Participatory Monitoring- WG6.ppt
- 1. USAID PROGATI Project M&E Working group Meeting - 6 PROGATI Office Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation September 22, 2008 Prepared and Presented by Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI) The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government Promoting Governance, Accountability,Transparency and Integrity
- 2. Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation • Result based M&E approach which seeks to engage key project stakeholders more actively in reflecting and assessing the progress of their project and in particular the achievement of results. • Stakeholders are involved in defining what will be monitored/evaluated, who will be involved, when it will take place, the participatory methods for collecting information and analysis to be used and how findings are considered.
- 3. Principles which Distinguish Conventional M&E from Participatory M&E • Conventional M&E: • aims at making a judgment on the programme for accountability purposes rather than empowering programme stakeholders • strives for “scientific” objectivity of M&E findings thereby distancing the external evaluator(s) from stakeholders • tends to emphasise the needs for information of programme funders and policy makers rather than programme implementers and people affected by the programme • focuses on measurement of success according to predetermined indicators • Participatory M&E: • is a process of individual and collective learning and capacity development through which people become more aware and conscious of their strengths and weaknesses, their wider social realities, and their visions and perspectives of development outcomes. This learning process creates conditions conducive to change and action • emphasises varying degrees of participation (from low to high) of different types of stakeholders in initiating, defining the parameters for, and conducting M&E • is a social process of negotiation between people’s different needs, expectations and worldviews. It is a highly political process which addresses issues of equity, power and social transformation • is a flexible process, continuously evolving and adapting to the programme specific circumstances and needs. .
- 4. Types of Stakeholders Primary Stakeholder: • The community: whose situation the program seeks to change • Project Field Staff: who implement activities • Program Managers: who oversee program implementation Secondary Stakeholder: • Funders and other Decision-Makers who decide the course of action related to the program Tertiary Stakeholder: • Supporters, critics and other stakeholders: who influence the program environment.
- 5. Advantage of stakeholder participation in M&E planning and implementation • Ensures that the M&E findings are relevant to local conditions; • Gives stakeholders a sense of ownership over M&E results thus promoting their use to improve decision-making; • Increases local level capacity in M&E which in turn contributes to self- reliance in overall program implementation; • Increases the understanding of stakeholders of their own program strategy and processes; what works, does not work and why; • Contributes to improved communication and collaboration between program actors who are working at different levels of program implementation; • Strengthens accountability to donors; • Promotes a more efficient allocation of resources.
- 6. Usefulness of participatory M&E It contribute to : institutional learning and capacity development: Self-assessment can help strengthen partnerships between different stakeholders and increases their understanding of programme processes and outcomes. It also clarifies the roles of different stakeholder in implementing the programme. negotiating stakeholder perspectives: Participatory M&E may be used as a process that allows different stakeholders to articulate and present their needs, interests and expectations. The process of dialogue and negotiation among stakeholders used in participatory M&E facilitates reconciliation of different stakeholder viewpoints. Difficulties may, however, arise in resolving competing and conflicting stakeholder perceptions, especially when certain stakeholder groups are powerless in relation to others. ensuring public accountability: Participatory M&E can be a way for programme participants and local citizens themselves to monitor and evaluate the performance of donor and government institutions. For instance, legal reforms that decentralize decision-making often encourage elected representatives at district or municipal levels to be more proactive in monitoring implementation of local development plans.
- 7. Steps in a participatory Monitoring process Step 1: a planning meeting : • Was there commitment to undertake a participatory evaluation during project designing period?; Why undertake an monitoring and what should be the purpose?; When should the monitoring take place?; What indicators should be used?; What resources and support could be expected from the local NGOs?; Who in terms of profile and skills should be involved in the monitoring?; Where should the training of monitoring take place? Step 2: Indicator development • A workshop need to organize with community people to identify the indicators of the projects. For this, community people specially community resources/community volunteers should have a very clear understanding on project goal and objective to develop the indicators. Different kind of indicators can be be developed as per need of the project like: Input indicators, Activity indicators, Output Indicators, Effect indicators & Impact Indicators. Skilled facilitation is strongly required for the process. • The workshop finding need to be shared with project management for finalization. Step 3: Implementation and reflection: • Once the tools are finalized by the project management staff, is ready to implement at field level. • Data collection Frequency and data flow process need to be determined so that data could be stored and used/disseminate/reflection as per need.
- 8. steps in a participatory evaluation process Step 1: a planning meeting : • Was there commitment to undertake a participatory evaluation during project designing period?; Why undertake an evaluation and what should be the purpose?; When should the evaluation take place?; What indicators should be used?; What resources and support could be expected from the local NGOs?; Who in terms of profile and skills should be involved in the evaluation?; Where should the training of evaluators take place? Step 2: Tools development & sharing workshop • Qualitative questionnaire need to be developed for data collection on focused issue before the workshop. • All participatory tools need to be well explained with the facilitators so that they could use the tools easily during site visit. • The workshop aimed at creating an understanding of the difference between participatory and traditional evaluations; awareness of social dynamics and class differences and how evaluation facilitators’ attitudes and behaviors can adversely affect others; collective exploration of the attitudes and personal qualities of facilitators; imparting skills on how to get community members to “map” their community to give an inside perspective; how to verify findings using different data collection methods and sources (data triangulation). Step 3: Site visit • Each facilitator team need to visit number of project sites. They sought answers to detailed evaluation questions that they had identified at the planning meeting. Questions related to major areas of project impact, relationships with other partners, sustainability, efficiency, project management, the role of women and gender equity. Step 4: collective reflection and dissemination of findings. • Each team will be responsible for consolidating their community work into a brief project report. At the end of their visit, teams should debrief community project stakeholders in order to check the reliability of their findings. Each team should responsible for making a presentation of their findings to the larger group. All program partners need to be invited to attend a final presentation organized by the facilitators.
- 9. Stakeholders interest : through dialogue Goal of Dialogue: • Stakeholders come to more complete understanding of each other’s positions. Dialogue Process: • A conversation that helps develop alternative perspectives, critical examination. Evaluator’s Identity: • Proposes alternative perspectives, facilitates conversations and critiques, mediates and coaches.
- 10. Factors of successful stakeholder participation in evaluation It is important to bear in mind that the local environment, the socio-political power structures and socio-cultural norms and values, influence the evaluation process. The following are a few important elements of a successful process of stakeholder participation in evaluation: • the support of programme management (implementing partners) and other direct decision-makers for the participatory evaluation approach; • the evaluator is committed to the principle of participation; has sufficient group facilitation and mediation skills to enable effective dialogue and discussion and to ensure that the experience is both participatory and focused; • a realistic assessment of stakeholders capacity and willingness to participate on a full-time basis (partly depending on availability of time, supervisor’s support, as well as professional gain); • representation of the most important stakeholder interests related to the programme being evaluated; • investigation into the “real” interests and issues of key stakeholders. The “real interests” often differ from those, which are openly expressed. • established procedures for mediating power imbalances among stakeholders. Literature reviewed: UNFPA: Programmed Manager’s Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit AIHA : Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit for new partners
- 11. Thank you