NEW ENERGY NEXUS PHILIPPINES

Introduction to Monitoring, Evaluation &

Learning (MEL) for Grant Applications

September 2021
Learning Objectives

1. Identify common questions in a grant that are asking about your MEL strategy.

2. Understand what is included in an MEL strategy.

3. Understand the process for developing a Theory of Change/Logic model, starting with
an exercise to articulate the problem.

4. Understand the process for identifying indicators and an evaluation plan based on your
Theory of Change and stage of development.
Agenda

Introduction (15 minutes)

- Presentation

Problem map exercise (30 minutes)

- Breakout rooms and small group discussion

Feedback & next steps (15 minutes)

- Large group discussion
Introduction: What is MEL and why does it matter to your startup/company?

Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) is a set of processes and methods applied to the
planning, implementation and improvement of any impact-driven initiative.

MEL is an essential feature of any impact-driven organisation and almost all grants will
expect MEL to be in place or planned for.

The purpose is to support:

1. The understanding and articulation of the problem you aim to address
2. The understanding and articulation of how you will solve that problem
3. Generating evidence to learn: to what extent you are achieving the intended change
4. To learn and make decisions based on evidence that maximise your impact
5. To work effectively with partners by communicating and aligning impact goals
6. To attract funders and meet data and reporting requirements
Introduction: MEL in grant applications

Why do funders look for and invest in MEL when distributing grants?

1. Grant applications:
a. Selecting the interventions with the greatest return on investment
b. Selecting the interventions with the greatest likelihood of success

2. Grant reporting:
a. Accountability and transparency between grantee and funder
b. Learning and improving their grant approach in future, to maximise use of limited
funds
Introduction: MEL in grant applications

1. Problem Statement: What is the problem affecting the lives of people living in poverty that your innovation or
solution addresses?*
2. Description of the Innovation: What is your innovation? How does your innovation compare to existing
alternatives and what are the advantages of your innovation compared to these alternatives, including
standard practice?*
3. Target Population: Who does your innovation impact?*
4. Theory of Change and Existing Evidence: How will your innovation lead to improved development
outcomes? Please clearly describe the theory of change behind the innovation and cite the evidence linking
your innovation to its intended impact.*
5. Current Impact and Reach: What has been achieved to date and how many people does the innovation
currently serve? If other organizations have also implemented this innovation, please specifically indicate
your organization’s experience and reach.*
6. Anticipated Impact and Reach: What specific social outcomes do you expect your innovation to achieve over
the next 3 years? How many people do you expect your innovation to reach over this time period? Please
specify how you estimate the number of people served and the magnitude of impacts.*
7. Evaluation Methodology: What evaluation methodology will you use to measure the success of your
innovation?*
8. Key Performance Indicators: What relevant metrics/key performance indicators (KPIs) will you use to track
your innovation’s performance and how will you collect the data?*
Introduction: Budgeting for MEL

Think about:
1. What additional skills will you need?
● For example, will you need new hires or consultants?
2. What paid tools or resources will you need?
● For example a database or survey tool.
3. How much of your team’s budgeted time will be needed for MEL activities?
● Ensure there is sufficient time before and after implementation for planning, data
gathering, reporting and reflecting on data and lessons learned.

How much?

3-10% of overall grant budget

Introduction: Developing an MEL strategy*

Your MEL Strategy: Mapping your MEL strategy to the

DIV grant questions
A. Context: Understand the problem and your
overarching vision and mission Q1 -> Part A
B. Stakeholders: Who is the MEL strategy for? Q2 -> Part C
Q3 -> Part B
C. Program design: Theory of change and logic Q4 -> Part C
model Q 5 & 6 -> Part C + D + E
Q7 -> Part D
D. MEL plan: Evaluation questions; Outputs, Q8 -> Part D
outcomes & indicators; data collection methods;
Analysis
E. Using data: Communication and decision making
a. Including grant applications
b. And strategy, decision making,
communications, reporting

*Activities are adapted from ‘Roadmap to Social Impact’ from the Centre for Social Impact
Activity: Problem Analysis

ACTIVITY #1: Develop a problem tree for your organisation or program

A problem analysis maps the cause and effect of social problems, and identified root causes
that can be targeted by your intervention.

