Final evaluation of a project to contrast educational poverty in Albania

Title Actions to combat material and educational poverty and psychological support as consequences of emergencies in Albania in schools and community centers

Location Tirana, Lezha, Thumane, Albania

Duration December 2021- November 2022

Partners Sanità di Frontiera

Funding Fondo di Beneficienza Intesa San Paolo

 

Context

In the cities of Tirana, Lezha and Thumane, the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation of a population already severely tested by the 2019 earthquake. The project therefore aims to support families in a situation of social and material vulnerability combined with post-traumatic stress.

The project lasted 12 months and intervened among children between aged 6 to 14 years old,  living in the marginalised areas and enrolled in the Thumane and Ishull Leza schools and 4 community centres in the municipality of Tirana.

The organisation proposed customised support as the preferred approach in order to act on the multidimensional well-being of the beneficiaries, that is, to work simultaneously on a series of dimensions of well-being such as the educational, psycho-social, and psycho-motor spheres, alternating with activities aimed at contrasting educational poverty.

 

General Objective

The project aims to strengthen the role of the schools in order to counter the phenomenon of educational poverty.

The main purpose of the final impact evaluation was to measure what was achieved at the end of the 12-month project in order to assess its effectiveness, impact and sustainability.

 

Our contribution

In order to estimate the impact on the beneficiaries, the evaluation strategy included a propensity score matching analysis through which it was possible to study the evolution of the individual condition of the participants in relation to the treatment they underwent: high, medium and low intensity treatment.

The group identified as treated at low intensity also represents the control group of the study so that the change triggered by the project on the beneficiaries treated at medium and high intensity could be measured without external and contextual factors.

In addition, qualitative methods were used for the evaluation to collect primary qualitative data by actively involving the main stakeholders. The qualitative information for the evaluation was collected through field activities by means of individual and collective interviews with project staff and school leaders.

The participatory approach to data collection and analysis allowed to involve the project staff which helped in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the intervention and the main challenges in order to draw lessons learnt that will allow future interventions to be improved.

 

Cover photo by Dario Fatello

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