State Government of Victoria (Australia) - International Education Opportunities in Vietnam - 2017

Project Description:

The South East Asia Victorian Government Business Office (SEA VGBO) seeked to commission a project to scope international education barriers and opportunities in Vietnam for Victoria State’s universities and education service providers. MKE delivered a comprehensive report that provided strategic recommendations to support market access for Victorian higher education, vocational education and training (VET), English language and professional development providers.

Other tasks included: Undertaking desk research to define and broadly scope the sectors in Vietnam, and understanding the activities of Victorian organizations in Vietnam and Victoria’s comparative advantage; Outlining 4 case studies of successful foreign and local “commercial cooperation models” in Vietnam; Conducting 10 in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; Developing an itinerary for the Kuala Lumpur VGBO’s market visit to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. MKE was to deliver a report with rich findings and recommendations.

An overseas firm - Natural gas’s substitute fuels in Vietnam: market research into the scope of supply for the industrial sector - 2017

Project Description:

The client wished to study the market of key substitute products of natural gas in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the big picture of fuel supplying markets in Vietnam. Therefore, the client commissioned a study on the goal of outlining a macro perspective of some fuel sources, how each market functions as well as profiles of the key suppliers. There were a number of fuels subjected to the study, including: Fuel Oil; LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas); Coal; Biomass (woodchip, rice husk and cashew oil).

ICRW - Endline research for career & life skills program among Village Saving and Loan community members of SreAmbel district and Koh Kong province - 2017

Project Description:

ICRW served as an evaluation partner and strategic advisor for P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement) a financial and life skills program that had been operational among female garment workers in factories. The program was now complete and had offered 254 female and 6 men from about 11 VSLA’s education and life skills training. The mission’s main objective was to conduct interviewer-administered quantitative surveys and qualitative in-depth interviews to obtain endline information on participant characteristics as well as knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding key learning’s and objectives of the program.

In this context, the mission designed quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches; selected and recruited investigators for data collection; trained investigators and led data collection missions; recorded clean versions of the data; analysed and interpreted results in a final report submitted to ICRW.

LIFT - Interim Review of LIFT 2015-2018 Strategy - 2017

Project Description:

LIFT is a multi-donor fund designed to address the food insecurity and income poverty of poor and vulnerable people in Myanmar. In light of Myanmar’s political, social and economic transformation, LIFT developed a new strategy in 2014 supporting the transformation of Myanmar’s rural economy by promoting inclusive growth and providing new knowledge, technologies and access to finance and markets with more opportunities for agribusiness with the private sector.

MKE’s role was to review LIFT’s strategy in order to improve LIFT’s performance and governance, and to inform future possible funding mechanisms beyond 2018. This required reviewing key documents relating to LIFT’s strategy including specific project documents, such as project proposals, MEAL plans, and project reports, were made available for the review team. MKE also conducted meetings with key Fund Board members, FMO staff, and other stakeholders. The team visited all four agro-ecological target areas to review project progress. Finally MKE produced a final report highlighting key findings with regards to the performance of LIFT, and providing recommendations for future funding strategies.

European Commission/Cardno Emerging Markets Ltd - Final Evaluation of the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programme -2016

Project Description:

The mission is the final evaluation of the EC-funded Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programme (ESRT Programme in Vietnam). The overall project objective was: "To mainstream responsible tourism principles into Vietnam’s tourism sector to enhance competitiveness and contributing to achieving the Socio Economic Development Plan (SEDP)."

The programme worked in three key component areas:

(1) Policy Support and Institutional Strengthening

(2) Product Competitiveness and Public-Private Dialogue

(3) Vocational Training and Education.

The main objective of the Final Evaluation was to review project progress, to check results against targets, and to provide a clear and concise opinion and assessment whether the progamme has met its objectives. In this respect the mission assessed the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the ESRT programme related to its stated purpose and expected results, in accordance with EC evaluation guidelines. By identifying weaknesses and challenges, the evaluation helped the European Commission Delegation and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism to assess the impact of the programme as well as consider lessons learnt.

