Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
MERL Advisory for Program on Improving Legal Information Provision for Displaced Communities
Client
Norwegian Refugee Council
Countries
Myanmar, Kenya, Nigeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Ukraine
Thematic Area
Displacement & Migration
Services
MERL advisory and capacity strengthening
Methods
In-depth interviews, Key informant interviews
Start Date
August 1, 2024
Team
Shireen Issa, Jana Sakakini
Context
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a humanitarian organization working in new and protracted crises in 40 countries globally. One of its six areas of specialities is providing legal protection or legal aid interventions through Information, Counselling, and Legal Assistance (ICLA). The program enables displaced individuals to claim their rights and access durable solutions in accordance with international humanitarian protection standards and principles.
NRC sought to improve the monitoring of outcomes from their ICLA program—both digitally (via its KOBLI platform) and non-digitally. Specifically, they required tools to measure knowledge improvement and understanding of legal rights among diverse and often mobile clients while addressing issues like anonymity, recall challenges, and variations in the effectiveness of delivery methods.
The Task
NRC commissioned Nurai Global to:
Develop an outcome monitoring toolkit to evaluate the effectiveness of legal information provision, ensuring their relevance, appropriateness, and impact for displaced populations.
Create a Theory of Change articulating the expected impact of integrating digital information provision into its legal aid programming with a focus on causal pathways.
Our Approach
Nurai Global adopted a participatory and iterative approach to meet NRC’s objectives. We began by reviewing NRC’s global level Theories of Change, existing Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework, and mandatory indicators to align tools with organizational standards. Comprehensive consultations were conducted with NRC staff in global, regional, and country offices to ensure tools addressed practical challenges, such as limited resources, variations in participants’ literacy levels, and external confounding factors, and were adaptable to contextual issues such as security conditions, connectivity and frequent movement of refugee and displaced populations.
Execution
We executed the assignment in three phases. During the inception phase, we conducted a comprehensive desk review of NRC documents, Theories of Change, and MEL tools. The data collection phase involved conducting 11 KIIs across several NRC country offices—Myanmar, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Ukraine—with legal aid and MEL staff. Interview guides were tailored based on feedback to ensure they addressed regional nuances. To ensure a fast turnaround, we employed rapid assessment procedures, allowing us to swiftly synthesize data into actionable insights for NRC to have a comprehensive overview of our findings. In the final phase, we synthesized insights into a practical outcome monitoring toolkit and a digital information provision Theory of Change, presenting these findings to NRC for validation and refinement.
Some of the challenges identified and overcome during this process includes:
Defining and differentiating between information outcomes (improved knowledge vs. improved understanding).
Finding ways to measure improvement in knowledge and understanding that account for various biases, confounding information sources, and differences in participant engagement levels.
Developing a simplified methodology for measuring outcomes to reduce the workload or resources required in NRC country offices.
The Results
We delivered within two months:
ICLA Digital Theory of Change (ToC) – A clear framework that helps NRC understand the various ways in which digital legal information provision can influence legal aid outcomes. The revised Theory of Change helped NRC to visualize how online tools can complement traditional legal assistance, with a view toward planning for expanding reach and optimizing resources.
Outcome Monitoring Toolkit – A structured yet adaptable toolkit that enables NRC staff across various contexts track, measure, and improve the effectiveness of legal information provision for both in-person and digital modalities. Our customized monitoring system set them up to enhance their understanding of how beneficiaries engage with legal aid resources. With this understanding, they can, in turn, refine legal information delivery and ensure that displaced communities have better access to the support they need.
Client Review
"It was a great pleasure to work with you on this project. I was very impressed by your commitment and quick grasp of the issues."
- Global Project Manager, NRC