Achievements of ICARDA in supporting Results Based Monitoring and Evaluation systems and Knowledge Sharing activities

across the MENARID program

Dr. Aden Aw-Hassan, Director, Social, Economic and Policy Research Program, ICARDA

About the GEF MENARID program• 10 national investments projects in 6 countries: Algeria, Iran, Jordan,

Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen

• Global Environment Facility executing agencies: IFAD, UNDP, UNIDO, UNEP, World Bank

• Executing partners: Ministries of Agriculture, Water, Environment, Sahara and Sahel Observatory, ADA/ANDZOA (Morocco)

• Two objectives:1. To promote Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) in the

production landscapes of the MENA region;2. To improve the economic and social well-being of the targeted

communities through the restoration and maintenance of ecosystem functions and productivity.

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MENARID projects in numbersCountry Area Targeted communities

Algeria 850,670,000 ha 200,000 people

Iran 49,230 ha 10,000 people

Jordan 18,000 ha 9,000 people

Morocco E. Plateaus 120,000 ha 61,018 people

Morocco Circular Economy

3,000,000 ha (730,000 argan trees)

129,000 people

Regional (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya)

1,000,000,000 ha 4,000,000 people in the basin

Tunisia Siliana 28,000 ha 12,000 families

Tunisia PGRN2 70,000 ha 14,000 farmers

Tunisia Ecotourism 175,000 ha 40,000 people

Yemen Not available Not available 3

Role of ICARDA in MENARID• Implemented an IFAD-funded MENARID project : « Cross-

cutting Medium Size Project on Monitoring and Evaluation and Knowledge Management for Integrated Natural Resource Management »

• Focus on Knowledge Management across MENARID and harmonization of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems

• Two objectives:1. to generate tools for systematic cross cutting and aligned M&E

functions throughout the MENARID framework;2. to develop a user-friendly knowledge management (KM)

platform promoting information dissemination, harmonization, and dissemination mechanisms of INRM best practices.

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)

• Defined of “A la carte” cross-cutting indicators cross-cutting Results Based Management indicators through the MENARID program

• Implemented an online cross-cutting RBM M&E database, analytical tools and reporting formats for all 10 MENARID projects

• Developed guidelines for the design, implementation of RBM, RBB and M&E for INRM projects

• Built the capacity of 10 projects throughout online and on-site trainings

• Conducted an independent evaluation of the M&E facility

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)• Data entry form

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)• Search database feature

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)• Schedule automatic reports

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)(cont’d)• Online reporting facility for Project Implementation Reports

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)(cont’d)

• Targeted support – bringing research expertise to development partners:

• Baseline survey of the UNDP/MENARID “A circular Economy Approach to Agro-biodiversity Conservation in the Souss Massa Draa region of Morocco” project in;

• The Gender study of the IFAD/MENARID project “Mainstreaming Sustainable Land and Water Management Practices in Jordan”;

• Ex-ante impact evaluation of the UNDP/MENARID “Institutional Strengthening and Coherence for Sustainable Land Management“ project in Iran;

• The Impact evaluation of the livestock activities implemented in the IFAD/MENARID “Mainstreaming Sustainable Land and Water Management Practices in Jordan” project in Jordan. 10

Lessons learned – M&E (1)

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• Insufficient capacities for M&E systems:

• Projects strive for implementing cheap, effective and efficient M&E systems. MENARID decided to emphasize its efforts not only on programmatic level, but at projects’ level.

• Quite often, there are too many indicators to monitor. Importance of using “SMART” RBM indicators (no more than 15) that can be tracked.

• Difficulties in creating cross-cutting indicators that are widely accepted but necessary if program-level assessment is needed.

• External support:

• Existing opportunity: support projects in their M&E-related tasks (baseline study in MENARID Tunisia ecotourism), but also mid-term evaluations.

• Running impact studies to identify and document activities (positive as important as negative) is crucial.

• An opportunity would be gather all reporting requirements in a unique online system (GEF’s executing agencies + GEF + ministries).

Lessons learned – M&E (2)

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• Rigor of M&E methods:

• Challenge to evaluate the socioeconomic benefits of activities of natural resources management. However tools are available (example of the ex-ante impact study in Iran).

• A tool that could precisely evaluate the NRM technologies that are applied would be very useful for increasing the activities’ impacts.

• M&E has to start from the very beginning (example of baseline surveys).

ICARDA outputs in MENARID (KM)• Fully operation KM platform: https://menarid.icarda.org/ • 19 best practices’ knowledge fact sheets• Working paper

• Stories of success brochure

• MENARID services brochure

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ICARDA outputs in MENARID (KM) (cont’d)

• 4 face-to-face learning workshops in collaboration with UNESCO IHP and GEF IW:Learn:

• Dissemination of best practices through an online platform• Possibility for MENARID projects to create their own knowledge fact sheet https://

menarid.icarda.org/FR/Pages/Promote-activities.aspx

• Communication of results through the website (https://menarid.icarda.org/ ) and Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/menarid)

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Lessons learned – KM (1)

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• Rooms for improvements:• Gaps between PMUs and field level activities. Importance of including

civil society and field actors in the discussion and knowledge sharing process.

• Insufficient capacities of KM systems (not mandatory for MENARID projects).

• External support:• Opportunities in linking with research for development - Experience of

ICARDA in performing research in rangelands rehabilitation (including Vallerani) and socioeconomic analysis.

• To support MENARID projects in creating knowledge products.

Lessons learned – KM (2)

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• Effective KM processes:• « Dynamic » workshops are more effective and produce more results

than « passive » workshops. Example the “Knowledge exchange writeshop” (outputs: 19 knowledge products produced, one working paper, one success story booklet).

• Confirmed usefulness of a single platform gathering events, news, contacts, database, document repository related to projects’ activities.

• Create ownership, involve partners in the conception, the design of the platform.

• IT infrastructures:• The online system should cope with weak IT infrastructures.

MENARID impacts• Promoting knowledge sharing:• Water harvesting activity (Vallerani plough) replicated from Morocco to

Jordan (1,000 ha of rangelands and 600 of cereals by June 2015).• Collaboration between the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (FAO)

approach with the PGRN2 project in Tunisia.• Discussions between MENARID Jordan and MENARID Iran for replicating solar

heating system in Jordan.• Discussions between MENARID project coordiantor and MENARID Morocco

about using the projects’ weather stations as an Early Drought Warning Sytem.

• “Exposure visit” foreseen by MENARID Iran in MENARID Jordan.• 18,000 pageviews and more than 4,00 visitors for the MENARID website.

• Strengthening M&E systems:• Support in establishing a M&E baseline in Morocco, impact studies in Iran and

Jordan, and a gender analysis in Jordan.• Reporting facilities available online.

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Thanks for your attention !

Your ideas and suggestions are more than welcome !