Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) Post Implementation Study

This is an evaluation of the Mass Information in Support of Liberian Refugee Repatriation and Reintegration project, a 12-month information campaign undertaken by Search for Common Ground (SFCG) with the support of the United States Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM). This project, which took place between September 2006 and September 2007, focused on supporting the final phase of facilitated repatriation of 110,000 Liberian Refugees to Liberia mainly from Guinea, but also from Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Ghana.

As part of the monitoring and evaluation process, SFCG conducted a baseline study in September 2006 at the start of the project and a post-implementation study in August 2007. The success of the campaign was measured by comparing the results of the 2 studies on 5 key indicators which were developed in collaboration with BPRM to measure the completion and effectiveness of the interventions.

The purpose of the post-implementation study is to compare research results against the baseline to measure the effectiveness of the campaign and to understand:

• information needs and sources of information of refugees;
• refugees' level of trust in these information sources;
• how informed refugees were about what was happening in Liberia while they were living outside the country;
• their awareness and opinion of SFCG programmes such as Situation Report/Home Sweet Home/New Life New Hope and other SFCG mass information activities; and
• the effectiveness of SFCG's activities in helping refugees to decide to return to Liberia.

Three tools were used to conduct the research: surveys, key informant interviews (KIIs), and focus group discussions (FGDs). The research was conducted in one town in each of 6 counties in Liberia. The locations were selected on the basis of having a large number of returnees and being relatively accessible. Together the 6 locations represented returnees from the 3 countries of exile targeted in the campaign: Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire. Surveys were conducted using a combination of open and closed questions with male and female adult refugees who returned to Liberia in the past year. KIIs were conducted to verify the findings from the survey with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representatives and local leaders. Informants were asked for their perspective on the issues affecting refugees, their information sources, and how informed they were when they returned to Liberia. FGDs were conducted to verify and investigate the survey findings in more detail. The focus group participants were adult refugees, both male and female, who were willing to participate, and selected randomly from within the towns with assistance from local leaders in identifying them. Two focus groups were also conducted with refugees from Côte d'Ivoire who have not returned.

According to this report, the results of the evaluation were consistent across all research areas and, generally, the key informants and focus group participants validated the survey findings with their responses.

The findings showed that the work performed by SFCG was effective in ensuring that refugees were aware of their options regarding repatriation and had enough information about development in Liberia and their communities to support their decision to return home. The information provided by SFCG was thought to be truthful by most returnees (94%), who mentioned security, repatriation, and community rehabilitation information as most useful. Focus group participants specifically mentioned hearing about land conflict solutions and hearing family members on the radio and reports of one-on-one conversations with Talking Drum Studio (TDS) drama artists as influential in helping refugees to make the decision to return to Liberia.

The report states that the information source that was the most effective across all areas was drama, which was seen or heard by most (91%) respondents; of those, most (95%) said the information they got from drama was good or excellent. Only a small number of refugees who returned felt that they did not have adequate information or that the information they heard while in exile was not found to be true when they returned home.