MARKETS II M&E FRAMEWORK AND CHALLENGES Joseph Obado

1. MARKETS II M&E FRAMEWORK AND CHALLENGES Joseph Obado

2. Support the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future (FtF) initiative that addresses critical issues hindering the agricultural sector • Increases agribusiness competitiveness and food security • Helps farmers increase yields through on-farm technology • Strengthens farming, businesses, and industries • Designed to increase rural incomes in selected areas What is MARKETS II?Maximizing Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites II

3. Project Objective: Increased smallholder income from agricultural development promoted through enhanced private sector participation and investment MARKETS APPROACH

4. MARKETS II M&E Framework

5. M&E Mission for MII • MII is widely recognized for being results oriented, performance driven and a learning program • We achieve this by improving our ability to: • Planning and tracking results • Learning and improving the performance • Communicating and Promoting results

6. Linkage of HQ M&E and the Field • HQ M&E team provides support to M&E field team (Train, backstop, assist in M&E activities) • HQ and Field M&E teams Participate in the preparation and implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation plan (PMP) • Supports major M&E activities in the field i.e. Baseline and follow-up surveys, impact assessment surveys, result-based project monitoring • MII M&E team builds capacity of MII service providers, MII staff, MII partners to track rightful information

7. The Performance Management Process -MII Planning Monitoring Evaluation

8. The Performance Management Process • Planning • What to do, when, who, how. . . then what to achieve • Prepare monitoring systems • Prepare evaluations • Monitoring (monthly/Quarterly) • Track Outputs and/or Inputs of activities (Activity-Level) • When: During the intervention (implementation of activities) • How: On-going verification by the program • Evaluation (Semi-annual) • Assess expected change in the condition of the beneficiary (Result-Level) • When: Before and after the intervention • How: Baseline, Mid-term and Final reviews • Communication • Show results and effects of the program • Share with beneficiaries, government departments, partners, sub-contractors etc.

9. M&E: Planning and tools • Prepare/review the Strategy of the program: Results Framework (RF), causal model, Logical Framework • Select and Document Performance Indicators: Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP)

10. Causal Relationship: Great Tool

11. M&E: Monitoring Mandate • Document Program Work Plan (inputs and outputs) • Prepare Performance Management Task Schedule • Plan quarterly targets: Quarterly Performance Data Table • Ensure Data Quality: • Prepare Data Quality Assessments • Assess and improve M&E capacity • Prepare Performance Management Assessment Sheet

12. M&E: Evaluation • Baseline Studies (2013) • Carry out a baseline study to know the “Before” scenario (Analysis on-going) • Identify constraints and opportunities and adjust the design and implementation of the program • Plan/review annual targets: Annual Performance Data Table (Review after baseline survey) • Mid Term Reviews (2015) • Assess progress toward meeting program objectives • Improve the design and implementation of the program • Final evaluations (2017) • Assess progress toward meeting program objectives • Results achieved and lessons learned

13. Communication of Results • Prepare progress reports i.e.: (1) Quarterly and (2) Annual • Prepare special reports i.e.: (1) Baseline and follow-up reports, (2) Assessments • Success Stories: Documentation of results (Important) • It educates our donors, our company, our partners, and the public on the difference that our work makes in the lives of our clients. • It describes a positive change and shows how that benefits individuals, organizations, local governments and communities. • Lessons Learned • This is a generalized principle/lesson that can be applied in other situations. Use quantitative measures and documentation of results • Communicate to beneficiaries and stakeholders

14. UNIQUENESS AND ROBUSTNESS OF MII M&E • Show results/Impacts • Verify information • Communicate the results • Defend outputs • Strong M&E Support (PMU)

15. Why Effective M&E, KM and Data Use in MII

16. MII M&E Slogan MONITORING As soon as the boss decides he wants his workers to do something, he has two problems: making them do it and monitoring what they do?.”

17. MII Strategy for Effective M&E • Ensures M&E system is robust, integrated and linked to enhance impact monitoring, quality control and evaluation to meet information needs of all stakeholders • Embraces RBM/MSC M&E oriented approaches- Manifest importance of demonstrating results

18. Key Elements of MII Platform Service Delivery Model

19. MII M&E Data tracking Model

20. Challenges with M&E • Some indicator definitions pose tracking challenges: jobs attributed to FtF implementation (one month continuous jobs difficult to find in agricultural programs). • Definitions of USAID M&E terms confusing based on different settings/ countries/projects: Difficult to apply universally (definition of youths, vulnerable households, household type vs engendered HH type) • Reliable and efficient tracking of larger program requires more staff and significant M&E budget • Collecting up to date data from the private sector partners difficult (banks, agro processors). • Threat of double counting in a big project

21. Challenges with MII M&E • Impact evaluation: not easy to show counterfactual which is USAID requirement • Efficient ICT in data management: Difficult to collect gross margin data. • Difficult to uphold both quality and quantity of massive project deliverable requirements (M&E-quality; technical-numbers) • M&E support from M&E subcontractor: proactive, timely and objective. Criticisms good but not 100% of the time • DQAs in most cases look for negatives about the project to report: objective should be to improve systems

22. Thank you…