Are you interested in strengthening the monitoring, evaluation and learning processes and practices within your organisation? Do you want to make sure that high quality information is collected and shared to enable learning and accountability? INTRAC’s online course on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Systems aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to be able to develop an effective MEL system for your programme or organisation.
Recognizing the evolving development landscape, the course has recently been updated to emphasise decolonisation and localisation principles. Participants will learn how to integrate these critical themes into the design and management of effective MEL systems.
The course explores the core components of effective M&E systems and how these differ for complex programmes and organisations. We’ll delve into key considerations like:
- identifying and managing external influences
- diagnosing and resolving M&E system challenges
- making informed decisions on what information to collect
- summarising and making sense of that information, ensuring its use for learning, accountability and management decision making
The course will draw on real-life case studies and examples from INTRAC’s MEL systems’ work.
Course structure
- Four weekly interactive live sessions facilitated by our experienced trainers, which will include small group discussions and live exercises (please refer to the course profile for specific dates and times of the live sessions and pre-work);
- INTRAC e-learning platform, with self-paced activities to be completed before/after live sessions, and targeted resources for further reading;
- Session handouts and recordings shared after each session;
- Peer learning: participants will collaborate in triads (groups of three) for in-depth discussions, problem-solving and sharing experiences outside of the live sessions.
- One1-hour individual mentoring session with one of the trainers.
On average, we estimate participants should set aside about 4-5 hours per week for this course.
The short, concentrated overview of advanced M&E topics put together by the trainers (curriculum and readings were superb – managed to be both generally useful to a wide range of experiences, but still advanced) and the peer learning and discussion (great to hear and learn from people all over the world). I’d recommend it to others.
I really valued how effectively the course was facilitated online – it was great to have such a mixture of tools, group work, reading, triads, – it worked really well as a cohesive whole.
Course Trainers
Lucy Gray is a Senior Consultant at INTRAC whose specialty is Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. Lucy has supported various NGOs in delivery of evaluations, reviews and learning studies; development and review theories of change and MEL frameworks and plans; and design MEL systems, processes and tools. Lucy is an active participant in sector debates around power in development practice.
Alison Napier has been an INTRAC Principal Consultant since February 2013. She has extensive experience of working with international and local NGOs and civil society organisations mainly in Africa (Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Malawi) and also in Cambodia and Laos. Alison is a long-time co-developer of INTRAC’s advanced M&E courses.