Publications
Summary of publication
Youth With A Mission Medical Ships Australia (YWAM MSA) has been providing health services to PNG since 2010. For most of this time the Australian Government, through AusAID and later DFAT, has made a contribution to YWAM MSA's service costs. This evaluation was commissioned to review YWAM MSA's activities between the last quarter of 2015 and December 2017, with a particularly focus on Western Province. It sought to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of YWAM MSA's approach to health service delivery, to identify lessons and provide recommendations that might inform DFAT's future engagement with YWAM. DFAT wishes to thank YWAM MSA for the cooperative and open spirit with which it approached the evaluation, and for the support it provided to the evaluation team during its mission.
DFAT accepts the main findings of the evaluation report, while noting the caveats in relation to the financial analysis that have been raised by YWAM MSA and are noted in its Management Response (published as a separate document on the DFAT website). The evaluation team found that YWAM MSA has delivered on its contractual obligations and exceeded the quantitative targets for service delivery under the funding agreement, with the organisation developing strong relationships across all levels of government in PNG. In particular, YWAM MSA has contributed to improving access to primary health care services in a number of remote locations of PNG. DFAT also notes the finding that YWAM MSA's operational coordination at the provincial and national levels could be improved to enable better coordination and use of services, and that further work should be done to strengthen monitoring and evaluation to inform program operational decision-making.