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Trust Fundraising
CONFERENCE 2012
Monitoring and Evaluation - in order to
improve fundraising bids
Helen Bushell, Oxfam GB
‘Those development programmes that are
most precisely and easily measured are
the least transformational and those
programmes that are most
transformational are the least measurable’
Andrew Natsios
Former Director USAID 2010
Page 3
The Value of MEL
• Why we monitor and evaluate and how
good MEL can strengthen fundraising bids
and project quality.
• The results and evidence agenda – trends
on the demand side (internal and
external).
• Examples of satisfying funder demands to
demonstrate results.
Page 4
WHY NOW? What is going on in the
sector?
Value for
Money
Greater
quality
Accountability
Results
Aid
scepticism
Recession
Competition
Page 5
WHY MONITOR AND EVALUATE?
• Accountability – to donors, public and communities
• To give an account for Oxfam’s actions and decisions
• To take account of the views of our stakeholders
• Learning from what we do to improve effectiveness
• To increase our effectiveness by making more evidence-based
decisions about programmes, policies and strategies
• Increasingly sceptical press and public
• To speak with credibility in debates about aid effectiveness
• Results agenda – donor demand
• Incentives - we value what we measure
Page 7
An example of funder demands...
• “...what I do hope is that reports, especially the final end of project
reports, are able to present a persuasive case about why a project was
worth us having supported, and/or be a strong analysis of what didn’t
go so well and the lessons we and the NGOs implementing the project
can learn from it.” December 2012, Grants and Research Officer
• My Trustees have therefore asked me to write to you to explain further what
we would like to have seen in this report, by way of example of the data and
analysis we are referring to. We also acknowledge that we have never
been clear that this is the specific information we would hope to see in
a report.
• Evidence that the installation of water points has had a positive impact on school
pupils’ attendance at school.
• Evidence about the level of take-up of hand washing activities compared to
before the project, and any indication about the impact that this has had on
health outcomes.
• Any longer-term/wider trends about the impact that community hygiene
campaigns have had on hand washing etc, and therefore on health outcomes.
Page 8
Who are we
accountable to?
Trustees Donors/Trusts Country
Governments
UK Government
Partners
UK Public
Staff
Those whose lives we are seeking to
change
Page 9
Questions to ask...
• What will success look like?
• Have we done what we said we would do?
• How have ‘beneficiaries’ themselves been involved in monitoring?
• What is the story of change from poor people themselves?
• What can we say about Oxfam’s contribution?
• What qualitative and quantitative evidence do we have for what we say?
• Was it value for money?
• What have you learnt? How will we apply the learning?
Page 10
Oxfam GB’s MEL processes
3. Feeding learning into decision-making: moments for review
•Programme
Monitoring Reviews
•Country Learning
Reviews
•Regional Learning
Reviews
•Oxfam Reflects
1. Getting the basics
right: systematic
monitoring against
programme
indicators
•Coherent, measurable
programmes
•Joint vision
•Clear MEL plans
•Systematic data
collection
2. Building
organisational
knowledge and
accountability:
rigorous evaluation of
outcomes and impact
•Programme evaluations
•Impact Assessments
*****
•Strategic evaluations
•Evaluation syntheses
Page 11
Examples of clear, quantitative
objectives
Vietnam Education Project
• Helping children in rural
Vietnam to get a better
education
• To improve the quality of
primary education in Lao Cai
Province by training 100% of
teachers in child centred
learning, benefitting at least
60,000 children
Page 12
Examples of clear, quantitative
objectives
India Fish Worker Project
• Raise income and empower vulnerable fisher women
• To double the income of 3,500 women fish workers in Orissa, in 3 years, on a sustainable basis
Page 13
Agree methods of measurement
Reports – Are we on track?
Six months, annual, final, narrative and financial
KPIs
Quarterly Measurements of change
Baseline Survey at Household and Market Level
Income Levels, Indebtendness, Fish Price
Page 14
Challenges in the sector
1. In a results-
focused culture
…
How do we create an
environment in which
teams are open to
sharing failures?
2. In a declining
resource
environment …
How do we meet
increasing demands
for evaluative
information?
3. In an
organisation that
is constantly
innovating and
changing …
How do we develop
and communicate a
coherent approach
to programme
quality?
MEL as essential
to learning,
Embed within our
projects, cost at
proposal stage,
make systems
proportionate
Keep it simple,
keep it agile
Page 15
What are your organisational MEL
processes?
• MEL is essential for good project management, it improves
the quality of what we do and provides us with evidence to
communicate our effectiveness.
• It is essential that you are able to articulate your approach to
MEL (evaluation policy, learning strategy, PCM etc).
• Dialogue with funders, an understanding of the emphasis they
put on MEL and what they are willing to fund is vital.
• Good MEL strengths your fundraising bids and your
organisational reputation.