PACT - MERL For Peacebuilding Programs - Sept 2016 - Final

Monitoring,
Evaluation,
Reporting, and
Learning (MERL) for
Peacebuilding
Programs
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development. Visit us at www.pactworld.org.
September 2016
Disclaimer:
Portions of this module have been made possible by the generous support of the American
people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The entirety of the
contents of this module are the responsibility of Pact and do not necessarily reflect the views
of USAID or the United States Government.
Recommended citation:
Pact. 2016. Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, and Learning (MERL) for Peacebuilding
Programs. Washington, D.C., U.S.: Pact.
Contact:
Pact’s Results and Measurement Team

Pact
1828 L Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-466-5666
rm@pactworld.org
Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, and Learning (MERL) for Peacebuilding Programs
Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................................ i
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ii
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles ......................................................................... 2
What is MERL? ................................................................................................................................. 2
What is peacebuilding? .................................................................................................................... 3
Why is MERL important for peacebuilding? .................................................................................. 3
Definitions ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Who is on a MERL team? ................................................................................................................. 8
Key Reasons for Developing Quality MERL Systems ..................................................................... 8
MERL in the Project Cycle ............................................................................................................. 10
MERL in Summary .......................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2: Peacebuilding Approaches: Defining What Peace Looks Like ....................... 13
What are peacebuilding approaches? ............................................................................................ 13
Approach 1: Incentives for Peace ................................................................................................... 14
Approach 2: Addressing Root Causes of Injustice ........................................................................ 14
Approach 3: Addressing Individual Attitudes and Relationships and Building Trust ............... 14
Chapter 3: Situation Analysis .......................................................................................... 16
What is situation analysis?............................................................................................................. 16
Types of Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................ 16
Disseminating Situation Analysis Findings .................................................................................. 19
Chapter 4: Theories of Change and Developing Project Goals........................................22
What are Theories of Change? ....................................................................................................... 22
Theories of Change in the Context of Peacebuilding Programs ................................................... 23
Develop Your Peacebuilding Project’s Theory of Change ............................................................ 25
Develop Project Goals and Outcomes from Your Theory of Change ........................................... 26
Tying Situation Analysis and Theory of Change to MERL System Design ................................. 28
Chapter 5: Conceptual Frameworks and Assumptions ...................................................32
What are conceptual frameworks? ................................................................................................ 32
Advantages and Challenges of Using Conceptual Frameworks ................................................... 33
The Results Framework ................................................................................................................. 34
Logical Frameworks ....................................................................................................................... 39
Basic Logframe Outline (Hierarchy of Objectives) ....................................................................... 39
The Role of Assumptions ............................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 6: Indicators ..................................................................................................... 43
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 43
How to Develop Indicators ............................................................................................................ 45
Qualities of a Good Indicator ......................................................................................................... 47
Indicator-Related Terms ................................................................................................................ 48
Indicator Definitions ...................................................................................................................... 49
Collecting Indicator Data ............................................................................................................... 49
Chapter 7: Monitoring ....................................................................................................52
What is monitoring? ....................................................................................................................... 52
Conflict and Context Monitoring ................................................................................................... 53
Implementation Monitoring .......................................................................................................... 54
Assumption Monitoring ................................................................................................................. 56
Monitoring Plans ............................................................................................................................ 57
Chapter 8: Evaluation .....................................................................................................59

What is evaluation and why is it important? ................................................................................ 59
Defining Evaluation ........................................................................................................................ 59
Monitoring versus Evaluation ....................................................................................................... 61
Evaluation versus Research ........................................................................................................... 61
Why evaluate? ................................................................................................................................. 62
Types of Evaluation ........................................................................................................................ 62
Internal and External Evaluation .................................................................................................. 63
Involving Stakeholders in Evaluation ........................................................................................... 64
Barriers to Evaluation .................................................................................................................... 64
Planning for an Evaluation ............................................................................................................ 64
Writing an Evaluation Purpose Statement ................................................................................... 67
Evaluation Questions ..................................................................................................................... 68
What is evaluation design? ............................................................................................................ 69
Overview of Evaluation Approaches .............................................................................................. 69
Creating Evaluation Worksheets ................................................................................................... 70
The Evaluation Terms of Reference ...............................................................................................71
Chapter 9: Learning ........................................................................................................ 74
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 74
Using an Adaptive Management Approach .................................................................................. 74
Developing a Learning Agenda ...................................................................................................... 75
Ensuring Learning Processes are Participatory ............................................................................ 76
Chapter 10: Reporting .................................................................................................... 80
Overview .........................................................................................................................................80
Introduction to Reporting ..............................................................................................................80
Identifying Appropriate Communication Tools ........................................................................... 81
Reporting Schedule ........................................................................................................................ 81
Generic Outline for Quarterly and Annual Progress Reports ...................................................... 83
Generic Outline for Final Performance Report ............................................................................ 85
General Writing Tips ...................................................................................................................... 87
Success Stories and Photography .................................................................................................. 87
Chapter 11: Data Quality and Ethics ............................................................................... 89
The Importance of Ensuring Quality Data .................................................................................... 89
Commonly used Criteria for Assessing Data Quality ................................................................... 89
Data Management .......................................................................................................................... 90
Getting Started with Developing Systems to Address Data Quality Issues ................................. 91
Improving Data Quality along the Data-Management Chain ...................................................... 92
Data Ethics ...................................................................................................................................... 94
Chapter 12: Mobile Technology for Data Collection ........................................................95
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 95
What is information communication technology for development? ........................................... 95
Advantages of Mobile Data Technology ........................................................................................ 96
SMS versus GPRS ........................................................................................................................... 97
Developing Your Mobile Technology Strategy and Why it is Important .................................... 98
When You Should Continue Collecting Data on Paper .............................................................. 104
Develop a Budget .......................................................................................................................... 105
Appendix 1: Success Stories Guide ................................................................................ 107
Appendix 2: MERL Plan Template ................................................................................ 109
Appendix 3: References ................................................................................................ 125
Abbreviations and Acronyms

APEA applied political economy analysis
CBO community-based organization
CDC U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
COP chief of party
DCOP deputy chief of party
DFID U.K. Department for International Development
DIY do it yourself
DQA data quality assessment
GIS geographic information system
GPRS general packet radio service
GPS global positioning system
ICT4D information communication technology for development
Log frame logical framework
M&E monitoring and evaluation
MERL monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning
MPICE Measuring Progress in Conflict Environments
NGO nongovernmental organization
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
PEA political economy analysis
PIRS Performance Indicator Reference Sheet
SMS short message service
SOP standard operating procedure
TH trauma healing
TOC Theory of Change
TOR Terms of Reference
U.K. United Kingdom
U.S. United States
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
US$ United States dollar(s)
USAID U.S. Agency for International Development
page i
Acknowledgements
The initial draft of this module was compiled by Lynn McCoy, Hannah Kamau, and Margaret
Elise during their time with Pact.
Special thanks are given to Pact’s PEACE III project MERL team—Jacqueline Ndirangu,
Lauren Serpe, Josiah Imbayi Mukoya, Michael Kahindi, and Christopher Kinyua—for
customizing this module for use in Pact Kenya’s PEACE III program and for broader
publication to share with other peacebuilding programs.
Many other Pact staff contributed to the development of the peacebuilding MERL module.
Gratitude goes to Nanette Barkey (technical oversight), Leighton Clark (technical
contributions), Maggie Dougherty (graphic design), Rachel Elrom (editing and layout), and
Mason Ingram (technical contributions).
page ii
Introduction
Robust monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning (MERL) are critical components of
successful programming. The MERL components enable program stakeholders to monitor
progress and evaluate the achievement of expected results. Reporting processes and timelines
should be clearly defined and tailored to meet the needs of key audiences and stakeholders,
and provision should be made for the program to continually reflect and learn from
experiences gained during implementation.
Measuring the success of peacebuilding programs poses specific challenges that are unique to
this program area. This module was developed to guide PEACE III local program partners—
peacebuilding practitioners—through the development and implementation of effective and
practical MERL systems for their projects. This five-year cross-border peacebuilding program
is implemented by Pact in partnership with Mercy Corps and a range of local partners with
activities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda. PEACE III aims to
strengthen cross-border conflict management in the Horn of Africa and is pursuing two
related objectives: 1) to strengthen local cross-border conflict management and 2) to improve
the responsiveness of regional and national institutions to cross-border conflict.
This manual was created to support and provide examples to peacebuilding practitioners and
is an addition to Pact’s existing MERL Modules.1 Other useful examples of MERL training
manuals for peacebuilding programs exist. This module does not seek to replicate those
manuals, but rather draws on them and integrates their expertise here. Parts of this manual
were also drawn from Pact’s MERL Modules but customized with practices and examples
relevant for peacebuilding programs. It is the authors’ hope that this module can serve as an
introduction to MERL for peacebuilding practitioners and can point them to other relevant
resources in the field. Each chapter begins with an outline of the learning objectives, includes
learning activities throughout the chapters, and ends with a summary of key points and
learning.
1Pact has developed four core training modules to guide MERL staff and to provide a framework for Pact’s
partners on M&E basics. These are: Module 1: Building Basic Monitoring and Evaluation Systems; Module 2: Field
Guide to Data Quality Management; Module 3: Field Guide for Evaluation; Module 4: Mobile Technology
Handbook. All modules can be found in Pact’s Resource Library: http://www.pactworld.org/library.
Introduction | page 1
Chapter 1:
Overview of MERL Principles
Chapter Objectives
In this chapter you will learn:
 The four key interrelated processes found in a monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning
(MERL) system
 Key reasons for having a high quality MERL system
 How MERL is embedded in the project cycle
Learning Activities
 Defining peacebuilding for your project
 What do you want to achieve with your peacebuilding project’s MERL system?
 Checking and improving the project cycle
What is MERL?
MERL is a contemporary of the commonly used abbreviation, M&E. The “M” and “E” are the
same: monitoring and evaluation. The “R” and the “L” stand for reporting2 and learning.
Pact uses this more-comprehensive terminology to emphasize that the four components are
inherently linked. Without reporting on and learning from results, monitoring and evaluating
programs is pointless. M&E as a standalone activity is like discovering that the brakes on your
car do not work, but not telling anyone or getting them fixed. Learning about something is
only useful if you apply what you learn.
Figure 1.1: The four separate but interrelated

processes in a MERL system
MERL is:
 A very important component of effective
peacebuilding
 A way for you to learn about what in your
program works and what does not work
 Even more important to conflict-based
development initiatives than in stable
environments: As the conflict and
environment changes, so must peacebuilding
activities and foci. MERL systems provide key
insights into what has changed and what needs to
be changed.
 Ideally conceived at the same time as your peacebuilding approaches are developed;
however, even if you are already in the midst of program activities, you can still develop
useful MERL tools to help guide, improve, and assess your program
2Of note, the “R” in MERL also can represent “Research;” however, for the purposes of this manual, the “R” will
represent “Reporting.”
Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 2

MERL is not:
 A system separate from your programs and projects; it is closely interwoven with your
project planning and implementation
 Just for funder reporting
 Meant to be a burden to program staff: Even when certain MERL activities are required
by funders and parent organizations, your team should always work with them to develop
processes that are mutually beneficial.
 The job of an M&E specialist alone: MERL is a team effort and involves stakeholders from
within your organization and the communities where you strive to build peace.
What is peacebuilding?
Have you ever tried to define the term peacebuilding? Defining peacebuilding can be
challenging, mirroring the complexity and range of activities needed to bring about peace.
Despite the term’s complexities, most people working on this issue have a similar
understanding of the change they want to bring about. Ending fighting, reducing potential
for future conflict, improving relations between peoples and communities, and reducing
injustice are common goals of peacebuilding programs.
Peacebuilding approaches can address the effects of violence or the root causes or
drivers of conflict. Activities can range from direct interventions to stop fighting to
initiatives aimed at improving education, health, and prosperity. In fact, peacebuilding can
take place where there has not been violence: helping individuals understand how they can
better live with their neighbors, creating just societies, and collaborating to make
communities prosper are all part of peacebuilding.
Why is MERL important for peacebuilding?

Organizations and professionals working in the peacebuilding sector often state that they
need quality information about their activities and the changes they bring about to improve
their work and to meet the needs of communities. Yet, many organizations often make critical
decisions based simply on personal and staff judgment, anecdotal information, or
haphazardly collected field data.
Areas beseiged by conflict are subject to frequent changes, in the conflict itself and in the
overall environment. Peacebuilding programs likewise need to be adaptable to meet the
changing needs of people and institutions. But in order to do so, peacebuilding programs
must have access to timely and reliable information, not just about the effects of their direct
interventions, but about the evolving situation around them.
Developing and implementing a high quality MERL system allows program teams to access
information to make good decisions before, during, and after program implementation.
Through MERL, a program team can see if they are achieving their targets, whether their
work is having its desired (or other) effects, and whether it is necessary to make corrections
to the initiative. Also, programs can learn if cumulative efforts of multiple activities are
bringing about the peacebuilding changes sought.
It is just as important to learn about what is not working as it is to learn about what is
working. Monitoring helps to identify what is not working early so that program
managers can make adjustments throughout the life of the program. Periodic formative
evaluations have a similar purpose and can help programs understand why they see the
results they see.

Learning Activity: Defining peacebuilding for your project

Understanding how you define peacebuilding is important not only to project design but to
the project’s M&E system, as we shall learn in upcoming chapters. Consider your answers
to the following questions.
1. In my project, peacebuilding is defined as: _______________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. What MERL processes do we use currently in our peacebuilding programs? ________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
3. Do our MERL processes align with our understanding of peacebuilding? ___________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Definitions
A MERL system is composed of four separate but interrelated processes: monitoring,
evaluation, reporting, and learning.
Monitoring is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to

track the program’s performance in achieving goals and to observe changes in
the conflict or environment.
Monitoring data can be used to measure how productively inputs (money, time, equipment,
personnel, etc.) are used in the creation of outputs (products, outcomes, results) so a program
team can compare what they planned to accomplish in a given period to what actually
occurred in that time period.
Monitoring also can be used to keep track of the context and, specifically, the conflict in
which program activities are occurring, as well as assumptions on which program activities
are based. This type of monitoring is particularly important for program effectiveness
because changes in conflict and context often necessitate changes in program activities in
order to meet desired outcomes.
How program teams use monitoring data

Program staff use monitoring data to manage program implementation, budgets, timelines,
and human resources. Monitoring data also is used as a basis for reporting to funding
agencies in quarterly, semi-annual, and/or annual reports. Monitoring happens periodically
throughout the life of the project and is ideally set up so key information about program
efficiency is routinely delivered to program staff to help them actively manage the program.

Monitoring data helps project teams answer key questions, such as the following.
 What activities have been completed (compared to those planned)?
 At what cost and in what timeframe are activities being accomplished and how does this
compare to what we planned for a given period?
 What short term results have occurred, for example, how many people have been
mobilized, trained, or reached in a given time period?
 Have key benchmark activities been completed as planned?
 Does data tell us anything about differences between activities and/or program sites?
 What has changed around us? Are there reasons to change our upcoming plans?
Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of information to

determine the effectiveness of an intervention or of an organization’s
achievement of peacebuilding goals.
Evaluation focuses on intervention outcomes and impacts3 (intermediate and long-term

effects) and lets program teams know if change is occurring in a community or conflict
situation. Evaluation also provides regular feedback that helps organizations assess their
relevance, scope, and sustainability. In its simplest terms, evaluation is the collection and
analysis of information to assess the impact of the organization’s work.
Like monitoring processes, evaluations can be conducted periodically throughout the project
or program. And, while monitoring activities focus on what happened, evaluations look more
in depth at how well things happened and whether they resulted in desired outcomes or are
making progress toward achieving them. Evaluations often can be broken down into three
phases:
 Baseline: collecting values at the start of a program or intervention to be compared
against at later points
 Midterm: checking statutes against baseline figures and planning for changes to the
approach, if necessary
 Endline: measuring changes from beginning of the project to the end
Figure 1.2: Evaluation phases
3 It
is important to note that in this context, impact assessment implies looking at long-term, broader-scale
changes in the community that result from activities and processes among smaller populations within that
community. This distinction is important because the term “impact assessment” is sometimes used to describe an
evaluation whose goal is attributing change to a particular intervention. Such studies are highly controlled, costly,
and difficult to implement, even in stable environments.

How program teams use evaluation data

Evaluation happens periodically, and information provided is used by the program staff to
help them understand the short-, intermediate- and long-term results of their programs.
Evaluation data can help program teams answer key questions, such as the following.
 Are activities effective in achieving desired outcomes (short- and long-term)? Are we
heading in the right directions?
 Are our approaches as efficient at achieving outcomes as they could be (or is there a better
way)?
 What are the secondary- and highest-level effects of our interventions? Are our efforts
resulting in changes that are leading to stability and peacebuilding?
 Will changes persist after our direct influence has left? Will our interventions’ positive
changes and effects be able to adapt over time, as needed, to fit the local context?
 What unintended outcomes have occurred?
Program teams can use evaluation data to analyze what is working well to maintain, expand,
or replicate it and to review what has not worked well to make program course corrections,
avoid repeating mistakes, and improve the quality of their initiatives.
Reporting is the systematic and timely provision of useful information at

periodic intervals.
Reporting provides regular feedback that helps organizations inform themselves and others
(stakeholders, partners, funders, etc.) on the progress, problems, successes, and lessons of
program implementation. M&E report writers have the responsibility of conveying relevant
information to various audiences in effective ways. The challenge for MERL teams is to turn
raw data into useful knowledge, then communicate that information to the different program
audiences (community members, program staff, partners, etc.) in ways that will most
effectively meet their needs and enable them to use it as needed.
MERL teams should think of reporting as broader than simply providing written updates to a
funder. Rather, the role of reporting in a MERL system is to ensure that data and analysis is
being distributed to those who can use the information to better manage the program,
provide oversight, or reflect on the events and outcomes. Effective reporting at regular,
strategic intervals is critical for informing program staff, funders, partners, program
participants, and other stakeholders of the progress of peacebuilding interventions. Reports
can take many forms, can be formal (reports, spreadsheets) or informal (phone calls, quick
briefs), and should communicate successes and failures, positive and negative results, and
any and all lessons learned.
When creating reports and a reporting schedule, MERL team members should consider:
 Who needs it
 What specifically they need and why
 When and how often they need it
Developing a matrix that details this information is immensely helpful to appropriately plan
for reporting. An example of this matrix is presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Example of MERL audience information needs assessment

WHEN they need
the data from our How this audience
WHAT data they organization and can participate in
MERL need from our WHY they need what reporting the MERL
Audience organization the data format is best program
Internal Audience
Board Updates on: To monitor the Monthly memo and Review project
members  Activities, projects, efficiency and financial design and objectives
and programs effectiveness of the statement to CEO
Review performance
 Management organization and its
Quarterly meeting data specifically to
issues people, products, and
presentation evaluate the efficiency
 Financial issues impacts
(January, April, July, and effectiveness of
 Resources (inputs) To provide guidance and October) the project
Lessons learned on To problem solve Annual report and Use the data to guide
program impacts financial statement their decision-
To help us fundraise
(December) making
External Audience
Community Context/conflict To stay updated on Quarterly Participate in a
members analysis results the status of peace in presentations at situation analysis
their community community briefing
Updates on Review project
meetings (January,
peacebuilding efforts To understand their design and objectives
April, July, and
and community contribution to
October) Participate in project
participation in peacebuilding efforts
assessments/
ongoing efforts
To understand the evaluations, e.g., as
Outcomes resulting longer term changes respondents in focus
from interventions, in the peace situation group discussions and
such as peace and implications for key informant
dialogues and peace them interviews
dividends
Share their stories of
change
Learning involves internalizing information and analyzing it such that it can be

of use in decision-making. Program management and other stakeholders should
use the data generated from their M&E processes to review progress, learn from
what is working or not working well, and make decisions on the required
changes for successful programming.
Learning is a deeper process than simply reading reports; it involves interpreting M&E
results and taking action based on what is learned. Learning is the systematic review of
achievements against desired results and is used to change course or modify approaches if
necessary. Learning benefits the current project and future projects.
Project technical specialists and MERL team members must participate in planning M&E
activities because they all are responsible for learning from the results, including successes
and failures, and be willing to accept unexpected results and take action to resolve problems
that arise. It is also important to involve other MERL audiences in planning and/or review of
MERL plans: program staff, funders, community partners, and others.
During the planning phase, it is important to think about who will be responsible for
decision-making regarding changes to be made as a result of learning. Developing a learning

schedule also can be helpful to ensure project staff hold regular learning reviews within
your organization and externally with relevant stakeholders. Also think about your program
design: If we wanted to change something in the future, could we? How easy or difficult
would this change be? Is there a point at which there’s “no turning back” (implying you
should learn about the program’s effectiveness before then)?
How to determine if your program is prepared to learn from M&E activities

 Are we generally willing to examine our work and challenge what we know and do?
 Are we testing our assumptions? Are our assumptions well founded to begin with?
 When faced with negative feedback, do we react in a constructive way?
 Is our knowledge being shared? Are regularly scheduled learning reviews being held?
 Is our knowledge accessible to all key stakeholders? To the wider development and
peacebuilding communities?
 Is our learning relevant to our programming and ultimate goals or is it limited in focus to
funder requirements?
Who is on a MERL team?

Pact encourages all partners to have at least one full-time MERL officer to lead and
coordinate MERL activities. But, that does not mean that the MERL officer is the only staff
member involved in MERL activities; in fact, it is just the opposite. All program staff play a
role in determining what should be measured, assisting with quality data collection efforts,
analyzing findings, and, most importantly, using the data to improve program
implementation and peacebuilding practices. Community members and partners also play
critical roles, helping shape the focus of MERL and offering advice on effective local MERL
practices. MERL efforts are team efforts.
Key Reasons for Developing Quality MERL Systems

MERL systems provide peacebuilding programs with various benefits.
 MERL provides managers with a tool to gain timely information on the progress of
project activities, allowing them to compare what was planned to what is actually
occurring.
 MERL provides organizations with a tool to evaluate how effectively the organization
promotes change.
 MERL fosters public and political cooperation and supports particular information needs
for target audiences (such as funders, community members, staff, board members).
 MERL enables organizational learning and encourages adaptive management.
Other benefits of MERL include ensuring that our projects, services, and activities:4
 Meet community needs
 Reach those they are intended to reach
 Make adequate, timely progress toward our objectives
 Make efficient use of resources (capital, human, and other)
 Yield results that are in line with our efforts
 Are sustainable5
 Are appropriate for the changing environment (political, social, conflict context, etc.)
4 Social Impact 2009.

5 For more resources on sustainability, see http://microlinks.kdid.org/library/search/sustainability.

Effective MERL also benefits institutions in developing future programs in the same or
another context. Learnings from a particular project can be used to develop future initiatives
during planning, design, and implementation and even at the proposal writing stage. Funders
may use past MERL results to evaluate the suitability of your organization or your particular
approach to a proposed activity.
Commonly, MERL is viewed as complex, time intensive, and costly. Some organizations also
consider MERL to be simply a requirement of funders and thus see MERL as an external
rather than internal necessity. Therefore, an effective MERL system is organized and focused,
affordable, time efficient, and useful to program staff, funders, and other key program
stakeholders.
Learning Activity: What do you want to achieve with your peacebuilding

program’s MERL system?
Throughout this manual, you will learn the steps involved in designing and implementing
your MERL system, including choosing your goals and the focus of your assessments. A
good way to start is to brainstorm a list of specific information or types of information that
would be helpful to you in carrying out a successful program. Do not worry yet about how
or when you would get the information.
You can do this activity with a group from your project team.
1. Ask several staff members to brainstorm their information desires on their own. You
can ask them the following questions to help shape their brainstorming.
a. What would you most like to know about the community(ies) in which you work?
b. What would you like to learn about or from others who have worked in this
community or who have tried similar approaches to peacebuilding?
c. What uncertainties do you have (about the community, the context or conflict, the
[proposed] program design)? What would you need to know to be certain?
d. What are the biggest misconceptions you think others have? What information
would help to correct those misconceptions?
2. If possible, bring in voices from the community and from your funder and/or parent
organizations. At minimum, assign someone to create a list of desired information from
the perspective of funders and/or community members.
3. Organize a meeting in which each person shares their lists with a goal of determining
the most common informational needs and prioritizing the most important needs.
4. Be sure to consider priorities for the organization and project as a whole and for
different groups within your team.
5. Assign one person to record both the entire list of brainstormed ideas and the
prioritized list.
6. Refer back to these lists during program and MERL design.

MERL in the Project Cycle Figure 1.3: Project cycle
It is important to fully understand the project cycle of

peacebuilding projects. The project cycle is the
process through which projects are conceived,
developed, tested, and adjusted based on what
happens. It emphasizes the iterative nature of
projects and how we must always be willing to
adjust and adapt based on successes and
failures. This is especially important in
peacebuilding initiatives. There are many
variations on the project cycle, but all include
four main parts, as shown in Figure 1.3. Below
is a quick review of the project cycle and some
key focus points for MERL work.
1) Project identification
At this stage, as someone who works on peacebuilding, you
probably are looking at the conflict in an area and hoping to find a way to improve the
existing situation. You develop your visions of peace and peacebuilding. You analyze the
conflict, context, and most pressing needs.6 You start to identify the goals and objectives you
will ultimately try to achieve and which will be the focus of your MERL system.
Once you understand what is happening and what is needed, you determine what your
organization is best suited to do about it. This will likely be done in collaboration with other
local organizations, government offices, or other partners. Together you will decide what your
intervention will be.
2) Project design
In the design phase you take your idea of what to do and determine more specifically how to
do it. Project design is about coming up with a good Theory of Change (see Chapter 4) and
developing specific strategies (and activities) for bringing about the desired changes. Project
design includes identifying resource needs (funds, time, personnel, equipment, etc.) to
complete the program successfully and establishing the project’s basic framework and MERL
system.
3) Project implementation
The majority of project activities will take place in this stage. A baseline study is usually
conducted just before a project begins to establish your starting point and for later
comparison. Monitoring activities take place regularly throughout the life of the project to
track progress and resource allocation.
4) Project evaluation
Periodic evaluations can be used to assess ongoing progress toward peacebuilding goals.
What you learn from M&E activities leads you back to program design and implementation to
make adjustments or initiate new activities as indicated. A comprehensive project evaluation
is an important activity to carry out once a project has concluded. It is a way for you to learn
what ultimately worked and what did not work, to inform others who remain (if your activity
has ended), and to guide future initiatives.
6 Conflict, context, and needs assessments are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.

