 -12 funding phase) is ‘to improvewomen’s legal and social status as well as research capacities in women’s law in theEastern and Southern Africa region’.The objectives of the evaluation are to assess the following two elements:− Impact- the long-term impact of the support to the women’s law program− Sustainability-the academic, regional, technical (infrastructural) and financialsustainability.The scope of the evaluation is centred upon assessing the impact and sustainability ofthe Centre’s work. The main evaluation questions are grouped according to two keysareas:−−Has the programme achieved its long-term objective?Has the Centre the strength to survive and develop so it can fulfil its functionson a permanent basis?Methodological approachField work took place in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and also with a shorter visit to Kenya. Amixed methods approach was used: An email based survey to all graduates, with arespectable response rate of 48 percent and whose sample characteristics are highlyrepresentative of the graduate cohort; key informant and graduate interviews (51), withrespondents intentionally approached, considering their work, gender, and otheraspects; Group discussions (2); Strengths and Weakness- Opportunities and Threats exerciseconducted with all relevant Centre staff; and Programme document analysis was an initialstep to see how SEARCWL works.
FindingsProgramme logicSEARCWL and its advisory board place most emphasis on its teaching andeducational mandate. Academic objectivity and independence can be considered avaluable commodity in the politically unstable context that has characterisedZimbabwe. Nonetheless, given the funding is developmental, it is thereforesurprising that the issue of the ‘mechanism’ for how the programme was intended tobring about development and improve the status of women and function as aregional hub is an omission in the programme documents.Satisfaction with CourseThe clear majority (90 percent) of respondents rated the different aspects of theProgramme very highly, which is quite outstanding satisfaction with a Master’sdegree course. Graduates expressed one particular recurring theme: that they havebenefited from the course in their current work due to the methodological approachand the research skills gained through having taken the course.Women’s law as a discipline and approachA striking feature of the course is its methods for contesting gender roles and raisinggender awareness. It did so at a personal level to encourage a necessary shift inoutlook and attitudes with respect to the gendered nature of society and the role ofthe law. Considering the proven limits of the law alone in addressing violations ofwomen’s human rights in the region, this is an important outcome and one which isan innovation of the Centre. These findings are particularly significant in view of theCentre’s assumption that by strengthening this discipline you establish a cadre ofhighly skilled women (and men) who through their respective employment andpersonal decision making will improve the status of women. In other words, theassumption has more chance of being correct the stronger the graduate capacitybuilt.Personal levelMany graduates describe rather dramatic impacts upon their personal development.The survey and interviews capture common phrases such as the course ‘opened myeyes’ or ‘was a door opener’. Confidence was also an important by-product.Individual levelOne of the most visible impacts seen from the survey concerns graduate careermobility: 80 percent of respondents felt their career had advanced since graduation(and bearing in mind some respondents had only recently graduated in 2012, so thisfigure might be even higher). Graduates tend to move on to higher level analyticalpositions and with greater responsibilities and opportunities than they had before thecourse.Institutional levelThough difficult to attribute to the Masters alone, respondents did relate a widerange of impacts to which they claim contribution. Influence was found in the legaland Parliamentary processes concerning gender equilibrium laws in particular in7
Page 1: Norad Report 5/2013 DiscussionEvalu
Page 6 and 7: 4AcknowledgementsThe Norwegian Inst
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Page 36 and 37: 34“massive knowledge. It has real
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56SEARCWLProf. StewartProf. A. Tsan
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58Annex 2:SWOT analysisName Positio
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60Annex 3:Zambia Field WorkOne of t
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62Annex 4:Survey Responses1. Are yo
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645. Age of respondents50%45%40%35%
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6670%67%60%50%40%30%32%20%10%0%1% 0
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6818. Assess the quality of various
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70543211%1%5%29%64%0% 10% 20% 30% 4
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7224. Which components of the cours
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74Thank you for answering this ques
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76can share with you as they were a
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78office as a Consultant namely (a)
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80objective of the program was to e
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82Results of Assessments of Women
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NoradNorwegian Agency for Developme
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