Evaluation of SAIH’s support for FADCANIC’s Wawashang Environmental and Agroforestry Educational Centre

The Fundaci&oacute;n para la Autonom&iacute;a y el Desarrollo de la Costa Atl&aacute;ntica de Nicaragua (FADCANIC) has established and is running the Environmental and Agroforestry Education Centre (CEAA) at Wawashang, in Nicaragua&rsquo;s South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). However, the CEAA's targets will only be achieved in conjunction with other interventions. FADCANIC&rsquo;s agroforestry project is an important element in this context. This report evaluates the first phase of this programme. It assesses the progress and concludes some recommendations for the second phase.<br /><br />The report notes that the project has largely been successful in achieving its immediate goals. FADCANIC has been successful in developing an innovative educational model based on learning by doing and combining theoretical and practical subjects. In addition, students have acquired a solid academic base that compares well with students of ordinary schools. <br /><br />The paper indicates that in spite of the considerable achievements, there are still some challenges. A key challenge is how to reduce the number of students who drop out from school before graduating. FADCANIC needs to bring down the turnover among teaching staff, and maybe reduce their workload. Moreover, there is a need to strengthen the educational capacity of the teachers. Consequently, the report introduces the following recommendations:<br /> support for marketing and commercialisation of agroforestry products within the overall FADCANIC "package" should be strengthened FADCANIC should continue its work to raise the number of female students FADCANIC should continue to strive for self-sufficiency in food production FADCANIC should seek to position the school so that the likelihood of the state increases, assuming some of the costs in the future FADCANIC should continuously strive to deepen the cooperation between the school and the project FADCANIC should seek to systematise a way of maintaining an overview of the careers.