Islamic Relief Program Evaluations
The IR Promise
By Nabeeha Shah
Transparency and Accountability
Islamic Relief is making great strides towards even more transparency and accountability.
In recent years, Islamic Relief programs over $1M have gone through evaluations conducted by a third-party to ensure unbiased and objective findings.
The evaluations are time-bound, specific in purpose, and offer programmatic and technical recommendations.
Not only will this benefit our donors and the people we serve, but it will inform our decision-making process regarding future projects and hopefully inspire other actors in the field.
A total of three evaluations have been conducted this year alone. One for our mobile health clinic in Jordan and another for our sustainable livelihood project in Turkey, both of which serve Syrian refugees. And one for our entrepreneurship and livelihood project in Palestine.
Hanan’s Story
Our most recent evaluation was for the project in Gaza, Palestine that focuses on entrepreneurship and improving the livelihoods of the youth. The evaluation concluded the project is highly relevant, effective, and that the positive outcomes from the project are sustainable. It even recommended lengthening the project as that was one of the most common suggestions from the people served. The findings of the project were also shared with other non-profit organizations working in the field through presentations and academic publications.
Hanan is one of the many people supported by the project. She is currently completing her fourth year of her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media, and is very active in civil society in Gaza.
“The trainer,” she explained, “was brilliant. Beyond my expectations. He supported us completely. The first thing we learned was ‘how to build your objective.’
“I had forgotten my larger objective while I was in university. This training gave me strong motivation to actually determine my own objective and to then search for a job to meet that objective. In essence, we needed to have dreams, hopes, and goals.”
Hanan strongly encourages “all the youth in Gaza” to take this “most brilliant training”. “I want others to benefit from the training as I benefited. This training helped us overcome our fears and anxiety in the face of job interviews. And it assisted us in [strengthening] our charisma.” She adds, “As beneficial as it was, we wanted to have [even] longer hours for the training.”
Our Promise to You
Islamic Relief is not only dedicated to working together for a world free of poverty, but doing so in the most efficient and effective way possible. Our hope is these project evaluations will help us make smart, data-driven decisions that will effect change for years to come.
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