MERL in Summary
Figure 1.4 summarizes the MERL processes that will be covered throughout this module.
Figure 1.4: MERL in summary
Summary: Key points from this chapter

 Definition of peacebuilding: Ending fighting, reducing potential for future conflict,
improving relations between peoples and communities, and reducing injustice are
common goals of peacebuilding programs.
 Definition of MERL (monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning) and its
importance for peacebuilding projects
 MERL is a team effort! Program and MERL staff must work together for successful
implementation.
 When preparing reports, it is important to consider the “who, what, when, how, and
why” of the end user to package the reports in a useful way for the end user.
 It is important to understand the project cycle of identification, design,
implementation, and evaluation when designing peacebuilding projects and their
MERL systems.

Learning Activity: Checking and improving the project cycle

In this exercise, you will use your past experience following a project cycle to determine
how to improve the process. Refer to the detailed project cycle in Figure 1.5 as you
complete this activity.
Think of a project you have worked on or you have seen implemented. See if you can list
major activities or processes that happened during:
 Project identification
 Project design
 Project implementation
 Project evaluation
(If you could not differentiate between the different phases of the cycle, that tells you
something, as well: there is a need to review what processes you are following in
identifying, designing, implementing, and evaluating your program to determine which
aspects of the project cycle need to be strengthened!)
What did you think went well in this project? Is there anything you would have changed?
Figure 1.5: Detailed project cycle

Chapter 2:
Peacebuilding Approaches:
Defining What Peace Looks Like
Chapter Objectives
 Why defining your peacebuilding approach is critical to program design and monitoring,
evaluation, reporting, and learning (MERL)
 About three specific approaches to peacebuilding that your project might employ
 Pact’s general approach to peacebuilding
Learning Activity
 Identify and write your peacebuilding approach
What are peacebuilding approaches?

Peacebuilding approaches describe how your project will go about realizing its vision for
peace, i.e. “what peace will look like.”
As noted in the previous chapter, peacebuilding approaches can address the effects
of violence and/or the root causes or drivers of conflict. Activities can range from
direct interventions to stop fighting to initiatives aimed at increasing education, health, and
prosperity. In fact, peacebuilding also can take place where there has not been violence,
helping individuals understand how they can better live with their neighbors, creating just
societies, and collaborating to make communities prosper are all part of peacebuilding.
Why is this a starting point for talking about MERL? Because we can’t measure our progress
toward achieving ultimate goals without setting them. Defining your approach to
peacebuilding effectively declares what peace should “look like,” thus giving you goals to
monitor progress toward throughout the life of your project.
A MERL system is a tool that organizations and

managers use to see if they are achieving change. When asked what they most want to
Understanding how programs define peacebuilding learn about their programs efforts,
is essential to program staff because it tells us about program staff often say that they
the critical changes anticipated that will need to be want to know whether they “work.”
To answer this question, we must
monitored and evaluated during the life of program
first know what the project would
to see if those changes have been brought about. look like if it were, in fact, working.
This becomes the basis for
Research on effective and ineffective peacebuilding
assessment. The more detail the staff
initiatives has shown that lacking a clear vision of can identify about what “working”
what peacebuilding looks like is a significant barrier looks like (specific goals and
to success. Peacebuilding approaches that lack a objectives) the more easily they will
unifying ultimate goal (i.e., “what peace looks like”) be able to determine if it is doing so.
are often less effective than those that have a specific
aim in mind.
Below are three examples of approaches to peacebuilding. Your intervention may fit one of
these approaches or something different. Consider both individual programs (“What is the
ultimate peacebuilding goal that this effort hopes to achieve?”) and the collective efforts of
your organization in a particular region (“Are our programs united by a singular view of how
they will contribute to peacebuilding here?”).
Chapter 2: Peacebuilding Approaches: Defining What Peace Looks Like | page 13

Approach 1: Incentives for Peace

Some peacebuilding projects define their work as being focused on incentives: either
encouraging change by providing incentives for peace or by eliminating incentives for
violence. Incentives either induce action or motivate one’s efforts or behavior.
 Projects that want to increase the incentives for peace might reward countries or
communities with aid if an agreement is reached, increase trade between countries when
a conflict ends, or develop initiatives to open borders when a level of security is reached.
 Projects that want to eliminate incentives for violence might increase legitimate
control over natural resources that fuel conflict, try to make it more difficult for parties to
acquire power by force or ease, create zones of peace, control borders to make it more
difficult to acquire goods that are needed for war, or seek to make weapons less available.
If, for example, a program takes an eliminating incentives-based approach to peacebuilding,

we might anticipate seeing MERL programs that focus heavily on measuring changes that will
result from making it more difficult to acquire weapons and goods needed for war or offering
amnesty to individuals who voluntarily surrender their weapons. As such, we might measure
the number of people disarmed, extent of weapons availability, or average cost of a gun at an
open market.
Approach 2: Addressing Root Causes of Injustice

Peacebuilding programs that define peacebuilding as addressing the root causes of injustice
in a community include those that:
 Aim to empower people to use non-violent means to reduce injustice, such as
advocacy projects, human rights education projects, and projects to reform government
institutions
 Include long-term campaigns for social and structural changes, such as truth
and reconciliation initiatives, and changes in social institutions, laws, regulations, and
economic systems, among others
 Aim to address the underlying causes of injustice, oppression, exploitation, threats
to identity and security, and people’s sense of victimization, including projects for
economic development, decentralization, self-help, education, and health
If a program defines peacebuilding as addressing root causes, then MERL systems would
focus heavily on capturing social and structural changes in society and people’s lives. Some
example changes we might study include the number of people reporting an improvement in
the level of security, perceived or legislated level of independence of the judiciary, the number
of arms passing through border points, or the number of development projects in resource-
poor or marginalized communities.
Approach 3: Addressing Individual Attitudes and

Relationships and Building Trust
Peacebuilding programs that define peacebuilding as addressing individual attitudes and
relationships and building trust include those that:
 Encourage dialogue through activities such as roundtables, peace meetings, mediation
efforts, and other events where multiple parties gather to discuss the conflict or
environment in general

 Encourage coexistence and include joint problem solving projects, multi-ethnic

community and economic development initiatives, training and community events where
parties at conflict attend, and promoting collaboration between parties in conflict
 Train individuals and groups on ways to deal with differences, including
conflict resolution and negotiation training events, community mediation training and
set-up assistance, justice initiatives, and non-violence training events
If a program defines peacebuilding as addressing individual attitudes and relationships and

building trust, then MERL programs would focus on assessing changes in perceptions,
attitudes, and values at the individual, community, and institutional levels. Changes might
include perceptions of whether co-existence has improved between communities/parties, the
number of people reporting an improvement in the level of security, the number of joint
initiatives between conflicting parties, and perceptions of tolerance among conflicting
communities.

 Defining your peacebuilding approach is important for developing a good MERL
system because the former is based on how the project describes what they think
“peace looks like.” This forms the basis for developing the project goal and, thereafter,
how the project will monitor and measure achievement of this goal.
 Research on effective peacebuilding has shown that lack of a clear vision of what
peacebuilding looks like is a significant barrier to the project’s success!
 Three types of peacebuilding approaches are:
1. Incentives for peace
2. Addressing root causes of injustice
3. Addressing individual attitudes and relationships
 Pact’s approach to peacebuilding uses a combination of the “addressing root causes of
injustice” and addressing individual attitudes and relationships” approaches.
Learning Activity: Identify and write out your peacebuilding approach

Refer to the three peacebuilding approaches discussed in this chapter. Do any of them
apply to your project? If yes, identify which one and describe how your project uses this
approach. If no, what approach do you use in your project? Describe it.
Name of project: __________________________________________________
Peacebuilding approach: _____________________________________________
Description: _____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis

Chapter Objectives
In this chapter you will:
 Learn the basics of conducting situation analyses by reviewing three types: conflict analysis,
context analysis, and needs assessment
 Learn about situation assessment’s relevance to program design and routine monitoring
Learning Activity
 Carrying out situation analyses
What is situation analysis?

In the project identification stage of the project cycle, your aim is to choose the best way to
improve the situation in the communities, region, or country where you work. In most cases
you do not yet know exactly what project you will implement. In other cases, you have an idea
of the project you want to implement, but want to make sure that the idea you have is
appropriate for the situation and will have the desired effects.
It is critical to understand the specific conflict, context, and needs of the communities in
question to avoid misguided program activities or poor indicators for your project. If program
activities are misguided, then the indicators developed to measure the results of these
activities will not be well aligned to the project objectives and cannot be used to demonstrate
achievement of results. Because of the importance of these preliminary situation analyses, we
review them here, with special attention paid to how they relate to MERL processes.
By the time you are done carrying out a situation It’s never too late to do situation
analysis, you will have a clearer picture of the analysis. Even if you are in the middle
situation on the ground in the area you hope to of program activities and have never
affect, as well as the larger national or regional scope taken a formal, close look at the
of the situation. And, you should be keenly aware of conflict around you, take some time to
what others are doing to address the conflict. update yourself and your organization
on the current state of things.
Using this information, the project team can develop
strategies (and related activities) to bring about the changes sought. Some basic questions for
reflection are:
 What would make the challenges to peace diminish?
 What can we do (with our partners and stakeholders) to increase successful
peacebuilding?
Types of Situation Analysis

Situation analyses are key to finding answers to these questions. In this chapter, we will look
at three examples of situation analysis that programs can carry out:
 Conflict analysis
 Context analysis
 Needs assessment
Table 3.1 summarizes the types of situation analyses, when they are conducted, and how to
carry out a situation analysis. Detailed descriptions of each type of analysis follows the table.
Chapter 3: Situation Analysis | page 16

Table 3.1: Types of situation analysis

Situation analysis When is it How is it
type What is it? conducted? conducted?
Conflict analysis Examines the root Ongoing through the Asking key questions
causes, drivers, nature, life of the project during:
and primary actors of Key informant
a conflict interviews
Group assessments
Context analysis7 Analyzes the political, Ongoing through the A review of the
economic, and social life of the project existing systems and
systems and actors in key actors
a system, even if they Key informant
do not have a role in interviews
the existing conflict8
Group assessments
Needs assessment Identifies gaps in Proposal stage or Desk research
systems or services months 1–4 of the Key informant
project interviews
Group assessments
Conflict analysis examines the root causes, drivers, nature, and primary
actors of a conflict with the goal of gaining an in-depth understanding of the
conflict’s dynamics.
Some of the key questions often incorporated into conflict analysis are:
 Who are the key actors/stakeholders in the conflict?
 What are the main causes of the conflict? What is dividing certain groups and uniting
others? How did it start? Are there different driving factors now?
 What are the economic, political, and socio-cultural contexts of the conflict at the local,
national, regional, and international levels?
 What are the current conflict trends? What is happening?
 What are the current windows of opportunity to address the conflict?
 What efforts are currently in place to build peace/end the conflict?
 What has been successful in reducing the conflict? What has failed?
Understanding what caused the conflict to start and what is causing it to continue is
important if we are to find ways to mitigate it and build peace. However, because of the
dynamic nature of conflict, it is important to regularly re-assess the conflict to see if the
drivers have changed or if new barriers to peace have emerged. Ongoing conflict assessment
focused on the factors most likely to change should be part of the MERL process.
7 One type of context analysis is political economy analysis (PEA). The Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) defines PEA as being concerned with the interaction of political and economic
processes in a society: the distribution of power and wealth between different groups and individuals and the
processes that create, sustain, and transform these relationships over time. PEA is used to understand the explicit
legal, policy, and economic frameworks and the implicit and unwritten norms, values, and interests that help
determine how individual and group actors behave. See DFID. July 2009. Political Economy Analysis How to
Note. Available at https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/events-documents/3797.pdf.
8 Pact’s Applied Political Economy Analysis (APEA) aims to provide project teams with practical help in
identifying and mapping the political, economic, and social incentives that influence key stakeholders’ actions and
decisions. This project- or problem-based methodology is designed to directly support project decision-making. A
full description of the approach is available at at http://www.pactworld.org/library/applied-political-economy-
analysis-tool-analyzing-local-systems.

Conflict analysis and the project cycle

Project cycle management is closely related to conflict analysis. While analysis of project-level
data deals with a wide range of project issues, conflict analysis deals with broader conflict-
specific issues that the project aims to address. While the two are complimentary, they are
distinctly important to designing a comprehensive project-specific MERL system. While
conflict analysis helps to focus on the changes the project wants to achieve in the conflict
setting—a transformation from conflict to peace—analysis of the project’s design and
implementation helps the organization establish sound operational systems and processes to
support achievement of anticipated changes. At the same time, the MERL system is used to
assess the efficiency and effectiveness of actions needed to bring about the changes sought.
Context analysis examines existing political, economic, and social structures

at the local, regional, and national levels (or across a larger area if the conflict
crosses state borders).
Conflict analyses look at these same systems and structures, but with a focus on those directly
affecting the conflict. Context analysis looks more broadly at these systems, even if they do
not have a direct role in propelling the conflict. Such factors are important because they
impact the way people live their daily lives and are subject to being brought into or affected
by the conflict. Assuming your intervention will affect people’s daily lives, it is important to
understand all of the factors that impact their habits, activities, interactions, and livelihoods.
Some of the key questions often incorporated into a context analysis are:
 What policies, systems, structures, and forces exist inside and outside the immediate local
context (village, district, province, nation) of the conflict?
 How can the policies, systems, structures, and forces outside the immediate local context
be addressed?
 What kind of cooperation or linkages between the local, national, regional, and
international levels need to be made?
 Who are the key actors that can be used to leverage this cooperation (who could be the
project’s “champions”)? Who may want to see the project fail (who may be the project’s
“spoilers”)?
 Where does our organization fit within the context? On what systems do we rely? With
whom are we directly aligned?
Like conflict analysis, context analysis needs to be regularly updated to monitor changes.
Context analysis often includes looking at systems not directly linked to the conflict. As such,
it is important for peacebuilding programs to continuously monitor the emergence of new
conflict drivers and how these affect their program context.
Needs assessment involves finding out what services or systems are missing
or require improvement in a given context.
Needs can be assessed on a large scale (national level) or more locally, depending on the
scope of your intervention, keeping in mind the impacts local changes have on the larger
scale. Such assessments help to determine what has to happen to move from the current
toward the desired state of things. The project team’s goal is to develop strategies (and related
activities) to fill the gaps and meet needs.

Some of the key questions often incorporated into a needs assessment are:
 What are the gaps/needs for the community or target group?
 What action is being taken to address them? What more is needed?
 How is the community currently trying to meet its needs?
 How can the challenges be addressed?
 What resources are currently available within the community to address needs and gaps?
 What barriers have prevented these needs from being met before?
Ongoing monitoring can help program staff track when needs have been met, changed, or
reprioritized. As with other analyses, this requires close collaboration with multiple
community members, leaders, experts, and others with direct local knowledge.
Institutional capabilities
Alongside your situation analysis, it is important to constantly consider your place: your own
institution’s capabilities, strengths, and potential role in peacebuilding. Consider your
organization’s history in the community and region, partnerships, staff capacity, interests,
expertise, and any other factors you feel would strengthen or weaken your institution’s ability
to carry out successful peacebuilding efforts.
Disseminating Situation Analysis Findings

It is important to disseminate situation analysis findings because they can inform what other
stakeholders are doing and identify opportunities for collaboration. Dissemination of findings
can be done via different media, including:
 Dissemination workshop
 Circulating summary reports to targeted stakeholders
 Posting on the website
 Community events
 Periodic newsletter
The process used will depend on resources available, target audience, and purpose of the
dissemination. For instance, a dissemination workshop would be ideal to collect input from
stakeholders or validate findings.

 Situation analysis helps peace-builders understand on-the-ground realities of the
conflict environment.
 Situation analysis can be done in different ways, including conflict analysis, context
analysis, and needs assessment.
 It is important to disseminate situation analysis findings, usually to targeted
stakeholders.

Learning Activity: Carrying out situation analyses

Situation analyses can be time consuming and complex. A good first step is to look for
existing analytical reports, data collection instruments, surveys, or other sources of
information to help guide your conflict analysis, context analysis, or needs assessment.
When looking to these other sources of information (either within your local organization
or from other development agencies), take into consideration the following.
 What factors affect the conflict your project is designed to address?
 Who may be the “champions” or “spoilers” of peace in your project areas?
 What is your vision for peace?
 What changes are needed in individuals, communities, institutions, organizations,
cultures, and/or societies to realize your vision of peace? Refer to Table 3.2.
In your groups, respond to the above questions as they relate to your project. Make note of
where there may be existing data to answer these questions or where you may need to
undertake your own situation analyses.
Table 3.2: Examples of specific changes9

Type of change Examples of specific changes
Relationship From adversaries to partners in problem solving
From suspicion to solidarity
From different ethnicities to a common nationality
Former neighbors reconciled
Status From soldier to veteran
From rebel leader to parliamentarian
From criminal to entrepreneur
Behavior From violent behavior to assertiveness
From disrespecting women to respecting women
From ignoring youth to taking their interests into consideration
Circumstance From politically marginalized to able to vote
From displaced victim to community member
Functioning Increased transparency
From authoritarian to consultative policy development
Increased cost efficiency
Attitude Greater tolerance of different perspectives
From fear of others to trust in others
From apathy and fatalism to hope and self-determination
From a narrow focus on the neighborhood to a broad focus on inter-communal
interests
Knowledge Understand interdependence of groups
Understand how globalization affects local livelihoods
Understand rights and how justice systems should work
Knows how political resources are allocated
Skills From power-based to interest-based negotiations
Moving discussions from mutually exclusive interests to framing issues in
mutually acceptable language
Able to introduce items onto the agenda in local governance
9This table was taken from Church & Rogers, 2006, pp. 18–19, which was adapted from M.Q. Patton. 1997.
“Outcome Examples.” Utilization-Focused Evaluation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, C.A., U.S.: Sage, Inc.

Type of change Examples of specific changes

Maintenance Continue to celebrate cultural heritage
Maintain existing social cohesion
Continue to practice traditional dispute resolution processes
Prevention Peaceful transfer of power
Increase awareness of military accountability to civilian ministries
Prevent exodus of trained and educated professionals
Process From shuttle diplomacy to face-to-face negotiation
From hate-mongering to balanced reporting
From divisive methods to methods that bring people together
From concentrations of authority over others to equitable engagement with others

Chapter 4:
Theories of Change and
Developing Project Goals
Chapter Objectives
 Learn what Theories of Change (TOCs) are and how to develop them
 Review several TOCs that can be used in evaluating peacebuilding programs
 Review several conceptual models
 Learn the importance of testing assumptions
 Understand the relevance of conceptual models to program design and monitoring, evaluation,
reporting, and learning (MERL)
Learning Activity
 Describe your project’s TOC
What are Theories of Change?

TOCs are a set of beliefs about how change happens.10 They form an important part of a
project because they are used to describe how the micro-level aims (activities/outputs) will
have a macro-level result (outcomes/impact). In essence, TOCs pay attention to how the
immediate aims of the project can be linked to how society can achieve sustainable peace and
how progress along both these paths can be measured.
TOCs help guide thinking during the project design and Definition of “theory”
evaluation stages. Peacebuilding practitioners select project
An assumption about how
goals, methods, approaches, and activities based on underlying
something works, or a
theories of how peace can be achieved in a specific context. prediction of what will
Effective projects usually clarify their TOCs early in the life of happen as a result of an
the project and continually test them against on-the-ground action (Lederach et al.,
realities. 2007, p. 4)
TOCs can be used for several reasons within a project:

 To reveal and understand project assumptions: Generally, two assumptions are
inherent in every TOC: 1) how change works and 2) the strategic advantage of the chosen
theory over other theories for the context. By linking the immediate or internal project
goals, the TOC develops an idea and tests the assumptions of how it will contribute to
change in society.
 To ensure alignment with all levels of the program design when setting goals
and objectives: TOCs explain the basis of change behind particular choices/decisions,
thereby tightening the program logic and enabling identification of gaps/unmet needs.
10 Church & Rogers, 2006, p. 118.
Chapter 4: Theories of Change and Developing Project Goals | page 22

Theories of Change in the Context of Peacebuilding

Programs
Table 4.1 summarizes 10 TOCs that can be applied to peacebuilding programs.
Table 4.1: Peacebuilding Theories of Change11

Theory Basis of theory Methods/intervention activities
Individual Peace comes through transformative  Invest in individual change through
change change of a critical mass of individuals training
and their consciousness, attitudes,  Personal
behaviors, and skills. transformation/consciousness-raising
workshops or processes
 Dialogues and encounter groups
 Trauma healing (TH)
Healthy Peace emerges from a process of  Processes of intergroup dialogue,
relationships breaking down isolation, polarization, networking, relationship-building,
and connections division, prejudice, and stereotypes joint efforts, and practical programs
among and between groups. on substantive problems
Withdrawal of Wars require vast amounts of resources  Anti-war campaigns to cut off
the war (e.g., weapons, supplies, transport) and funds/national budgets
resources human capital. If the project can  Conscientious objection and/or
interrupt the supply of people and resistance to military service
goods to the war making system, it will
collapse and peace will break out.  International arms control
 Arms embargoes and boycotts
Reduction of Peace will emerge as we reduce the  Cease-fires
violence level of violence perpetrated by  Creations of zones of peace
combatants or their representatives.
 Withdrawal from direct engagement
 Peacekeeping forces
 Observation missions
 Promotion of non-violent methods for
achieving political, social, and
economic ends
Root Peace can be achieved by addressing  Long-term campaigns for social
causes/justice the underlying issues of injustice, change, truth, and reconciliation
oppression, exploitation, threats to changes in social institutions, laws,
identity and security, and people’s regulations, and economic systems
sense of injury/victimization.
Institutional Peace is secured by establishing  New constitutional and governance
development stable/reliable social institutions that arrangements/entities
guarantee democracy, equity, justice,  Development of human rights, rule of
and fair allocation of resources. law, and anti-corruption
 Establishment of
democratic/equitable economic
structures
 Economic development
 Democratization
11 See Church & Rogers, 2006, pp. 14–15. The text on those pages was used to create Table 4.1.

Theory Basis of theory Methods/intervention activities

Political elites Peace comes when it is in the interest of  Raise the costs and reduce the
political and other leaders to take the benefits for political elites to continue
necessary steps. Peacebuilding efforts war and increase the incentives for
must change the political calculus of peace
key leaders and groups.  Withdraw international
support/funding for warring parties
Grassroots “When the people lead, the leaders will  Mobilize grassroots groups either to
mobilization follow.” If we mobilize enough oppose war or to advocate for positive
opposition to war, political leaders will action
have to pay attention.  Use of the media
 Non-violent direct action campaigns
 Education
 Mobilization effort
 Organizing advocacy groups
 Dramatic events to raise
consciousness
Economics People make personal decisions, and  Use of government or financial
decision-makers make policy decisions institutions to change supply and
based on a system of demand dynamics
rewards/incentives and  Control incentive and reward systems
punishments/sanctions that are
essentially economic in nature. If we  Boycotts
change the economics associated with
war-making, we can bring about peace.
Public War and violence are partly motivated  TV and radio programs that promote
attitudes by prejudice, misperceptions, and tolerance
intolerance of difference. We can  Modelling tolerant behavior
promote peace by using the media to
change public attitudes and build  Symbolic acts of solidarity/unity
greater tolerance in society.  Dialogues among groups in conflict,
with subsequent publicity
There are several reasons why monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on peacebuilding
projects is more difficult than other types of development. Some of these challenges include
the different definitions of peacebuilding, the different theories of what causes conflict and
brings about peace, the complexity of conflict, and the need to understand the conflict before
a peacebuilding project can start. In addition, the general lack of security and resultant lack of
trust of people interviewing them about issues in their community is also a challenge in these
types of programs.
When monitoring and evaluating a peacebuilding project, the difficulties named above lead to
a greater problem: frequent disagreement about the ultimate ideal outcome(s). Not all people
agree on what peace looks like, thus it may be difficult to come to consensus on your ultimate
goals. If your ultimate goals are not clear, it is impossible to assess whether you have
reached them.
A second difficulty in evaluating a peacebuilding project is the question of attribution. How

do projects, for instance, attribute a desired TOC to their interventions? Were there other
factors such as environmental issues or a change in governance system that can be attributed
to a desired TOC alongside the project’s interventions?

Despite these challenges there are steps to take that can help you develop your TOC.
Conducting a situation analyses for instance can help to identify what other factors in the
environment are likely to affect your TOC and how the project will account for them.
Develop Your Peacebuilding Project’s Theory of Change

After completing a thorough situation analysis, you have a clear view of the factors affecting
the conflict. Among other things, you should understand the following three critical elements.
1. What is making the conflict worse?
2. What conditions or factors could reduce the conflict?
3. What are the ongoing peacebuilding activities/efforts in the target areas, and how can
your organization best contribute to these ongoing efforts?
In this context, TOC describes processes that you believe will lead to peace.12,13
For example, suppose that the situation analyses identified tensions between ethnic groups in
a particular community as being a driving force of conflict. Because these groups cannot get
along (manifesting in a number of problems with service delivery/provision and violence),
your peacebuilding strategy involves changing attitudes of and relationships between
individuals in these groups. You believe that changing people’s attitudes about people of “the
other” ethnicity through education will encourage peace on a larger scale. Your TOC clearly
spells out what you perceive to be the link between what you plan to do (educate) and what
you expect to happen (peace).
Your TOC can be articulated in various formats depicting “IF we do this, THEN this will
happen.” Here, we depict this TOC as a model and as a sentence.
Figure 4.1: Example of a peacebuilding program Theory of Change
The above TOC example falls under the “Individual Change Theory.” As is always the case
when adapting ideas from general frameworks, it is important to base your TOC within the
specific context in which you are working.
Points to remember
1. Your TOC does not have to reference specific program activities at the outset, though the
program activities you later choose should fit into the TOC you have established. In the
above example, “Changes in attitudes of educators and youth views of ‘the other’” will lead
to “decreased levels of conflict and violence in the community,” among other effects.
See Church & Rogers, 2006, p. 118. There are also others who look at a TOC as a conceptual model and use it
12
much like a results framework or logical framework. This is not the meaning used in this chapter.
13There are a number of resources available online with more detail and examples of TOCs. One such resource is
the Center for Theory of Change: http://www.theoryofchange.org/.

