Impact. You know the feeling don’t you – you’ve been working on a brilliant initiative, and then someone turns up and asks you “So – what impact are you making”? It’s a fair question – indeed, it’s a question we should be asking ourselves. If we are not making a difference, we are wasting our […]
Month: April 2020
Once we have agreed on a clever, limited set of indicators, all seems good. However, we are not yet there. For most indicators, we can choose a specific ‘angle’.
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Use change language in reports
An engaging report uses ‘change language’ instead of action language. Hunh? Ok, it’s not as complicated as these big words suggest. Language matters. Let’s look at it closer: ACTION LANGUAGE Action language reflects the completion of a series of activities. An example of action language is: “XYZ supported the peer education of 150,000 girls on […]
Do you hate report writing? Fed up with writing long, detailed reports that nobody seems to read? But the truth is: report writing IS important. And it can be exciting :-). It can showcase what we have achieved. It is important to show those that have provided the money – taxpayers, communities, donors, charities, etc. […]
A good theory of change (ToC) is based on seven principles: 1. Repeat doing it until you get it right, 2. links are as important as expected changes, 3. risk and assumptions are key, 4. it must be scalable, 5. it is not a results chain, 6. organisations often already have ToCs in place which […]
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A Theory of Change
Probably as an inevitable result of the buzz in the past few years, many Theories of Change are often useless. One reason for that is – is my feeling – that they are typically not developed in a logical sequence: without a thorough problem analysis, with a possible intervention already in mind, just as the […]
MINIMUM WHAT?!? Ok. What are we talking about? A minimum viable product – MVP in short – is a product with just enough features to gather validated learning about a possible intervention or product. It is deliberately imperfect; any additional work on it beyond what was required to start learning is waste, no matter how important it might have […]
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Innovative programme design
It has always been clear to me: Monitoring and Evaluation depends to a large extent on how development or government programmes are planned and designed. That is why good M&E is strongly linked with good planning and design. In a way, programme design is a natural extension of our skill set in M&E. That is why this blog […]
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The Age of Data
Data, information and knowledge Professional Monitoring and Evaluation is based on hard facts: data, information, knowledge and understanding. Let us take a closer look at these concepts: WHAT IS DATA? As you will know, data is a collection of objective facts, such as numbers, words, images, measurements, observations or even just descriptions of things. In other words: Data is chunks of […]
To collect primary data (data that we need to collect first ourselves), we can rely on a rather sophisticated toolbox– largely from social sciences – that has been developed over decades. There are tools for quantitative and qualitative data collection. Here is a list of some of the important tools available to us: What to learn more about how to monitor results? Check […]
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Measuring = reducing uncertainty
A lot of what we do in Monitoring and Evaluation is related to measuring. And that’s the problem: Many of us think of measuring as something precise. But that’s not necessarily the case in M&E. What we need to be is roughly right. Those of us in Monitoring and Evaluation should carefully consider this advice from John […]
Don’t be fooled. The fact that the terms Monitoring and Evaluation often go together and are called “M&E” is somewhat misleading. When governments or development organisations use the term “Monitoring & Evaluation”, however, they mean something very specific: Monitoring & Evaluation is about collecting and analysing data and reporting on findings on how well a programme, a policy, a service or an organisation is performing, and […]
Are you new to Monitoring & Evaluation? Or do you want to briefly brush up your knowledge on key concepts of monitoring and evaluating programmes, services or policies? Why not join my M&E mini course on Udemy? It’s short, to the point and covers the basics. And with a rating of 4.4 stars and 8,000+ […]
Do you already work in M&E? Or do you consider building a career in M&E? My advice: Do it! To avoid any surprises, here is a very, very, very brief intro into Monitoring & Evaluation (or M&E) as a profession. You may already know that, but: Monitoring and Evaluation is about measuring and tracking the results of government […]
Monitoring and Evaluation is an exciting area of work because it is currently undergoing rapid changes. Countries and organizations are increasingly taking innovative approaches to monitor and evaluate the performance of programmes, policies, services or organizations. There are several reasons why this is happening. ‘RESULTS’ ARE HERE TO STAY First, citizens, parliaments and donors are rightly demanding to know what results are […]
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Indicators in the age of Open Data
In the age of open data, indicators must be clear, credible and proportional. It is a game changer for M&E: Communication skills using indicators suddenly become a core qualification. More and more organizations make their data on aid, development and humanitarian flows accessible online as a result of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). This year, large donors like […]
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Seven steps to measure results
STEP 1: WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? What is the information we would like to know in the future? How often do we want to know it? For example: Our goal is to help 10.000 women increase their income. What we would like to know is a) if this is the case, b) by […]
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We can (nearly) measure anything
“We had some great results -but you can’t measure them!” “Not everything that counts can be counted!” “You can’t measure everything!” These are some of the critical arguments we often hear in Monitoring and Evaluation. The reason for this confusion is the common misconception that we in Monitoring and Evaluation always aim for precise, scientific […]
Imagine this: Business as usual: The NGO Eduasusual mobilizes funding for keeping girls in school. They put together a package of interventions (school feeding, awareness raising, teacher training, etc.) and start implementing it. The package is the same for each of the 150 schools, and roughly based on a “Theory of Change” designed by an […]
Development aid is changing rapidly. Development evaluation needs to change with it. Why? And how? PLANNING IN A COMPLEX, DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT REQUIRES MORE AND DIFFERENT EVALUATIONS Linear, mechanistic planning for development is increasingly seen as problematic. Traditional feedback loops that diligently check if an intervention is ‘on-track’ in achieving a pre-defined milestone do not work with flexible planning. In […]