1. Identify core problem - The problem you exist to solve

2. Identify causes of the problem - Including those you can target
3. Identify effects of the problem - that will be reduced if you are successful
4. Identify partners you might need to address causes you are unable to address alone

Sources for your problem tree:

1. Internal and external stakeholders/experts
2. Existing literature and research
Activity: Problem Analysis

The problem tree

Effects = Branches (the visible results of the core problem, the larger problem/context)
Core problem = Trunk (specific, addressable, yet ambitious problem you exist to address)
Causes = Roots (the invisible, root causes, eg. knowledge, attitudes, values, behaviours,
conditions)
Activity: Problem Analysis

Systems thinking
● A system, human-made or natural, is an interconnected set of elements that is
coherently organized in a way that achieves something.
● Systems thinking is a holistic method for understanding positive and negative
influences on a problem and identifying the 'big levers' for creating change.
● It identifies problem influencers at the individual, household, community,
infrastructural, political and societal level.

Consider the whole system in developing your problem tree

Activity: Problem Analysis

System and Context: Example

Activity: Problem Analysis

Let’s get started!

ACTIVITY #1: Develop a problem tree for your organisation or program

Instructions:
● Select one organisation to focus on
● Complete page 1 of the activity template as a group
○ Representative from the organisation in focus can act as the grantee
○ Representative from the other organisations can act as grantor/funder
Activity: Vision, Mission, Purpose, Goals and Objectives

ACTIVITY #2: Clarify or (re)formulate your organisation or program vision, mission, purpose,
goals and objectives.

Vision: What do you seek to achieve? What is your 'perfect world'?

Mission: How will you achieve that?

Purpose: The purpose is why an organisation exists.

Goals: What is the long term aspiration?

Objectives: What are the tangible, specific and measurable aspirations?

Ensure these are well aligned with the problem you are trying to solve.
Activity: Theory of Change/Logic Model

ACTIVITY #3: Develop/review a theory of change for your program

A Theory of Change is a common framework used for explicitly defining how your
organisation or program achieves the intended impact.

It includes:
1. The changes/outcomes you intend to achieve
2. The activities that will lead to that change
3. Assumptions that explain why activities lead to outcomes
Activity: Theory of Change/Logic Model

ACTIVITY #5: Develop a logic model for your program

A Logic Model is similar, but includes the specific inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and
impact, and the underlying ‘if-then’ relationships linking them.

Inputs are the necessary resources for a program to run.

Activities are what the program is doing
Outputs are numbers or counts of things that result from the program.
Outcomes are the changes that your program produces in the short-, medium-, and
long-term.
Impact is the lasting, systemic change to which your program or organisation contributes.

An assumption is a positive statement of a condition that must be met for the program’s
objectives to be achieved.
A risk is a negative statement of a condition that might prevent the program’s objectives
from being achieved.
Activity: Theory of Change/Logic Model
Activity: Theory of Change/Logic Model

ACTIVITY #5: Develop a logic model for your program

Part A: Inputs, Activities, Outputs

● Your understanding of the planning of the

program/intervention

Part B: Outcomes, Impact

● Is more challenging, and relies of your understanding of

the problem and change.
● Change/outcomes can occur at multiple levels, for
multiple stakeholders, and at multiple points in time.
Activity: MEL plan and indicators

ACTIVITY #6: Identify priority outputs and outcomes and develop indicators to measure.

Not everything that can be measured should be measured.

Step 1: Define what you and the funder are trying to learn, formulate evaluation questions,
for example:
● Was the solution adopted by customers?
● What happened and how well?
● What outcomes were experienced and by who?
● Did different customers experience the outcomes differently?

Using both your Theory of Change and Evaluation Questions:

● Select qualitative (subjective) and quantitative (objective) measures/indicators to
understand the achievement of the outputs and outcomes.
● If possible, use established frameworks and indicators, otherwise create your own.
Activity: MEL plan and indicators

ACTIVITY #6: Identify priority outputs and outcomes and develop indicators to measure.

Design your data collection method, use a combination of:

● Surveys
● Program data
● Secondary data
● Interviews
● Focus Groups
● Case studies

Note: you will need to assign responsibility, create a plan, and ensure you have the
resources needed to carry out data collection, analysis and reporting during and after
implementing your grant-funded program.
Activity: MEL plan

ACTIVITY #7: Prepare your grant application using information from above

Revisit the grant application question and build a narrative using the elements of your MEL
strategy.
What’s next?

What is next for your organisation?