2. Being able to write your TOC in a clear and convincing manner is important and may take
time. Prepare to have your TOC challenged. In the previous example, people may take
exception to the third part of the theory, that teaching young people to be more tolerant
will in-turn make their adult family members more tolerant. Similarly, if your TOC does
not reference specific or general program activities, you will eventually need to include
more details about how change will occur. When confronted, you must be prepared to
defend your TOC and/or amend to ensure it’s clear and convincing to project
stakeholders. One way to defend your TOC is to cite existing supporting evidence of the
logic applied in your TOC. A defendable TOC
should also have plans for collecting data that Developing and explaining a TOC
tests your theory and if the data disproves your This is often overlooked in
theory, the program should be ready to adapt peacebuilding initiatives, yet it is
your programming to reflect the reality. essential for both developing
initiatives with a clear peacebuilding
3. You should make sure your TOC is reflected aim and for monitoring your progress
throughout your project.14 Your activities and toward achieving the intended change.
events, their outputs and outcomes, should be
aligned to your theory of how peace will be built. If your project has several objectives,
you will likely need multiple TOCs to describe the expected changes under each objective.
As your program activities develop, return to your TOCs to make sure they fit. If not,
develop new TOCs or adjust program activities to be aligned. It may seem obvious, but it
also is important to make sure you do not adopt conflicting TOCs.
Some additional examples of TOCs from peacebuilding projects are as follows.

 IF communities have a greater understanding of the drivers of conflict and violent
extremism, THEN they will be more likely to engage in processes that build social capital
and cohesion and that address community grievances.
 IF networks of community peace leaders are strengthened to work collaboratively with
each other and local government, THEN local cross-border conflict management will be
strengthened.
Develop Project Goals and Outcomes from Your Theory of

Change
Once you have developed your TOC, the next steps are as follows.
1. Map your theories to strategic goals.

 Your TOC says that doing X will lead to Y (directly or indirectly). Therefore, Y
represents your project goal.
 Goals, when achieved, should point directly to your ultimate vision of peace.
2. Map your theories to specific types of change.

 Types of change include (but are not limited to): attitude, knowledge, skills,
behaviors, maintenance, prevention, process, and structure.15
 Changes can be at the individual, group, or institutional levels.
14 Church & Rogers, 2006, p. 14.

15 Church & Rogers, 2006, pp. 18–19.

3. Identify specific outcomes for each type of change.

 If you are going to change skills, what skills will be changed? Prevention: What will
you stop from happening? Maintenance: What will you strive to keep the same?
Behaviors: What will people do differently?
For example, here is the TOC we presented earlier in the chapter.

IF young people have a better understanding of the need to be tolerant of
other ethnic groups, THEN their attitudes and views of the “other”
communities will change and have a trickle-down effect on adult family
members. THEN communities will be more tolerant of one another and the
levels of conflict and violence will decrease.
 Goals16 developed from this TOC could
include increased tolerance for customs and More on goal setting
traditions of “the other” among youth and A strategic goal should:
their family members, and reduced reports of 1. State the most ambitious impact that
conflict between groups to community an organization can effect (long term)
leadership. 2. Express the highest level for which
 The types of change indicated by the above the project can reasonably be
examples of goals are an attitude change17 expected to be held accountable
(tolerance) and a knowledge change 3. Not include the means of achieving
(familiarity and understanding). the goal
 The specific outcomes we would expect to 4. Be as specific as possible and stated
see that would indicate the goal has been as an accomplishment
reached include youth taking the initiative to
organize joint events such as sports and cultural events, and fewer community members
expressing fear of “the other.”
Below are the same steps, summarized in a table.
Table 4.2: Steps to develop goals from project Theory of Change
Step 1: Goals Step 2: Type

derived from TOC of change18 Step 3: Anticipated outcomes
a. Reduced reports of Attitudes Decreased fear of “the other”
conflict between Reduction in distaste for customs and traditional practices
groups to community of “the other”
leadership from 100
Increase in acceptance of “the other” as part of the
to 10 per month by
community
2016
Decrease in blaming “the other” for past grievances
16The goals stated here include specific targets (how much will change by when). Your initial goals do not have to
have specific targets. They can be added (or at least refined) after your baseline study (evaluation that tells you
your starting point). Targets should not be chosen arbitrarily, but based on what is reasonable and feasible (as
opposed to idealistic or unrealistic).
17From what we know about this (hypothetical) TOC, this effort also could have a complementary TOC about
changes in attitudes leading to improved relationships, leading to peace. In this case, “relationship” would be the
“type” of change we are promoting.
18Church & Rogers, 2006, pp. 18–23, provides examples of how to align specific types of change with specific
peacebuilding TOCs.

Step 1: Goals Step 2: Type

derived from TOC of change18 Step 3: Anticipated outcomes
b. Increased Knowledge Young people are familiar with specific customs of “the
tolerance for customs and attitudes other”
and traditions of “the Increase in understanding of why it is important to respect
other” among youth customs and traditions of “the other” community
and their family
Young people and family members are more accepting and
members
respectful of customs and traditions of “the other”
community
These goals won’t be achieved for some time (several years). However, outcomes can be
evaluated periodically. If we see a marked decrease in community members expressing fear
after year one, we might know we are on track toward meeting our goal. Or the opposite could
be true. Either way, it is better to know when we are on or off track with meeting our goal
than to wait until the intervention is over and “hope” we have been successful.
These outcomes will be very important for moving to the next stage. They will be integrated
into your chosen conceptual model.
At this stage in the process, if you do not yet have specific project activities in mind,
establishing goals and objectives will help you develop your project activities.
Tying Situation Analysis and Theory of Change to MERL

System Design
Figure 4.2, on the next page, illustrates how situation analysis and your TOC are connected to
design of a good MERL system. Starting with the situation analysis, each level in the flow
chart gets more specific toward designing a good system.
 Level of intervention shows the type of change sought as a result of understanding

the nature of the conflict and context, as well as perceived, on-the-ground needs. One
change sought in this example is “individual personal change” (as opposed to system-wide
or community-level changes).
 Areas of intervention/strategies further breaks down the type of change sought

into five specific changes, one of them being “healing and recovery.”
 Proposed program activity and target of intervention shows the types of

activities this intervention will offer to promote healing and recovery. The first activity
involves establishing trauma centers in five communities with a target of reaching more
people than are currently being served by such centers (even if current outreach is zero).
The second is to target certain key people (armed group leaders) who are perhaps in
greater need of healing and recovery or whose successful healing and recovery is perhaps
more important to overall peacebuilding goals than targeting others.
 Examples of key changes sought proposes even more specific types of changes
the programs will seek. The first is an output (simply getting people to the trauma
centers) and the second is an outcome (improved emotional wellbeing) that should result
from applying the knowledge and experiences gained from the trauma counseling.
 Examples of ties to MERL system design describes generally how the

organization will monitor and/or measure progress towards achieving these goals.

Figure 4.2: Linking situation analysis to MERL in peacebuilding

Current Situation
Conflict analysis, context analysis, needs assessment, other baseline data
Areas of Proposed program activity and target
Level of intervention/ of intervention Examples of key changes Examples of ties to MERL
intervention strategies More people Key people sought system design
Individual Healing and Establish trauma Provide trauma (specific outcomes) Monitor the number of people who
personal recovery healing (TH) centers counseling for armed Increased access to trauma received quality trauma counseling
change (type of change) in 5 communities group leaders care Evaluate emotional health of
(TOC Improved emotional well-being targeted populations
category)
Perceptions and Facilitate a number Hold outreach Increased tolerance between Monitor how the community
attitudes of joint social events activities to engage communities perceives changes in their
between two leaders of ex- Reduced violence relationships
communities with combatant youth Evaluate if change in perception
tensions has led to reduced violence
Skills and Train peace Train key leaders in Improved capacity in Monitor if training resulted in real
capacity committee structures the community in mediation skills skills
on mediation skills conflict negotiation Conflicts successfully mitigated Evaluate if the improvement in
skills actually resulted in a
reduction in conflict
Individual Establish women’s Train enterprise Increased capacity to make Monitor the number of women
behavior micro-enterprise mentors in loan loans engaged in micro-enterprises
groups making Increased household income Evaluate if micro-enterprise
Improved economic recovery program result in a significant
increase in household income
Relationships Hold joint music Gather chiefs of both Improved social relations Monitor participation from both
events for communities to between the communities groups in joint events
communities with discuss conflict Improved level of trust Evaluate the effectiveness of social
historical conflicts Reduced conflict activities in building trust
Evaluate if increased perception of
trust resulted in reducing conflict

Areas of Proposed program activity and target

Level of intervention/ of intervention Examples of key changes Examples of ties to MERL
intervention strategies More people Key people sought system design
Socio-political Group behavior/ Design a mechanism Conduct outreach to Increased joint planning Monitor if citizens’ perspectives are
change relationships to improve access of key community between citizens and being incorporated into government
marginalized leaders to participate government plans
communities to with government in Reduced incidence of conflict Evaluate if there has actually been
rangeland resources designing the system between marginalized pastoral improved access to rangeland by
during the dry season communities and rangeland marginalized communities
management authorities Evaluate if improved access led to a
reduction in conflict
Public opinion Mobilize NGOs to Train media Improved public opinion on Monitor public opinion on the policy
disseminate practitioners on fair the reform policy Evaluate if media training led to
information on a coverage Increased number of unbiased better media coverage
reform policy media stories Evaluate to what extent advocacy
Reform passed activities helped pass reform
Institutional Advocate for the Train teachers in the Improved capacity of teachers Monitor teachers’ ability to teach
change inclusion of a curricula to help youth mitigate conflict youth how to mitigate conflicts
peacebuilding Reduced violence between Evaluate if youth exposed to the
curricula for teachers school-going youth from curriculum reduced violence using in
in the national teacher different ethnic backgrounds those skills compared to schools
training curricula where the curriculum was not taught
Structural Lobby for the Reduce the minimum Improved access to land Monitor the number of people from
change decentralization of qualifications for management boards for marginalized communities vying for
land boards leaders vying for citizens leadership positions in the next
leadership posts on Equitable access to leadership elections
land boards positions for marginalized Evaluate if land boards have more
communities leadership representative structures
Evaluate the quality of decisions of
land boards in terms of equity
Desired vision/societal change


 TOCs are a set of beliefs about how change happens.
 Peter Woodrow’s 10 types of TOCs that can be used in peacebuilding programs are:
individual change, healthy relationships and connections, withdrawal of the war
resources, reduction of violence, root causes/justice, institutional development,
political elites, grassroots mobilization, economics, and public attitudes.
 When developing a TOC, it is important to understand:
1) What is making the conflict worse?
2) What conditions could reduce the conflict?
3) Who else is doing peacebuilding, and how can our project complement ongoing
efforts?
 It is important to ensure that your TOC is reflected throughout the program.
 Strategic project goals and outcomes should be informed by your TOC.
Learning Activity: Describe your project’s TOC

Based on your situation analysis findings, describe your project’s TOC (refer to the 10 types
of TOCs in Table 4.1). _______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Then, review your project’s goals to ensure they are aligned with the TOC and vision of
peace.

Chapter 5:
Conceptual Frameworks and Assumptions
Chapter Objectives
In this chapter readers will:
 Understand what conceptual frameworks are and how to develop them
 Review examples of conceptual frameworks for peacebuilding programs (results framework,
logical framework)
 Understand the relevance of conceptual frameworks to program design and monitoring,
evaluation, reporting, and learning (MERL)
 Learn the role of assumptions
Learning Activities
 Create a results framework
 Create a logical framework
What are conceptual frameworks?

A conceptual framework is a summary description of how an organization/project thinks
change will be brought about. The framework describes the process of planned change and
can be presented as a table (e.g., the logical framework) or as a diagram.
Conceptual frameworks enable projects to explain the ideas and reasoning behind their
Theory of Change (TOC) and link project activities to overall peacebuilding goals.
Describing your projects through conceptual frameworks helps you and your organization
think about (and design/present) project activities and their results as contributing to larger
peacebuilding efforts. Conceptual frameworks can help you expand on peacebuilding
approaches to further define goals that relate to your TOC and proposed outcomes.
Conceptual frameworks can be used at any stage of the project cycle, even if your project is
already in the midst of program activities, but has never clearly laid out how they relate to
peacebuilding goals. You can start by populating the framework with the information you do
have and fill in the pieces you do not.
Also, revisiting a conceptual framework periodically during the project cycle is a good way to
make sure you are still on track as minor (or major) changes are made to programs,
evaluations, objectives, etc. throughout the life of the project.
There are many types of conceptual frameworks used by development and peacebuilding
initiatives. This chapter presents two that you may find useful:
 Results framework
 Logical framework (also called a “logframe”)
Each of these models, while different in appearance and structure, include the same four key
components,19 as listed in Figure 5.1. Though they may be named differently in different
models, (such as “outcomes” instead of “objectives”) for clarity we will label these
components “goals,” “objectives,” “outputs,” and “activities” in each of their corresponding
sections in the frameworks we are about to describe.
19 Adapted from Church & Rogers, 2006, p. 30.
Chapter 5: Conceptual Frameworks and Assumptions | page 32

Figure 5.1: Four levels of conceptual frameworks
In Chapter 4’s learning activity, we wrote program goals and objectives based on our
TOC. Using these as a starting point, we can begin to list short-term program outputs and
define the activities that will shape them. Once we’ve established clear goals (keeping in mind
that every stage of this process should be collaborative, i.e., goals of all stakeholders should
be considered), it is easier to define specific activities and the resulting outputs.
Advantages and Challenges of Using Conceptual

Frameworks20
Conceptual frameworks bring with them the following advantages. They:
 Help a project focus on specific objectives/outcomes
 Highlight the key linkages in the TOC that underpin the intervention
 Help establish an evidence-based approach to MERL
 Offer a systematic approach for program implementers to plan their strategies and to
select interventions that are most likely to address targeted problems
 Help guide corrective adjustments to activities, reallocating resources, and reevaluating
targeted objectives or underlying assumptions
 Provide a model for communicating about the resources, activities, and outcomes to
project staff, development partners, or other stakeholders
 Help build consensus, coordination, and ownership of the project among key stakeholders
 Serve as the basic accountability tool for developing an evaluation approach
20 Adapted from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development & World Bank, 2012, pp. 8–10, 41.

But, conceptual frameworks also bring about some challenges.

 They require that staff and stakeholders make an up-front investment of time and
resources at the start of an intervention.
 Interventions’ effects can be difficult to measure fully, especially the unintended
consequences that likely were not captured in the framework.
 They can become overly complicated, especially if the project indicators associated with
the framework comprise a mix of qualitative and quantitative measures being used to
measure complex programs (such as peacebuilding programs).
The Results Framework

The results framework organizes your activities into distinct stages, outlining what
happens (your results) in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term within four levels, as
shown in Figure 5.2.21
Figure 5.2: Four levels of a results framework
In the previous chapter, we developed desired goals and outcomes from our TOC. The results
framework can be used to build on them (and add more or make adjustments) and to tie in
the related activities (inputs and processes) and outputs. Below we describe in more detail the
four components of the results framework.
Inputs and processes (analogous to project “activities” in Figure 5.1) are the resources
and methods employed to conduct an activity, project, and/or program.
Inputs can be:

 Physical, such as equipment rental or purchase
 Material, such as supplies and provisions
 Human, such as labor costs for salaries, technical assistance, and staff
 Financial, such as travel, per diem costs, direct costs, and indirect costs
Processes are the methods or courses of action selected to conduct the work, such as
training, organizing, publishing, lobbying, service provision, and message promotion. Direct
results from inputs and processes are generally seen quickly (0–2 years) and often are
measured through monitoring activities.
Outputs are information, products, or results produced by carrying out activities or

projects. Outputs relate to completion of activities and are the type of results over which
managers have a high degree of influence. Outputs reflect what you hoped to produce from a
particular input or process (or set of either). For example: You decide the process you want to
use is to train people. The “number of people trained” is the result at the input/process level,
while “knowledge level increased” would be the result at the output level, the assumption
21 Inputs and processes are sometimes segregated into two separate levels.

being that if you train people they will increase their knowledge on a given subject.22 Outputs
usually reflect a result achieved in a relatively short time period (0–2 years) and are often
measured through monitoring activities.
Outcomes are broad changes in development conditions. Outcomes help us answer the “so
what?” question. For example: We trained 100 people and increased their knowledge, but did
they change their behavior? Outcomes often reflect change in attitudes and/or perceptions,
emotional well-being of individuals, household income, access to rangeland or water for
marginalized communities, and other changes and help us analyze how our activities and
projects scale up or contribute towards these development outcomes. Outcomes usually
reflect a result achieved over an intermediate time period (2–5 years).
Impacts are the overall and long-term effects of an intervention. Impacts are the ultimate
result, such as peaceful co-existence of previously conflicting communities. Impacts usually
reflect a result achieved over a longer time period (5–10+ years).
A results framework organizes these four levels of results so you can see how inputs and
processes lead to outputs, outputs lead to outcomes, and outcomes lead to impacts. If you
choose to use this framework, you will later construct/select indicators (in Chapter 6) to help
you measure attainment of each of these stages. Generally, a results framework will be
accompanied by a separate MERL and indicator plan. Table 5.1 describes the type of
information normally present in a results framework and how it is structured, and Table 5.2
shows the PEACE II results framework as an example.
Learning Activity: Results framework

Take what you already know about your program (it might be the activities, desired
impacts, some of everything) and fill in the sections of the results framework in Table 5.3
for which you have relevant information. Then see if you can fill in any missing pieces (or
add on to those you have).
Does this framework “make sense” to you? Does it seem like it will help structure your
program and give guidance for later MERL? How does it align with the project’s TOC(s)
that you developed earlier?
22However, it is worth noting that some may consider “number of people trained” as an output indicator, with
“knowledge level increased” as a shorter-term outcome indicator. The levels at which you consider indicators
depends on several factors, such as project length, overall goal/objective, donor definitions.

Table 5.1: Example of a results framework

Inputs/Processes Outputs Outcomes Impacts (Goals)
Resources and processes used Short-term change, effects, Intermediate change, effects, Long term change, effects, and
to produce a change/result and results and results results
Examples Examples Examples Examples
Inputs delivered or Knowledge/awareness, Proportion/coverage change: Political change:
implemented: understanding change:  Increased action by an enlarged  Reduction in violent conflict
 Staff hired  Increased understanding of the constituency for demanding and
Human rights, socio-cultural,
 Grants awarded conflict dynamics managing grassroots
and empowerment change:
 Funds disbursed  Increased demand for grassroots peacebuilding
 Increased civil society
 Materials/equipment purchased peacebuilding
Attitude change: participation in political
Processes conducted: Capacity/skills change:  Increase acceptance of members processes
 Situational analysis completed  Improved skills and abilities to of ‘the other’ community
Socio-economic and/or health
 Appropriate fora, alliances, negotiate conflicts
Behavior change: status change:
committees established  Stakeholder engagement and
 Improved pastoral and land use  Improved livelihoods (income,
 Stakeholders mobilized dialogue expanded
management health, education)
 Communities mobilized Access/expansion change:
Actual policy change Resource management change:
 Trainings conducted  Networks for peace supported
 Laws and policies implemented  Increased legitimacy,
 Meetings held
Quality change: which promote stability (e.g., transparency, and accountability
 Networks established
 Laws and policies developed land use rights and management) in governance
 Advocacy (radio, print, dramas)
which promote stability
messages developed
Project Level (implementation/progress monitoring)
Program Level (progress/results monitoring)
Strategic Level (Effectiveness) (results/impact monitoring)

Table 5.2: Example of PEACE III results framework

Inputs/Processes Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Conduct participatory learning and action Peace dividends constructed 1.1: Communities are
workshops with community representatives to more open to social
Communities sensitized on the role cultural reconciliation
identify and prioritize peace dividends
practices play in conflict and peacebuilding
Create space for dialogues on cultural norms and
practices
Identify and train trauma healing (TH) counselors Cadre of trauma healers with knowledge and insight 1.2: Communities’
on who can assist communities withstand conflict peacebuilding
Conduct TH sessions
shocks capacities mobilized
Assess community peacebuilding capacities to
Targeted capacity support extended to communities
identify capacity building needs
At least one peace network per corridor established
Facilitate formation and/or strengthening of peace
and strengthened
networks
Strengthened cross-
border conflict
1.3: Local management
Conduct Appreciative Inquiry/strengths, Joint visioning and planning conducted and joint
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) activity plans developed governments partner
analysis with local government peace institutions with their cross-
Increased number of cross-border mechanisms border counterparts
Targeted capacity building interventions for established or strengthened and with
government peace institutions communities in
Increased local government participation in
peacebuilding initiatives (initiated by PEACE III) conflict management
Develop customized capacity assessment tool for Organizational Capacity Assessment conducted for 1.4: Capacity of Horn
PEACE III partners local partners of Africa NGO
partners to support
Identify capacity building priorities for PEACE III Targeted capacity support extended to implementing cross border conflicts
partners partners management
increased

Table 5.3: Blank results framework for the Learning Activity

Inputs/Processes Outputs Outcomes Impacts

Logical Frameworks
A logical framework or logframe is similar to a results framework in that it explains
how a project’s day-to-day activities will achieve results. One main difference between a
logframe and a results framework is that the latter describes the results as if the program had
already been completed while a logframe describes what will happen in the future.23
A logframe promotes good project design by clearly stating the defined project logic and
components. The logframe is usually formed as a chart that shows a hierarchy of:
 Four levels of the causal relationship: activities, outputs, purpose, and goal
 Indicators24 of performance
 Means of verifying the indicators
 Important risks and assumptions
The logframe provides a summary of what the project aims to achieve and how, what the
main assumptions are, and a basis for developing the activity’s MERL system. Progression
from one level to the next is based on “if/and/then” logic; for example, if the activity at the
lowest level takes place and the assumptions hold true (or the risks are not realized), then the
expected output at the next level can be achieved.
Basic Logframe Outline (Hierarchy of Objectives)

The basic structure of a logframe is provided in Table 5.4. For each of the four levels of
causal relationships (goals, purpose, outputs, and activities), you explain:
 The direct or indirect measures that will verify to what extent the objectives have been
fulfilled (the objectively verifiable indicators)
 The source of the information for the measurements or verification specified in the
indicators column (the means of verification)
 The important events, conditions, or decisions necessarily outside the control of the
project, but which must remain favorable for the project objective to be attained (the
assumptions or external factors)
Table 5.4: Logframe structure25
Objectively verifiable Means of Assumptions
indicators verification (external factors)
Goal (goal) Qualitative/ Specific sources of data External factor
Long-term impact quantitative evidence to to quantify or assess necessary to sustain the
sought/overall judge achievement of indicators of the goal objectives in the long
vision the goal (e.g., (e.g., percentage of term (e.g., stability of
strengthen cross-border community operating environment)
conflict management) respondents who
perceive effectiveness in
local conflict-
management
institutions)

24 We will go into more detail about constructing indicators in Chapter 6.
25 Adaptedfrom DFID. 1997. Guidance on Humanitarian Assistance. Available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/404342/Humanitarian-
Response-Funding-Guidelines-2015.pdf.

Objectively verifiable Means of Assumptions

Purpose Qualitative/ Specific sources of data External conditions
(objective/result) quantitative evidence to to quantify or assess necessary for project
Intended judge achievement of indicators of the purpose to contribute to
immediate impact the purpose (e.g., purpose (e.g., level of the achievement of the
of the project openness to social community openness to project goal (e.g.,
reconciliation) social reconciliation) willingness of
(purpose to goal)
communities to devote
their time to participate
in the project)
Outputs (output/ Qualitative/ Specific sources of data External factors that, if
intermediate result) quantitative evidence to to quantify or assess present, can restrict
Tangible/intangible judge achievement of indicators of the progress from outputs
result(s) to achieve the outputs (e.g., outputs (e.g., number of in achieving project
the purpose construct peace people accessing peace purpose (e.g., conducive
expected from the dividends) dividends) environment to support
project engagement with
communities during
(output to purpose)
program
implementation period)
Activities Evidence for Specific sources of data External factors that, if
(activities) monitoring and to confirm present, can restrict
Actions needed to reporting implementation of progress from activities
achieve each output implementation in line planned activities (e.g., in achieving outputs
of the project (these with the logframe (e.g., number of peace (e.g., conducive
are things that the conduct Participatory dividends completed) environment to support
project can control) Learning and Action to engagement with
identify and prioritize communities during
(activity to output)
peace dividends) program
implementation period)
The Role of Assumptions

Assumptions are the “external factors [that] are not influenced by the project, but may
affect its implementation and long term sustainability.”26 Identifying assumptions is critical
at the project’s design stage. If you are designing the project using a logframe, the
assumptions are included in framework itself. If you are using a results framework, you can
still state your assumptions for each goal, objective, output, and activity in a simple list or
table, such as:
Goal 1: Assumption:
Objective 1: Assumption:
Output 1: Assumption:
Assumptions can come in different forms.
Examples of things we assume will (or will not) take place include:
 Approval of community-based organizations (CBOs) to be funded under the program by
the funder
26Better Evaluation. 2015. Logframe [web page]. Available at http://betterevaluation.org/evaluation-

options/logframe.

 Communities in target areas will support the peacebuilding initiatives

 Cross-border local authorities will work together to promote peace in their areas
 Local, national, and regional peacebuilding entities will work together to promote peace
in target areas (vertical linkages)
 There will be no new conflict flare-ups or natural disasters that inhibit the work
Assumptions that we take for granted or believe to be true—or we believe are very likely
to be true—that affect results include:
 Partner organizations will value capacity building and will make time for institutional
strengthening activities
 Enough people will be interested in supporting peacebuilding efforts
 The program will mobilize a critical mass to effectively advance peacebuilding initiatives
We can get off track in our planning, budgeting, and problem solving if we don’t list our
assumptions or have assumptions that are wrong.
 We need to deeply think about the things we are “assuming” because they can affect the
program results.
 We need to write down our really important assumptions.
 We need to test our assumptions to be sure that our assumptions are based in reality.
You can assess the risks coming from assumptions using Figure 5.3. Note that if an
assumption is very likely to prevent the program from taking off or advancing, you either
need to redesign the program or address the assumption directly to make it true.
Apart from redesigning a program based on the likelihood of an assumption preventing the
execution of such a program at the start of a program, programs also could be redesigned
during the course of the program if foreseen assumptions increasingly become likely to affect
the intended outcome of such a program. Assumptions could give grounds for redesigning
programs.
Figure 5.3: Assessing risks associated with program assumptions27

Learning Activity: Logical framework

Take what you already know about your program (it might be the activities, desired
impacts, some of everything) and fill in the logframe sections in Table 5.5 for which you
have relevant information. Then see if you can fill in any missing pieces (or add on to those
you have).
Does this framework “make sense” to you? Does it help to structure your program and give
guidance for later MERL? How does it align with the project’s TOC(s) that you had
developed earlier?
Table 5.5: Blank logframe
Objectively
verifiable Means of Assumptions
Goal
Purpose
Outputs
Activities

 Conceptual models help present a project’s TOC by showing how activities at the lowest
level lead to achieving the project goal.
 There are many types of conceptual models in use today, but two common ones are the
results framework and the logical framework.
 All models include four levels: activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact, though
terminology and how each type of conceptual model is structured will differ.
 Conceptual models provide program implementers with many advantages, but also
present several challenges. For example, they require investment of time and other
resources at the program design stage and they do not account for unintended
consequences that result from the project.
 It is important to recognize and test the risk associated with your project assumptions.

