The objective of HOPE was to foster social and economic inclusion of rural youth in the Sikasso Region in Mali. Project activities included life skills and peer education, technical and professional training, professional insertion of youth, and advocacy and capacity building with community groups, banks and credit institutions, technical and professional schools, and government institutions. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the project on the beneficiaries' livelihoods, the relevance of the project's life skills component, and to capture lessons that could improve programming.

Services provided included evaluation research design (including a survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews), sampling, enumerator training, quality control of the data collection process, and data analysis and report writing.