Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64). / Programme evaluation is a process whereby the effectiveness of a programme is investigated, in order to "inform social action to improve social conditions" (Rossi, Lipsey & Freeman, 2004,p.16). Hence the aim of this evaluation was to assess the implementation of peer education programme, in order to recommend areas of improvement for future implementation. As a response to problems associated with high-risk behaviours and HIV prevalence amongst young people in Sub Saharan Africa, the Generation of Leaders Discovered (GOLD) Peer Education Development Agency developed a model that aims to address these issues. The model consists of a number of services that GOLD offers to implementing organisations (IOs) and enables them to roll out the GOLD Peer Education Programme. The programme is currently implemented by IOs in the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces of South Africa, as well as Botswana and Zambia. The programme aims to equip young leaders with the necessary knowledge,skills and attitudes to be role models of health-enhancing behaviours that will ultimately contribute to HIV prevention and develop young leaders. As there has been an evaluation conducted on the level of the services offered by GOLD to IOs (Gelderblom, 2009), the focus of this evaluation was on the implementation of the programme from the IOs to the peer educators. Focus was on service utilisation, service delivery and organisational support.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-59). / This dissertation is a process evaluation of Mbekweni Area Development Programme (MADP)'s HIV/AIDS project. The MADP is a programme that is implemented by World Vision South Africa. The aim of the process evaluation was to assess whether the HIV/AIDS project was implemented as intended. HIV/AIDS is a global problem, particularly prominent in South Africa. It has negatively affected families and communities resulting in increased social and economic burdens. The HIV/AIDS project at MADP uses prevention and care programmes to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in targeted areas of Mbekweni. In order to achieve this aim, the project uses the following programme activities: home visitation, home-based care, life skills, material support and awareness campaigns. To conduct the process evaluation, programme records, interviews with three key informants and questionnaires with 35 programme staff were used to assess the programme?s implementation. Findings from the evaluation show that the programme activities are largely being implemented as intended by the organisation. The HIV/AIDS project is being delivered to the intended beneficiaries and all the activities are being implemented as intended by the organisation. However, to improve the effectiveness of the project a structured

Includes summary. / Includes bibliographical references. / The aftercare programme is run by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Ikhaya LeThemba (home of hope). Ikhaya LeThemba runs two aftercare programmes: the Intensive Programme, which is specifically for children affected by HIV and AIDS, and the General Programme for children who do not have carers or parents to care for them after school and for children who have special educational needs.

The following dissertation details an evaluation conducted on a giftedness programme. The introduction of giftedness programmes can be traced as far back as 1922 where Terman was one of the first people to document and formalise the link between one's innate ability and their performance on a number of outcomes. Since then many other theorists Renzulli (1977) and Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell (2011) have expanded on the definition of giftedness to include not only one's innate ability but development of potential through a specialised environment that encourages the gifted learner to enhance their ability. In 2013, a programme evaluation student at the University of Cape Town, Reitumetse Mogorosi, conducted research for the Imibala Trust to assist with the design of the Gifted and Talented Enrichment (GATE) Programme. The Imibala Trust had for some time (with the support of the Metropole East Education Department) decided to pilot such a programme that aimed to serve gifted disadvantaged children in the Helderberg region. As a result of Mogorosi's work the GATE personnel were provided with an evaluation report that detailed a plausible programme theory for their programme; the activities that the GATE programme should include in its design; the selection process to be followed to recruit the identified target audience; and the importance of engaging relevant stakeholders in the programme. Following Mogorosi's (2014) report, the GATE programme was piloted in 2014. In 2014, a second masters' student from the University of Cape Town evaluated the pilot implementation of the GATE programme. This dissertation is an account of that evaluation study. The evaluator conducted two forms of evaluation, namely a process evaluation and a short-term outcome evaluation. The process evaluation aimed to establish whether the GATE personnel had implemented the programme as planned; while the short-term outcome evaluation aimed to determine whether the participants in the GATE programme perceived any changes as a result of the programme.

