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Social Return on Investment Evaluation Report of Rural Up Program

“Rural Up Program was launched in 2011 for rural development. The program is designed to cultivate students and rural communities for co-creation, and give them opportunities to solve real problems by putting their own ideas into practice.

Through this program, students become practitioner in rural villages for two months who can observe the question behind question, apply essential methods, lead multi-disciplinary teams to address challenges, communicate efficiently and effectively, and implement sustainable approaches that enhance rural development.

The program has been held eight times as of 2018, with many student teams participating every year. The scope of this evaluation is the eighth Rural Up program. This study adopts the SROI methodology to review the social impact of the eighth Rural Up from March 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018. Following stakeholder engagement, the key stakeholders of the program were found to be students, the Soil & Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB) and communities. The benefits of the program’s impact for the students were that they indeed absorbed relevant knowledge about farming/fishing village communities and that they began to think about the possibility of planning their careers in these communities. The organizer, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, was able to get great public recognition via this program. From rural communities’ perspective, the execution of students’ creativity and ideas did change the villages on environment, community cohesion, community prestige  and favorable image.”