FXBVillage Model: external impact evaluations

Since the early 2000s, the FXBVillage Poverty Reduction Model has been regularly evaluated. A real impact on the economic, health and social status of children and adults has been demonstrated:

• A partnership with the City of Paris, underway since 2006, has enabled FXB to lead more than 900 families (nearly 5,500 people) to economic and social autonomy in Kigali, Rwanda. An external evaluation, conducted by “Le Group’-Consultants Mutualisés Experts du Secteur Solidaire” in 2019, revealed, among other things, that among these families – some of whom graduated from the program 10 years ago – 81% have maintained the cultivation of a vegetable garden, primarily for self-consumption, beyond the duration of the project. All the houses visited showed a particular effort in terms of adequate hygiene and environmental protection practices. 81% of the parents reported a high level of satisfaction with the support received for the children’s education. Former participants expressed a very high level of satisfaction with the support for economic development.

• At the end of 2018, an independent consultant conducted a retrospective evaluation of the 8 FXBVillage programs conducted in Burundi between 2006 and 2017. The 800 beneficiary households were divided into three analysis groups based on the time elapsed between the evaluation period and the end of household participation in the programs. The evaluation, carried out between 1 and 12 years after the end of the programs, shows that 74% of households find food easily and regularly, 83% of households have access to improved sanitation facilities, between 44 and 56% of households save regularly, and average monthly incomes are higher than the regional average.

• In 2016, a FXBVillage program in Villupuram, India was evaluated by an independent researcher. The beneficiaries’ participation in the program had ended one year earlier. The objective of this evaluation was to measure the sustainability of the impacts. Twelve months later, all of the women beneficiaries were still involved in collective Income-Generating Activities (IGAs), with different levels of profits. The most profitable IGA was the hemp rope manufacturing unit. From a health point of view, the most significant change is the access to improved latrines. Beneficiaries also confirmed a better knowledge of diseases and prevention tools. Finally, FXB has cultivated the desire of pupils and students to study and has encouraged the motivation of poor families living in rural areas for higher education for their children.

• In 2015, using data from the baseline, semi-annual and annual evaluations, and final data from the FXBVillage poverty reduction model evaluation methodology, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard compared the status of beneficiary families before and after their participation in the programs with a sample of families that had been part of national Demographic Health Surveys. The study includes data from 20 programs operating between 2009 and 2012 in Rwanda and Uganda, representing more than 1,500 households. The results of the evaluation conclude that FXBVillage programs have led to marked improvements in economic security, health and nutritional status, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, psychosocial well-being and children’s school participation.

• In 2014, an external evaluation of the FXBVillage program in Uganda conducted by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative found that former beneficiaries are multidimensionally less poor than their peers, even three years after the end of the programme. The dimensions in which former FXB grantees are better off are housing and land ownership, savings, access to child immunization, food diversity and improved water sources.

• From January 2012 to January 2014, three successive external evaluations, conducted by an independent evaluator, were undertaken to assess the sustainability of the results of the Nyakabiga FXBVillage program in Burundi, one year, two years and three years after the end of the programme. The results of these evaluations show that 98.2% of children still attend school, 93.7% of households eat twice a day or more, 88.9% of children under 5 years of age have a normal brachial perimeter and families are able to save 207,000 Burundian Francs per year (approximately USD 132). In addition, access to health care is maintained in the long term and all deliveries have been assisted by medical personnel.

• In 2009, an evaluation of the FXBVillage program in Buriram, Thailand, conducted by Thaksin University, found that 100% of young participants completed primary school and moved on to secondary education, while the national average for primary school completion was 40%. In addition, the evaluation found an increase of 60 to 62 percent in the average income earned by participating families, with more than 80 percent of families continuing to pursue income-generating activities. The evaluation concluded that the FXBVillage program had been implemented effectively and had “significantly improved the living conditions of a large number of orphans and vulnerable children”.
  

• A FXBVillage poverty reduction pilot programme in China was evaluated by UNICEF and the Bei Jing Institute of Information and Control. These mid-term evaluations conducted in early 2008 indicate a significant increase in household income and assets, a 25 per cent reduction in household debt and significant improvements in children’s health, education and emotional well-being. Among registered children who have lost both parents, emotional and psychosocial status has increased six-fold since their participation in the programme. 

• An external evaluation of the FXBVillage program conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa) in 2007 in Rwanda found that 86% of beneficiaries are still living above the poverty line four years after leaving the programme. 97% are still operating their original income-generating activity. Their children go to school regularly, longer and perform better than their peers.