Evaluation of Rainforest Foundation Norway's Partner Organisation Forest Watch Indonesia
Evaluated client relationship with Indonesian partner and made recommendations on how to improve programming and capacity building.
Background
FWI entered into a five-year partnership with RFN to work in the Papua Bioregion in May 2018 through a project titled 'Promoting information justice as a contribution to stopping the expansion of land-based extractive industries and protecting indigenous peoples' territories in order to save the remaining natural forest in Papua Bioregion'. Dala Institute was assigned to conduct an evaluation of FWI's past projects. The evaluation took place at an early stage of their new project to analyse FWI's past performance and current conditions, and the potential for future partnerships. The purpose of this evaluation was to position Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) and Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) for maximum effectiveness in future collaborations.
Approach
The evaluation included two workshops and interviews with key FWI stakeholders and other contacts obtained through FWI and our respondents, and personal contacts of the evaluators. The five aims of this evaluation were (1) to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of FWI and its new project with RFN; (2) to provide an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and gaps in FWI's planned and current project implementation; (3) to provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of FWI's organisational structure and internal management; (4) to compare the long-term strategies and goals of FWI and RFN; and (5) to map out the comparative advantages of FWI in relation to other RFN partner organisations in Indonesia.
Results
Some key results of this assignment were the analysis of relevance of FWI and its Papua Project, the list of FWI's key strengths and weaknesses and how to best utilise and overcome them. The analysis of FWI's structure and internal management in terms of its flexibility and strategic purposes, FWI's working relationship with RFN (including other stakeholders) and how to align expectations, and FWI's comparative advantages compared to other RFN partners in responding to risks and opportunities by working in the Papua region.