This dissertation is informed by a formative and outcome evaluation of the Sizophila programme, a community based antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme. The programme is administered by the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, a non-profit organization. The aim of the programme is to enhance ART health outcomes and promote individual wellbeing among people accessing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) related services in the Hannan-Crusaid Centre. The goal of the evaluation was to assess the Sizophila programme implementation and to determine the impact of the home visit intervention on the medium-term outcomes of HIV viral load suppression and loss to follow-up. The evaluation was primarily for the programme staff. An implicit Sizophila programme theory was explicated from the programme staff and the evaluator reviewed relevant programme documentation to formulate an explicit programme theory. To assess the plausibility of this theory, social science perspectives based on reviews of empirical evidence of previous research were solicited. The initial Sizophila programme theory was simplistic in assuming a simple cause-effect relationship. The final programme theory recognised that programme interventions function through certain moderators and mediators that can either strengthen or weaken the intervention-outcome effect.

This dissertation reports on a formative theory-based evaluation of the non-academic component of the Bridging Year Programme (BYP) implemented by the South African Education and Environment Project (SAEP), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working mainly in the impoverished community of Phillipi near Cape Town, South Africa. The focus of the evaluation was: (1) to extract the underlying assumptions of the non-academic component of the BYP, (2) to assess the plausibility of the underlying programme assumptions and (3) to develop an outcome monitoring framework for the non-academic component of the BYP. The Bridging Year Programme Description This programme recruits learners from poor socio-economic backgrounds who have gained a National Senior Certificate (NSC) at bachelors pass level but have not gained access to their tertiary level programmes of choice. Its aim is two-fold, (1) to assist learners to improve their NSC standard in order to gain access to their tertiary education programme of choice and (2) to provide them with personal development skills to cope with the academic and social demands of tertiary education. The assumption is that if the learners' personal development skills are enhanced their prospects of success in tertiary education and the employment market will be improved. Thus, the programme comprises an academic component and a non-academic (personal development) component. The scope of this evaluation focused specifically on the non-academic component of the BYP. Background A review of local and international bridging courses found that most students from poor socio-economic backgrounds are underprepared to cope with the social and academic workload of tertiary education, leading to high tertiary-dropout rates. A number of programme evaluations found that if students are provided with a set of non-academic (personal development) skills including planning and organising, prioritising their workload and English literacy skills, they will be better prepared to cope with the academic demands, thus improving their prospects of success at tertiary institutions.

Inclusive education programmes aim to include children with disabilities in mainstream schools by providing quality education in a barrier-free environment. These programmes are especially necessary in developing countries, where about one-third of all children have some sort of disability. Sustainable Development Goal 4 of education for all cannot be reached when these children are left out from schooling. The following dissertation presents the findings of an implementation evaluation of an inclusive education programme in Ethiopia. The programme, One Class for All (OCFA), is financed by Light for the World, an international non-government organization (NGO), and implemented by 14 Ethiopian partner organisations. A descriptive evaluation design combining qualitative and quantitative elements was used to examine typical Light for the World programmes as delivered by partners and as they appear on the ground. The data collection mainly involved interviews of partners and participants at selected schools in Ethiopia and a survey of all implementing partners. The evaluation indicated that the composition of implementing partners and their capacity in terms of content knowledge and collaborations are working well. We nevertheless highlight some high-level opportunities to improve the inclusive education programme of Light for the World. More structured development plans for each school are required, and a better connection between Light for the World`s community-based-rehabilitation (CBR) programmes and its inclusive education programmes is necessary to support entry to school for persons with disabilities. Under these overall findings, a more structured teacher training programme, better selection of teachers, and better local networking and targeted awareness raising programmes are also needed. This evaluation contributes to the limited literature on successful inclusive education programmes in developing countries.

