Review of Participatory Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation System and Programme Impact Evaluation in SARDP III
The Sida Amhara Regional Development Programme III, like its predecessors SARDP I & II has had a functional M&E system which has concentrated on reporting inputs, financial expenditure and physical outputs. This system, however, did not provide sufficient data for reporting results and outcomes. The programme has achieved a great deal in terms of impact in improving the poverty situation in the region but has failed to articulate its achievements well. This has also meant that useful lessons learnt have not been documented to serve as models for replication. The Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation System and Programme Impact consultants were fielded in order to assist in overcoming that gap. The assignment consisted of a system review and improvement before actually measuring the impact of the programme interventions. The experts therefore carried out several separate missions:
Description of the first assignment:
The objective of the assignment was to assist SARDP in improving its Monitoring & Evaluation system particularly the components related to impact. The 3 week assignment was the first part of a longer input which in its totality should fulfil the TOR. To meet the deadline an Annual Review for assessing achievements so far and plan the way forward, a simple set of tools was designed which focussed on measuring outcomes of a core set of activities using data already gathered and available at the woreda and kebele levels. After that more in-depth data gathering and analysis at the community level should take place to strengthen result measuring.
Description of the second assignment:
While efforts in collecting data from woredas and kebeles had been made following the 1st assignment, it was now appropriate, as originally planned, to go down to the community level and gather information first hand from the beneficiaries. At the same time, it was realised that given the resource and time constraints, impact information on every activity could not be ascertained. A short list of 6 activities was thus identified in consultation with the PMU on which impact information from the community was gathered.