Our Urban Programme in Brazil was set up in 2008 to improve the quality of housing and basic services for low-income families living in the shanty towns and tenement blocks of São Paulo. This 4-year project, implemented with partners MDF, APOIO and CCJ, and co-funded by the European Union, encouraged strong participation from women and young people in poor neighbourhoods, and strengthened grassroots organisations to campaign on and defend their right to housing and basic services, for more inclusive public policies. The final external evaluation in November 2011, as well as generally reviewing the project, sought to share lessons learnt and recommendations. The Programme was reviewed as “exemplary” by the external evaluator in, and was deemed to be replicable to other contexts.

The Action for Better Governance (ABG) programme aims to galvanise the strength, position and network of the Catholic Church in Africa, to improve citizens’ access to information and foster a spirit of active engagement and transformative leadership necessary to pursue the principles of good governance. Citizens are being supported in holding institutions and leadership to be transparent and accountable. The programme is now in year 4 and CAFOD is continuing to support Catholic Justice and Peace Commissions and secular civil society partners at national and local (diocese) levels in their effort to monitor and influence governance processes. Following a process of training on public expenditure, community mobilisation and advocacy, the Programme is delivering results by securing improved access to service provision from government and the private sector including education, roads and communications.

At the end of 2010 CAFOD commissioned a review of its HIV-related work. It examined how CAFOD's approach to HIV care and support is promoted in programme practice,if and how it is relevant and valuable to the context and work of partner programmes, and what difference it makes to the lives of beneficiaries.

The final report identifies strengths in CAFOD’s holistic care response, and poses a number of challenges. The review provides a valuable resource which will inform joint endeavours to support effective care and support programmes for people affected by HIV in the future.

Please see below a summary of the final report and CAFOD’s own reflection and planned response on the outcomes of the review.

The Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) is a strategic funding agreement between CAFOD and the UK government Department for International Development (DFID). This evaluation was carried out in September and October 2010 by an independent consultant based in the UK and supplemented with field research by a second independent consultant based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The evaluation covers a wide range of CAFOD’s work with partners to address poverty and injustice, promote good governance, and respond to humanitarian crises and HIV. It also assesses CAFOD’s work with schools in England and Wales to increase development awareness.

For over 40 years, the Ecclesiastical Region of Southern Colombia known as Tolima Grande has been subject to social, armed, political and economic conflict. It is estimated that between 1997 and 2009, around 104,000 people were displaced and as a result there are high levels of poverty and unemployment. This project co-funded by the EC and the Dutch agency Cordaid sought to increase levels of community integration, support small businesses and to influence public policy in relation to the displaced and uprooted population. A coordination team was established responsible for planning, designing and finalising the technical guidelines of the project as well as monitoring and evaluation procedures. Implementing teams were responsible for planning and running the training and information workshops that were designed to strengthen the communities. The evaluation analysed the coordination and articulation between the project coordination team and the technical teams working in the municipalities.

In February 2010, CAFOD and CARITAS commissioned an evaluation of the Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP). HAP had 4 main components namely Institutional Feeding, Water and Sanitation, Vegetable Seed Distributions and Support to Health Institutions with Drugs. HAP was an emergency response to the 2008 drought, and the economic and political situation that was threatening the lives of many rural Zimbabweans. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the degree to which HAP was successfully and efficiently implemented and the extent to which lessons have been learnt which will lead to the improvement of Caritas’s emergency response in the future.

During 2009, attacks attributed to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in Sudan, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, caused mass displacement in the region. Approximately 87,000 were displaced in Southern Sudan, including 65,000 IDPs and 12,000 refugees in Western Equatoria State.

The Caritas network launched an appeal in October 2009 to respond to the emergency situation in Southern Sudan. The intervention intended to prevent excess mortality and morbidity among IDP, refugee and host communities whose lives were directly affected by the attacks. It was co-implemented by the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY) Development and Peace Office and CAFOD.

The Integrated Peace and Livelihoods Programme (IPLP) is one of several development projects currently funded by CAFOD, run by the Catholic Diocese of Maralal. Maralal is located in Samburu region, Northern Kenya, and has been somewhat neglected by successive governments. Tribal conflicts over the past two to three decades have worsened and cost greater numbers of lives as readily available weapons are being used with greater frequency.The conflicts are about shrinking natural resources for the nomadic tribes, as they move their animals around in search of water and pasture. However, governmental intervention in terms of drawing geographical boundaries which seek to confine the movement of these tribes are heightening tensions as drought worsens and places further pressure on livelihoods.

The genocide of approximately 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 shocked the world and caused an incredible outflow of 1-2 million people seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, such as Tanzania and Congo. Soon after, CAFOD started to provide humanitarian aid and psychological assistance to the deeply affected survivors, through the provision of technical and financial support to several local partner organisations: Association des veuves du Génocide (AVEGA) and Association Rwandaise des Conseillers en Traumatisme (ARCT) and shortly afterwards to Hope and Homes for Children (HHC-Rwanda) and Uyisenga N‟Manzi.