Chapter 6: Indicators
Chapter Objectives
 Learn how indicators are used to answer questions about your project's outputs, outcomes, and
impact
 Learn how to develop and assess indicators
 Learn how to use an indicator plan
 Get familiar with the U.S. Government Foreign Policy Indicators for Conflict Prevention and
Mitigation
 Be introduced to the PEACE III indicator protocols to help determine indicators that apply to
your project
Learning Activity
 Indicator plan
Overview
Indicators are the building blocks of monitoring and evaluation. Indicators signal change.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)28 defines an indicator
as a “quantitative or qualitative factor or variable that provides a simple and reliable means to
measure achievement, to reflect the changes connected to an intervention, or to help assess
the performance of a development actor.”
Indicators are not just anything your project wants to measure, and every measure is not an
indicator. Indicators are meant to reduce a large amount of data down to its simplest form.
For example, when you want to buy a car, unless the engine has been replaced, the best
indicator of a car’s condition is its odometer because it tells you how far the car has driven
and, therefore, how much wear and tear the engine has undergone.
Indicators also are not the same as goals, objectives, results, or targets. They are developed to
measure results at the four levels of results depicted in conceptual models: activities/input,
output, outcome/objectives/results/purpose, and goals/impact. Indicators do not specify a
particular level of achievement; thus, words like improved, increased, gained, and decreased
do not normally belong in an indicator. Rather, indicators describe the unit of information to
be measured over time, for example, “change in knowledge,” which could increase or
decrease, but this is further specified in the indicator target. When compared with targets,
indicators may signal the need for management action and help us determine if objectives are
being met.
Indicators can be especially useful when straightforward data cannot tell us what we need to
know. Instead, we can ask a series of questions that indicate the answer to our question. In
other words, when a question cannot be answered directly by one piece of data, we collect one
or more indicators instead that give us a good approximation of what the answer may be.
Table 6.1 provides an example of overall project questions and their illustrative indicators.
28 OECD 2002.
Chapter 6: Indicators | page 43

Table 6.1: How indicators help answer project questions

Question Indicator
1. How many 1. Number of trainings held
trainings were held?
2. Were trainings 2a. Percentage of participants correctly answering 8 of 10 knowledge-based
effective? questions on the quiz at the end of each training
2b. Percentage of participants self-reporting improved understanding of
[the topic] after the training
2c. Percentage of participants self-reporting that they did [x thing that they
learned at the training] within 6 weeks of the training
3. Has trust increased 3a. Percentage of individuals from group A indicating they would do
between groups A business with a member of group B after the training
and B? 3b. Percentage of businesses in region A operated by individuals from
group B after 3 years
3c. Percentage of parents/guardians from group A indicating they would
allow their children to be educated with a member of group B after the
training
Indicator 1 in Table 6.1, about the number of trainings held, is straightforward because the
question it answers is straightforward. This indicator represents output data we can track
through training sign-in sheets or registration records. Questions 2 and 3 are less
straightforward. Often a single indicator is not sufficient to answer our questions. Sometimes
we want to look at the issue from multiple perspectives; other times the issue at hand is too
complex to be addressed with a single line of inquiry. For example, indicators 3a and 3b could
be used to answer the question “Have business opportunities increased for people in group
B?” In fact, if we see positive change in these indicators, they might have little to do with trust
building and more to do with increased business opportunities or a better enabling
environment.
This brings up another point: Indicators do exactly as their name implies, they indicate the
answer to a question that cannot be directly answered. It is important when both selecting
indicators and analyzing data to carefully consider if an indicator’s ability to show a result is
caused to some extent by the project-sponsored activities or whether results demonstrated by
the indicators do not stem from project activities.
We ask a particular question because we think it will tell us something about our intended
program outputs, outcomes, or impacts. For example, we would ask a question about trust
building if a goal of our program is to increase trust among opposing groups. This also
presumes that we did something specific in our program that aimed to build trust (directly or
indirectly). But, even if the indicators we choose all show positive results (there is an increase
in people doing business across groups and there are more businesses in region A operated by
people from group B), we still can’t be certain that those changes happened because of
increased trust.
Also, even if they are the result of increased trust among groups, we can’t be certain that our
program efforts directly led to that change. Perhaps there was a government-run program
operating in the same region with the same goal of trust building that was actually
responsible for the change. Perhaps a sub-group or leader within the community that had
been supporting division and separation of the groups is no longer active. The point is that it
is very difficult to control for all the factors that influence change in individuals and
communities.

The primary function of indicators is to show us what changes have occurred, to

what degree, and over what period of time. They may not tell us for certain how
or why a change has occurred, thus it is important to supplement indicator data
with documented qualitative data to help tell this story of change.
How to Develop Indicators

Indicators are written to measure the goals and objectives29 we have chosen (and their
relevant outputs, inputs, and processes).
Indicators can be written for
overarching program goals and specific Example of an indicator with five of the
intervention objectives. They can seven pieces of information
contain up to seven specific pieces of Percentage of cattle herders in Karamoja who
information:30 report disputes over grazing land to their local
1. The thing to be measured/changed council one or more times per month in the last
2. The unit of measure that informs the 3 months.
change 1. The thing to be measured: who report
3. The starting point (baseline discputes over grazing land to their local
information) council
4. The scope, size, or degree of 2. Unit of measure: percentage
intended change 5. Quality or standard of change desired: one or
5. The quality or standard of change more times per month
desired 6. Target population: cattle herders in Karamoja
6. The target population 7. Timeframe: by December 2016
7. The timeframe Note: Once baseline data is collected, the
project can establish the starting point and size
We can divide indicators into two basic of change that it wants to achieve within the
categories: quantitative and qualitative. specified timeframe. For example, the project
can at baseline establish that currently only 5%
Quantitative indicators measure of cattle herders report disputes to their local
information in specific amounts or council one or more times per month. Taking
quantities, such as the number of people into consideration various project factors (e.g.,
planned interventions, duration, funds) the
who did something, the number of times
project can decide that the size of change it can
something specific happened, or the reasonably achieve is raising the percentage by
amount of increase or decrease seen in 25%, thus the target of 30% for this indicator.
some discrete activity. An example for a
peacebuilding program may be “Number
of community members participating in trauma healing (TH) initiatives.”
Qualitative indicators include more subjective information, such as opinions, beliefs, or

perceptions, and typically are not able to be quantified in the way quantitative indicators are
because of the way data is collected, such as through open-ended or guided questions during
focus groups or key informant interviews. For example, a qualitative indicator in a
peacebuilding program may be “Improved sense of security among TH participants.” To
gather data for this indicator, you are unable to survey all or a sample of participants, rather
you speak with individual or groups of community members to understand the general sense
of how they feel about security after participating in TH. This qualitative indicator
complements the straightforward count of participants in TH with participants’ sense of
security as a result of those sessions.
29 See Chapter 4 for more on determining goals and objectives.


One way of looking at the difference between quantitative and qualitative indicators is that
quantitative data tells us what happened and how much or how often it happened, while
qualitative data tells us how what people thought about it and what impact it had on them. It
is highly recommended to use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure
the attainment of your objectives.
Table 6.2: Examples of qualitative and quantitative indicators and data sources
Example indicator Potential data source
Qualitative
Community openness to social reconciliation Focus groups
Improved sense of security among TH Key informant interviews
participants
TH participants less inclined to partake in Key informant interviews
violence
Quantitative
Number of peace dividend initiatives benefitting Project monitoring documents
two or more conflicting communities
Performance of community conflict Pact’s Community Performance Index
management structures
Number of initiatives led by community peace Project monitoring documents
actors to address local conflicts
Number of cross-border peace initiatives that Project monitoring documents
involve local government
Percentage of community peace initiatives that Project monitoring documents
receive tangible local-government support Review of government actions
Number of new linkages among local peace- Pact’s Organizational Network Analysis
building organizations
Percentage of community respondents who Community-wide, face-to-face survey
perceive effectiveness in local conflict
management institutions
The U.S. Department of State’s Standard Foreign Assistance Indicators31 are a good place to
search for indicators that have been tested and used. Most U.S. Government-funded projects
will be required to use some of these indicators. PEACE III has adopted several of them for
use in the program.
Developing or choosing the right indicators is the heart of designing a practical MERL
system. This process can be tedious and exacting, so you cannot expect to sit down in one
afternoon and develop all the indicators your project needs. It should be an iterative process
involving brainstorming a range of possibilities, seeking opinions from various staff and
stakeholders, and assuming different perspectives as you develop indicators.
31See http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/231895.xlsx, specifically the conflict mitigation and

reconciliation indicator definitions.

Qualities of a Good Indicator

Once you’ve gathered a large list of potential indicators, you should refine them. In addition
to being appropriate for measuring achievement of your project objectives, all indicators
should meet three specific quality standards: reliability, feasibility, and utility.32
Reliability is the extent to which one can reasonably assume that they can acquire correct
or accurate information. If it is likely that two or more people seeking the same information
will come back with different results/answers (repeatability), the indicator may not be
reliable. An indicator may be deemed unreliable if:
 It comes from generally unreliable sources (e.g., subjective assertions)
 The question asked can be interpreted in multiple ways (e.g., the act of “participating” in
an activity can be interpreted in different ways by different people)
 Factors such as time of day or time of year of collection are likely to influence answers
(e.g., during the dry season people will be supportive of activities that involve encroaching
on other communities’ grazing land)
 People are prone to lie about it, not know the answer, or give an inaccurate answer (e.g.,
which individuals were involved in the cattle raid?)
Feasibility33 is the extent to which the information needed can be readily acquired. It
requires that you be able to access the source of information and the specific data you need.
Barriers to access include:
 Security or safety concerns
 Sensitivity of the topics
 Confidentiality of information sought
 Unwillingness of sources to participate
 Physical barriers (e.g., information is in a location that is difficult to get to, that is prone
to severe weather)
Utility is the extent to which the information is actually useful. How much will what we learn
help us to make or adjust programmatic or strategic decisions? When considering whether an
indicator has utility, imagine having the results in front of you and asking yourself, “What will
I do with this information?” Individual indicators might not, by themselves, inform decision-
making, but may be considered collectively for utility in some instance.
Another way projects use to assess the quality of indicators is based on the five criterion:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). Table
6.3 describes the criteria for SMART indicators.
Table 6.3: SMART indicator criteria34

S Specific: Is the indicator specific enough to measure progress toward results?
M Measurable: Is the indicator a reliable and clear measure of results?
A Attainable: Are the results in which the indicator seeks to chart progress realistic?
R Relevant: Is the indicator relevant to the intended outputs and outcomes?
T Time-bound: Are data available at reasonable cost and effort?
32 See Church & Rogers, 2006, p. 45.

33 Insituations where tensions and/or conflict are high, one cannot underestimate the importance of indicator
feasibility. See Chapter 11.
34 Adapted from UNDP, 2009, p. 63.

Table 6.4 provides examples of indicators that are well formed (“good”) and poorly formed
(“bad”). Note that indicator wording does not need to capture the direction of change you are
hoping for. Rather, this would be visible in the targets set—the targets would show
increases—and the actual achieved figures could be increases or decreases.
Table 6.4: Examples of good and bad indicators

Good indicators Bad indicators
Number of community members involved in Increased number of community members
peacebuilding involved in peacebuilding
Number of workshops conducted (disaggregated
Number and type(s) of workshops conducted
by type of workshop)
Number of conflict incidents reported Number of people killed in violent conflict 35
Amount of rainfall Level of rainfall
Level of beneficiary satisfaction Degree of happiness
Indicator-Related Terms
Table 6.5: Other terms used in relation to indicators
Term Definition
Baseline This is a record of what exists in an area prior to the start of a project. It is
primarily a benchmark for the future. The baseline values establish the starting
point from which change can be measured.
Targets These are values against which the actual program/project achievements are
measured. They describe the magnitude or level of results expected to be
achieved. Targets should be realistic and, where possible, informed by past
achievements.
Proxy indicators These are alternate measures used to stand in for another indicator when
obtaining direct information is too difficult, time consuming, or sensitive. For
example, household consumption of maize could be a proxy indicator for
household income.
Indicator These are instruction sheets that describe the indicator in precise terms and
protocols identify the plans for data collection, analysis, reporting, and review. Examples
of precise information contained in an indicator protocol are indicator
definition; unit of measure; disaggregation; data collection, collation, analysis,
reporting, storage, and use; data quality; and targets.
Sources of These are sources you have or use to confirm or substantiate the data, for
verification example attendance lists and event reports.
Unit of measure This specifies what exactly the indicator will measure or count, for example
number of events funded by the U.S. Government or number of people trained.
Disaggregation This refers to how the indicator data will be broken down at the time of
reporting to stakeholders, for example by location, gender, or age.
35 This
may be considered a “bad indicator” from an early warning perspective. This indicator has less value in
terms of informing program action to “save lives” when compared to the number of incidences reported. The
assumption here is that tracking occurrence of incidences can help a program take timely action to focus on
hotspots, thereby reducing the likelihood of escalation and loss of lives.

Indicator Definitions
In order to ensure that our indicators are not subject to misinterpretation and are clearly
understood by everyone who will use them, it is important for us to define each indicator. An
indicator definition clarifies the key terminologies used within the indicator to ensure data
collectors and users measure or interpret the same thing. Using the example indicator that we
developed earlier in the chapter, “percentage of cattle herders in Karamoja who report
disputes over grazing land to their local council one or more times per month by December
2016,” it is important to define what the project means by “cattle herders in Karamoja” and
“report disputes to the local council.” Doing so will help ensure there is common
understanding of which group of people within the Karamoja community the project will
count as “cattle herders” and what the project will count as an “incident” that has been
“reported” to the “local council.” Below is an example of an indicator definition.
This indicator will count cattle herders from among the Pokot and Turkana
communities who are residents and derive their livelihood from keeping and
grazing cows within the administrative boundaries of Pokot and Turkana
counties. A dispute refers to a disagreement between two cattle-keeping
communities over issues of grazing land that may or may not result in
fighting between the two communities. Reporting to a local council means
formally informing the local authority responsible for ensuring equitable use
of grazing land within these communities about a dispute over grazing land
with members of the other community.
In addition to defining the indicator, it is important to specify the disaggregation that will
be used when reporting on each indicator, for example location, name of community, and
type of local authority.
Collecting Indicator Data

Once we have developed and defined the set of indicators we want to track and assess, they
are integrated into the project’s data collection instruments, such as event documentation;
reporting templates; household surveys; and observation, focus group, or interview protocols.
All of the information about the indicator is tracked in the project’s indicator plan. Table 6.6
provides an example from a peacebuilding program.
Note: Implementers of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs will
be asked to complete Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRSs) as part of their MERL
plan.36 PIRSs are a short table for each indicator detailing the indicator definition, unit of
measure, source, disaggregation, and other key pieces of information. PIRSs are invaluable
resources for all MERL and program staff to understand exactly what is committed to be
measured and how to follow the protocols established.
36See more on PIRSs at

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/LocalSystemsFramework.pdf.

Table 6.6: Example indicator plan

Baseline Data Data
Indicator and Target Data Unit(s) of collection collection Reporting
(type) 2015 Definition and disaggregation source(s) measure tool(s) frequency frequency
Goal: Strengthened local cross-border management
Percentage of Baseline: 5% Definition: Community respondents are Baseline % of total Household Baseline, Baseline,
community Target for defined as those living in PEACE III survey, community survey midterm, midterm,
respondents 2015: 10% target areas. The respondents could be midterm respondents questionnaire endline endline
who perceive people from the same ethnic group/clan survey, Focus group
that the local living in either rural or urban areas. endline discussion
conflict PEACE III takes success in managing survey, guide
management conflicts as a proxy measure for perception
institutions effectiveness in conflict management. survey
are effective
Perception of effectiveness is measured
(Type: by survey respondents expressing how
outcome) successful local conflict management
institutions are in managing conflict on a
scale of 1–4, denoting very unsuccessful,
unsuccessful, successful, and very
successful.
Local conflict management institutions
denotes the following types of
institutions:
 Local peace committees
 Government security committees
 Traditional conflict management
institutions
 Community-based organizations
(CBOs)
Disaggregation: Location (cluster,
corridor), age, youth, gender, and type of
local conflict management institution


 Indicators are not the same as goals, objectives, results, or targets.
 Indicators describe the unit of information to be measured over time.
 The primary function of indicators is to show us what changes have occurred, to what
degree, and over what period of time.
 Indicators can be classified in two basic categories: quantitative and qualitative.
 Quantitative indicators measure information in specific amounts or quantities, such as
the number of people who did something or the number of times something specific
happened.
 Qualitative indicators include more subjective information, such as opinions, beliefs, or
perceptions, and are not typically able to be quantified in the way quantitative
indicators are because of the way the data is collected, such as through open-ended or
guided questions during focus groups or key informant interviews.
 Criteria based on the following five characteristics are used to assess the quality of the
indicators: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART).
 In addition, all indicators should meet three specific quality standards: reliability,
feasibility, and utility.
Learning Activity: Indicator plan

Refer to the indicators and targets in your award document. Read through the indicator
definitions found in the indicator protocols that are in the award document or that you are
given for this exercise, and reflect on your project objectives/activities. Review the
activities currently linked to each indicator and update indicators and the ways of
measuring them as necessary, taking into consideration the following.
 The appropriateness of the activities/individuals that you are counting to report on this
indicator: Do they fit with the definition in the project’s indicator protocol of types of
activities to be counted?
 Are your targets realistic given your available budget, staffing, award period, and past
experience? Please update targets accordingly for your final award.
Prepare to submit to your funder an updated indicator plan that’s well aligned to your
funded project.

Chapter 7: Monitoring
Chapter Objectives
 What monitoring is and how it helps peacebuilding efforts
 Three types of monitoring
 How to develop a monitoring plan
Learning Activity
 Develop a monitoring plan
What is monitoring?
Monitoring is an activity carried out throughout the life of the intervention that provides
project stakeholders with concrete information from which to make strategic decisions. In
peacebuilding, we often monitor three specific areas: the conflict/context, our program
implementation, and our assumptions. In other words, we use monitoring to periodically
answer the following questions.
 Has the conflict context changed?
 Have we done what we planned to do by this point?
 Has what we’ve done had the effect we expected it to?
Let’s look at our example Theory of Change (TOC) and goals from Chapter 4, with added
sample indicators, as shown in Table 7.1.
Table 7.1: Example TOC with goals, outcomes, and sample indicators
TOC: IF young people have a better understanding of the need to be tolerant of other ethnic
groups, THEN their attitudes and views of the “other” communities will change and have a
trickle-down effect on adult family members. THEN communities will be more tolerant of
one another and the levels of conflict and violence will decrease.
Step 1: Goals Step 2:
derived from Type of Step 3: Anticipated Sample indicators (more and
TOC change37 outcomes others are possible)
a. Reduced Attitudes Decreased fear of “the other” % change in # of members of
reports of conflict Group A who self-report fear of
between groups members of Group B
to community
Reduction in distaste for % change in # of members of
leadership from
customs and traditional Group A who self-report that they
100 to 10 per
practices of “the other” disagree with the customs or
month by 2016
traditions of Group B
Increase in acceptance of % change in # of members of
“the other” as part of the Group A who, when asked to
community describe their community, mention
individuals or groups from Group B
Decrease in blaming “the % change in # of members of Group
other” for past grievances A who self-report that past conflict
with members of Group B was at
least in some part their own fault
Church & Rogers 2006 provides examples of how to align specific types of change with specific peacebuilding
37
TOCs. See www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilr/ilt_manualpage.html, Chapter 2, pp. 18–23.
Chapter 7: Monitoring | page 52

TOC: IF young people have a better understanding of the need to be tolerant of other ethnic
groups, THEN their attitudes and views of the “other” communities will change and have a
trickle-down effect on adult family members. THEN communities will be more tolerant of
one another and the levels of conflict and violence will decrease.
Step 1: Goals Step 2:
derived from Type of Step 3: Anticipated Sample indicators (more and
TOC change37 outcomes others are possible)
b. Increased Knowledge Young people are familiar % change in # of young people of
tolerance for and with specific customs of “the Group A who can name 2–3
customs and attitudes other” specific customs of Group B
traditions of “the
Increase in understanding of % change in # of members of
other” among
why it is important to Group A who self-report that they
youth and their
respect customs and understand the importance of
family members
traditions of “the other” respecting the customs and
community traditions of Group B
Young people and family % change in # of members of
members are more accepting Group A who self-report that they
and respectful of customs do respect customs and traditions
and traditions of “the other” of Group B
community
How might we monitor progress toward our goals? We would probably track program
participation (e.g., monthly, quarterly) and resources being used (e.g., cost, staffing) to be
sure we are not currently in danger of surpassing budgets. Tracking progress toward specific
indicators is likely to be done through process (periodic) evaluations (see Chapter 8).
Conflict and Context Monitoring

Because the environments where we conduct peacebuilding activities are highly dynamic and
often changing, it is important to monitor the context and conflict throughout an intervention
(see Chapter 3). Doing so helps us know whether our activities are still appropriate and if we
need to make minor or major changes, either immediately or in the future.
Table 7.2: Example conflict/context monitoring outcomes and potential

resulting program changes
If monitoring shows us that… We might have to…
Violence has escalated Increase security measures
Postpone or cancel the project
Change the focus and/or TOC
Relevant legislation has been passed Adapt or develop new interventions to meet new
requirements or better align with legislative goals
Types or sources of conflict have Re-evaluate our strategic value: Are our objectives still in
changed line with what is needed for peacebuilding?
Deciding when and how to monitor these changes depends on resources available (does
someone have time to monitor this monthly? quarterly?) and your perception of how quickly
the context may change. How fragile is the situation? Are there particular triggers or
flashpoints (specific events that would impact the conflict positively or negatively) that are
likely to occur? Are there patterns to watch for (e.g., movement of populations, frequency of
aid delivery) that would indicate a change in the conflict? In ideal circumstances, how often

should we monitor the situation? Focusing on key contextual elements (rather than trying to
cover everything) will help you design a context-relevant monitoring plan.
The Measuring Progress in Conflict Environments (MPICE) framework38 is a good reference

for identifying the specific questions you will want to answer through conflict monitoring.
Suggested methods39 for getting the information you need to monitor a conflict include:
 Qualitative methods
Note on using external sources of
- Content analysis: surveying
information
newspapers, blogs, and other public
media sources (secondary sources) Accessing reliable data is a considerable
challenge in fragile environments. When
- Expert knowledge: panels of local
getting information (e.g., data, stories)
program staff, local or national leaders from sources external to your organization,
or others in positions of authority, be careful to consider its quality and any
journalists, researchers, people potential biases. Is the data source
involved with other local groups or reliable? Does the source have reason to
community organizations, or anyone give out false information? Were ethical
with a direct interest in knowing what and/or statistically sound practices used to
is happening on the ground (including collect the information? See Chapter 11 for
those involved in the conflict itself) more information on data quality.
 Quantitative methods
- Primary data: information that can be collected and quantified (counted) related to
security, economic development, living conditions, etc.
- Survey or polling data:
Primary sources: Public opinion surveys, including surveying local program staff
Secondary sources: Datasets or information from international organizations that
monitor crises and publish relevant information publically (Keep in mind that these
broader monitoring tools cannot replace the valuable information you can learn
through monitoring your specific context locally.)
Implementation Monitoring
Regardless of the duration of the intervention, it is important to monitor step-by-step
progress toward achieving ultimate goals in terms of project administration, inputs,
processes (activities), and outputs.
Generally speaking, implementation monitoring:

 Compares what has been planned against what has been accomplished
 Is used to assess and validate what has happened in the past and set the stage for what
has to happen in the future
 Is quantitative in nature, measuring how much or how many of a thing happened
Example questions implementation monitoring answers include: How many trainings were
held and how many people completed the training? How much money was spent on each of X
activities? How many times did Y happen?
For example, consider a project that has a plan to deliver 20 trainings to community leaders in
years 2–4 of a five-year project. At the end of year 2, monitoring data might show that the
38 See Dziedzic et al. 2008.

