Evaluation of CIDA's Honduras Program from 2002 to 2010

In 2002, CIDA identified Honduras as a country prioritized for Canadian official development assistance. By 2010, CIDA's Honduras Program had disbursed $134.5 million dollars, fostering Honduran ownership of development initiatives at the local, regional, and central levels.

Why conduct this evaluation?

The purpose of this evaluation is to contribute to program improvement and to assess both the program's performance and delivery mechanisms between 2002 and 2010. The evaluation sampled 26 projects, representing $40 million dollars of total funding.

What did the evaluation find?

The evaluation found a highly relevant and effective program that implemented successful health and food security projects, contributing to CIDA and Honduran aims for poverty reduction.

• Relevance — The high relevance of the program's projects to Honduran realities stemmed from its focus on local and regional projects and partnerships and from the strong alignment between CIDA and Honduran priorities, particularly on the issue of poverty reduction.
• Effectiveness — Two key sectors, food security, which includes natural resources management, agriculture, forestry, water and sanitation, and watershed management, and health, successfully achieved their development goals, making them effective, especially in combating Chagas disease and in helping to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among Honduran youth. Honduran targets for basic education, however, were below expectations.
• Sustainability — The program successfully implemented initiatives designed to persist after their completion and to sustain the benefits of CIDA's investment. The inclusion of local stakeholders in CIDA projects assures a legacy of trained and experienced community leaders in Honduras who can use the experience they gained under CIDA's auspices in other arenas also contributing to sustaining CIDA's investment.
• Crosscutting themes — The program's activities in CIDA's areas of priority—gender equality, governance, and environment— termed crosscutting themes, are difficult to assess globally due to the variety of funding mechanisms used to deliver them. They appeared, however, satisfactory.
• Coherence — Lack of formal discussions about strategy at the program level resulted in lower levels of coordination—termed coherence—among CIDA branches and Canadian stakeholders. However, the better coherence of the local and regional projects enabled their continuity during the 2009-political crisis in Honduras.
• Efficiency — The program operated efficiently overall; local staff created added efficiencies by consolidating their institutional knowledge.
• Management principles — The program's mix of local, regional, and central level projects allowed it to promote Honduran ownership in delivering the aid, in line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, when circumstances in Honduras prevented strong ownership by the central government.
• Performance management — Developing and applying performance measurement and risk management frameworks remains an ongoing process.

More discussion and consultation among Canadian stakeholders can help improve the program's lower levels of coherence.

What is next for the Honduras Program?

• Continued deployment of multiple mechanisms for aid delivery at local, regional, and central levels
• Increased attention to joint process, such as workshops and taskforces that will promote efficient cooperation between Canadian stakeholders
• Systematic incorporation into CIDA's knowledge base of the local experience and knowledge generated by the program's Honduran professionals
• Systematic annual planning and monitoring of activities, such as policy dialogue and coordination among donors