Monitoring&Evaluation of reintegration services for drug addicts and ex-addicts in Lebanon

Location Lebanon

Duration 2017-2020

Framework Strengthening of Prevention, Rehabilitation and Social and Economic Services for Drug Addicts and Ex-Addicts in Lebanon – AID 10964

Funding Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) implemented by CTM – Cooperazione nei Territori del Mondo and Oum el Nour

Context

Drug addiction represents a serious social and public health problem in Lebanon, whose incidence is growing and is characterized by a decrease in the age of the population concerned. Despite law 673 providing alternative rehabilitation paths for drug addicts, according to the Drug Repression Bureau statistics, in 2009 2,228 drug users were arrested, almost half between the age of 18 and 25. Women in particular, if not taken back to the family after the arrest, often risk falling into the circle of prostitution.

The NGO Oum el Nour, specialized in prevention and rehabilitation programmes, noticed that a large share of the patients admitted to their centres were unemployed or lacked the professional skills necessary to find a new job once the recovery was completed. This is why its approach is to aim at the full reintegration of former drug addicts into society through the reinforcement of family ties and the development of professional skills thak to the participation to inclusive and sustainbale busines activitie. 

Furthermore, Oum el Nour strongly advocates the need for an active prevention strategy, and promotes awareness campaigns targeting the youth, to prevent drug use and to modify the perception that society has of former drug addicts.

General Objective

The project aims at preventing substance abuse and improving the socio-economic inclusion of drug addicts and former drug addicts in Lebanon. In particular, its specific objectives are to:

  1. Renew rehab centres in Fatqa ans Sehaile. Both centres are managed by Oum el Nour.

  2. Improve vocational training and, in particular, to set up sustainable inclusive business activities targeting Oum el Nour rehab centres’ inmates.

  3. Raise awarenewss on drugs relates risks amongst youth and adults in Lebanon.

  4. Foster persona and professional skills of Oum el Nour staff focusing on rehabilitation techniques for drug addicts, as well as on inclusive business projects management.

Our contribution

ARCO Researchers were involved to carry out the Monitoring and external Evaluation of the project.

Project Monitoring was completed with the production of seven quarterly reports .The monitoring system aimed to continuously collect and systematize relevant data on the implementation of program activities based on the work plan and responsibilities of each partner. The monitoring reports therefore represented a useful tool for the Project Manager to monitor each phase, assess potential problems and propose corrective actions to achieve the objective and expected results of the project.

In January 2019, ARCO Researches completed the first intermediate evaluation of the activities carried out by the NGO Oum el Nour. In order to do so, ARCO Researchers visited the offices of Oum el Nour and the centers of Fatqa and Sehaile, interviewing the main actors involved in the project. The qualitative and quantitative data collected in the field were triangulated with information already systematized through the monitoring process, in order to provide a broad analysis of the first results of the intervention.

Overall, the Evaluation mission verified the progress of the project and its consistency with the planning and initial intentions. The main drawbacks encountered during the implementation mainly concern the managerial inexperience of the local counterpart, which is dealing for the first time with an internationally managed and financed project and is working to respect all the rules and standards it imposes.

Indeed, the presence of an international coordinator on site is one of the strengths of the project, which otherwise would have suffered much more for the inexperience of Oum el Nour. Furthermore, the project capacity development approach was in part able to mitigate this problem, supporting Oum el Nour in acquiring new skills and a new awareness of its internal goals as an organization.

Read more on our M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit