The Partnership for the Development of Eastern Congo (P-DEC) is a program in the regions of North Kivu (Beni) and Ituri (Mambasa) that is being implemented to address the consequences of multiple conflicts and armed confrontations in the regions. The crises and conflicts in the region are mainly caused by the weak restoration of state authority, illicit exploitation of natural resources, occupation of certain territories by armed groups and inter/intra-community conflicts, and weak social cohesion. The P-DEC program contributes to the restoration of peace, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, protection, the improvement of communities’ living conditions and the revival of the local economy in the region.
At the request of USAID, Social Change (SoCha), within the framework of its strategic support program for missions (MSSP), commissioned a study to design the impact evaluation of the P-DEC program. The impact evaluation conducted in collaboration with Innovations et Entrepreneuriat Social (IES) in April 2023 has formed a basis for validly measuring the impact of the P-DEC intervention on a set of outcome indicators and identify the factors that are associated with the effectiveness of the P-DEC program. In this evaluation, we adopted a quasi-experimental approach that collects data from the treated area and comparison area before and after the intervention.