Les services de renseignement analysent et évaluent les informations issues de sources ouvertes manuellement. Il n'est pourtant plus possible de toutes les traiter ainsi. Ces travaux visent à assister les opérationnels dans leur utilisation d'Internet pour produire des renseignements, notamment pour décider s'ils peuvent exploiter une information collectée.Nous étudions les méthodes proposées pour évaluer des informations, qu'elles soient manuelles ou automatiques, dans un contexte civil ou militaire. Nous proposons un système dédié à l'exploitation des sources ouvertes. Il cible les phases de collecte et d'analyse du cycle de renseignement. Son architecture est ouverte, pour faciliter son adaptabilité aux procédures de chaque service de renseignement. Nous décrivons un prototype mettant en œuvre un ensemble de critères sélectionnés. Nous validons l'approche par une expérimentation démontrant que l'aide apportée aux utilisateurs facilite l'évaluation des pages obtenues sur internet. / Intelligence agencies analyse and assess information open sources manually. Yet it is impossible to process every piece as well. This works aims at assisting operationals to use the Internet to produce intelligence, including deciding whether they can exploit gathered information.We study methods proposed to assessing information, manual or automatic, in a civil or military context. We propose a system dedicated to the exploitation of open sources. It targets collection and analysis phases of the intelligence cycle. Its architecture is open, to ease its adaptability to the procedures of each intelligence service. We describe a prototype implementing a selected set of criteria. We validate the approach by an experiment showing that assisting users eases the assesment of pages avilable on the Internet.

Background The CoolPlay youth development programme (CYDP) is an after-school sport-for development (SFD) programme with an integrated social-emotional learning (SEL) component delivered to schools in low-income communities in Cape Town, South Africa. The CYDP is implemented by CoolPlay, an SFD organisation funded by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. The aim is to provide youth with pro-social after-school activities that equip them with the social-emotional competence fundamental to becoming responsible and socially engaged citizens. The main programme stakeholders include the CoolPlay board of trustees, an operations manager, four area managers and 26 sport and SEL coaches (Champions). In 2018, I was appointed as a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) intern within the organisation. In my capacity as an M&E intern, I conducted an evaluability assessment (EA), which determined the scope and approach of the evaluation for this dissertation. Evaluation Focus The objective of the evaluation was to determine: (a) whether or not the CYDP can realistically produce the intended outcomes, and (b) the extent to which the programme is implemented in line with quality parameters identified in the literature. As such, a theory evaluation and a process evaluation were conducted sequentially to address the following evaluation questions: 1. What is the theory and logic underlying the CYDP design? 2. Is the programme theory and logic plausible? 3. What elements of the CYDP theory could be modified to maximise intended outcomes? 4. Do the Champions implement the CoolPlay sport sessions with sufficient quality? 5. What contextual factors may be influencing the implementation of the CoolPlay sport sessions? 6. Are the Champions adequately trained to deliver the CoolPlay sport sessions? 7. Is there adequate organisational support in place to facilitate implementation of CoolPlay sport sessions? Methodology The evaluator used Donaldson's (2007) five-step procedure for constructing and assessing the programme theory. An initial programme theory was constructed using programme documentation and focus group data derived from a purposive sample of seven programme stakeholders (evaluation question 1). The plausibility of the initial programme theory was assessed by means of an extensive literature review (evaluation question 2). The programme theory was critically reconstructed using Brouselle and Champagne's (2011) logic analysis procedure (evaluation question 3). The process evaluation used a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis, and integration methods (concurrent mixed methods design). An observational rating scale was administered to a convenience sample of 16 Champions during a routine observation session conducted by area managers to address evaluation question 4. A purposive sample of three area managers and a stratified randomised sample of four Champions participated in interviews to elicit the contextual factors influencing implementation (evaluation question 5), the adequacy of Champion training (evaluation question 6) and the adequacy of programme support functions (evaluation question 7). The operations manager also provided qualitative input on the adequacy of programme support functions through an interview. The qualitative data was analysed using Braun and Clarke (2006)'s procedure for thematic analysis. The interviews were supplemented by quantitative data derived from a mentor survey and an organisational survey completed by four Champions and five members of the programme management team, respectively. Key Findings and Conclusions The programme theory evaluation found that the initial programme theory and logic (evaluation question 1) is plausible, however effect sizes are likely to be low and programme effectiveness is highly dependent on developmentally appropriate content and structure, psychologically and physically safe programme environment, staff characteristics, parent/caregiver involvement, and youth participation and engagement (evaluation question 2 and 3). Preliminary insights derived from the EA suggest that the CYDP does not meet these quality parameters/requirements fully, thus highlighting the need for programme design and implementation improvement, as captured in the critically reconstructed programme theory (evaluation question 3). The process evaluation found deficiencies in implementation (evaluation question 4) linked to schools' commitment and capacity, parent/caregiver involvement, and youths' capacity to engage (evaluation question 5). Certain aspects of the training structure and content were found to be inadequate for developing all relevant competencies/skills, and poor Champion engagement was flagged as a critical issue (evaluation question 6). Implementation of the programme was further constrained by limited organisational capacity (evaluation question 7). These process evaluation findings confirm that the CYDP does not fully meet the programme quality parameters/requirements identified in the literature. Recommendations Key recommendations unpacked in this dissertation include the following: • Alignment of programme content with appropriate developmental milestones and unique interests of programme beneficiaries. It is recommended that the content is structured in a curriculum that follows the SAFE approach to SEL facilitation. • Provision of transport, nutrition, and first aid supplies and training, as well as implementation of strategies to address deviant behaviour to ensure that programme beneficiaries are physically and psychologically safe. • Efforts to hire, train and retain qualified Champions. These include adherence to documented selection criteria, a more comprehensive induction process, ongoing training and support including collaborative planning, debriefing and provision of mental health services. • Implementation of parental and teacher involvement strategies, such as invitation to CoolPlay meetings and workshops, distribution of newsletters, and provision of transport to and from CoolPlay events. • Implementation of M&E systems for participant enrolment, attendance, drop-out and engagement. • Allocation of resources toward securing qualified, full-time staff with experience in positive youth development. • Strengthening of programme quality before the CYDP is rolled out to additional sites, given that the programme has the potential to support both positive and negative developmental outcomes in youth.