39 Ibid. See the full report for descriptions of the pros and cons of each of these methods.

project has delivered two trainings, which may be on target with the project plan or may
indicate that the team is behind on holding these trainings. Or perhaps 15 trainings have been
held by the end of year 2, which could indicate higher than anticipated demand for the activity,
in which case the organization may want to adjust its planning or search for more funding,
staffing, or opportunity to increase the number of trainings it can hold in subsequent years.
The previous example was of monitoring the magnitude of outputs (how many of this,
how much of that). We can similarly monitor progress toward achieving changes.
If a program’s target is to increase “something” from 10% to 75% over 5 years, we may use
monitoring tools to look for incremental improvements every six months or a year, for
example, increasing to 20% after year 1 or 35% after year 2.
Achievement of planned project stages also is important to monitor. Interventions often are
planned incrementally (e.g., first introduce a savings product, then offer business
development training, then offer business loans) and subsequent activities may each require
significant planning and preparation. Monitoring the implementation of each project
stage is important for informing how and when to plan and adjust future stages. In the
examples in Table 7.3, it may be wise to monitor each activity even more closely, such as
every four to six months, to check progress toward each specific activity’s target.
Table 7.3: Example changes in project plans based on implementation

monitoring outcomes
If the target is not met we If the target is exceeded we
Objective to be monitored may have to… may have to…
Year 1: 200 community Understand why we may be Review current budget to
members complete trauma struggling to reach 200 identify budget savings and
healing (TH) sessions participants determine whether we can
reach even more people with
Expand and lengthen the
existing resources
duration of this particular
intervention until we get 200 Review our strategy for year 2
participants to provide follow on support to
those who completed the
Review our community
sessions to see how they are
mobilization strategy to draw
coping with trauma
more members to attend the
TH sessions
Year 2: Facilitate formation of Review strategy for mobilizing Make budget amendments to
20 support groups for TH participants to join support identify resources for the extra
individuals who have groups support groups
completed the TH sessions
Establish reasons individuals Re-evaluate the strategy to
are not ready to join support prioritize areas in which support
groups and identify alternative groups will be formed in year 2
strategies to provide the support
Source additional funds for
(e.g., one-on-one follow up)
support groups in year 3
Year 3: Train 40 community Review strategy for identifying Source additional funds to
members as TH facilitators additional community form additional TH session
members who can make good groups
TH facilitators
Pair up TH facilitators to lead
Develop interim strategies to the group TH sessions
address the shortfall and ensure
program results are achieved
(e.g., using project staff)

Personal narratives, stories, and anecdotes also can provide valuable monitoring
information, including for report writing, adding a human element to complement
quantitative data. However, make sure your program is not reactionary based on a small
number of accounts. If one program officer constantly complains about a particular problem
(or success), it may or may not be worth looking into. However, several program officers
reporting the same problem (or success) with or without prompting is even stronger evidence
that something needs to be addressed.
Funders often have requirements for monitoring and expect regular reports (e.g., every three
or six months), such as budgetary reports and status updates. While they may provide you
with a set of metrics on which they want to see reports, most funders will be willing to work
with you to come up with metrics that both meet their needs and the project’s needs.
Assumption Monitoring
In Chapter 5, we talked about the importance of collecting information about assumptions in
the baseline study to help ensure that programs are appropriately designed from the outset.
Regular monitoring of these important assumptions (e.g., about the population, governing
regulations) is particularly important in fragile states because of how quickly and
unexpectedly changes can occur. Examples of such changes include population migration
patterns, leadership (which can dictate changes in laws), food security, economic landscape,
and allegiances. Many of the methods previously described for monitoring conflict can be
used to monitor assumptions. Table 7.4 uses several examples to illustrate assumptions that
could change and how they might affect our interventions. Project staff should be part of the
monitoring process and the learning that goes along with it (via, e.g., reports, staff meetings,
bulletins) in order to identify the appropriate responses to changes in assumptions.
Table 7.4: Example: Potential project changes based on assumption shifts

If we assume… But this happens… We might have to…
A population with The populations has Move project locations
whom we want to moved out or a new Expand or shrink size of intervention
work lives in a population has
Change the intervention to meet the needs of the
particular area moved in
new population
Communities are Communities are not Meet with local leaders to establish why
willing to devote their willing to devote time communities are not willing to devote their time to
time to participate in to participate in the the program.
the program program Identify ways of addressing the issues that are
causing the community to stay away from the
program
There is political will Political restrictions Prioritize building relationships with the local and
to support the hamper the national government to ensure the program can
engagement of local program’s ability to advocate for the space for local peace actors
CBOS and NGOs in engage with local Propose to work with those CBOs/NGOs that
conflict management CBOs and NGOs in operate within the government’s legal framework
and peace building conflict management
initiatives and peacebuilding
initiatives
It is important to note that monitoring can tell us when changes in our assumptions occur,
but it does not necessarily tell us if and how to react (as in the “We might have to…” column
in the table not being labeled “We should…” or “We must…”).

Monitoring Plans
In order to appropriately monitor progress against targets, each project should have a
monitoring, evaluation, reporting and learning plan. A monitoring plan should include the
elements in the table below: type of monitoring (it is a good idea to include all types of
monitoring), indictors, decisions to be informed by data, how often to monitor the data point,
and how data is collected and by whom. For crafting indicators, please refer to Chapter 6.
Table 7.5: Monitoring plan outline with examples of the three monitoring types
discussed previously
Monitoring How How data is
Type of data to collect Decisions to be often to collected and by
monitoring (indicators) informed by data monitor whom
Conflict # of cross- What level of security Weekly Interns monitoring
border raids should we maintain? Monthly specific news sources
reported Should we maintain or Meetings with local
postpone any key hospital administrator
activities?
Implemen- # of local leaders Should trainings Quarterly Written evaluations
tation trained continue and at what completed by
% of those rate? participants after
involved Should training training and read by
deeming curricula be adjusted? program staff
training a Written evaluations
“success” completed by
training facilitators
Assumptions # of people from Should we prepare for Quarterly Staff conversations
“the other” increased incidences of with community
community violence between the two elders about
living in the communities? community
target area Should we increase participation in
programming efforts peacebuilding
related to this violence? initiatives

Monitoring:
 Is an ongoing process, done at regular intervals throughout the life of a project
 Is aligned with baseline and evaluation studies, and should be planned accordingly
 Tells us what has happened and what is happening, but does NOT tell us what to do
about it; Considering “what if” scenarios at the beginning of a project cycle and
engaging project staff in monitoring activities will help the learning and decision-
making process.
 Can involve collecting information in a variety of ways, including quantitative data kept
by program staff and administrators, expert and local opinions, survey data, and media
content
 Helps us look back at what has happened and look forward to what needs to happen,
given what has already happened
 Is important for tracking progress toward targets: Given where we started and where
we hope to end up, has adequate progress been made?
 Can be resource intensive, so it should focus on processes and activities that are
essential for immediate learning, planning, and reporting needs

Learning Activity: Develop a monitoring plan

Write out a specific plan for how you will report on and learn from your project results
(what decisions will be informed by the data). It is easy to lose track of monitoring without
a detailed plan in place to follow. Determine in advance who will be responsible for
reviewing monitoring reports and the protocols for acting on any important findings. Use
the template below to prepare your plan.
Monitoring How data is
Type of data to collect Decisions to be How often collected and by
monitoring (indicators) informed by the data to monitor whom
Conflict
Implemen-
tation
Assumptions

Chapter 8: Evaluation
Chapter Objectives
 The definition of evaluation and why it is important
 Different types of evaluations
 Evaluation frameworks and questions
 Components of an evaluation Terms of Reference (TOR)
Learning Activities
 Create an evaluation plan
What is evaluation and why is it important?40

The previous chapters identified the measures and methods you can use to track data for your
organization or project. However, without analysis from an evaluation angle, that monitoring
data cannot tell managers why results are or are not being achieved. To get this often-crucial
decision-making information, organizations must conduct evaluations to analyze the longer-
term, higher-level outcomes or impacts in their programs.
Measuring success in peacebuilding programs requires going beyond just counting activities,
such as the number of trauma healing (TH) activities held. Rather, we must understand what
outcomes have occurred as a result of conducting TH activities in the project communities.
Evaluation can focus on the change we created in the lives and minds of others.
Evaluation is most valuable when a project wants to look not only at results on a cursory
level, but seeks to understand the underlying reasons why change is occurring or
not occurring in the field, then uses that information to learn and adapt both its actions
and its conceptual framework.
In contrast to monitoring, which provides ongoing structured information, evaluation is

periodic. Evaluation focuses on why results are or are not being achieved, unintended
consequences, or issues of interpretation, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, or
sustainability.
An effective monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning (MERL) system includes a

program and schedule for evaluation that is based on a learning agenda (see Chapter 9) in
combination with an adaptive management approach (committed to changing course and
approaches if necessary based on findings from monitoring and evaluation [M&E] data) to
ensure the re-examination of management decisions/activities based on new information or
learning.
Defining Evaluation
There is no universal definition for the term evaluation. British mathematician and
academician Michael Scriven (1991), one of the founders of evaluation as a field, noted nearly
60 different synonyms, based on such verbs as appraise, assess, critique, examine, grade,
inspect, and judge.
40 This chapter is merely an introduction to evaluation. To read about evaluation in much greater detail before
planning for an evaluation, please review Pact’s MERL Module 3, Field Guide for Evaluation: How to Develop
Effective Terms of Reference, available at http://www.pactworld.org/library/field-guide-evaluation-how-develop-
effective-terms-reference. Portions of this chapter are taken directly from Module 3.
Chapter 8: Evaluation | page 59

As managers and leaders of evaluations, it is important for you to understand how others may
understand the term. A common language for evaluation helps us all communicate better.
In this chapter, we will present several common definitions. None is particularly better than
another. Instead, each emphasizes a different aspect of evaluation, including its purpose and
utility. Understanding the similarities and differences among these definitions will directly
help us manage evaluation work in our communities.
 According to Michael Quinn Patton (1997, p. 23), a leader in the field of program
evaluation, evaluation is “the systematic collection of information about the activities,
characteristics, and results of programs to make judgments about the program, improve
or further develop program effectiveness, inform decisions about future programming,
and/or increase understanding.”
 According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD; 2002, pp. 21–22), evaluation is “the systematic and objective assessment of an
ongoing or completed project, programme or policy, its design, implementation and
results. The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, development
efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.”
 According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID; 2011, p. 2),
evaluation is “The systematic collection and analysis of information about the
characteristics and outcomes of programs and projects as a basis for judgments, to
improve effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about programming.”
In common, all the preceding definitions assert that evaluation is systematic,

that it is specific to a program or project, and that it can answer different
types of questions.
Systematic
First, evaluation is systematic. In other words, evaluation is grounded in a system, method, or
plan. To arrive at credible conclusions, a high-quality evaluation uses consistent methods that
are clearly outlined in the evaluation design. In this way, evaluation is closely related to
research, and both research and evaluation use many of the same tools.
Specific
Next, evaluation is specific to a program or project; this is what distinguishes evaluation from
research (see more below). For example, someone might investigate whether children who
live near the garbage dump get sick more often than children who live far from the dump.
This is research, but it is not evaluation. Another person could study whether children who
attend a certain nutrition program get sick less often. Both studies are research, but only the
second example is evaluation because it is specific to a project and the first is not.
Versatile
Last, the three definitions also show that evaluation can answer many different types of
questions. For instance, an evaluation may ask:
 Did the program improve the well-being of community residents?
 Were resources used effectively?
 What factors were most important to the success of the intervention?
 Why did the program fail?

Monitoring versus Evaluation

Sometimes the terms monitoring and evaluation are used synonymously. Although it is
important to both monitor a project and evaluate it, the two activities are not the same; Table
8.1 shows some of these differences. Monitoring is primarily intended to provide information
about a project’s operations and outputs. Impact or performance evaluations generally
look at a project on a broader and higher level, assessing whether it is meeting strategic goals.
There is overlap; for example, monitoring data can be used in evaluations and some
evaluations are primarily oriented toward assessing operations or processes (often called
process evaluations). Consequently, monitoring and evaluation often are linked and are
complementary.
Table 8.1: Characteristics of monitoring and evaluation compared41

Characteristic Monitoring Evaluation
Subject Operational management issues Usually focused on strategic aspects
addressed
Character Systematic Subject and methods flexible
Frequency Continuous Periodic
Primary client Program managers Stakeholders and external audience
Party Internal, but should also be shared Can be external or internal
conducting with funders, stakeholders, and
communities/beneficiaries
Approach Utility Objectivity
Transparency
Methodology Rapid appraisal methods Rigorous research methodologies
Routine data collection tools Sophisticated tools
Primary focus Focus on operational efficiency, Focus on relevancy, outcomes, impact,
outputs, and outcomes and sustainability
Objectives To identify and resolve To check outcomes and impact
implementation problems To verify developmental hypothesis
To assess progress toward objectives To document successes and lessons
Learning for adaptations learned
Evaluation versus Research

Both research and evaluation systematically seek answers to questions; in fact, they use many
of the same techniques to answer those questions. However, their purposes sometimes differ
(see Table 8.2). Research usually seeks to create new and generalizable knowledge or
understanding, while evaluation seeks to inform decisions and judgments about a specific
project.
41 Adapted from Jaszczolt et al. 2003.

Table 8.2: Differences between research and evaluation42

Factor Research Evaluation
Purpose To add to knowledge in the field To make judgments
To develop laws and theories To provide information for decision-
making
Who sets agenda Researchers Stakeholders and evaluator jointly
or focus Academic institutions
Generalizability of Important to add to Across the program areas, but not
results theory/contribute to field necessarily beyond the program
Focus is on particulars of the program
or policy and the context
Intended use of Usually for publication and Usually directly affects the project’s
results knowledge sharing activities or decisions of stakeholders
in development of future projects
Why evaluate?
Demanding time and resources, evaluation often competes with resources that are needed to
implement programs or deliver services. Many managers ask the question, “Why evaluate?”
The Patton, OECD, and USAID definitions, above, suggest clear reasons:
 To measure a program’s value or benefits
 To improve a program or make it more effective
 To better understand a program
 To inform decisions about future programs
Other reasons to evaluate include:

 To demonstrate to planners, funders, and other decision-makers that program activities
have achieved measurable improvements
 To understand whether and where resources are being used efficiently and where
resources may need to be used differently
 To be accountable to funders and community members
 To learn about which interventions work and which do not, and why
Knowing why a program is being evaluated is essential to the evaluation’s success. After
all, evaluations are meant to be used. How an evaluation is used depends on what questions
have been asked, the reasons for evaluating the program, funder requirements, timing, and
other factors. Evaluation reports sometimes sit on shelves gathering dust. However, if we are
clear about an evaluation’s purpose, if the evaluation is conducted systematically, and if the
right questions have been asked about the program during the evaluation, the results should
be useful and actionable.
Types of Evaluation
Types of evaluation vary by purpose and program stage. The five main types are:
 Formative  Summative  Process  Outcome  Impact
42 Fitzpatrick et al. 2011.

Most useful during program design and early in the implementation phase, formative
evaluations examine how a program, policy, or project is implemented, whether or not the
program Theory of Change (TOC) corresponds with its actuality, and what immediate
consequences the implementation produces.
Summative evaluation is the final assessment at the end of a project. A summative

evaluation determines the extent to which anticipated outcomes were produced. It is
intended to provide information about the program’s worth. Results help decide whether to
continue or end a program.43
Sometimes called an implementation evaluation, a process evaluation looks at

whether a program has been implemented as intended: whether activities are taking place,
whom they reach, who is conducting them, and whether inputs have been sufficient.
Outcome evaluation, also known as performance evaluation, examines a project’s

short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. While process evaluation may examine
the number of people receiving services and the quality of those services, outcome evaluation
measures the changes that may have resulted in people’s attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and
health outcomes. Outcome evaluation also may study changes in the environment, such as
policy and regulatory changes.44 Outcome evaluations usually occur at midterm or endline.
The most rigorous types of evaluation are impact evaluations, which use statistical
methods and comparison groups to attribute change to a particular project or intervention.
USAID defines impact evaluations as evaluations that:
Measure the change in a development outcome that is attributable to a defined
intervention; impact evaluations are based on models of cause and effect and
require a credible and rigorously defined counterfactual [examination of what
would have happened if the intervention did not exist] to control for factors
other than the intervention that might account for the observed change.45
The counterfactual is what differentiates the outcome evaluation from an impact evaluation.
Internal and External Evaluation

Whether an evaluation is internal or external depends on who is conducting it. An internal
evaluation is conducted primarily by a member of the organization implementing the project.
An external evaluation is led by a consultant or other person who does not regularly work for
the organization.
Internal evaluations may allow for a more complex, multi-stage evaluation design and can
take advantage of in-house staff members’ understanding of the project, either to produce the
evaluation more efficiently or to yield more nuanced findings.
External evaluations can be (or can be perceived as) more objective and can bring additional
expertise and external perspective that can add value to the evaluation.
Which type of evaluation uses resources the most efficiently depends on an organization’s
capacity. Often, evaluation involves both internal staff and external consultants in a joint
effort that can leverage the strengths of each.
43 World Bank 2007.

44 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1999.
45 USAID 2011.

Involving Stakeholders in Evaluation

It is important to involve stakeholders—representatives of all the people with an interest in
the project—in all stages of the evaluation process. Stakeholders fall into three general
categories:46
 People involved in program operations (e.g., staff, partners, funders)
 People served by or affected by the program (e.g., clients, community members, officials)
 People who intend to use the evaluation results (e.g., staff, funders, government, general
public)
It is important to identify and understand stakeholders, whether they are beneficiaries,

project implementers, funders, or another audience. Research has demonstrated the value of
the personal factor, and a key component to successful use of evaluations is “the presence of
an identifiable individual or group of people who personally care about the evaluation and the
finding it generates. Where such a person or group was present, evaluations were used; where
the personal factor was absent, there was a correspondingly marked absence of evaluation
impact.”47
Barriers to Evaluation
If evaluation is important, why does it not always happen or happen well? What stands in the
way? Key factors are:
 Lack of time, knowledge, and skills
 Lack of resources for evaluation, including a limited budget
 Poor project design, for example, evaluation activities not being integrated into project
design
 Start-up activities competing with baseline measurement or delaying baseline
measurement
 Project capacity overwhelmed by complex or overly ambitious evaluation designs
 Fear of the consequences of negative findings
 The perception of M&E as “police work” or “auditing,” that is, a fault-finding exercise
 Arguments by stakeholders that M&E resources would be better spent on program
expansion
 Difficulty convincing others how useful evaluation will be as a learning exercise
 The perception that because no baseline data was collected, it is too late to evaluate
Barriers to program evaluation are worth overcoming so we can learn what works and what
does not enables us to better serve the needs of our communities.
Planning for an Evaluation

Evaluation objectives
Determining the components of your evaluation objectives will be the most challenging
part of the planning process. It is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the possible “things”
that could be measured. It is neither advisable nor feasible to measure everything. Instead,
consider prioritizing your objectives. Ask:
 What is most important for each of your audiences to learn and why?
 What will be done with the knowledge gained?
46 CDC, 1999.
47 Patton, 1997, p. 44.

There are several useful frameworks available to help you choose your priorities and
evaluation questions in a systematic way. Framework 1 is more common across a range of
different types of development programs; however, Framework 2 is applicable specifically for
peacebuilding programs.
Framework 1: Criteria for evaluating development assistance48

The OECD Development Assistance Committee criteria are:
 Relevance  Effectiveness  Efficiency  Impact  Sustainability
Relevance “The extent to which the aid activity is suited to the priorities and policies of the
target group, recipient and funder.” This criterion is used to determine if (and to what
degree) the activity is (still) aligned with ultimate goals and objectives (near- and long-term)
and whether those objectives have changed (as the situation has evolved) or remained the
same.
Example question: To what extent does the concentration of aid on peacebuilding
correspond to the needs in the communities?
Effectiveness “A measure of the extent to which an aid activity attains its objectives.” This
criterion is focused on determining if and why or why not the activity is (or is not) working in
a way such that the activity’s goals have been or are on the right track to being achieved.
Example question: To what extent has the aid contributed to reduced incidents of
violence?
Efficiency A measure of “the outputs—qualitative and quantitative—in relation to the

inputs.” This criterion examines cost-effectiveness and timeliness (internally and as
compared to other approaches).
Example question: Have implementation techniques allowed the same results to be
achieved with less budget?
Impact “The positive and negative changes produced by a development intervention,

directly or indirectly, intended or unintended.” This criterion looks deeper into the effects of
interventions and considers higher-level outcomes, impacts, and peacebuilding goals. An
example question for a peacebuilding program could be: What is the long-term impact of TH
initiatives on peace and reconciliation in project areas?
Sustainability Measures “whether the benefits of an activity are likely to continue after
funder funding has been withdrawn. Projects need to be environmentally as well as
financially sustainable.” This criterion takes a longer-term view than even impact to look at
whether interventions resulted in perpetual long-term changes. This is the most difficult of
the criteria in this model to assess.
Example question: To what extent has the aid contributed to durable peace in the
communities?
Framework 2: Conflict transformation framework49

The following framework, taken from Church and Rogers (2006), follows the same evaluation
criteria as Framework 1, but includes detailed examples of data to evaluate for peacebuilding
programs particularly (organized along themes).
48 Framework information and all quotes taken from OECD Development Assistance Committee, n.d.
49Church & Rogers, 2006, as modified from Church, C., & J. Shouldice. 2002. The Evaluation of Conflict
Resolution Interventions: Framing the State of Play. Belfast, U.K.: INCORE at Ulster University. p. 100.

Theme 1: Goals and assumptions This theme explores the justifications for specific
interventions and their methodologies.
Relevance
 Attempts to discover whether a given intervention is appropriate for the situation (context
and conflict), which has likely changed since initial program design
 Assesses whether the intervention is still the appropriate means by which to achieve
ultimate peacebuilding goals
 Closely related to conflict and context assessment and monitoring
 Important in highly volatile environments
 Should be pared with outcome identification (Theme 3) to truly understand the
intervention’s effectiveness
 Is more often included as part of formative evaluations than summative evaluations
Strategic Alignment
 Determines whether program activities and intended outcomes are aligned with
organizational values and mission
 Primarily used to validate internal assumptions about whether a project fits within an
organization’s mandate (at a local or international level) or if it has gone off course
 Is distinct from looking at an intervention’s alignment with national strategic
peacebuilding efforts
Theme 2: Effectiveness and efficiency This theme looks at what was done and the
extent to which it was done efficiently.
Management and administration

 Explores communication effectiveness, team dynamics and supervision, logistical
effectiveness, and other administrative and managerial processes
 Determines how well the program is operating (or was operated) and whether the overall
process and individual components were efficient
 Useful to consider if resources could have been more-efficiently used if the project was
done another way
Cost accountability
 Examines the cost-effectiveness of the intervention
 Asks if resources were spent wisely (efficiently) and were accounted for appropriately
 Practical applications include budget management, funder reporting, and cost projecting
 Goal is not simply spending as little money as possible, but the best possible use of
resources given the challenges and realities of operating in a time of conflict
Implementation process appraisal

 Focused on the quality processes employed in the intervention
 Examines how well things are done with respect to known or established standards
 Looking in-depth at how activities are carried out is critical for establishing what does and
does not work; identification of poor processes can explain poor results
 Valuable for projects promoting innovative activities or models

Theme 3: Range of results This theme measures outputs, outcomes, and impacts of
the intervention(s).
Output identification
 Measures near-term, (often) tangible results
 Determines what happened and to what degree (how much/many)
 Very commonly collected data; useful for meeting funder requirements and monitoring
specific, countable targets
 Can have reasonable and reliable information earlier in project timeline than outcome or
impact assessments
Outcome identification
 Assesses the changes brought about by the intervention
 Steps beyond “what happened” to “what happened next” and “to whom”
 Looks at both positive and negative, intentional and unintentional outcomes
 Essential to look both at outcomes related to program objectives and other possible
outcomes not initially considered50
Impact assessment51
 Evaluates the role of an intervention’s outcomes in the larger conflict
 Determines the extent to which the outcomes of activities and processes lead to changes
in the overall conflict.
 Should include both positive and negative, direct and indirect, intentional and
unintentional consequences
Adaptability of change
 Explores the extent to which change is both sustainable and adaptable
 Asks whether the initial changes seen will be able to withstand and adjust with the
changing environment52
 Requires an extended program cycle to observe changes and adaptation to new conflict
scenarios
Writing an Evaluation Purpose Statement

Deciding on the purpose of the evaluation should begin only after the program logic is clear
and stakeholders are engaged. At its most basic, the purpose will be to see whether the
program is having the desired results. But, the formal statement of purpose goes one step
further; it helps answer the question, “Why do we want to know these answers?”
50Looking only at anticipated program outcomes is a criticism of many M&E practices. Looking for more open-
ended views of change helps ensure that results don’t just include what we looked for or wanted to happen. We can
miss out on other outcomes simply by not asking questions outside the scope of our objectives. See Stave, 2011.
51 It
is important to reiterate that in this context impact assessment implies looking at long-term, broader-scale
changes on the community that result from activities and processes among smaller populations within that
community. Identifying impacts does not necessarily prove causality; that is, even if you can prove that a large
change (impact) has occurred, you cannot attribute it to a specific intervention component. The systems that
influence change are vast and complex, and isolating the factors that lead to change is impossible in some
situations. This distinction is important because the term impact assessment is sometimes used to describe an
evaluation whose goal is attribution. Such studies are highly controlled, costly, and difficult to implement, even in
stable environments.
52For example, consider a reconciliation program that is successful in reducing people’s view of “the other” and
lessens incidences of violence and feelings of animosity between the groups. If a new “other” group migrates to the
region, will the same principles be applied and lessen the likeliness that violence and/or animosity will grow with
the new group?

There may be a need to justify the program to policymakers or funders by proving that
resources are being used efficiently. You may want to improve the program or strengthen the
organizations that are a part of it. There are many possible purposes for evaluations.
But, no matter what they are, a clear and well-written purpose statement is important for
clarifying the aim of the evaluation so much so that it is often required when planning
evaluations and writing grant proposals.
Key questions to be addressed in the purpose statement are:

 What will be evaluated?
 Why are we conducting the evaluation?
 How will the findings from the evaluation be used?
Another way to write the purpose statement is to complete the blanks in the following
sentence.
We are conducting an evaluation of [name of program] to find
out ________________________________________________
and will use that information in order to __________________.
This purpose statement is an essential part of the evaluation TOR.
Evaluation Questions
Evaluation questions used to better
All managers have questions about the understand results of peacebuilding efforts
programs they manage. The following  Did we meet or exceed our written objectives? If
questions are the raw material for our stated objective was not reached, why not?
creating evaluation questions.  Did we develop mechanisms to receive feedback
on our progress throughout the project? Which
 Is the program making a
feedback methods allowed us to alter strategies
difference? in a timely manner and measure our impact?
 Is the course of action we’re
 Did the campaign result in positive change in the
following the best way to do
lives of our beneficiaries?
things?
 Are there fewer conflicts in project areas?
 Are the participants benefiting
from the program as expected?  Is there more cooperation between communities
in conflict?
An evaluation question is different  Have perceptions changed? Are people more
than the evaluation purpose tolerant or less prone to partake in conflict?
(discussed above), but the evaluation  Did our work have any unintended side effects?
questions should help to fulfill the
evaluation purpose. For example, if
the purpose is to influence policymakers to fund similar programs in other parts of the
country, it might be appropriate to ask:
 How did the communities that received the program benefit, compared with those that
did not?
 How cost-effective was the program?
 What elements of the program were most important in creating the desired outcomes?
On the other hand, if the evaluation purpose is to show program staff how to improve the
program, you might ask:
 How do participants of the program perceive it?
 What are the program’s strengths and weaknesses?
 Why did some program sites perform better than others?

What is evaluation design?

