Evaluation of the SPRING Accelerator Programme

SPRING, a five-year programme running from July 2014 to September 2019, supported 75 businesses in nine countries in South Asia and East Africa. The aim of SPRING was to transform the lives of adolescent girls by working with businesses to develop products and services which would help girls stay safe, learn, earn, and save, and improve their wellbeing.

We assessed whether SPRING achieved its objectives set out in the Theory of Change. We carried out extensive evaluations both during and after SPRING’s delivery to inform the programme and capture its longer-term impacts.

Our aim as the independent evaluation partner for the programme is to fill the knowledge gap in the international development sector and find out what works best to transform the lives of girls through the private sector.

Specifically, our Tetra Tech team gathered evidence through five components:

  • Our programme performance evaluation assessed the effectiveness of SPRING, providing regular recommendations that would help our partner carry out and improve the performance of the programm
  • Our business performance evaluation looked at the performance of SPRING businesses – sales, investment readiness, number of girls reached – to learn what did and did not work to reach adolescent girls with market-based solutions
  • Our impact evaluation examined how and to what extent adolescent girls have benefitted from SPRING products, services, or income-generation opportunities
  • We assessed the sustainability of SPRING businesses and their prototypes –whether they were still operational, if they were still carrying out their SPRING prototype and reaching or targeting adolescent girls, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses and their targeting of girls
  • We provided effective packaging, dissemination and communications to a wide range of audiences. By using different communication strategies – tailored to each group and communication purpose yet interlinked and mutually supportive – we created a broad and comprehensive portfolio of communication products.

East Africa and South Asia

2015-2022

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK
US Agency for International Development, US
Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia

Results

We have shared lessons from the SPRING with others who are designing and evaluating adaptive programmes, including the UK Evaluation Society, European Evaluation Society conferences and USAID’s Gender Champion Working Group. We have also presented at the International Humanitarian Conference.

During our evaluation, we have also delivered informational presentations to Basic Education Coalition, Save the Children, CARE International, Centre for Universal Education, SEPN, Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs, and SESAME Foundation.

During this period, we have also delivered informational presentations to Basic Education Coalition, Save the Children, CARE International, Centre for Universal Education, SEPN, Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs, and SESAME Foundation.