Mid-term Evaluation of Canada’s Volunteer Cooperation Program | 2018

Sectors: Volunteer Sector

Countries: Ghana, Honduras, Peru, Senegal

Client: Global Affairs Canada (GAC)

This was a formative evaluation of the Volunteer Cooperation Program (VCP), commissioned by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The evaluation was performed conjointly with Project Services International (PSI).

GAC provides financial support to 12 volunteer-sending projects being implemented by 15 Canadian Volunteer Cooperation Agencies (VCAs) with some 700 partner organizations in 42 countries.  GAC is contributing up to $300 million to VCAs to allow them to recruit skilled Canadian volunteers. They are placed with the partners to assist in building organizational capacity to achieve sustainable development results. They are also encouraged to reach out to Canadian audiences as champions of citizen action to support international development efforts.

The team used a Utilization Focused Approach (UFA) to maximize the practical value of the evaluation to stakeholders. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected between January and July of 2018 using ‘mixed-methods’ that included: document review; four country studies utilizing key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs); desk-based KIIs and FGDs; and two surveys using Survey Monkey.

The team used a qualitative software platform called Dedoose to capture KII, FGD and document insights, which enabled the team to sort by question and by respondent type.