The evaluation design is the plan for answering the key evaluation questions. Evaluation
design is critical to the evaluation process and should begin as soon as program planning
begins. The evaluation design process should involve key stakeholders.
The design specifies:

 Which people or units will be evaluated
 How they will be selected
 The kinds of comparisons that should be made
 By what approach the comparisons will be made
 The evaluation’s timing
 The intervals at which groups will be studied
Overview of Evaluation Approaches

Programs can be evaluated using several approaches. There are quantitative
approaches and qualitative approaches and many ways to use them both. These
approaches are often called methods, this manual uses the term approaches, because each
actually encompass a variety of specific methodologies. More detail on the various
approaches can be found in Chapter 3 of Pact’s MERL Module 3; however, Table 8.3
succinctly summarizes qualitative versus quantitative approaches. Many solid evaluation
designs strive to include both qualitative and quantitative approaches, called mixed
methods.
Table 8.3: Features of qualitative and quantitative approaches

Approach
characteristic Qualitative approaches Quantitative approaches
Aim Identify common themes and Classify features, count them,
patterns in how people think about compare them, and construct
and interpret something statistical models that explain what
is observed as precisely as possible
Evaluator May only know roughly in advance Decides in advance what he/she is
relationship to results what he/she is looking for looking for
Data form Words, ideas, pictures, or objects Numbers
Research focus Focuses on fewer selected cases, Measures a limited range of
people, or events responses (forced answer) from
more people
Main advantage of Greater depth and detail is possible Facilitates comparison and
approach statistical aggregation for concise
conclusions
Analysis methods Categories for analysis must be Uses standardized measures that fit
developed and are specific to the various opinions and experiences
particular evaluation into predetermined categories, often
using questions that have been
verified and tested in other
programs or studies
Approach to the Can ask questions about the Views components of a program
program program holistically or about separately and uses data from the
specific parts of a program different pieces to describe the whole

Creating Evaluation Worksheets

There are two different planning documents that should be considered when planning your evaluation. First, the evaluation worksheet
provides a structured outline used to design your evaluation and describes the evaluation’s objectives, questions, and information you will
collect to answer them and how you will get that information, among other things (Table 8.4). The Terms of Reference (TOR) is another
planning tool, described after Table 8.4.
Table 8.4: Example evaluation worksheet
What needs to be How will we obtain the
evaluated? (key result data? (method) Attach
area or other key What evaluation questions should survey instruments as When will we obtain
tenets of program) we be asking? appropriate the data? (dates) Who will be involved?
Example: Progress made Outputs (process evaluation) Review of monitoring Quarterly Community members
in reducing violence in  What have we delivered in terms of data
conflict areas short-term change or as an immediate
result of our activities?
E.g.: # people involved in TH
 Can we claim knowledge or Focus groups with October 2015 Community leaders
understanding, skills, or capacity community members
change? Were there any changes
relating to improved access or quality?
E.g.: Improved level of tolerance
toward other community (survey)
 What evidence do we have to illustrate Key informant interviews October 2015 All key stakeholders and
these changes actually occurred? with local officials staff
Outcomes (summative evaluation)
 What has been achieved as a result of
the outputs?
E.g.: Decrease in incidents of violence Survey of community October to November Community members
members 2015 (likely a sample of
 Have people changed their behaviors,
community members)
the way they interact with other
communities, and/or their underlying
attitudes?

The Evaluation Terms of Reference

The second planning tool, the TOR, is a comprehensive, written plan for the evaluation. After
completing an evaluation plan, you are ready to create the TOR to either solicit an external
evaluator to conduct an external evaluation or for your own purposes if your team is
conducting an internal evaluation. Essentially, the TOR describes the scope of work. It
assigns roles and responsibilities, activities, and methodologies and is more narrative in form
than an evaluation plan.
Developing the TOR yields a shared understanding of the evaluation’s specific purposes,
questions, objectives/themes, the design and data collection approach, the resources
available, the roles and responsibilities of different evaluation team members, the timelines,
and other fundamental aspects of the evaluation. The TOR facilitates clear communication of
evaluation plans to people inside and outside of the organization/project.
Importantly, if the evaluation will be external, the TOR helps communicate expectations to
and then managing the consultant(s). Because external evaluators are less familiar with the
project than the individuals commissioning them, it is important to have a TOR that clearly
sets forth all the necessary background, specifically to alert the evaluator to the questions that
are most important to stakeholders.
Key components of a TOR are:

1. Overview of the evaluation
2. Brief description of the program
3. Purpose of the evaluation
4. Evaluation questions
5. Evaluation methodology/approach
6. Ethical considerations
7. Implementation information: schedule and logistics, evaluation team
8. Reporting and dissemination plan
9. Application guidelines: budget, timeline
Table 8.5: Components of a Terms of Reference53

Component Description
Overview Summarizes the type and scope of the evaluation, what is being evaluated,
and where
Introduces the project to potential project partners, staff, and/or
consultants
Program description Summarizes what is being done (the interventions), the projects’
or intermediary and long-term objectives (outcomes and impacts), and
where and with whom the project is taking place
Organization overview
Describes the scale and timing of the project
Provides an overview of the implementing organization
Purpose of the evaluation: Distinguishes the evaluation goals and objectives from those of the project
 Goal Provides further detail of the evaluation plan, including lines of inquiry
 Objectives (the broad questions we seek to answer) organized by theme,
 Questions methodologies to be employed, and audiences
 Audience Example:
 Methods/approach Project goal: to increase peace in community X
53 Church & Rogers, 2006 and OECD Development Assistance Committee, 2008.

Component Description
Project objective 1: to decrease instances of domestic violence in the
community
Evaluation goal: to improve the processes and programs offered by our
organization to promote peacebuilding
Evaluation objective 1: To determine whether co-ed educational
programs are more effective at decreasing domestic violence than single-
sex programs
Evaluation approach: Household survey and key informant interviews
with community leaders
Ethical considerations Requiring informed consent
Ensuring data is not traceable to individuals (de-identified data sets)
Implementation plan: Describes logistical components of the implementation plan
 Schedule and logistics Describes what is needed of the evaluator or evaluation team sought,
 Evaluation team similar to a job description
Reporting and Explains requirements for report format
dissemination plan Explains how the evaluator hands the raw data
Specifies how the report will be disseminated and to whom
Application guidelines Provides information for external consultants and survey firms who wish
 Budget guidelines to apply to offer their services
 Timeline Explains how to submit applications and by which date
 Contact details

 There is no one universally accepted definition of evaluation, but many of the
definitions refer to evaluation as being systematic, specific to a program or project, and
able to answer different types of questions.
 Evaluations can be designed to take place periodically or continuously alongside
implementation. Three types of periodic evaluation are: baseline, midterm, and endline.
 You cannot evaluate everything during an evaluation, so it is important to use existing
frameworks to identify your priorities in a systematic way.
 Evaluations are often outsourced, so it is import to use a template to develop scopes of
work or terms of reference with ease.
Learning Activity: Create an evaluation plan

Write an evaluation purpose statement
Reflecting on your organization’s context, write an evaluation purpose statement for your
program by filling in the blanks in the following sentence.
We are conducting an evaluation of ____________________ [name of program] in
order to find out __________________________________________________,
and we will use the information to _____________________________________.
Crafting evaluation worksheets
Take a few minutes to think about your own program, your work on your organization’s
evaluation purpose statement, and your organization’s context. Identify key potentially
relevant evaluation questions for your program and jot them and all relevant information
down on the evaluation worksheet in Table 8.6.

Table 8.6: Evaluation worksheet

How will we obtain
What needs to be the data? (method)
evaluated? (key result Attach survey When will we
area or other key tenets What evaluation questions should we be instruments as obtain the Who will be
of program) asking? appropriate data? (dates) involved?

Chapter 9: Learning
Chapter Objectives
 Some best practices for organization/project learning
 The basics of the adaptive management approach
 How to develop a learning agenda
Learning Activity
 Create a learning agenda
Overview
Learning is an essential component of strong organizations and projects. It directly builds
on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and uses the findings from M&E activities to strengthen
program design and best practices. Learning is most successful when it:
 Comes in the form of regular performance data learning reviews, i.e., scheduling and
holding periodic learning reviews with the technical team and partners to review
performance and discuss any changes in approach that may be necessary
 Also occurs post-evaluation and includes action planning (course-correction if necessary)
 Involves funders, project beneficiaries, and other stakeholders
Using an Adaptive Management Approach

Adaptive management is an approach to evaluation, learning, and decision-making that
involves a cycle of planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, research, and
subsequent re-examination of management decisions based on new information that may
alter existing plans and priorities.
In its simplest form, adaptive management is action in response to learning.
Adaptive management is ideal for learning about and understanding complex systems and
structures because it recognizes that systems are inherently changing and unpredictable.54
Adaptive management copes with the uncertainties by monitoring decision-making results
and by re-examining choices in light of these results and based on new information that
becomes available.
The ability of adaptive management to provide learning opportunities and foster

programming responses to complex systems makes it especially valuable in the peacebuilding
field, where contexts remain extremely dynamic. Many managers of peacebuilding programs
already engage in this type of assessment and analysis. By further incorporating adaptive
management processes, peacebuilding programs can formalize learning to ensure sound
programming decisions.
Adaptive management requires intentionally building a series of information feedback loops

into project management during the design phase. This establishes clear pathways for sharing
knowledge and information on the project from early stages of implementation. With
feedback loops engrained into the project from the start, there will be routine opportunities
54The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has written about the local systems approach in a
paper that explains how development programming can best work within existing systems. See Local Systems: A
Framework for Supporting Sustained Development, available at https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-
framework.
Chapter 9: Learning | page 74

to engage in learning around contextual changes and project outcomes, which will feed
directly into project decision-making.
During the design phase, projects should identify key sources of information and create clear
mechanisms for capturing and learning from this information. Practical examples of
information sources are listed below. When considering sources, projects should keep in
mind that the goal is not to gather more information, but to carefully consider what types of
information is most useful to inform their decisions.
 Consultations with key informants
 Basic field visit reports
 Project monitoring data
 Discrete applied political economy analyses (APEAs) and/or conflict analyses
 Beneficiary feedback mechanisms (like community scorecards, social audits, etc.)
 Close monitoring of news and social media
As part of this process, projects should include consideration for how frequently managers
want to make substantive pivots to the project. The context of the project also should be
considered. A highly volatile context may need more frequent information review, such as on
a weekly basis, to inform resource deployment, while a more stable context might only
necessitate quarterly learning reviews of key environmental and/or programmatic
information.
The adaptive management approach requires that we periodically evaluate activities and
revisit our results frameworks, hypotheses, and cause-and-effect linkages (the premises on
which an organization selects activities to carry out) to ensure they are still valid based on
what we have learned.
Developing a Learning Agenda

Regardless of which type of learning format an organization has planned to use, it initially
needs to identify what it wants to learn, how it will learn, and how frequently the learning will
be done; these are the foundations of the learning agenda.
Learning agendas are similar to evaluation plans, but differ in some key ways. While
questions in the evaluation plan may be similar to those in the learning agenda, the latter
enables the program/project/organization to plan for how it will ensure that improvements
are made along the way based on learning from immediate processes, experiences, and
activity outputs. Also, evaluations tend to be more rigorous in their methodology and analysis
because findings are often published for use by stakeholders outside the organization.
Learning agenda questions do not necessarily require as much rigor because findings are
used internally to inform continuous program improvement.
Developing a learning agenda includes the following steps. Table 9.1 provides an example of a
completed learning agenda that includes information for all these steps.
1. Determine the components of your program you want to learn about and identify what
needs to be assessed. To do this, review your implementation plan, deliverables, and
results framework and identify key components, sub-components, or other aspects of
your program that you will analyze in terms of your organization’s efficiency to
implement them and/or their effectiveness in obtaining results.
2. Clarify what you want to learn about each component you identified and determine the
questions you will answer. Also review the planned deliverables, results frameworks, and
indicators for this step. Example questions are:

 What has been learned from the project that can contribute to improved program
implementation or to building relevant knowledge in the peacebuilding field?
 What do we want to know about the subject?
 What was changed as a result of our program?
 How do targeted stakeholders perceive our programs?
 What sort of reach do we have?
 How many home visits are we supporting?
 How was the target population affected?
 How much money did we spend?
For example, if you determine that the training component should be evaluated, you
might ask what evidence is available to show that the training implemented has resulted
in new ways of doing things or increased participant knowledge and skills.
3. Identify how you will obtain the data. What data do you already have to help analyze this
issue, and what data do you need to be able to answer your questions? For example, will
you need to facilitate a focus group discussion, hire a research consultant, hold a staff
meeting, or use data from specific indicators?
4. Identify who should be involved in answering the questions and in participating in
analysis of the answers.
5. Determine deadlines for obtaining the data and conducting the analysis. Do you need the
information every month, each quarter, at the end of the project, etc.?
6. Identify how you plan to document the things you have learned, disseminate findings,
adapt your program activities, and/or update underlying premises or results frameworks,
thus altering the program design.
Ensuring Learning Processes are Participatory

To ensure that a breadth of opinion is captured relating to organizational/program
performance and because learning initiatives include important capacity development and
growth dimensions, they should be as participatory as possible. Stakeholder involvement in
learning promotes a sense of partnership among all the key people and/or groups interested
in the organization. A participatory process is essential to provide insight into programs and
analysis of how well the needs of different stakeholders are being met. A variety of different
perspectives is particularly helpful in analyzing unintended consequences and sustainability
of activities.

 Learning is an important aspect for any program that wants to continually improve
programming and increase chances of achieving the desired results.
 Adaptive management is one method for programs that choose to conduct learning. It
involves a cycle of planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, research, and
subsequent re-examination of management decisions.
Learning Activity: Create a learning agenda

Consider your evaluation objectives from Chapter 8 and identify the types of questions you
would like answered during your program implementation. Complete the learning agenda
matrix in Table 9.2 (on the next page) to address a couple of these objectives and questions.

Table 9.1: Example learning agenda
Which Who should be When and how

program Which involved in When will we will we
components do questions do What data do What further either giving obtain the disseminate
we want to we want we have to help data will we input or information or the data and
learn more answered or us analyze this need to analyzing conduct adapt our
about? explored? question/topic? acquire? information? analysis? program?
The trauma Do our TH Pre/post Interviews and Program staff At the beginning Pre and post-test
healing (TH) sessions lead to questionnaires surveys with TH and end of each training results
TH participants
activities across increased participants and TH session collect discussed at
Most Significant
two communities understanding of community Other community pre- and post-test quarterly
Change stories
during our five- the relation members during members data program review
from TH
year project between trauma mid and end term meetings
participants 3–6 months after
and conflict? evaluations to
completing the MSC stories
Attendance establish actions
What kinds of TH sessions, analyzed annually
records for the taken towards
resolutions do TH collect MSC and findings
TH sessions reconciliation
participants make stories discussed at the
that demonstrate annual reflection
Midterm
willingness to meeting
forgive or reconcile Endline
Midterm and
with the other
endline assessment
community(ies)?
completed in years
What are we 3 and 5
learning about the
Following
kind of
midterm, results
community
framework
members to target
reviewed for
for TH sessions?
remaining project

Which Who should be When and how

program Which involved in When will we will we
components do questions do What data do What further either giving obtain the disseminate
we want to we want we have to help data will we input or information or the data and
learn more answered or us analyze this need to analyzing conduct adapt our
about? explored? question/topic? acquire? information? analysis? program?
Peace dividends Are peace Quarterly peace Interviews and Program staff Quarterly during Peace dividend
in corridors dividends dividend surveys with the quarterly utilization reports
Community
between two benefitting two or utilization reports participants to review meetings and context
members
communities more establish if peace updates discussed
Stories of Most 6-12 months after
communities? dividends are at quarterly
Significant completing
changing program review
Are peace Change resulting construction of
attitudes and meetings
dividends from the peace the peace
behaviors during
contributing to dividend dividend collect MSC stories
the mid and end
increased MSC stories from analyzed annually
Context updates line evaluations.
interaction among members of the and findings
from program Are communities
members of two communities discussed at the
staff and more willing to
previously annual reflection
implementing reconcile? What Midterm and
conflicting meeting
partners reconciliation endline
communities?
actions have they evaluations Midterm and
Observation of
Are certain peace taken? endline
how members
dividends more evaluation
from different Changing context
inclined to completed in
communities are through periodic
increase years 3 and 5
accessing the context analysis
interaction
peace dividend Following
between
midterm, results
communities than
framework
others?
reviewed for
remaining project

Table 9.2: Learning agenda matrix

Who should be When and how
Which program Which questions involved in When will we will we
components do do we want What data do we either giving obtain the disseminate
we want to learn answered or have to help us What further input or information or the data and
more about or evaluated/ analyze this data will we need analyzing conduct adapt our
evaluate? explored? question/topic? to acquire? information? analysis? program?

Chapter 10: Reporting

Chapter Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
 What reporting consists of
 Why reporting results, milestones, and successes to stakeholders is important
 Different types of reports and communication tools typically produced by organizations
 Formats for quarterly and final project reports
 How to write success stories
Learning Activity
 Review progress reports
Overview
Reporting, or communicating your project results, milestones, and successes to stakeholders,
is an essential component to ensuring that the information you collect is put to its best
possible use. It is important to know who can best use the data and how. You also need to
know how to turn the data into useful knowledge that can be used by decision-makers. This
chapter will show you how to easily turn your monitoring, evaluation, and learning data into
reports and communication tools that can be broadly distributed among a wide range of
audiences and that are useful both for your management and your funders.
Introduction to Reporting
A report is a compilation of descriptive information. It is a communication tool to present
monitoring, evaluation, and research results by presenting raw data and information as
knowledge. A report is an opportunity for project implementers to inform themselves and
others (stakeholders, partners, funders, etc.) on the progress, difficulties encountered,
successes, and lessons learned during implementation of programs and activities.
Reporting enables assessment of progress against work plans and helps focus audiences on
the results of activities, enabling the improvement of subsequent work plans. Reporting helps
form the basis for decision-making and learning at the program level. Reporting also
communicates how effectively and efficiently the program is meeting its objectives.
Effective reporting and communication plays an important role in peacebuilding by providing

accurate and unbiased information to populations affected by conflicts and by proactively
delivering programs that aim to impact knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the population
taking part in peacebuilding efforts. Reporting also can enhance receptivity, a sense of
ownership and partnership when shared with community members and stakeholders, and is
an effective process for promoting accountability and transparency by project partners.
A good report:
 Focuses on results and accomplishments within the context of the project
 Assesses performance over the past reporting period, using established indicators,
schedules, baselines, and targets
 States explicitly whether and how much progress or results surpassed, met, or fell short of
expectations and why
 Specifies actions to overcome problems and accelerate performance, where necessary
 Explains the influence of comparative performance by objectives on the resources needed
 Identifies the need to adjust resource allocations, indicators, or targets, where necessary
Chapter 10: Reporting | page 80

 Discusses the way forward for programming in light of the findings; annual or final
reports also may address prospects of successful program closeout and expected
sustainability of results
Identifying Appropriate Communication Tools

Funders often require four types of communication, in addition to regular financial
information:
 Events and incident reports
 Written progress reports (quarterly and annual)
 Evaluation reports (baseline, midterm, and endline)
 Final performance report
However, reporting should not end with funder requirements. Other types of communication
tools you could use include:
 Oral presentations/lectures  Formal academic papers and books
 Discussion sessions/community meetings  Visual presentations (e.g., videos, photos)
 Informal contacts and conversations  Internet, email, and websites
 Press and media releases  Plays, music, and dances
 Brochures and pamphlets
Use the following steps to determine the most appropriate communication tools for your
organization or project’s needs.
1. Identify your audiences’ information needs. For each audience, ask yourself what key
information you want to communicate.
2. Determine how you will report to each audience by selecting a tool/format that best suits
the information you want to convey. Think about their primary interest in the
organization/project to help you decide on the data to report.
3. Review your information database and identify what data you have to address that
interest.
Reporting Schedule
Table 10.1 illustrates one way to manage various reports required by funders, internal staff,
and other stakeholders. The process for writing, compiling, and submitting reporting, as
shown in the table, occurs in order from left to right.

Table 10.1: Example reporting schedule
Person writing Information

Type of report the report Time frame source Reviewers Submitter Submitted to
Incident Partner organization Immediately after Program staff and M&E manager and Field staff from the Primary recipient
staff conflict occurs beneficiaries peacebuilding staff partner organization
or primary recipient
Conflict assessment Sub-grantee/partner With each quarterly Incident reports, Primary recipient’s Project lead or head Primary recipient
organization staff report APEA study, and peacebuilding staff from the partner
project records organization
Partner quarterly Sub-grantee/partner 15 days after the end Activity leads and Head of the Project lead and/or Primary recipient
organization of the quarter activity records partner/sub-grantee head of partner
and the primary organization
recipient M&E
manager
Quarterly Primary recipient’s 30 days after the end Partner reports and Chief of party (COP) COP or DCOP Funder
programmatic technical staff and of the quarter project or deputy chief of
M&E manager records/database party (DCOP) and
technical leads
Annual Primary recipient’s Thirty days after the Partner’s/sub- COP or DCOP and COP or DCOP Funder
programmatic technical staff and end of the project recipient’s quarterly technical staff, plus
M&E manager year reports and project headquarters staff
records/database
Program/project Evaluation Following the Study data and COP and M&E Evaluation Funder
evaluation consultant baseline, midterm, project information manager consultant to
and final evaluations primary recipient
and primary
recipient to funder

Generic Outline for Quarterly and Annual Progress Reports

Quarterly and annual progress reports are the most common and important format for
conveying information about a project to its funder(s), partners, and stakeholders. Progress
reports should focus on presenting in a concise format the advances (or lack thereof) made on
a project during a specific quarter or year. The report should maintain a neutral tone and
should discuss any “failings” and “challenges” directly and dispassionately.
Quarterly reports often are laid out in the following manner.
1. Executive summary or highlights

This section describes and summarizes the significant activities and results during the
reporting period, either in paragraph form or laid out as bulleted highlights, depending on
funder requirements. While the information conveyed here should be addressed more fully
elsewhere in the report, the executive summary or highlights may be the only portion of the
report many people will read. So, this section, in a maximum of two pages, should briefly
describe the:
 Program background
 Qualitative progress/impact
 Quantitative progress/impact
 Constraints and opportunities
 Program administration
 Subsequent quarter’s work plan (omit this section in an annual report)
2. Introduction/program background
This section should include standard language in one to two paragraphs about the project’s
objectives, beneficiaries, and funders and what the report includes.
3. Key achievements (qualitative progress)

Provide a narrative description of the key achievements during the reporting period. Sort
results by location or other geographic region or by type of project activity, as appropriate.
The structure of this section should closely follow the project’s conceptual framework so the
reader can easily see the relationship between activities (outputs) and the resultant
achievements (outcomes).
4. Key achievements (quantitative progress)

Provide a quantitative description of the key achievements of the reporting period, and
complete the indicators table provided in the reporting template with the basic data required
to assess progress toward achievement of targets under each development objective.
5. Other performance monitoring updates

In a maximum of one page, describe other performance monitoring activities conducted in
the reporting period not explained in above sections. If data quality issues were identified,
please explain any action(s) proposed or taken to address any/all issues. Where possible,
please include additional performance or learning information that was collected during
routine monitoring activities (e.g., site visits, pre- and post-tests). Raw data collection
materials (e.g., site visit forms) may be included as attachments.

6. Constraints, opportunities, and lessons learned

In a maximum of one page, address any significant operational challenges, including changes
in scheduled or planned implementation tasks and/or issues related to coordinating tasks.
Discuss changes in activities that may be required due to practical considerations “on the
ground,” including any changes in scheduled or planned implementation tasks. If activity
resources need realignment or new “windows of opportunity” have opened, discuss these as
options. This discussion should be limited to statements of facts and conclusions that might
be drawn from the facts. If issues from the previous reporting period remain significant, be
frank and open in discussing any step(s) toward their resolution.
This section also can include agreements between you and your funder to take specific
actions. If decisions are made (in consultation with the funder) to either change the
geographic location or the strategic elements being emphasized in the activity, they should be
noted here for the official record. If contract modification or amendments are needed, they
can be described in the administrative review section.
7. Administrative review
In a maximum of one page, discuss the status of your program administration. During the
reporting period, were there any changes in staffing/management, institutional
strengthening plan actions, contract modifications or amendments to the program?
8. Progress on funder priorities

In a maximum of a half page, identify any contributions to funder priorities, such as Value for
Money,55 localization of foreign aid,56 environmental impact or gender. It is appropriate to
discuss how the project’s focus reflects the signature campaigns of or global initiatives for
project funders.
Examples of funder priorities could include:

a. Progress on counter-terrorism and violent extremism
In a maximum of a half page, provide an update on the national or local government’s
terrorism-prevention programs, while looking at effectiveness of nongovernmental,
community-based initiatives and the program being implemented in countering violent
extremism in the conflict areas.
b. Progress on climate change and natural resource management
Many rural populations are heavily reliant on natural resources for their livelihoods. In a
paragraph, describe how violent conflict has influenced vulnerability to climate change
and natural resource impacts during the reporting period for people living in affected
areas. In addition, discuss stress that climate change is having on these resources and
how conflict-related barriers to accessing pasture and water for livestock may increase
negative coping mechanisms in response to climate-related shocks and stresses. Further,
and as applicable, show how violent conflict erodes the possibility of collaborative natural
resource management, which is crucial for adaptive capacity to climate change.
55Value for Money is a DFID requirement. Guidelines are available at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/67479/DFID-approach-value-
money.pdf.
56Localization of foreign aid is a USAID requirement. See
https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/LocalSystemsFramework.pdf.

9. Following quarter’s work plan

In a maximum of one page, expand on the amount of detail from the annual work plan for the
subsequent quarter, either by listing action items or offering a three-month table, calendar,
or timeline describing the completion of an activity, such as in Table 10.2. You may omit this
step in an annual report or final performance report.
Table 10.2: Example projected work plan for the following quarter
January to March 2015
Activity January February March
Program start-up and cross-cutting issues
Cross-cutting and start-up activities
Result 1.1: Communities more open to social reconciliation
Activity 1.1.1: Trauma healing
Activity 1.1.2: Peace dividends
Activity 1.1.3: Cultural adaptation
Result 1.2: Communities peacebuilding capacities mobilized
Activity 1.2.1: Promote local peacebuilding leadership
Activity 1.2.2: Promote youth leadership and engagement
opportunities
Activity 1.2.3: Expand the impact of peacebuilding
organizations
Activity 1.2.4: Establish/strengthen peace networks
Result 1.3: Local governments partner with their cross-border counterparts and
communities in conflict management
Activity 1.3.1: Promote emergence of local-government
peacebuilding leadership
Activity 1.3.2: Expand impact of local-government
peacebuilding initiatives
Activity1.3.3: Promote partnership between local
government and peace networks
Generic Outline for Final Performance Report

Funders usually require that recipients submit a final performance report at the end of the
funding cycle. Final reports often are laid out in the following manner.
1. Executive summary
This section captures the essence of the report and provides an overview of its contents. It is
the last section to be written and does not exceed two pages.
2. Introduction
This section presents a very concise overview of the need for and history of this program in a
couple paragraphs. It describes the results, objectives, context, and activities that were
anticipated under the program during the period of agreement.