Globally, there has been increased momentum in the implementation of parenting programmes. Such programmes have been noted to be effective, with positive outcomes being observed in the parents and their offspring or children they take care of. Most of the evaluations on parenting programmes have been conducted in developed countries, creating a need for further research on implementation processes and impact in low income countries. The current project was a theory and process evaluation on the Teen Parenting Programme (TPP) being offered by the Parent Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Through group sessions, the programme teaches parenting and life skills to teenagers who are either biological parents or primary caregivers to younger children. The evaluation objective was to develop the programme theory, assess its plausibility and evaluate the programme's implementation fidelity. The study used exploratory and descriptive research designs to address the evaluation questions. The theory evaluation component adopted a theory-based approach, collecting data through workshops with programme staff and review of documents. The process evaluation made use of primary and secondary sources to collect quantitative and qualitative data. A survey questionnaire, focus group discussion guide, key informant interview guide and checklist were used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that (i) the TPP theory and underlying causal and process assumptions were plausible; (ii) the programme was reaching the target population and there were high attendance levels; (iii) there was implementation fidelity; and (iv) sufficient organisational support was being offered despite the prevailing financial challenges. As a plausible programme theory and high implementation fidelity are key components in ensuring programme success, the TPP was well positioned to be a successful programme. Such implementation fidelity findings indicated that the TPP had a higher likelihood of achieving its expected outcomes. The evaluation made recommendations essential in improving the few noted implementation shortcomings. A key limitation to the evaluation was that the views of the participants were not captured as access to interview them was limited. The study contributes to research on theory evaluation and implementation fidelity of teen parenting programmes in low-resource settings.