N2Africa M&E May2016
ILRI-N2Africa Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop 10-12 May 2016, ILRI Campus Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Introduction to the Workshop
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded project entitled “Putting nitrogen fixation to work for Smallholder farmers in Africa” (N2Africa) aims to build sustainable, long-term partnerships to enable African smallholder farmers to benefit from symbiotic N2-fixation by grain legumes through effective production technologies including inoculants and fertilizers. National level capabilities will be developed to sustain the pipeline and delivery of continuous improvement in legume production technologies tailored to local settings. The project will reach more than 550,000 farmers with a return on investment of US$3.5 for each US$ invested.
To enable assessment of progress in project implementation and its impacts, a Monitoring & Evaluation and Data management plan has been designed to support monitoring of all aspects of the project, i.e. providing information on general progress of the project, obtaining feedback from partners and beneficiaries, and also assessing the final impact. This plan has been implemented in 2014 and 2015 with Partners (using various methods and approaches). An assessment of status of implementation is required to enable the identification of lessons learnt, challenges and rectify such challenges.
Contents
Objectives of the workshop
The overall objective of the workshop is to have a common understanding of the performance monitoring plan by partners. Specific objectives will include:
- To gain a common understanding of milestones/indicators and their data requirements to be able to monitor the progress made. Also link to the specific data collection tools.
- To review and apprise partners with data collection processes (based on gaps identified during implementation in 2014 & 2015) including roles and responsibilities for data collection and reporting
- To discuss, integrate and adopt M&E strategy for data collection and reporting, including partners with M&E systems
- To integrate N2Africa M&E framework into partners M&E plan.
Expected outputs
- Participants understand the linkages between the various activity areas and the overall project objective
- Achieve clarity in data collection processes, responsibilities, analysis and reporting procedures
- Strategy for M&E processes agreed upon and operationalized in 2016
- A final data collection tool for data collection and reporting adopted at country level
Process to meet expected outputs
- The N2Africa M&E framework will be presented to participants to ensure clarity. Roles and responsibilities for data collection, reporting and usage will be discussed. Feedback from participants will be obtained through plenary discussions. Training sessions will be held based on feedback obtained from participants. Group work will be done to at partner levels to ascertain M&E strategy per partner for 2016 and to ensure integration at partner levels.
Program
Day 1: 10 May, 2016 | |||
Time | Activity | Presenter/Facilitator | Rapporteur |
08:30 - 09:00 | Opening of the Workshop, objectives and Expected outputs | Endalkachew | Tamiru/Birhan |
09:00 - 09:20 | Participants introductions & expectations and Program introduction | Tamiru | ^ |
09:20 - 09:40 | Project Overview | Endalkachew | ^ |
09:40 - 10:20 | The role of M&E (including overview of N2A M&E plan) in implementing N2Africa ToC | Theresa | ^ |
10:20 - 11:00 | Presentation/discussions of milestones with respective indicators | Theresa | ^ |
11:00 - 11:20 | Break | ^ | |
11:20 - 01:00 | Group work: Partners break out into their respective partnership clusters, identify challenges and interventions along the legume VC at cluster level, identify and define indicators, data sources and collection at output, outcome and impact levels |
Partners | ^ |
01:00 - 02:00 | Lunch | ^ | |
02:00 - 03:10 | Plenary presentation of group work | Group/cluster leaders | ^ |
03:10 - 04:10 | ODK collect, data management and data flow: Processes of data collection, analysis and reporting | Joost | ^ |
04:10 - 04:30 | Break | ^ | |
04:30 - 05:15 | Plenary discussions & Feedback: ODK data collection system, data management and data flow in N2Africa | Birhan/Joost | ^ |
Day 2: 11 May 2016 | |||
08:30- 09:00 | Recap of Day 1 and outstanding issues | Endalkachew | Birhan/Tamiru |
09:00- 09:20 | Presentation of tools (M&E tool box) | Tamiru/ Birhan | ^ |
09:20- 09:40 | Plenary discussions of tools/Feedback on tools from partners | Tamiru/Theresa | ^ |
09:40 - 10:30 | Training on the use of tablets & data collection tools | Joost/Theresa | ^ |
10:30 - 10:50 | Break | ^ | |
10:50 - 12:00 | Training on the use of tablets & data collection tools | Joost/Theresa | ^ |
12:00 - 01:00 | Group work: Integration of N2Africa M&E framework/tools into partner M&E framework | By Partner Representatives | ^ |
01:00 - 02:00 | Lunch | ^ | |
02:00 - 02:30 | Group work: Integration of N2Africa M&E framework/tools into partner M&E framework | By Partner Representatives | ^ |
02:30 - 04:15 | Plenary presentation of partner strategy for M&E and integration of N2Africa M&E requirements | Theresa | Tamiru/Birhan/ Theresa |
04:15 - 04:35 | Break | ^ | |
04:35 - 05:05 | Summary Strategy for M&E in 2016 | Endalkachew/Theresa/Joost | ^ |
Day 3: 12 May 2016 | |||
08:30 - 09:00 | Recap of Day 2 and outstanding issues | Participants | Tamiru/Birhan |
09:00 - 09:45 | Presentation on Quality data checks | Theresa | ^ |
09:45 - 10:30 | Feedback on 2015 Data uploaded: completeness, conformity, etc. | Birhan/Tamiru | ^ |
10:30 - 10:50 | Break | ^ | |
10:50 - 12:35 | Plenary Data analysis of 2015 data-Examples based on selected variables by partners | Joost/Theresa/Endalkachew | ^ |
12:35 | Closure and lunch | Endalkachew |
Workshop Materials
- N2Africa_2016_Protocols Data tools Fieldbooks Guidelines Reporting Format All in One
- Overview of N2Africa Data Collection Tools
- Template for 2016 ME Strategy
- Presentations
N2Africa Project Overview The role of ME in implementing N2Africa ToC ODK collect data management and data flow Quality data checks Overview of N2Africa ME tools Feedbacks on 2015 Data uploaded
Pictures
Participants 800x146px 800x146px Participants
- List of participants
- Participant Institutions
ARARI [Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute] Balegreen [Balegreen Spice and Grain Development Plc] EIAR [Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research] FC [Facilitator for Change] Ghion Farmers Cooperatives Union HWU [Hawassa University] IFDC-2SCALE IITA [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture] ILRI [International Livestock Research Institute] Jimma University Mama Farmers Cooperatives Union MBI [Menagesha Biotech Industry Plc] OARI [Oromia Agricultural Research Institute] SCS [Sodo Chatolic Secretariate] SNV-C4C WUR [Wageningen University]