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2015-10-09T08:40:17Z

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(''This work stream was run by Carlo Azzarri)''

''See the file of this session:'' [[:File:ME working session.docx]]

'''Plan for phase 2:'''
* Have a more decentralized M&E.
* DC team to focus more on evaluation, which will become crucial during scaling phase, and less on monitoring. IFPRI team has comparative advantage and incentives to work on socio-economic research.
* Transfer funds to each mega-site to hire a data manager/M&E project coordinator who will be in charge of insuring the regular monitoring and data sharing. He will collect data from research teams, both on indicators for the PMMT and agronomic/biophysical data for CKAN, communicate on the usefulness of the tool and share evaluation results from IFPRI. He will be the connection between the M&E team and the country teams.
* The 2 new M&E local project coordinators (in ETH and WA) should be mid-level staff with technical skills, who can take care of field activities (BSc., locally recruited)
* Monitoring will focus on:
-SI indicators
-FtF and custom indicators 
-beneficiary tracking system
-agronomic-biophysical data
* The local coordinator can also help each team define custom indicators for their own goals and measures of success. S/he will make sure that they are regularly uploaded in the PMMT as custom indicators.
'''Feedback from the session participants'''
* The team has not tackled E yet, but it has focused mostly on M.
* The research teams would like to know better about which are the learning points from phase 1 that came out of the evaluation effort.
* The research teams need a change of mindset about data management (sharing, uploading, etc.), with the process facilitated and guided by the M&E team.
* IFPRI could communicate better on the common benefits of the sharing platform and to establish a two way support relationship. Some researchers felt that IFPRI requests for sharing data were a bit “extractive”.
* The M part depends a lot, and puts great burden, on scientists. The main problems experienced by the scientists so far have been:
''' o oversimplification/underestimation of the efforts required to collect information
''' o disconnect between log frames and monitoring requirements
''' o challenges in learning
''' For phase 2 It would be good that the M&E team communicates early on which data will be asked and what is the use / usefulness of them for the project
''' One of the problems during phase 1 was the mismatch of expectations. Deliverables of the M&E team should be clearly communicated at the beginning of phase 2 (especially what will be delivered and the expected timeline).
''' It would be good to have a platform where M&E updates and information are shared with the rest of the Africa RISING teams, a blog?
''' PMMT training was deemed positive but quite some colleagues could not attend. It would be a good idea to improve the video tutorial with the basic information on how to upload data into the PMMT and CKAN.
''' Some researchers are not clear on the difference between M and E.

'''October 8, 2015'''

'''Feedback from the session participants'''
* Consistency across SI projects on M&E, and between Humidtropics and Africa RISING. Avoid too many data collections with similar questions – would be good to integrate them.
* M&E system (and its responsibilities) needs to be clear from the onset, and resources must be made available.
* Researchers need to have feedback from IFPRI based on the ARBES data, especially looking at some output (tables, graphs, maps).
* A data confidentiality issue was raised regarding CKAN.
There was a discussion about the upcoming FTF indicator submission.

Program strategy workshop MandE - Revision history

Ewenlb: Imported from Wikispaces