By Mawutodzi K. Abissath I am sure you know this popular Ghanaian proverb which admonishes that: “A person who is cutting a path does not know that his back is crooked.” This simple proverb epitomises the wisdom of African ancestors. For, it connotes that an unexamined life is not worth living.
A Zambian Information and Communication Specialist by name Mr Casius Chuma once remarked: “Monitoring and Evaluation is not there to spy on you, but to mirror your development trails.”
On Thursday, July 3, 2008, the Ghana Information and Knowledge Sharing Network (GINKS), a local-based coordinating partner of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) of the Netherlands, orgnaised a half-day seminar for other ICT projects oriented partners including the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in Accra. The theme for the seminar was: “Enhancing Information and knowledge sharing as a tool for project sustainability.”
Dr Lawrence Kannae, Lecturer, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and Madam Martine Koopman, Information and Knowledge Officer, IICD served as main resource persons for the seminar. Dr Kannae’s presentation was on the topic, “Internal Strategies for Monitoring and Evaluating Projects” while Madam Koopman spoke on the topic, “Tips on Monitoring and Evaluation (IICD Pespective”)
Without exaggerating, this writer has participated in several seminars and workshops both at home and abroad in the course of his professional practice over the years, but this half a day seminar on monitoring and evaluation had been an eye opener for him in the true sense of the word. For, at the end of the day, it dawned on me that perhaps, many development projects in our beloved country, fail due to lack of effective monitoring and evaluation strategies.
Dr Kannae pointed out that Monitoring and Evaluation of any development project ought to be considered as a project in itself. Consequently, institutions or organisations that embark on projects in whatever capacity or scope must draw up a complete separate strategy for monitoring and evaluation. In other words, monitoring and evaluation plan must take into account the goals and objectives of the main development project in question. The input, processes, output, outcome as well as the anticipated impact of the project must be taken into consideration.
Monitoring and Evaluation activity must have an objective that is measurable, achievable and time-bound. It must be acceptable to management, relevant with valid data with a separate budget altogether. In fact, Monitoring and Evaluation is about performance, therefore, management must make provision for the necessary resources for its success. These resources include human, logistics and financial. The key stakeholders in the project must not be ignored in the monitoring and evaluation scheme of things or plan.
Another important point Dr Kannae made, which this writer find very, very crucial is communication monitoring and evaluation report. When monitoring and evaluation is conducted to assess the status of a project, a report must be filed and communicated to all concerned. This constitutes what can be termed as project feedback to management, financiers or sponsors of the project in question. One effective way to communicate the monitoring report to stakeholders is the creation of a special forum to reflect on the monitoring and evaluation report.
There could also be seminars, workshops or publication in a journal of such a report. And in communicating this report everybody connected with formulation and implementation of the project right from the secretary, field officers, the project manager, top management staff to the development partners or sponsors must have access to this report for analysis and evaluation. This will enable all concerned to pass their comments, or make suggestions or recommendations for the future plans of the main project.
Methodology
In her presentation, Madam Koopman enlightened participants on the methodology employed by IICD in the monitoring and evaluation of its ICT related projects sponsored in various countries in Africa including
However, Madam Koopman explained that, while M&E is generally used as a tool to measure results and provide accountability, IICD further introduced M&E for the purpose of learning. She then distributed copies of a leaflet which describes the added value of M&E for learning, how it is organised and what was learned over the years. It was a fantastic practical leaning strategy for all participants present at the seminar.
It came to light that the work IICD is carrying out in various countries is led by guiding principles. One of the most important principles is the local ownership of projects supported by IICD. Apparently the ultimate objective of IICD in supporting development partners is to help such partners be it financially or technically to take charge and be responsible for the results of the activities on the ground. Because of this eventual self-supporting strategy the M&E system designed by IICD is based on the same philosophy that monitoring and evaluation is not “to spy on you” but to help local partners to learn from experiences and to take ownership of their projects and manage them for the development of their respective nations.
In line with its unique approach, IICD makes M&E an integral part of project development and implementation in all of its country programmes globally. Consequently IICD’s Country Programme supports local partners in the developing countries and encourages them to make efforts to implement ICT as a tool for development in various sectors of their economies.
Other unique principles that IICD adopts in M&E methodology include, Marketing principles. The orgnisation came by this principle following a long process of experimenting and discussing the various options, the method of data collection used commercially for marketing purposes. Madam Koopman explained that one good way to reflect on progress is by asking the target group, including end-users of projects such as farmers, teachers or even traders, depending on the nature of the ICT project concerned and the locality in which it is being implemented.
Another important principle is Building trust. The IICD Information and Knowledge Officer related that one of the things IICD had learned over the years was that the term “evaluation” was often met with resistance. Thus to overcome the reluctance of partners and end-users to openly discuss difficulties and challenges, IICD separated the learning process from financial control. “Neither the online questionnaires nor the focus group meetings contain any financial aspects. This is a very strong feature of IICD’s M&E system,” Madam Koopman disclosed.
The technique of using questionnaires and results from focus group meetings over the past years have been immensely helpful in providing insight and creating a reflective tool for IICD’s partners. So far, over 18,000 questionnaires is reported to have been collected with almost 4,000 responses from project end-users. The end-user evaluation for each project is said to be repeated annually in order to learn over time from changes in the data how project cycle could possibly be improved.
The way forward
The IICD Resource Person told seminar participants that in the past years the organisation had accumulated a lot of experience with Monitoring and Evaluation through online tools. Through this strategy, the IICD learned a great deal from impact measurement at the end-user level, which makes it possible for it to see which questions work and which ones do not for assessment purposes.
The IICD hopes to further expand its learning strategy through the M&E. The organisation also looks into how local ownership of the entire Monitoring and Evaluation process can be further strengthened. The ultimate goal is to eventually make it possible for local project partners to learn to own, manage and use the M&E system to do their own learning as a way forward for effective and efficient implementation of sponsored ICT related project for the development of their respective countries for the benefit of their people. It is suggested that the ICT industry in
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