Mohammed [user:field_middlename] Lardi

Mohammed Lardi

Consultant
UNFPA and UNICEF (retired)
Morocco

Médical doctor since 1980,  specialist in Health Administration from Montreal university and spécialiste in public health from university Paul Sabatier (France) worked in ministry of health in morocco (25 years),  held many responsabilités  and then worked as nutrition officer in UNICEF and Reproductive Health in UNFPA

My contributions

  • How to define and identify lessons learned?

    Discussion

  • Neutrality-impartiality-independence. At which stage of the evaluation is each concept important?  

    Discussion

  • Addressing disability inclusion through evaluations in agriculture and rural development

    Discussion

    • Mohammed Lardi

      Consultant UNFPA and UNICEF (retired)
      Morocco

      Dear Colleagues 

      I would like to share with you my input on the issue of  disabilities. My experience with this specifically is a bit linked to managing implementation of evaluation. In Morocco, I was working with UNFPA in Country office as national assistant Representative when Head Quarter from UNFPA New York  sought my contribution on managing evaluation Sexual Reproductive Health among youth in morocco in July 2018.  The project titled as “young persons with disabilities”:  global study on ending gender-based violence, and realising sexual and reproductive health and rights”  was  highlighting promising steps being taken in Ecuador, Morocco, Mozambique, and Spain.

      The study identified multiple areas in which CSOs, national policymakers, regional monitoring bodies, and international organizations are making progress in reducing and eliminating discrimination against young persons with disabilities. This report seeks to further that important work and to contribute to the global movement to leave no one behind.

      The specificity is that the standard protocol has been conceptualized from an academic team and we have been trying to implement it on the ground. It was  time consuming in coordination and advocacy to get evaluation acceptable by national partners. It is a complicated issue, for a combination of reasons possibly  the limit of stakeholder’s roles  and population severely disabled  are not all represented, and health care for everyone is a problem in developing countries. Some are out of schools in rural areas. There is also level of shame and not wanting to admit that there is a problem for people with disabilities especially for sexual and reproductive health.  

      Hopefully, we have in Morocco data, even disaggregating data already by sex, location. And we found some national institutions are doing targeted household surveys to try to find out the functional disabilities and how they might be served by being involved in the social and economic activities

      The other issue is that every disability is different – you can’t just lump everyone under the same heading.

      I have also met with organised groups of people with disabilities in (Agadir) in south of Morocco – they have good ideas, good projects and have playing a great role in COVID-19 helping targeting PWD  especially those who are more in need by advocacy in all level they obtain aid and distrusted, success stories exist and need evaluation.

      Another issue is category of elders among them a high rate of disability that need mix of strategies. We haven’t done so much on disability within health in Morocco.  

      I think that under COVID 19 many innovations revolutionize our approaches to reach unreachable people with disabilities, evaluation can help us to document success stories.

      As I have participated in the evaluation mentioned above and are attaching here a short summary on finding 

       

      YOUNG PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:  July 2018

      Global study on ending gender-based violence, and realizing sexual and reproductive health and rights

      MOROCCO

      Morocco is broadly representative of Arab states and of lower-middle income countries more generally. Morocco ranks 123 out of the 188 listed on the UNDP Human Development Index.296 It represents both a region and level of economic development wherein many states are developing new institutions to promote their citizens’ human rights but also face challenges. These new developments include laws promoting the equality of persons with disabilities, but also specific considerations, notably the stipulation that state policies and practices do not conflict with the provisions of the Islamic Shariah law, which can have an effect on the policies and strategies implemented regarding SRHR and GBV prevention and response services. Morocco, however, was chosen for this study because of the progress it has made promoting the rights of young persons with disabilities, including enjoyment of and access to SRHR and GBV prevention and response services.

      Research shows that the national prevalence rate of people with disabilities in Morocco is 6.8 per cent297 with the most common disabilities reported as visual and mobility related. The ratio of males and females is similar, showing 49.7 per cent for males and 50.3 per cent for females. Further, 60.8 per cent of people with disabilities reported difficulties in accessing health services generally.

      Morocco has made significant achievements in developing the necessary legal and policy framework for promoting the rights of young persons with disabilities related to Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender based violence (GBV) prevention and response services in recent years. Many laws in this framework are currently in the final stages of approval. Morocco has signed and ratified CEDAW, CRC, and the CRPD and has been developing a national legal framework for their implementation. The new 2011 national Constitution includes the right to health to all citizens, and it states the state’s intention to mobilise all available means to facilitate the equal access of citizens to the rights of treatment, health care, social protection, health coverage, solidarity, and to living in a healthy environment. The Constitution also recognises the principle of gender equality in all civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights and freedoms; the right to physical and moral integrity of individuals; and the principle of equality and combating all forms of discrimination. Morocco adopted Law N° 103-13 on combating violence against women in 2018.300 The Criminal Code of 2003 has also been amended to prohibit and punish discrimination on the basis of disability.

      KEY POINTS

      ·       Young persons with disabilities experience context-specific barriers that prevent them from exercising their rights on an equal basis with others.

      ·       States have an obligation to design context-specific laws, policies, and programs that address humanitarian crises, poverty, rurality, high HIV/AIDS prevalence, institutionalization, and other circumstances that disproportionately increase the risk that the rights of young persons with disabilities will be violated.

      ·       Young persons are at disproportionate risk of GBV and sexual exploitation in conflict and post-conflict environments and in the aftermath of natural disasters.

      ·       States have a positive obligation to protect the rights of persons with disabilities during and in their responses to humanitarian crises.

      ·       Poverty itself is a barrier to young persons with disabilities in accessing and enjoying SRHR and GBV prevention and response services on an equal basis with others.

      ·       The majority of young persons with disabilities in developing countries live in isolated rural areas that lack access to disability-inclusive SRH and GBV services in comparison to urban-based services.

  • What can evaluations do in terms of capacity development?

    Discussion

    • Mohammed Lardi

      Consultant UNFPA and UNICEF (retired)
      Morocco

      I would like to contribute with my own experience but I would first like to reaffirm that participation in evaluation is beneficial under certain conditions. I worked for the Ministry of Health in Morocco and for the United Nations system.

      Sometimes I find myself as an evaluator and sometimes as a commissioner of the evaluation, in both cases the different evaluations led me to develop my technical skills on the technical object evaluated and on the tools and process used.

      I concluded that when the commissioner participates in the evaluation since the design of the terms of reference and the methodology, the results of the evaluation will be relevant and useful. But when the evaluator evolves alone on one side, isolates himself in conducting his evaluation discreetly without involving users of evaluation in what he seeks to prove through his tools (interview, focus group, mid-term and final validation workshops), often in this case the result is disappointing and the problem will arise first at the level of the validation of the results and the recommendations will be dead letter, it is a pure waste of the resources. As a result, the quality and the profile and the behavior of the expert also comes into play. When participation is effective everyone everyone helps to inform the evaluator about the sources of the data to help him better interpret events and figures, when the evaluator is skillful he enjoys the dialogue and mutual feedback that is beneficial to both sides.

      As far as I am concerned, the most recent example (December 2018) concerns the evaluation of the implementation of the maternal death surveillance system in 5 countries in the Arab region (Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan). Methodology design based on WHO standard tools, nomination of a country evaluator who collected data from the country, organization of an inter-country workshop for synthesis, sharing of results and drafting summary reports for the region with policy briefs for advocacy with policy makers. Sponsors and teams from all five countries appreciated their participation in the process and the relevance of the recommandations.