AM PARTNERS

Armenian Social Investment Fund (ASIF) implements rehabilitation and restructuring of smaller scale public infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, community centers, and other) since 1996. ASIF attracts necessary funds from international donor and benevolence organizations, as well as from the communal and state budgets. ASIF completed its third large program (ASIF-3) in 2014. Assessment of ASIF-3 program beneficiaries aimed at measurement of mainly the impact of the program, though other aspects of implementation were addressed, too. Surveyed beneficiaries and stakeholders of the program were given an opportunity to express their opinions on the results of ASIF-3 implementation.

The major accent of assessment was made on two larger components of ASIF-3 program - infrastructure rehabilitation and provision of trainings. For the needs of assessment, a sample of 31 projects (selected from 289 projects completed as of June 30, 2014) was developed. Sampled projects belonged to the 8 most often met types of projects, implemented by ASIF in 28 communities of 9 regions.

The assessment was conducted among various groups of beneficiaries and stakeholders of the program, including the main 3 groups: a) direct beneficiaries (population of communities, where ASIF implemented its projects), b) community officials, including those of local municipalities’ administration, management of reconstructed infrastructure, representatives of local committees, contractor organizations, etc., c) participants of ASIF-3 program training component, including heads of local municipalities, financial officers of community administration and reconstructed infrastructure, accountants, members of community councils,  and others, who participated in trainings on municipal financial management.

The sample of assessment consist of 600 direct beneficiaries (local population), 29 representatives of local municipalities, 57 representatives of projects implementation local committees, 20 representatives of contracted organizations, and 27 representatives of the management of reconstructed infrastructure. The assessment was conducted via survey of the mentioned beneficiaries and stakeholders of ASIF-3 program, and the survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews. Assessment of the training component was conducted via face-to-face interviews with 42 participants of trainings.

All the mentioned interviews have been conducted by application of a specially designed questionnaire that consisted of sections related to the respondents’ 1) awareness, 2) participation, 3) cooperation, 4) establishment of a social capital, 5) satisfaction, 6) benefits, and 7) indirect impact.

The results of the surveys and assessment were compiled in a large analytical report. Except of findings and conclusions on implementation of ASIF-3 program this report also contains a set of messages and recommendations for the next programs planned for implementation by ASIF.