CARE International MEL Community of Practice

1. CARE International MEL Community of Practice LEARNING, and linking the M&E to the L in "MEL“ Tuesday, 5th June 2018

2. Agenda: • Project level: • Eduardo Gonzales – Including a learning agenda in PROSADE, in Honduras • Country level: • Hatem Zayed – Introducing a country learning agenda in CARE Egypt • Cathy Riley & Octavio de Souza – Mozambique’s learning tool • Developing a learning agenda: • Emily Janoch – How to develop learning agendas • With lots of time for questions, dialogue and your experiences!

3. INCLUDING A LEARNING AGENDA IN A PROJECT CARE HONDURAS - PROSADE

4. Clear protocols and methodologies. • Budget Ideal, but not always possible. Design Phase INCLUDING A LEARNING AGENDA • Prioritize the problem together with stakeholders. • Easy to align research actions with the projects’ results. • Does not have to represent a great amount of money. • Many times, can be up to CARE to include/ propose. Start-up/ Implementation Phase Identify / prioritize a problem. Same problem: many lines of research

5. INCLUDING A LEARNING AGENDA: PROSADE Rain Water Harvesting Limited access to Safe Water ECOSAN Aquifer recharge

6. Technological Innovation Process CARE’s makes decision and agrees with donor CARE prioritizes excluded populations and designs a new option. Prioritization of the Problem: Access to safe water in dry corridor. Experimental process for possible models Design of thesolution Learning! Learning! MEXICHEM donates the first prototype. Official Launch: a new Water Product Feedback process and improvements, in pilots Partner with MEXICHEM to perform a test Installation of a model in Schools 1,200+ withNationalGoverment. In Alliance, a Workshop for women plumbers at regional level Partnership (Global Water Partnership-University Zamorano) Furtherspecificresearch Scaling at the National Level TechnologyDissemination Installation of a model at the University of Zamorano

7. Rainwater Harvesting with Geomembrane Bag Catchment ElevatedTank Collection and conveyance Interceptor Storage Pumping Filtering

8. The learning process leads to….. • Solid evidence, to support scale up = 300 to 1,300 • Building new strong partnerships (private sector, academia, platforms) • Technological innovations • Local capacity building • Adapted and tested solutions, increases adoption

9. CARE International in Egypt Introducing a Country Office “Learning Agenda”

10. What did we want to do? Map gaps in our learning. What do we know for sure? What do we hypothesize with little support? What do we hypothesize with no support at all? What reflects on what we do right or wrong? Create a “learning agenda,” where we highlight priority areas for the CO to invest in further learning Operationalize the agenda into an action plan in some cases where steps can be taken to fill this gap Track the results of the learning agenda Responsibility of the newly established unit

11. What steps did we take? M&E Officers responsible for each program took steps separately to map learning gaps Referring to previous evaluations and reports Got insight of program staff Divided the findings into: 1) what went right? 2) what went wrong? 3) what do we need to learn further? (we have no answer at the moment, and thus giving reason for the learning agenda) A meeting was held with all CO staff to present proposed learning areas, to verify findings, and receive feedback/suggestions for action points Results are being consolidated and will be shared with all CO

12. What’s Next? Set action plan with each program Some steps may require additional resources for research, others may require changes in management or responsiveness, while some might just require tweaks in M&E systems of projects and programs

13. Example 1: Gender-Sensitive Work Conditions and Productivity What was it: A recent project that aimed to make the work environment in 6 agribusiness firms more gender-sensitive Policy level: anti-harassment policy, maternity, complaint policy, etc. Infrastructural level: bathrooms for women, etc. Relational level: awareness activities in the work place and in the community What went right? Formal contracts were signed Attendance and regularity of labor improved Some companies did their own initiatives (transportation routes, nurseries) Other companies were impressed with results and wanted to join the project! What did we miss? What do we need to learn? - Would an improved work environment have a positive effect on productivity?

14. Example 2: VSLA + Value Chains = Income Increase? What is the issue? We have vast experience implementing both VSLA models and Value Chain models in CO and know the value of both, but we have minimal experience combining the two, or using VSLA as a platform for other WEE interventions. We hypothesize that VSLAs can act as a means to provide women involved in value chains with capital and thus increasing their ability to invest. We have information that supports that participants use micro-loans from VSLAs to invest in new businesses, but we don’t know if they lead to income increase. What is the plan? If we are to combine the two models, then we would like to investigate the relationship between these models and increased income through the comparing the results of the following: When VSLA model is applied alone When Value chain models are applied alone When the two models are combined Control/comparison group

15. CARE Mozambique: iREFLECT and iLEARN

16. Learning Agendas: What do you want to do?

17. BUILD A CULTURE OF LEARNING DEDICATE FINANCIAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES

18. A learning agenda, and the scale of the learning questions – means different things in different contexts. Start small. Be intentional

19. Use Good Enough Methods

20. Planning a Learning agenda • A learning agenda can be as “simple” as a literature review, to something as complex as a research study, and anything in between. • Learning can informally record project beneficiaries’ and project staff reflections on the activities, or can include in-depth interviews and focus group discussions.

21. Planning a Learning agenda: Questions Key questions to ask while planning are: • What will we do with the results? What are the decision points it informs? • How will lessons be shared internally and externally? • How will we track and record learnings? • What is the budget? • Who is responsible for each piece? • What is the timeline?

22. Planning a Learning agenda From the workshop, most everyone agreed that Learning Agenda plans should use the following steps: • Outlining the background of the questions • Link questions to program strategy /organizational objectives/ Theory of Change • Involve staff of all levels in the process • Review existing evidence (Literature review, published and grey lit from ours and other orgs) • Design methods for gathering more evidence • Develop a 1-2 page document outlining the process – to start conversations and have a “base” for the LA

23. Learning Agenda, Evaluative thinking, Adaptive Management: More References • Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) USAID • Evaluative Thinking Insights • Evaluative thinking NGO case studies • IRC case study of Adapative Management during Ebola in Sierra Leone • Adaptive management at Mercy Corps