Slide 2
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 2
During our first session, we took in a broad overview of monitoring and evaluation: what they are, why M&E is useful, and why we need to have clear goals and objectives before we develop our activities and our M&E plan. In this session, we’re going to get into the details of the M&E framework – this is your major project for this workshop. We’ll talk about the elements of a framework, why they are useful, and the five steps we will take to build ours.
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Notes
Slide 4
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Designed through processes that clarify goals and objectives, assumptions and definitions of success
Tools for the design and assessment of activities, projects and programmes
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 4
The approach to M&E that we adopt in the context of this workshop is the Results Framework, so when we refer to M&E frameworks, that’s what we mean.
As you’re no doubt aware, there are diverse approaches to activity and programme planning, and to M&E. You’ve probably heard of Theory of Change and Logical Frameworks, for example. Some approaches could be alternatives, or even complementary to the Results Frameworks and you might want to investigate them in the future. Unfortunately, we won’t have enough time to get into an analysis of these approaches here.
Frameworks are tools for understanding and analysing an activity, project, or programme. This is crucial for developing and implementing sound M&E Plans. Building a framework is a design process that should involve a team that helps us to refine our goals and objectives, recognise assumptions, define success, and clarify how we will assess our level of achievement.
You have all come to this workshop with a specific activity in mind. If you were designing this framework back at your home institutions, who would be on your M&E framework design team?
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Slide 5
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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M&E frameworks aren’t just important “at the end,” when it comes time to decide how well things have gone and write the reports. One of their most important purposes is to clarify goals, objectives, and assumptions before the activity takes place. They can also help consider external or environmental factors that may influence your activity’s success.
An important purpose of M&E frameworks is to define clear levels of expected results that should occur as the activity or programme unfolds. These should be realistic changes that can be measured and assessed.
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Notes
Slide 7
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 7
A framework should also help you focus on the most important elements of what you are doing with your research capacity building activity. What will define success for you? What change do you want to see because you organised this activity? What will be different when it is over, if all goes well?
Once you have determined what’s most important, you can decide how best to measure it, and then how to analyse and present the data you gather.
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
1. Identify your activity
2. State goals and objectives
3. Build a results chain
4. Develop indicators (and expected results)
5. Identify data sources and ensure data quality
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 8
Here are the five steps that you will take to develop your M&E framework. You’ll see that you’ve already taken the first two steps. However, it’s important to know that as you go through the process of designing your Framework you may want or need to go back, reconsider or revise your activity, or the goals and objectives it’s aligned with.
The next three steps will be the focus of our next three sessions. We’ll spend the rest of this training period focusing on them.
The results chain is a way of organising the major components of your activity in an order that helps define what results or change you want to see and measure.
Indicators will allow us to measure that change.
Data sources will be critical in order to use our indicators and, of course, we must be attentive to the quality of our data and do everything we can to mitigate possible risks.
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Slide 9
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Reporting Plan & Data Use
Describe how the M&E results will be reported and disseminated and how they will be used for program improvement
Mechanisms to update
M&E plan
Include the mechanisms that you will use to regularly update the M&E plan
Audience Analysis
Discuss who will have access to the
M&E results and why
Results Framework
Incorporate your Results Framework and provide a rationale for its components
Indicators
List the indicators chosen to measure each element of the results chain
Indicator Reference Sheets
Prepare sheets where the indicator values obtained during the M&E process will be recorded
Data Quality Plan
Explain how you will insure that the data collected have the quality to be used for M&E
Introduction
Explain why the plan was created,
and which activities will be monitored and evaluated
Goals and Objectives
Describe the goals and objectives
of the M&E plan
Purpose of M&E Plan
Explain how the results of the
M&E will be used
M&E Team
Include who will be engaged and
who will do what
Implementation Plan
Detail the steps that will be taken
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 9
The scope of this workshop only allows us to cover an M&E framework, but it’s important to know that, ideally, this framework will be situated within an M&E Plan. These are the principal components of an M&E Plan. When you think about implementing an M&E approach at your institution, you should consider developing a full M&E Plan, in addition to the Framework you will work on here.
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M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Notes
Slide 10
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Here’s what we covered in this session:
1. Elements of an M&E Framework
2. Answering the question:
Why use/using Frameworks?
3. Five steps to building an
M&E Framework
Here were our learning objectives:
1. Explain the main elements of an
M&E Framework
2. Describe uses of an M&E Framework for planning
3. List the five steps to building an
M&E Framework
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
Slide 10
M&E Frameworks: Approach and Elements
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Notes
