It is almost four years since the signing of the Helsinki peace agreement that brought an end to almost 30 years of conflict in Aceh. The consolidation of this peace is a long and continuous process that will require various interventions from provincial, national and international actors. The MGKD Project was one of the first large interventions to deal with conflicted effected communities.

During the duration of the project the men and women of almost 400 communities benefited directly from this intervention. Many other communities felt the in‐direct benefits of MGKD’s assistance. Furthermore, the experience and capacity of MGKD’s main partner, the Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM)*, was enhanced through a collaborative effort to facilitate and implement the financial grants provided to each community. PNPM is now in an improved condition to continue its bottom‐up community development activities across Aceh. 

This Report is the result of a six‐week external evaluation carried out as the project was coming to an end in the middle of 2009. The findings, lessons learned and recommendations are the result of Focus Discussion Groups and intensive interviews held in 40 of MGKDs 396 target villages. 25 of the evaluated villages received assistance in Phase 1 of the project and the other 15 received assistance in Phase 2. The Evaluation Team also interviewed the key stakeholders of the project and carried out a desktop analysis of project reports, documents and tools.

*Indonesian Government initiative tasked with facilitating community development projects in marginalized villages. It was formerly known as the Kecamatan Development Project