monitoring and evaluation to improve fundraising bids

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

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.

WHY NOW? What is going on in the

sector?

Value for

Money

Greater

quality

Accountability

Results

Aid

scepticism

Recession

Competition

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

ANNUAL REPORT

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.

Who are we

accountable to?

Trustees Donors/Trusts Country

Governments

UK Government

Partners

UK Public

Staff

Those whose lives we are seeking to

change

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

THANK YOU

monitoring and evaluation to improve fundraising bids

Documents