Care - Facilitation to enhance women’s participation, increased access to information and market in the Rubber Sector - 2016

Project Description:

The project aimed to conduct a series of pilot intervention activities, with the ultimate aim of determining the best method to support women and men small-holder farmers (SHFs) to increase their rubber productivity, quality and gain secured access to land and ultimately to increase their income through improved market actions.

MKE designed and conducted a feasibility study to determine app/phone usage in the area, interviewing target beneficiaries and conducting key informant interviews (KIIs) with rubber sector engaged organizations; interpreting the results and ensuring suitable iterative planning and implementation of the pilot training activities. MKE team discuss where shortcomings in the SHF exist and what broad types of trainings or apps would be most suitable and train activities to rubber farmers and to demonstrate certain tools are used or certain techniques.

MKE conducted all monitoring and evaluating of the use and uptake of apps and those of trainings; produced a final report analysing the results (achieved through “outcome harvesting”) from the pilot interventions, and provided recommendations and considerations towards upscaling such interventions on a region-wide level.

World Concern - Nutrition Causal Analysis - Improved economic and nutritional outcome of poor rural people in Norther Kayin State - 2016

Project Description:

A Nutrition Causal Analysis (NCA) was one of the activities planned during the inception phase of CDN’s LIFT-funded rural livelihoods project. The NCA included a quantitative and qualitative methodology. The quantitative data for the NCA was collected from household interviews (400 households).

MKE reviewed and finalized the quantitative questionnaire and FGD questionnaire, and uploaded it into Kobo Toolbox, translated the qualitative and quantitative questionnaire into Burmese, and contributed in the design of a high quality study (qualitative and quantitative) in coordination with World Concern Myanmar. Further, MKE conducted the pilot testing and finalized the qualitative and quantitative questionnaire; then cleaned the quantitative and qualitative data and produced high quality data available for analysis. The final stage of the project involved the writing of a report based off of the findings from both qualitative and quantitative analyses. This report included a list of recommendations for the implementation of the project.

CDN - Baseline Study: Improving the incomes and nutrition outcomes of rural poor in Northern Kayin State - 2016

Project Description:

This project was focused on Thandaunggyi Township, the northernmost township in Kayin State. It covered three sub-townships (Leiktho, Thandaunggyi and Bawgali). The baseline study focused on baseline data collected for a set of indicators outlined in the project’s M&E plan. The baseline study report was used as a measurement to monitor the project progress against the set indicators and achievement over the course of the project implementation.

MKE led the overall design of approach and survey questions for the baseline study and trained enumerators in conducting a baseline survey. MKE cleaned and analyzed the collected data and information obtained from the baseline survey. Finally, MKE delivered a final baseline survey report with statistical testing of the Theory of Change causal pathways and a set of 36 recommendations.

BTC - Facility To Capacity Building Project (Vie 1188811) - 2016

Project Description:

The Facility to Capacity Building (FCB) aimed to improve the quality of human resources of Vietnam through strengthening the innovation and management skill capacities of both individuals and institutions by taking into account a broader setting including master degree trainings, traineeships, alumni fellowships, net-working, coaching, and professional development activities. The Consultant's mandates is to

(i) Identifying, attracting, and facilitating participation of beneficiary organisations

(ii) Evaluating beneficiary and training supplier proposal

(iii) Provide target groups with tools, instruments, expertise and support for effective training

(iv) Provide quality control and support for delivery of trainings

(v) Support the formation and implementation of a specified monitoring and evaluation system. 

Care Myanmar - Evaluation on Strengthening Early Childhood Education (SECE) Programme - 2016

Project Description:

Community-based Early Child Day Care Centers (ECDCC) would be established near CARE’s existing Community Learning Centers (CLC) funded by AusAid, and would serve as

(i) Day care centers for male and female children aged three to five years

(ii) parent meeting centers for childhood development.

Mekong Economics conducted a final evaluation to determine the extent to which this project was successful. The MKE team was responsible for further considering the key evaluation questions and designing the evaluation methodology, implementing the agreed methodology, analysing data, and documenting outcomes of the evaluation.