I4DI conducted an evaluation of the UNICEF Country Programme 2016-2020 in Serbia as a formative evaluation that critically assessed the strategies applied in the current Country Programme (CP) against the standard evaluation criteria adopted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and impact. The evaluation’s primary purpose was to inform the design and provide recommendations for the development of the new Country Programme Document (CPD) 2021–2025 between UNICEF and the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
The evaluation also assessed the extent to which the CP design and the implementation have been fit-for-purpose, and whether equity, gender equality, and human rights-based approaches have been incorporated throughout. Furthermore, this evaluation assessed significant and promising interventions implemented throughout the current program cycle.
The Balanced Design, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (BalanceD-MERL) consortium under the U.S. Global Development Lab’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Innovations (MERLIN) program at USAID was testing how balanced integration across all aspects of D-MERL enables teams to rapidly learn and incorporate findings into program design. In May 2016, USAID’s Global Health Ebola Team (GHET) approached the BalanceD-MERL consortium (of which I4DI is a member) to request support with its monitoring, evaluation, and learning needs. As part of this engagement, the BalanceD-MERL consortium conducted: (1) a deep dive assessment of program and partner D-MERL and a high level review of GHET Strategy, MERL frameworks and performance monitoring systems to inform recommendations to improve the effectiveness of GHET’s monitoring and utilization of data for program decision making; (2) an endline performance evaluation of the GHET survivor-specific program; and (3) a data quality verification of 55 indicators against standard data quality criteria. The consortium also conducted an endline performance evaluation for the GHET within the USAID Global Health Bureau.
As the pandemic draws on and the numbers grow, many people are feeling fatigue from COVID-19 statistics. Often, the magnitude or severity of the case count in a particular region is difficult to grasp without proper context. In looking to make these overwhelming numbers more digestible, in July 2020, I4DI launched a series of weekly posts which aim to bring updated, real-time data and trends to the public in a way that is easy to understand.
Each week since then, we looked at the data with a new lens, offering unique visualizations that present the COVID-19 situation in a simple, but insightful snapshot.
The maturity matrix is a tool developed under the Balanced Design, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (BalanceD-MERL) consortium to help staff integrate MERL with program design through the use of four principles (mentioned below) in the service of good program management.
1. Relevant: D-MERL is relevant when it is informed by development theory and is intentionally shaped by, and responds to, how local people, context, and strategy evolve over time.
2. Right-sized: D-MERL is right-sized when it is a match between resources (people, time, and money) and goals.
3. Responsible: D-MERL is responsible when it goes beyond the “do no harm” principle to engage respectfully, ethically, and sensitively with the target audience(s) of the program and local partners.
4. Trustworthy: D-MERL is trustworthy when it is conducted according to standards of rigor appropriate to context, constraints, and/or intended use of the data.
The Balanced Design, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (BalanceD-MERL) consortium under the U.S. Global Development Lab’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Innovations (MERLIN) program at USAID was testing how balanced integration across all aspects of D-MERL enables teams to rapidly learn and incorporate findings into program design. In May 2016, USAID’s Global Health Ebola Team (GHET) approached the BalanceD-MERL consortium (of which I4DI is a member) to request support with its monitoring, evaluation, and learning needs. As part of this engagement, the BalanceD-MERL consortium conducted: (1) a deep dive assessment of program and partner D-MERL and a high level review of GHET Strategy, MERL frameworks and performance monitoring systems to inform recommendations to improve the effectiveness of GHET’s monitoring and utilization of data for program decision making; (2) an endline performance evaluation of the GHET survivor-specific program; and (3) a data quality verification of 55 indicators against standard data quality criteria. The consortium also conducted an endline performance evaluation for the GHET within the USAID Global Health Bureau.
The purpose of this document is to help USAID staff plan for and implement effective and efficient programs and monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) systems in a post response recovery. This heuristic tool is a quick reference document developed to assist program managers and MERL practitioners navigate the process of building the balanced design-monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (D-MERL) system in this evolving context.
Six building blocks of a D-MERL system are presented below and associated questions that help to frame
Blocks are detailed in the publication
Building block 1: Partners and collaboration
Building block 2. Program strategy – the big picture planning
Building Block 3. Results frameworks and MERL plans
Building Block 4. Reporting system
Building Block 5. Data-based target setting
Building Block 6. Performance monitoring, evaluation and learning
On behalf of USAID/Peru, the Institute for Development Impact (I4DI) undertook a mixed-methods study to examine the conditions under which private industries become voluntary adopters of best management practices (BMPs) in hydropower, oil and gas, large-scale industrial mining, beverages, and road projects. With a particular focus on private industries working in Amazonia, Latin America, and/or areas pertinent to tropical forests, this study examined BMPs applied across various aspects of project development and implementation, including environmental assessments, siting, design, operation, and closure. The findings from this study informed the development of a model that predicts the conditions under which private industries and investors become voluntary adopters. This study contributed to the design of USAID’s Amazon regional environmental strategy, which focused on reducing the negative impacts from large-scale infrastructure projects, extractive activities, and climate change on Amazonian forests, waters, and indigenous peoples.
This document presents nine questions that companies can ask during their partnership with USAID. Action-oriented guidance is also provided to help companies connect each question back to the overall program management strategy for their engagement. Although this document centers on the private sector, other non-profit or public-sector partners can apply it to their work with USAID as well. These questions focus on one thing they all have in common: how companies ensure good program management that is responsive to data. Good program management integrates program design (D) and implementation with their monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) activities to achieve partnership objectives.
The questions provided in this document are strongly informed by lessons learned during a 15-month technical assistance pilot with a USAID Global Development Alliance. During this pilot, the BalanceD-MERL consortium served as technical experts to support a private sector partner in their first engagement with USAID.
USAID engaged the BalanceD-MERL consortium (I4DI was a consortium member), henceforth known as the ‘consortium,’ to provide longitudinal MERL support to the Women + Water (W+W) Alliance in India. Following an initial review of program and partner MERL documentation, and discussions with the W+W partners, the consortium determined that the program design and MERL planning were nascent. However, because the Alliance and its management structure were complex, and the program would be multifaceted, the consortium proposed and was commissioned to deliver a MERL strategy. The MERL strategy was to be developed through a structured, participatory process involving W+W program and MERL staff, commencing with co-development of the program’s theory of change. Because Gap, Inc., the prime implementer, had not worked with USAID previously and had limited D-MERL capacity, the consortium also was commissioned to provide MERL mentorship to Gap, Inc. throughout the engagement.
