Monitoring and Evaluation

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NewForesight

Overview

Organizations are increasingly being required to provide concrete evidence of not only their outputs, but the impact they are having on people, planet and economics. In this context, a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) system is a crucial element which enables organizations to better track, analyse, report and communicate their impact. More broadly, MEL systems can strengthen organizational accountability, improve decision-making and performance, and facilitate an ongoing cycle of learning.

Our approach to M&E – going beyond the basics

At NewForesight, we can help you to develop a robust MEL system that is insightful, actionable, and efficient.

Critical success factors of a strong MEL system

Insights clearly linked to the Theory of Change

Increasingly there is a need to report on impact and outcomes rather than solely on activities and outputs. We believe that strong impact measurement is key to informing strategic considerations. An organizational Theory of Change should be well-developed and understood to align the MEL system to its objectives.

Actionable towards the learning agendas

The whole system should be structured in a way that serves the learning agenda. Every indicator should be assessed on its action perspective and feasibility. Additionally, it should be clear to the recipients what data they receive and more importantly, how they can use it.

Balancing efficient use of resources

We understand the limited resources and capacity for extensive data collection and balancing between the need and capacity for more extensive M&E systems. This also includes testing the feasibility with end users and partners.

From experience we have learned that the following five topics bring the most success:

1. From Collecting and storing data to data as a value proposition

We don’t just assist organizations to collect data for compliance sake – we make sure it’s useful for them, and other stakeholders more broadly. We help organizations organize data in a coherent way, offer intermediate insights and benchmark performance.

2. From Reporting on outputs to reporting on impact and systemic change

Many organizations see M&E as a cumbersome and expensive process that fails to deliver deeper insights. The root cause of this is often that organizations’ hyperfocus on output indicators, which are easy to collect – but often not very insightful. At NewForesight, we focus on the bigger picture outcomes and impact indicators to help organizations more deeply understand their trajectory, while ensuring the MEL work is financially sustainable.

3. From Project-based impact reporting to tracking long-term progress

We don’t see MEL activities as having a start and end point (i.e. driven by donor requirements). We work with organizations to think holistically about how performance measurement can help them achieve their long-term vision.

4. From Annual impact evaluations to ongoing data capture

While no doubt there is value in conducting annual impact evaluations, we move beyond static approaches and support our clients to implement systems which enable them to access real-time, streamlined data that demonstrates progress, not perfection. In turn – this supports timelier decision making and enhances organizational agility.

5. From Strong attribution to causal logic to prove impact

We are passionate about supporting organizations improve the attribution between the activities they deliver and the outcomes they seek to achieve. For us, rather than seeking the holy grail of perfect attribution, it is more important that organizations acknowledge that change takes time – and take an incremental approach to routinely test and refine their causal logic (i.e. as set out in their Theory of Change).

Services

From experience, we have learned that to get the best result MEL development should go through four phases. Below is a high-level overview of the services we support our clients with.

Our analytical framework for establishing MEL systems

A robust MEL system needs to have the right building blocks and infrastructure in place. Building a MEL system consists of a series of steps with key elements that need to be considered and reflected upon when developing the system and operationalizing it. It also needs to be accompanied by continual capacity development, for instance on data collection, analytics reporting, and quality, etc.

Below we present our overarching approach to developing a MEL system.