3. Methods and approach

This section briefly describes, in at most a page, the methods and approaches used to
implement the program.
4. Results/impact
This section compares planned versus actual achievements. In this section, you should:
 Summarize program accomplishments or failings
 Present findings as to why progress toward planned results was unexpectedly positive or
negative
 Present findings on how well needs of different customers were met (e.g., by gender, age,
ethnic group)
 Present indicator results/tables and anecdotal information to support findings
 Assess the value of the program’s contribution and clarify exactly how the achievement of
your objectives contributed to the development outcome and impact
 Review the validity of hypotheses and assumptions underlying the results framework
based on lessons learned in implementation
 Describe mitigating factors that disrupted what was planned and the organization’s
response to the disruption
 Describe the facilitating factors that helped spur results
 Identify and analyze unintended consequences and effects of assistance activities
5. A summary of the prospects for sustainability

In a page or less, describe the progress made in meeting the sustainability objectives of the
program, including the approaches used to build financial sustainability (e.g., local financing,
cost recovery, resource diversification, corporate sponsorships). Present any cost leveraging
achieved during the project. Identify what the beneficiary communities say about sustaining
project services through alternative funding sources at project close.
6. Review of deliverables
Review the deliverables submitted, preferably in table format for easier reading. Explain any
unfinished work and recommend whether and how it should be completed.
7. Lessons learned/best practices/recommendations for future programs

Distill lessons learned or best practices identified through program implementation that may
be useful elsewhere and/or by others. Recommend how program activities and outputs could
continue or what new programs should/could be developed.
Appendix 1. Fiscal report

Describe the budget in detail, including closeout matters, cost share results, and how any
matching funds were used.

General Writing Tips

 Use active voice, for example:
- Passive: Wells were tested by 80 percent of the participants.
- Active: Eighty percent of the participants tested their wells.
 Use short, complete sentences.
 Write in plain English, using simple words and avoiding jargon.
 Be concise.
 Avoid abbreviations/acronyms.
 Use your name, program name, or county name rather than “this agent,” “I,” “our,” or
“we.”
 Write in paragraph style, with a topic sentence.
Success Stories and Photography

Success stories are human-interest pieces that illustrate project outcomes and impact by
detailing an individual’s or community members’ positive experiences as a result of the
program. They include the when, what, where, how, and why of projects outcomes, similar to
a newspaper article. Appendix 1 presents some general guidelines and tips on how to write
success stories and take photographs, with links to specific examples of success stories from
some key funders.
Success stories are written to:

 Show accountability for public funds and/or funder funds
 Share successes so individuals inside and outside the program can learn from our work
and results
 Illustrate program outcomes and impact
 Demonstrate the “human feel” that numbers often don’t show
Success stories are used:

 To assess team progress in relation to planned activities
 To share information among existing partners and generate interest among potential
partners
 To help partners and the general public better understand the program’s work and value
 For funder reporting purposes, including for funders to report to their stakeholders and
superiors
 To post on program-area websites
 As a source of news stories for local media
 To document activities and accomplishments of program and staff
Photographs are images that convey events or ideas. Photographs are an important
component of success stories and help bring them to life.


 Reporting entails compilation and communicating useful data and information relating
to the program, including for use in decision-making.
 A good report is able to convey required information to the person who needs it when
he/she needs it.
 The most important program reporting tools include quarterly and annual progress
reports, final performance reports, events and incident report forms (both written and
phone submissions).
 Main sections of the quarterly and annual progress reports are the executive
summary/highlights, introduction/background, key achievements (qualitative
progress/impact), key achievements (quantitative progress/impact),
constraints/opportunities/lessons learned, progress on any special funder priority
areas, and subsequent quarter’s work plan (omitted in annual progress reports).
 It is important to observe reporting schedules to ensure information is conveyed to
those who need it on time.
 Success stories with photographs helps communicate change in ways that conventional
reports do not.
Learning Activity: Review progress reports

Review past and recent quarterly and annual progress reports submitted by your program
based on the guidance provided in this chapter. Share with the group some of the obvious
mistakes seen in the report and discuss how best to fix these mistakes.

Chapter 11:
Data Quality and Ethics
Chapter Objectives
 Key data quality management concepts and assessment criteria
 Steps for addressing common anticipated data quality issues during routine data
management processes
 Factors or tips to remember when creating a good data management system
Learning Activities
 Review key data quality issues and indicator plans
The Importance of Ensuring Quality Data

Data quality refers to the accuracy and precision of the information collected against
monitoring and evaluation (M&E) standards. It focuses on ensuring that the process of data
capture, verification, and analysis is of a standard that meets the requirements of an internal
or external data quality assessment (DQA) or audit.
We can select the best indicators and write the best protocols, but if tools are not properly
used and if standards of reporting set by the organization are not respected in terms both of
quality and timeliness, data could be at risk of poor value and/or could be over/under/or
miscounted.
Commonly used Criteria for Assessing Data Quality

There are five key criteria commonly used to assess data quality:
1. Validity 2. Reliability 3. Timeliness 4. Precision 5. Integrity
Issues and risks relating to data quality need to be thought through and documented to
ensure quality standards are developed and maintained. Thus each organization or project
needs to develop and document how it checks the following.
1. If the data adequately represent performance and are thus valid

Specifically, we need to check if there are any issues with:
 Face validity: Is there a solid, logical relation between the activity or program and what
is being measured, or are there significant uncontrollable factors?
 Data transcription: Are steps being taken to limit transcription error (e.g., double
keying of data for large surveys, electronic edit checking program to clean data, random
checks of data entered by supervisors)?
 Sampling methodology: If we report on data where we use a sample (rather than
census- or case study-derived data), we need to be sure there are no significant
measurement or representation errors (i.e., our samples are representative, the survey
questions are clear, response rates were sufficient, the population was appropriate,
sampling methods accurate). We also need to be sure that anyone who is collecting data is
appropriately trained and that we account for potential bias on the data collector’s behalf.
Chapter 11: Data Quality and Ethics | page 89

2. If the data collection processes are stable and consistent over time
and are thus reliable
Are data collection procedures consistent (e.g., from one reporting period to the other, from
location to location, is the same instrument being used)? Are we checking the data to ensure
it is correct and free from errors? Are data problems reported? Would we get the same results
if someone else went out again to collect the same data in the same way?
3. If the data is collected frequently enough and is current, and thus timely
Is data coming in on a frequently enough to inform program management
decisions? For example, are you receiving training feedback data before planning the next
round of training (so as to use learning from those training to shape the upcoming training?)
Do people report when they are supposed to? Data that is required today but not received
until tomorrow might not still be helpful.
4. If the data have an acceptable margin of error and are thus precise
Is the margin of error less than the expected change being measured?
5. If there is data integrity

Are data free from bias or manipulation? Are there procedures in place to reduce the
possibility that data are manipulated for political or personal reasons? Does an independent
review, assessment, or audit of the data take place?
Data Management
Data management process involves collecting, collating, analyzing, reporting, using, and
storing project activity information. There can be no monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and
learning (MERL) without a good data management system, with the components described
below.
1. Data source
This is where the data originates, such as:

 Training sign in sheets
 Village Elders records
 District peace committee meeting minutes
 Community peace agreement records
 Interview transcripts
 Questionnaire responses
2. Data collection
Data collection is the process of gathering data generated from the various activities
implemented by an organization and relevant to an organization’s MERL framework. Data
collection involves obtaining data from original sources and transferring it into tools (paper
or electronic) from which it can be analyzed or transferred to another data analysis system for
analysis and reporting. Many times, data quality is compromised at this stage; therefore, you
should exercise caution during data entry—garbage in, garbage out! See Chapter 12 for tips on
collecting data through electronic means.

3. Data collation
Data collation refers to aggregation of data from different sources, such as different program
sites or different field workers who collect the data, into summarized formats. Collation can
be done electronically using MS Excel spreadsheets or databases or manually using paper-
based systems. For example, you likely want to sum up female and male participants of
different dialogue sessions across regional sites/partners in the quarter to get the total
dialogues conducted and total female and male participants who attended peace dialogues
implemented by the organization in the quarter.
4. Data analysis
Data analysis involves reviewing and manipulating data to assess progress made toward
desired objectives and targets. Analysis enables data users to:
 Associate variables (test underlying theories or assumptions)
 Predict relationships (cause and effect/outcomes)
 Indicate confidence in results
5. Reporting
Reporting entails compiling descriptive data and presenting raw data and information
generated from data analysis as useful knowledge. Reporting provides an opportunity for
project implementers and others to learn about the progress, problems, difficulties
encountered, successes, and lessons from implementing program/project activities.
Remember, if it is not reported it never happened because others do not know about it. See
Chapter 10 for more on reporting.
6. Data use
Data use refers to making timely data-driven decisions that relate to program/project
implementation. Information need to be available when required so it serves the purpose for
which it was collected, then is used for learning.
7. Data storage
Data storage entails securely keeping and maintaining information or data collected for
current and future reference. Data storage is done best when both electronic and hard copy
(original data source documents) are well organized and kept safe.
Getting Started with Developing Systems to Address Data

Quality Issues
The indicator plan and/or protocol provides a starting point for identifying potential issues
that may affect data quality.
To get it right from the start, it is absolutely essential that all indicators are defined upfront to
avoid potential problems with data validity or reliability that could arise from indicator
definitions being unclear. Indicator protocols allow programs to address common data
validity and reliability problems by providing standard definitions of program indicators and
related units of measure.

Staff responsible for MERL must ensure common indicator understanding and interpretation
by program team members who would be involved in collecting or analyzing indicator data
coming through the system at any given time. This could best be done through a team
meeting or partners/stakeholders MERL training. It is also important for the program
manager(s) to consider and determine the likely risks to managing the individual indicator
data right from source to data use.
10 tips for developing a good data
The “data quality issues” section of the standard management system
USAID performance indicator reference sheet
(PIRS)57 allows programs to document all key 1. Keep it simple
2. Make the interface attractive
data-management processes and the
3. Remember only techies read the users’
anticipated data quality risks that may affect guide!
data use. This also allows the program MERL 4. Craft well-defined indicators
and/or program managers to pay attention to 5. Consider user needs
key data quality considerations, such as 6. Ensure compatibility of systems
timeliness of the data, which is addressed by 7. Ensure quality of reports generated
detailing the frequency and timing of data 8. Assign a dedicated database
acquisitions and analysis. Data integrity also is administrator
addressed to some extent by the provision on 9. Watch out for accessibility issues
the indicator protocol to assign responsibility 10. Conduct Back up and maintenance
for data storage along with protocols and
systems necessary to ensure that data remains sure and uncorrupted. However, additional
issues, such as policies addressing data ethics within the organization, are still required to
ensure that data integrity is addressed comprehensively.
Improving Data Quality along the Data-Management Chain

To help ensure data quality at the source:
 Design simple-to-use instruments and correctly implement them
 Include data providers (community stakeholders) and data processors in decisions about
feasible review processes and drafting of instruments
 Ensure all personnel are trained in their assigned task; use the same trainer for all
trainings, if possible
 Develop and document instructions for the data collectors and on the collection forms, as
well as computer or gadget for data-collection procedures
 Develop an appropriate sample
 Ensure all data collection, entry, and analysis needs are available (e.g., pens, paper,
forms, computers, phones, chargers)
 When using technology, make sure to have simple scripts and forms that users will find
easy to understand
To help ensure data quality during collection:

 Develop specific instructions for data collection
 Routinely check to see if instructions are being followed
 Identify what to do if you (or someone) wants to make a change to the data collection
process or if you have problems during data collection (change management process)
 Check to see if people follow the change management process
 Train data collectors on how to collect information
57USAID Performance Indicator Reference Sheet (PIRS):

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/LocalSystemsFramework.pdf

 Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for managing the collected data (moving
data from one point to the next)
 Develop SOPs for revising the collection tool
 Communicate the process and establish processes for supportive supervision of data
collectors
 Conduct on-site reviews during the data collection process
To help ensure data quality during collation:

 Develop checklists and sign off on key steps
 Conduct reviews during the data entry process
 Create an electronic or manual format that includes a data verification process by a
second individual who is not entering the data
 Randomly sample data and verify
 Ensure problems are reported, documented, corrected, communicated, and tracked back
to the source of the problem
To help ensure data quality during analysis:

 Run audit report for review by experts with knowledge for reasonableness
 Ensure analysis techniques meet the requirements for proper use
 Disclose all conditions/assumptions affecting data interpretations
 Ensure that appropriate analysis that is management useful to program managers is
undertaken routinely
 Document changes made to the dataset, including creation of new variables and how they
were calculated
To help ensure data quality during reporting:

 Make sure you have all the data required to back up your report
 Synthesize results for the appropriate audience
 Maintain integrity in reporting: don’t leave out key information
 Engage multiple report reviewers within the organization prior to dissemination
 Protect confidentiality in reports/communication tools
 Review data and provide feedback with stakeholders
 Provide appropriate and easy-to-understand reports based on your audiences’
information needs
To help ensure data quality during use:

 Consistently promote use of the data
 When possible, provide data in terms of spatial or graphic representation
 Routinely make available data at key decision points (e.g., staff meetings, program
review)
 Understand the data’s strengths and weaknesses and incorporate results appropriately
 Build in processes to review how data has been used for decision-making over time
 Take corrective action to enhance data use where necessary
To help ensure data quality during storage:

 Take note of cumulative data and carefully track and store using a secure, accessible, and
well-organized database
 Remember to periodically back up incoming data, if possible in different locations; web-
based storage systems are preferred
 If using raw data, remember to keep it with metadata information for easy retrieval for
future use

 Hard copy or primary information sources need be well filed for future reference and
possible DQAs
 Stored data access needs to be available only to authorized team members as per the data
management protocol; this ensures data remain safely secured
 Consider implementing basic system maintenance tools like “restore” and “check data
integrity” commands
Data Ethics
Data ethics refers to the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person collecting,
collating, reporting, or using data. Common ethical considerations that programs should
make in relation to data include the following.
 Ensure that program participants/beneficiaries are provided with sufficient information
to enable them to make informed decisions about their participation in data collection
efforts. No participant/beneficiary should be coerced to give information.
 Participants need to be made aware of how much privacy/confidentiality/anonymity they
can expect for their responses. This is especially important for peacebuilding programs
where safety is of the utmost concern.
 Programs should take steps to ensure that data is not misrepresented or falsified by
anyone involved in the data-management process.

 Accuracy and precision are important attributes to ensure data is of good quality.
 The five commonly used criteria for assessing data quality are validity, reliability,
timeliness, precision, and integrity.
 Data-management processes involve collecting, collating, analyzing, reporting, using,
and storing project activity information.
 Indicator plans and protocols are the most important tools to start with when assessing
data quality.
 The team leader needs to ensure that indicators are clearly defined to ensure that
everyone involved in data collection and reporting have the same and the correct
understanding of all indicators and data collection methods.
 A good data-management system should be simple with attractive interphase, user
friendly, compatible, accessible, able to produce quality reports, and easy to maintain.
 Data ethics must be observed by all involved with data along the data-management
chain.
Learning Activity: Review key data quality issues and indicator plans
Divide participants into groups and ask them to discuss and identify key data quality issues
likely to affect their indicator data reporting.
Review partner indicator plans to ensure they include measures for addressing any data
quality issues moving forward and have strong indicator definitions.

Chapter 12:
Mobile Technology for Data Collection
Chapter Objectives
 About short message service (SMS)-based data collection versus general packet radio service
(GPRS) data collection
 The benefits of using mobile technology
 How to develop a mobile technology plan
 When to use and not use mobile technology
 How to capture GPS coordinates
Learning Activities
 Brainstorming on mobile technology for data collection
 Evaluating experience with mobile data collection
Overview
Pact’s MERL Module 4: Mobile Technology Handbook58 covers in great detail the use of
mobile technology for data collection. This chapter is an overview of the different types of
mobile data collection platforms available and considerations to make when deciding how to
use mobile technology in a peacebuilding project. Much of this chapter is drawn directly from
MERL Module 4.
Mobile technology already has proven itself a powerful and efficient tool that accelerates
achievement of project objectives and, ultimately, of development goals. Efficiency and
data quality gains have been accepted as the norm for many applications, and the
frontier of possibilities expands daily.
What is information communication technology for

development?
Information communication technology for development (ICT4D) is the application of
common, everyday technologies to the development field. This chapter focuses on mobile
technology (specifically, cellphones and tablets) and how they are used around the world to
accelerate development program goals. Projects from diverse technical areas have adopted
mobile technology to perform:
 Survey data collection  Logistics management information
 Routine monitoring systems
 Dissemination of general or targeted  Mobile banking and cash transfers
information  Coordinating service delivery or referral
 Awareness and sensitization campaigns services
 Beneficiary/patient tracking  Conflict early warning systems
 Surveillance and reporting  Public dialogue
 Crowdsourcing
58Pact. 2013. MERL Module 4: Mobile Technology Handbook. Available at

http://www.pactworld.org/blog/pact%E2%80%99s-mobile-technology-handbook-debuts
Chapter 12: Mobile Technology for Data Collection | page 95

Advantages of Mobile Data Technology

The advantages of using mobile data technology over traditional, paper-based methods
include the following.
 Faster, more accessible data: Data collected in the field with mobile devices can be
submitted and stored online (in the cloud) or on central office servers, allowing for real-
time access to data for analysis and decision-making.
 More reliable data: Collecting data in the field with mobile devices eliminates the need
to enter data from paper into a database, thereby reducing the opportunity for error or
loss.
 Cleaner data: Mobile applications embed skip logic that directs respondents to specific
sections of the questionnaire based on previous responses (e.g., different questions for
males and females). Thus, if skip patterns are correct, data are never entered where they
don’t belong.
 Ability to monitor data collection: By monitoring submitted survey GPS locations
and time stamps you can track field worker performance and quality of incoming data.
 Richer data: Integrated GPS coordinate collection, camera capabilities, and audio
capture broaden the scope and type of information that can be collected.
 Built-in data visualization: In some systems, online interfaces permit data
visualization or have dashboards that allow data to be manipulated, customized,
summarized, or downloaded.
 More than just data: Mobile devices support a range of capabilities beyond data
collection (e.g., mobile banking, patient tracking, crowdsourcing, communication).
Mobile data collection in conflict/post-conflict environments

When working in a fragile, conflict location, data collectors collecting data on paper have to
either arrange for transportation of the data to a centralized location for aggregation and
analysis or ask for data entry to be done then emailed to the central project location. Removing
this step reduces risks for, e.g., data loss, longer data entry time, reduced safety of the
personnel needed to transport the data.
The real-time nature of mobile data collection is beneficial for peacebuilding programs.
Because these programs operate in environments with ever-changing contexts, having real-time
data allows programs to make decisions and reorient strategy if necessary.
A MERL officer with the Pact PEACE III project touts the benefit of using mobile data
collection. “We benefit a lot from the real-time nature of mobile data collection as this helps us
to track partner activities in real-time and hence be able to make decisions faster. Also real-
time incident reporting helps us quickly obtain information on trouble hotspots allowing us to
make quick decisions. The mobile data platform also includes visualization feature that offers
different views of the data such as maps and graphs allowing us to quickly get some insight of
the data in real-time as this gets reported.”

SMS versus GPRS

Data can be transmitted in two main ways using mobile technology: SMS and GPRS.
About using SMS (basic cell phones)

SMS is a system for sending short messages of a fixed length, traditionally a maximum of 160
characters, in English, with other lengths in other languages. Select SMS for your data
collection if:
 You are using basic phones (e.g., if your initiative is using the personal phones of data
collectors who do not own more technologically advanced mobile devices, specifically
Java enabled feature phones or smartphones
 Data submissions are typically 160 characters or fewer in length
 Total data volume is low
 Data collectors lack internet access
 Your project is a small one-off initiative that will not be scaled up
 Data collectors need to send their messages at no cost, that is, if you need the ability to
reverse-bill SMS charges
Example: Using SMS in a peacebuilding project

Setting up an SMS-short code can be an effective way of receiving conflict monitoring or other
such data best gathered from community crowdsourcing. If community members are made aware
of the code, they may text the number about incidents they see, often at no expense to them.
There are ways you can ensure that your project pays for the SMS messages that are sent in,
rather than making the respondents pay for that cost out of their own phone credits.
A word of caution: If you work on a project that crosses country borders, it may be difficult to
set up an SMS system. This is because you would have to set up short codes with various service
providers in the different countries and would not receive the data in one central location. In
addition, using SMS is only appropriate when you have few data items to collect.
About using GPRS (internet)

GPRS is a data-transmission system similar to SMS, but without limits on the number of
characters or transmission size. This is more commonly known simply as “the internet” on
phones. Select GPRS for your data collection if:
 Data collectors are equipped with more Taking GPS Locations
technologically advanced phones (e.g., Java-
enabled feature phones or smartphones) The GPS receiver on a mobile phone can
collect location data even when there is
 You need to submit large volumes of data at no mobile data connection. However,
one time getting an accurate GPS location
 Total data volume is high requires clear view of the sky and good
satellite signal reception. Avoid
 Multimedia data (e.g., photos, videos) will be collecting GPS locations when inside
transmitted buildings or when standing next to large
 Internet access on the phone or via obstructions. If you do not have a clear
intermittent connection to Wi-Fi is not an view of the sky, your location will not be
recorded accurately.
issue for data collectors

Example: Using GPRS (internet) in a peacebuilding project

Pact’s PEACE III project collects data via the mobile platform iFormBuilder (see Figure
12.1). The project uses mobile data for event and conflict incident reporting. Using mobile
technology for data collection has increased the speed in which data is received from each
event, removed the burdensome step of data entry, allowed for collecting cleaner data
through complex validation controls, and enabled the project to collect richer data,
including GPS coordinates and images. The GPS coordinates have enabled the project to
look at trends in the data from different perspectives using geographical information
systems (GISs).
Many GPRS mobile platforms, such as iFormBuilder and others, provide an offline data
collection mode. This means that data collectors in remote areas with no internet or Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) connectivity can collect data, store it in the
phones’ memory, then upload/“send” the data later when they get to an area with Wi-Fi or
GPRS. This is especially important for areas without any or with poor mobile service
coverage.
A word of caution: Sometimes you may need to change platforms mid-project if it does
not suit your needs. For example, the type of form you use or data you collect may be
better suited for one mobile platform over another. Free trial periods (before purchasing
software) to test forms are ideal to allow you to extensively test all the software features
before purchasing. Also, while most mobile platforms allow offline data collection, it is
crucial that users are well trained on how to go about this to minimize data loss.
In hostile places, using a mobile phone could endanger the life of the data collector. For
example, using the mobile platform to take pictures in events where military and/or militia
members attend might accelerate tensions because data collectors may be viewed as spies
or worse. Extreme caution must be taken in these circumstances. In instances where
security may be a concern, use discretion while collecting data in unsafe locations and
delay collecting data if the situation is too insecure.
Mobile phones also have their limitations. Smartphones regularly run out of power, and
storage space is limited. For week-long activities in areas where there are few charging
sockets, it is important to plan ahead and have backup power (e.g., extra batteries, solar
charging stations) or to switch off the phone when it is not in use to conserve power. In the
early stages of the program, PEACE III experienced this challenge, when a data collector
gave the feedback that “the phone went off on day one.” Another partner was unable to use
the mobile app because the phone’s internal memory was full, so the app could not launch.
Figure 12.1: Screenshot of PEACE III event form on

iFormBuilder (at right)
Developing Your Mobile Technology

Strategy and Why it is Important
Developing a strategy for incorporating mobile technology into
your work processes is critical. The strategy will ensure that the
human, material, and financial resources you will need are
available; that your technology is appropriate for the project
and its context; and that mobile technology will enhance
program management or implementation.

When developing a strategy, it is important to involve all stakeholders, including those who
will collect the data, use or analyze data, and manage the process. Chapter 2 of Pact’s MERL
Module 4 discusses how to get started and what questions you should be asking stakeholders
as you develop the strategic plan.
Use the following steps to help you begin to develop your organization or project’s mobile
technology strategy.
1. Brainstorm the areas where mobile technology can improve your project, keeping in mind
the sensitivity of the context and logistical limitations in which it operates.
2. Identify the data you would like to collect.
3. Identify and understand your mobile technology users.
4. Consider data-management processes.
5. Conduct a mobile technology feasibility scan.
6. Decide on the appropriate mobile technology platform.
7. Develop your mobile technology strategy document.
1. Brainstorm how mobile data collection can improve your project.

It is important to consider first how mobile technology will be useful for your project’s MERL
system. Think about some problems you have and how mobile technology can solve them.
For example:
 Slow data processing: “Whenever we conduct surveys, data clerks are tasked with
entering all the data. Given that this is in addition to their other work, it takes up to four
months to obtain a completed dataset. This delays our ability to respond and make
databased programming decisions.”
 Poor data quality: “Too many times, our data collectors don’t follow skip patterns or
questionnaire instructions. As a result, our data is poor.”
 Lack of geographic data: “USAID has asked us to map services delivered to
beneficiaries. We need to begin to collect GPS data.”
Learning Activity: Brainstorming on mobile technology for data collection

Referencing the brainstorming examples below, what type of organization or project data
could be most efficiently collected using mobile technology? How might you integrate
mobile technology into your current data collection activities?
Pact Myanmar Brainstorming PEACE III Brainstorming
Goal: Pact Myanmar wanted to begin Goal: PEACE III partners with local implementers working
using mobile technologies to monitor in the cross-border locations to bring peace in these
and track women’s savings groups neighboring communities through trauma healing, cultural
outcomes. practices adaptation, and peace dividends.
Problem: Every six months, data are Problem: To achieve its objectives, PEACE III needed to
collected from women’s savings track partner activities and conflict incidences in real time.
groups on savings, loans, and The program also wanted to collect GPS coordinates to
dividends—a huge endeavor, given enable mapping of partner activities and reported
that there are more than 2,000 incidences.
women’s savings groups in Myanmar. Solution: Mobile technology enabled collection and
Solution: Mobile technology made reporting of real-time data and GPS coordinates.
data collection much more efficient.
(Learning activity continued on next page)

Goal:
Problem:
Solution:
2. Identify your data.

Based on your brainstorming, think about the data you would like to collect.
 Indicators: If you are starting a new project, consider which indicators make the most
sense to collect using mobile technology.
 Tools: If your project is already underway, think about which data collection tool(s)
could most appropriately be adapted for mobile data collection.
 New information: If you could access data for analysis much more quickly after
collection, as is possible with mobile technology, consider whether there are data that
would be useful to have that you may not otherwise have collected (e.g., conflict data).
 New data types: Remember that with mobile technology you can collect not only text
and numerical information, but also photos, videos, GPS coordinates, audio, and
biometric data.
Remember: Mobile technology should simplify your life. For example, think of the large
volume of data that are waiting to be entered or data that people have to travel far to submit
paper survey forms.
3. Identify and understand users.

