28 December 2017 LESSONS Fashion

Missão Paz

A closeup of a person speaking into a microphone in a studio and holding a newspaper

What did we evaluate?

The partnership with Missão Paz began in 2006 and remains active until today. This independent evaluation took place between April and July 2017 and had a dual role: on the one hand, to analyse its relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability, and on the other, to identify strategic lessons to improve the partnership and inform future initiatives.

In addition to these objectives, the evaluation faced a major challenge: an evaluation of a partnership that, while generating a great deal of information about migration and forced labour, did not have a clear theory of change. For this reason, the evaluation process started with the reconstruction of the Theory of Change of the partnership. During this process three main objectives of the partnership were identified:

  • To strengthen Missão Paz fulfilling its mission effectively and sustainably
  • To guarantee immigrants that their culture is valued, as well as shelter and supportive services
  • Regularisation, empowerment and support when victims of exploitation or violence
  • To produce relevant knowledge to influence immigration legislation and policies and inform society

Results

The evaluation considered the overall performance of the partnership to be very good (on a scale of five: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Insufficient). See the main findings for each of the criteria evaluated below:

  • Relevance, Excellent. The exploitation of migrant labour in the fashion industry is still a pressing challenge; public policies are still inadequate; and the demand for immigrant care remains high. The purpose of the partnership is very much in line with the missions of both C&A Foundation and Missão Paz;
  • Efficiency, Very Good. The relationship between both partners, the partnership design, and allowing for flexibility on project implementation and resource allocation proved to be adequate. Nevertheless, significant limitations were highlighted in monitoring and self-evaluation of the initiative, which impeded structured learning;
  • Effectiveness, Very Good. The partnership contributed positively to changes in legislation and public policies on migration, and to the strengthening of Missão Paz. It allowed improvements in immigrant care services and contributed to the production and dissemination of knowledge on the subject. Still, the evaluation identified opportunities for improvement in individual and collective empowerment of immigrants and in the dissemination of the cause to the society;
  • Impact, Excellent. Since 2006, Missão Paz has supported the regularisation of 67,000 immigrants and has directly influenced the development of public policies and programmes at both the federal and municipal levels. In addition, Missão Paz was strengthened, allowing them to expand and qualify its team and to improve their infrastructure;
  • Sustainability, Very Good. The creation and/or qualification of laws, policies and public programmes for immigrants tend to guarantee the sustainability of acquired rights. Regarding Missão Paz, their strong leadership, qualified staff, public recognition, and the fact that they have a significant share of the resources needed for the medium term, as well as low dependence on funding from C&A Foundation, are identified as positive signs.

What did we learn?

The evaluation made recommendations and identified challenges and paths of change from which the following lessons were extracted:

  • The long-term partnership allowed us to lay the foundations for a greater and lasting impact. The partnership with Missão Paz could be divided in three moments. In the first, C&A Foundation funded the activities that were already carried out by Missão Paz. In the second moment, learning from the first experience identified the opportunity for institutional strengthening. In the third, with Missão Paz showing positive results in both immigrant care services and institutional strengthening, it was identified that Missão Paz could play an important role in policy advocacy;
  • Holistic immigrant care is a decisive factor, but it must be accompanied by immigrant empowerment, including political empowerment;
  • C&A Foundation allowing for flexibility in resources allocation and Missão Paz’s adaptive management were key to the responsiveness to changing contexts and opportunities;
  • Missão Paz’s articulating, dynamic and mobilising leadership, as well as the issue of migration and Missão Paz strong presence in the media, proved to be very important as an instrument of pressure for the improvement of public policies and the mobilisation of thought leaders.