Monitoring & Evaluation Workshops for DE Orissa Team

This year, World AIDs Day was marked with a particular sense of crisis. The Global Fund, a major organization fighting AIDs, tuberculosis, and malaria, was forced to announce deep cuts impacting AIDs programs throughout the world. In a trend that seems to be on the rise, donors are unwilling to cough up enough money to sustain this important organization.

Scenarios like this are one of the major reasons I choose monitoring and evaluation as a career. Increasingly, donors have hardened their stance toward development initiatives due to a lack of proof that these initiatives will bring about positive change. However, despite the obvious need for evaluation, it is often feared if not downright loathed within non-profits.

Given the number of myths and misconceptions surrounding evaluation, I find it useful to engage front-line staff in the evaluation process by facilitating workshops. I’ve found that a healthy dose of training can go a long way in creating a more “evaluation-friendly” atmosphere.

My first two workshops, held in November, covered theory and were broken down into a simple “what,” “why,” “when,” and “how” approach. This past weekend, I facilitated a discussion about monitoring data use and trained the staff in basic M&E methods.

Toward the end of the workshop, I asked staff to apply what they had learned by designing evaluation tools. The activity had a few hiccups, but, on the whole, my colleagues were actively involved and interested in applying what they had learned. 

 Although I had initially planned on training staff in everything from logic modeling to quantitative analysis, I now realize that even a bit of training in basic “evaluation jargon” can help staff conceptualize their program more clearly. While I hope that the experience has been meaningful for my colleagues, it has been a true learning experience for me in terms of both facilitation and cross-cultural communication.

With national coffers drying up (or pretending to) left and right, I hope that development professionals in various fields continue to engage in evaluation and to empower their colleagues to do the same. If evaluation is to be taken seriously, it is has to start its rough, bumpy journey toward an outcome where all good aid initiatives start: at the grassroots level.

Marina Yakhnis

2011-2012 Clinton Fellow