As part of the process of deciding whether mobile technology will enhance your data
collection and management processes, you need to identify and understand the end users of
your mobile technology. Knowing your users will help you:
 Obtain the right type and number of mobile devices and appropriate
software: How many mobile devices are needed? What language will the software need
to use? Under what conditions will the devices be used (e.g., access to power sources, rain
or dust that might damage the devices)? What level of technology is appropriate for the
end users? Also, consider their ages, experience with phones, literacy, and eyesight.
 Tailor training to the users: The most effective training content and delivery is
responsive to end users’ level of education, culture, and previous exposure to similar
technology.
 Get buy-in from the people who will be using the technology: Securing end
users’ commitment to mobile technology during the design phase is the best way to

ensure the success of your rollout. Exposing end users to the technology early on will test
any assumptions you have made about the appropriateness of mobile technology. Early
user involvement also has the potential to greatly improve the level of participation and,
ultimately, the speed and quality of implementation. It also is highly important to ensure
gender equity when introducing technology. Obtaining buy-in from both male and female
users is crucial. Additionally, sensitization to the technology may require different
techniques with men and women, depending on existing usage levels.
4. Consider data-management processes.

Once you identify the relevant questions, data collection tools, and data types for your mobile
initiative, consider your data management processes to determine which platform will be the
most cost effective and best suited to your strategy for incorporating mobile technology into
your work.
 Frequency: How frequently will the data be collected (e.g., every month)?
 Data collectors: How many people are collecting data and how many will require
mobile devices (e.g., 10 field workers, all need mobile devices)?
 The tool: How many items/fields are on the survey/data collection tool (e.g., survey is 15
pages long with 65 items)?
5. Conduct a mobile technology feasibility scan.

After you have a general idea of who will be using mobile data technology in your
organization and how, you will want to conduct an initial feasibility scan to help you
understand the mobile infrastructure and the cultural, political, and economic environment.
This scan will help you ensure that your strategy is appropriate and realistic. Ask the
following questions.
 How widespread is network coverage? Which mobile service provider(s) make sense to
use?
 If coverage is poor in the targeted area, are Wi-Fi hotspots nearby, or is better coverage
available elsewhere?
 What data plans are available, and how much do they cost?
 Are people able to keep their phones charged across the project area?
 What are the data security and management issues to be aware of? Is privacy a
consideration?
 What are the legal and regulatory frameworks that might cause concern?
 How will the use of mobile technology impact gender equity, ethnic relations, and access
to power and resources? Will the use of mobile technology benefit some groups more than
others?
 Will using mobile technology bring unwanted attention to respondents or field workers?
 Will privacy concerns or other factors bias the data in ways that a traditional approach
would not?
6. Decide on the appropriate mobile technology platform.

After defining your mobile strategy objectives, identifying end users, and conducting a
feasibility scan, the next step is deciding which mobile device and platform are most
appropriate for your needs. Mobile platforms, the systems that receive data from mobile
devices, provide a variety of features and functions, including data storage, verification,
analysis, and reporting. See more in Chapter 3 of MERL Module 4.
With so many different mobile devices on the market, each with different plans and features,
choosing a mobile device can be overwhelming. To quickly narrow your options, consider the

nature of your mobile initiative (one-off versus long-term), data requirements, method of
transmission, power sources, and budget. Table 12.1 outlines the types of mobile devices you
could purchase and the functionality of each.
Table 12.1: Mobile devices from basic to advanced

Smartphone
Basic Phone Feature Phone (Android) Tablets
Description Inexpensive Mid-range cell Advanced cell Low-cost tablets
cellphones with phones phones Come with Wi-Fi
voice and SMS Can access Can access the and may come
capabilities internet internet with 2G/3G/4G
Some have GPS Most have GPS
capability and a and a camera
camera
Pros Ubiquitous, Variety of features Software can be Larger screens
cheap, known available updated and make for good
Low power use Can transmit upgraded visibility and ease
GPRS data Can use any of entering data
Moderate power language Low cost of some
use models
Cons Moving parts of Not all have GPS Heavy power user, Heavy power user,
flip phones and Language needs recharging needs recharging
slider phones compatibility frequently frequently
affect reliability issues Might be targeted Might be targeted
and durability by thieves by thieves
Small screen
Creating texts on Some are more
basic keyboard expensive than
can be challenging other mobile
devices
Manufacturers Nokia Nokia, Siemens, Samsung, LG, Aakash, Ubistlate,
Sony Ericsson ZTE, Vodaphone, Google Nexus,
(Java phones) HTC, Apple Samsung, Apple
A number of mobile platforms offer a broad range of features and different pricing plans;
several open-source options come at no cost.
To determine which platform is right for your mobile initiative, consider your needs and
overall project budget. To a certain extent, your project’s data needs and the frequency and
type of data collection outlined in your mobile strategy will help you narrow your options.
Please keep in mind that platforms change rapidly and that features and price structures
evolve over time; the latest information is always available on the platform’s website. When
deciding among mobile platforms, consider phone requirements; the data entry interface and
transmission methods permitted; data storage, analysis, and reporting features;
miscellaneous features; and the pricing structure.
Table 12.2 shows the most commonly used mobile platforms on the market today; however,
new options open daily. For additional details on the different mobile platforms, please see
Chapter 3 of MERL Module 4.

Table 12.2: Commonly used mobile platforms

Features Mobenzi Commcare Magpi DataWinners Frontline SMS iFormBuilder
Language Does not work in all Not alphabet Not alphabet Not alphabet Not alphabet Not alphabet
alphabets yet restricted restricted restricted restricted restricted
SMS No Yes Yes, at pro level Yes, costs more Yes No
Forms Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, in old version Yes
Type of phones Java, Android, Java, Android Java, Android, Android Android and Apple
for forms Blackberry, Windows Blackberry, Windows
Web portal entry No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Skip logic Yes, and repeat logic If you can code Yes No No Yes
Ease of survey Low Low High Medium-high High High
setup interface
Other features Images, GIS Audio, images, GIS GIS GIS -- Audio, Images, GIS
and ESRI connector,
attach files from
phone memory, API,
RFID
Survey Setup Survey setup support Do it yourself (DIY; DIY DIY DIY DIY
Support complicated) or set-up
support (expensive)
Price Price models differ, so which is more cost effective will depend on the size of the surveys, how frequently they will be conducted, etc.
To learn more Site: Site: Site: Site: Site: Site:
www.mobenziresearc http://www.commcar https://www.magpi.c https://www.datawin www.frontlinesms.org https://www.iformbui
her.com ehq.org/home/ om/login/auth ners.com/en/home/ Device list: lder.com/
Login: Phone list: http://www.frontlines
www.researchconsole.c https://wiki.commcar ms.com/the-
om ehq.org/pages/viewpa software/requirement
Phone list: ge.action?pageId=471 s/
http://www.mobenzi. 8838
com/researcher/Help
/handset-support

7. Develop your mobile technology strategy document.

The aforementioned examples highlight the need for projects to document procedures and
policies. A well-crafted mobile data collection strategy document should describe:
 Purpose of the strategy document, including the challenge that mobile technology use will
help you to solve
 Goals and objectives of the mobile technology strategy
 Data to be collected via mobile devices
 Your planned mobile technology feasibility scan, including:
- Available network coverage in the areas where you will be working
- Comfort and experience level of mobile device users
- Data plans and costs of data plans
- Costs of mobile devices
- Security issues and management
- Internal and external technical support required
 Tools and instruments selected and rationale behind selection
 General data collection procedures
 Reports/dashboards that will be generated
 Integration of data into other systems
 Data management and security plan
When You Should Continue Collecting Data on Paper

In some cases, it may not make sense to use mobile technology, such as follows.
 Status quo satisfactory: When your data is not urgent and your current system is
already meeting your standards for quality and efficiency, changing data collection
methods may not make sense.
 Security concerns: If stakeholders have concerns about the security of data leaving the
country to an international data host, collecting data on paper may continue to make
sense. The cost of having separate servers host data in country can be prohibitive for
small data collection exercises.
 For qualitative data collection: When you are collecting a lot of qualitative data,
using mobile devices for numeric or even QWERTY-keypad input will limit the amount of
information that can be entered quickly. If audio capture is possible, it may mitigate this
issue if the survey is limited in size. Otherwise, paper data collection is most flexible.
 Use of mobile devices impractical or unsafe: In some areas, using mobiles may
make data collectors more vulnerable to violence or surveillance. Elsewhere, entering
data on a mobile device as an interview is in process may be distracting for the
respondent or even potentially bias responses, such as when the respondent is concerned
for his or her privacy or security. Taking photos or recording video with phones can
exacerbate these concerns.
It is important to consider the type of data you are collecting and who will be collecting it to
make sure that the use of mobile technology is appropriate for the context.

Develop a Budget
There are costs associated with mobile data technologies. The most cost-effective platform
depends on the amount of data you collect, number of users, and number of survey items.
Costs of mobile versus paper data collection should be considered when deciding on the mode
of data collection you will use. Table 12.3 outlines the considerations for both types of data
collection mode.
Table 12.3: Data collection comparison: mobile technology vs. traditional paper
Cost of mobile data collection Cost of paper-based data collection
 Number of mobiles (e.g., total number of  Printing costs
data collectors plus backups or replacement  Pens and paper
mobiles)
 Transportation of paper surveys
 Cost of submitting data (e.g., per SMS text
message, or, if over the internet, per  Training of data collectors
gigabyte)  Human resources for, e.g., data entry,
 Charging devices transportation, supervision of data collectors
 Survey/database design  Database design, data entry, and data

verification
 Technology support for survey setup (if
needed)  Storage of paper surveys (particularly if
dealing with sensitive information)
 Training of data collectors
 Mobile platform (e.g., database, data
verification, data analysis and reporting
functionality)
 Human resources (e.g., to manage mobile
provision and data collection systems and
processes)
 Costs for printing, pens, and paper and for
transportation for a limited number of paper
backup survey materials
Costs for each platform varies: some charge an annual fee for unlimited use (iFormBuilder),
while others charge per data field collected (per survey question, for example—Mobenzi’s
model). Of note, there are plenty more mobile software options than only Mobenzi and
iFormBuilder, and projects are encouraged to investigate and produce cost estimates of a
variety of platforms before making their decision.
Costs related to powering mobiles may need to be budgeted as well. Some options to
ensure reliable power include:
 Chargers that plug into car cigarette lighter sockets
 External battery sources
 Spare internal batteries
 Solar chargers


 Use of mobile technology has proven to be a powerful and efficient tool for collecting
data that can accelerate achievement of project objectives and, ultimately, of
development goals.
 Projects from diverse technical areas successfully have adopted mobile technology to
perform survey data collection, routine M&E, patient tracking, crowdsourcing, and
conflict early warning systems, among other data collection needs.
 It is important to consider the type of data you are collecting and who will be collecting
it to make sure that the use of mobile technology is appropriate for your context.
Remember that mobile technology only should be used if it helps to make your data
collection and reporting processes more efficient.
 When planning to use mobile technology, it’s important to consider:
- Your specific data needs and data management processes in order to decide which
platform will be the most appropriate
- Identify and understand the users of your data, including to inform type of device
- Conduct an initial feasibility scan to help you understand the mobile infrastructure
and the cultural, political, and economic environment
- Develop a budget, train users, and pilot the technology before wide-scale roll out
Learning Activity: Evaluating experience with mobile data collection

For programs already using mobile data collection: In small groups, discuss your
experience with mobile data collection over the past few months to one year. What is
working well, and what is not working well? Recommend actions to address the aspects
that are not working well in close consultation with your M&E and information technology
teams.
Discuss what other opportunities there may be for your organization to use mobile
technology beyond existing use. What strategy will you use to expand to these other
projects/areas?

Appendix 1:
Success Stories Guide
Partners should report stories that either:
1. Show broad-scale sustainable peace activities/projects, i.e., no one-offs and nothing that
is not being implemented at scale; the writer may focus on an individual beneficiary to
highlight their work, but the greater project must impact more than an individual or small
group of people
2. Relate to the peacebuilding project they work on
3. Highlight new, cutting-edge development innovations
4. Highlight any contributions to funder priorities, for example Value for Money (DFID) or
localization of foreign aid (USAID).
For more information on the USAID Reform Agenda, visit http://forward.usaid.gov or
other funder priorities. For the DFID Value for Money policy, visit
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/67479
/DFID-approach-value-money.pdf.
All stories should point to results!
How to Write Stories

 Use a compelling title. Include an intriguing lead or hook, beneficiary quotes, and
powerful statistics to communicate progress.
 Include a character/subject that illustrates how the program has improved people’s lives
or made a difference in the community.
 Consider specific photographs that “communicate” to back up the story. Make sure to
caption and attribute the photograph(s).
 Keep the story short and concise: 350–500 words.
 Consider your target audience. Different audiences will have different points of view and
needs and will respond to different ways of sharing the story.
 Focus on qualitative information, but with sufficient supportive quantitative information.
 Have enough details to help unpack technical information for non-technical readers.
 Avoid abbreviations/acronyms and jargon.
 Use quotes from beneficiaries. Do not quote activity staff.
Photographs
The process of taking and quality of a photograph can make or break a story. The following
should be considered when using a photograph in a success story.
 Digital photos should be shot with at least a 3-megapixel resolution and, when possible,
maintain at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).
 Send only graphics files (preferably JPEG/.jpg). Do not attach an MS Word document
with the photo pasted into it.
 Do not alter, compress, or crop photographs. Send only original images.
 Do not scan images from publications or other printed materials.
 Generally speaking, the larger the file, the better the quality and final result.
Appendix 1: Success Stories Guide | page 107

 Include a caption that briefly summarizes what is occurring in the photograph: who,
what, when, and where.
 The photo should be colorful, depict action, and feature the main story character.
 Ask permission before taking a photo of someone. Check funder, country, and your
organization’s requirements for taking and using photographs of human subjects.
 Play with different angles and backgrounds instead of capturing the subject straight on.
The most interesting and visually pleasing photographs are often those with that capture
the subject at unusual angles.
 Use available light instead of flash whenever possible.
Model Stories
Before sitting down to write, consider reviewing the model stories you have come across.59
This will give you a sense of what makes for a successful submission.
The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (http://www.plainlanguage.gov/index.cfm) requires the

United States government and its contractors to write all new publications, forms, and
publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner that follows the
best practices of plain language writing. The site also includes some great writing pointers!
59 Some examples of success stories can be found on Pact’s website: http://www.pactworld.org/features

Example of story from peacebuilding program in South Sudan: http://www.pactworld.org/blog/south-sudanese-
displaced-war-peacemaker-always-ready-help
Appendix 1: Success Stories Guide | page 108

Appendix 2:
MERL Plan Template
Place organization (and funder, if required) logo here
Name of Organization/Project
Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting,

and Learning Plan
Add period covered by the plan
Date: (Insert date finalized/updated)
Appendix 2: MERL Plan Template | page 109

Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
1.1. Mission and Vision……………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
1.2. Purpose of the MERL Plan……………………………………………………………………………. 2
1.3. Overview of Programs……………………………………………………………………………………2
1.4. MERL and the Project Cycle………………………………………………………………………….. 3
1.5. MERL Team………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
1.6. Audience Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
2. Conceptual Framework……………………………………………………………………………………………….5
2.1. Organizational/Project Theory of Change………………………………………………………..6
3. Indicator Definitions, Data Collection, and Reporting Plan…………………………………………….7
4. Reporting…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
5. Data Quality and Data Verification Procedures…………………………………………………………….. 9
6. Monitoring Tools………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
7. Deliverables Schedule……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11
8. Evaluation Plan……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
Annex 1. Work Plan……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13
Annex 2. Indicator Targets…………………………………………………………………………………………… 14

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Add a list of the abbreviations and acronyms used in your MERL plan in alphabetical order
and defined as they are used in the text. Some standard abbreviations are included below.
CBO community-based organization
CSO civil society organization
MERL monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning
NGO nongovernmental organization
TOC Theory of Change
US$ United States dollar

1. Introduction
1.1. Mission and Vision
State your vision and mission here. Explain each as needed for better understanding by
users of the MERL plan and to show how these inform the goal of this MERL framework.
1.2. Purpose of the MERL Plan

State the purpose of having this MERL plan for your organization/project (e.g., to outline
the process for carrying out effective MERL in the organization/project, to inform decisions
on achievement of organizational results).
1.3. Overview of Programs

Provide an overview of all the programs/projects the organization is currently
implementing and for the one(s) for which you intend to apply this MERL plan.
page 2
1.4. MERL and the Project Cycle

Edit as needed the following matrix to demonstrate how your MERL system aligns with the
project cycle and with the award “prime” organization, if you are an implementing partner.
Fill in each cell with information relevant to your program.
Key activities to integrate the MERL

The project cycle system into the project cycle
Clarify the organization’s vision and mission Clarify the goals of the MERL system
Select policy issues of interest Select policy issues of interest
Identify stakeholders Identify MERL audiences
Identify who needs information and data from
the organization, why, and when
Conduct situation analysis Set up participatory monitoring and evaluation
framework (with input from the community and
other key audiences)
Develop peacebuilding approach/Theory of Establish peacebuilding approach
Change (TOC)/conceptual strategy Develop TOC, goals, and objectives
Clarify conceptual model and identify
assumptions
Identify what to monitor and evaluate Develop project indicators
Implement activities Monitor progress: Collect data, report on
progress
Analyze results and evaluate project Design and implement project reviews/periodic
evaluations
Use results to adapt and learn Report on project results/review project
objectives/strategies/approaches
1.5. MERL Team

Identify members of your MERL team and explain their roles and responsibilities. Use
position titles and not individuals names. Be sure to include all staff and volunteers that
have responsibilities related to MERL, not just MERL and Program officers.
page 3
1.6. Audience Analysis

Use this tool to outline who your audiences/stakeholders are and what data they need. This exercise can help your organization see if there
are audiences you are currently missing and help you to avoid collecting data that you do not need. Don’t forget beneficiaries and volunteers!
How this audience can

WHY the data is WHEN the data is participate in the MERL
Audience WHAT data is required required required program/system
External audience
Internal audience
page 4
2. Conceptual Framework
Use the either the results framework or logical framework to demonstrate your expected project results. These frameworks show the logical
connections between what your organization/project hopes to achieve and the activities it conducts. It gives the reader of the plan an
overview of why you do what you do.
Project Results Inputs Activities Outputs Outcome Impact

R1.1
R1.2
R1.3
page 5
2.1. Organizational/Project Theory of Change

Briefly explain the Theory(ies) of Change and key assumptions on which your conceptual
framework is based. In other words, tell the reader how you got to the point of showing the
relationships between the inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact results.
page 6
3. Indicator Definitions, Data Collection, and Reporting Plan

Use the following template to describe each of the indicators your organization/project will report on.
Indicator definition and Data source Frequency

Indicator disaggregates (name of Responsi- of data
Program/ (show reference number and (show definition, disaggregation, data Frequency bility for analysis
project indicator name as they and unit of measure as they appear collection of data data and
result appear in your targets table) in your targets table) tools) collection collection reporting
EXAMPLE
Goal: Strengthen the horizontal and vertical linkages within and between local, national, and regional conflict management actors within
the Horn of Africa
R1.1
R1.2
R1.3
page 7
4. Reporting
Describe the types of reports the organization/project is required to prepare periodically for your MERL audiences, such as weekly updates,
monthly reports, quarterly reports, and annual reports. You can use the following template to develop a reporting schedule to show when
each type of report is due, who is responsible for preparing it, and to whom the reports are submitted. Annex all relevant reporting templates
to this plan (e.g., those from your current funders).
Communication tool Responsibility for To whom is the report
Audience selected for reporting Schedule for reporting preparing report submitted
EXAMPLE Quarterly report April 5, July 5, October 5, Program manager Pact regional manager and
Funder: Pact January 5 MERL officer
Soft copy of event and incident Monthly by 5th of the following Program officer Pact regional manager and
reports month MERL officer
Financial reports Monthly by 5th of the following Finance manager Pact grants manager
month
Final report 30 days after end of grant Program manager Pact regional manager, grants
manager, and MERL officer
Final financial report and 30 days after end of grant Finance manager Pact grants manager
closeout audit
page 8
5. Data Quality and Data Verification Procedures

Insert a graphic showing how data flows in your organization from the field level to the
national level using the data sources or data collection tools. The graphic should show the
points at which data verification is done before it is forwarded to the next level.
After drawing the graphic, describe the procedures your organization is carrying out to
ensure data is of good quality at each of the following data management stages: source,
collection, collation, analysis, reporting, use, and storage. If no verification and data
quality management procedures have been specified before, use this plan to develop some
that will guide the organization/project going forward.
page 9
6. Monitoring Tools
Include a matrix of the monitoring tools that you will use to track the progress of your
organization/project. Remember that these are not the tools for collecting data, but are
related to monitoring the organizational and operational aspects of program/project rollout.
These tools include things like conflict/context monitoring tools, work plan implementation
monitoring, and assumptions monitoring. It is important to state in your matrix how often the
information captured in the tools is collected and/or will be updated. Remember that these
data collection processes must inform operational issues, and thus must be updated as often
as the information would be useful for management. Do not waste time, money, and effort
using tools that have no operational impact when their content is reviewed! Include blank
examples of your monitoring tools as an annex to this plan.
Operational area of Name of Data collection
concern monitoring tool frequency Update frequency
Conflict monitoring
Project
implementation and
expenditure
Assumptions
monitoring
page 10
7. Deliverables Schedule
Refer to your award document and identify all the contractual deliverables that are due to
your funder(s). Then, complete the following matrix. Update it quarterly, especially to
record the actual delivery dates.
Funder staff who

will receive the Actual date of Means of
deliverable Deliverable(s) Due date(s) delivery delivery
EXAMPLE Monthly financial The 5th day of the November 5, 2015 Emailed and hand-
Grants manager report month following (confirmed by email delivered hard copy
Quarterly progress the event or the and currier sent to funder
report close of the month receipts)
or quarter
Event reports
page 11
8. Evaluation Plan
Include a basic evaluation plan that enables you to evaluate why you have or have not achieved the goal/results that were set. This plan
allows you to look at consequences (intended or unintended), effectiveness, efficiency, outcomes, and sustainability of initiatives. Remember
that evaluation looks at the overall program/project, the operations, governance, and deliverables! Basically, it helps you identify the lessons
learned and what you would do better next time. Use a simple tool such as the table below to help you evaluate your overall program/project.
What do we need to What questions do How will we obtain When will we get the
Type of evaluation evaluate? we need to ask? the data? data? Who will do this?
EXAMPLE Progress made in Have people changed One-to-one interviews Semi-annually and MERL officer
Outcome evaluation reducing violence in their behaviors, the way with key informants annually Program staff
conflict areas they interact with other Survey questionnaires
communities, and/or
their underlying
attitudes?
page 12
Annex 1. Work Plan

Attach a copy of the organization or project work plan here.
page 13
Annex 2. Indicator Targets

Attach a copy of your final approved indicator targets here.
page 14
Appendix 3: References
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skills for research and intervention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. 2013. Reflecting on Peace Practice: Participant

Training Manual. Available at http://cdacollaborative.org/publication/reflecting-on-
peace-practice-i-participant-training-manual/.
Channel Research. 2008. Evaluation of Conflict Prevention and Peace Building. Handout for
INCORE University of Ulster Summer School.
Church, C., & M. Rogers. 2006. Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and
Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Programs. Washington, D.C.: Search for
Common Ground.
Church, C., & J. Shouldice. 2002. The Evaluation of Conflict Resolution Interventions:
Framing the State of Play. Londonderry: Incore.
---. 2003. The Evaluation of Conflict Resolution Interventions. Part II: Emerging Practice &
Theory. Londonderry: Incore.
Conflict Sensitivity Consortium. 2004. Conflict-sensitive approaches to development,

humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding. Available at
ttp://www.saferworld.org.uk/resources/view-resource/148-conflict-sensitive-
approaches-to-development-humanitarian-assistance-and-peacebuilding.
Dziedzic, M., B. Sotirin, & J. Agoglia (Eds.). 2008. Measuring Progress in Conflict
Environments (MPICE) - A Metrics Framework for Assessing Conflict
Transformation and Stabilization. Washington, DC: United States Institute for
Peace. Available at http://www.usip.org/files/resources/MPICE%20Aug%2008.pdf.
Fitzpatrick, J. L., J. R. Sanders, & B. R. Worthen. 2011. Program evaluation: Alternative

approaches and practical guidelines (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Herrington, R. 2015. Emerging Practices in Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation for

Education for Peacebuilding Programming (1st ed.). Washington DC: Search for
Common Ground. Available at http://www.dmeforpeace.org/educateforpeace/wp-
content/uploads/2015/11/EP-guide-_-Final-B-1027.pdf.
Igbo, A. 2013, Sept. 3. Ten Tips for Developing a Data Management System for Monitoring
and Evaluation (M&E). The Communication Initiative Network. Available at
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Monitoring,

Pact’s Results and Measurement Team

Chapter 8: Evaluation .....................................................................................................59

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Figure 1.1: The four separate but interrelated

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 2

Why is MERL important for peacebuilding?

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 3

Learning Activity: Defining peacebuilding for your project

Monitoring is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to

How program teams use monitoring data

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 4

Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of information to

Evaluation focuses on intervention outcomes and impacts3 (intermediate and long-term

Figure 1.2: Evaluation phases

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 5

How program teams use evaluation data

Reporting is the systematic and timely provision of useful information at

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 6

Table 1.1: Example of MERL audience information needs assessment

Learning involves internalizing information and analyzing it such that it can be

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 7

How to determine if your program is prepared to learn from M&E activities

Who is on a MERL team?

Key Reasons for Developing Quality MERL Systems

4 Social Impact 2009.

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 8

Learning Activity: What do you want to achieve with your peacebuilding

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 9

MERL in the Project Cycle Figure 1.3: Project cycle

It is important to fully understand the project cycle of

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 10

Figure 1.4: MERL in summary

Summary: Key points from this chapter

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 11

Learning Activity: Checking and improving the project cycle

Figure 1.5: Detailed project cycle

Chapter 1: Overview of MERL Principles | page 12

What are peacebuilding approaches?

A MERL system is a tool that organizations and

Chapter 2: Peacebuilding Approaches: Defining What Peace Looks Like | page 13

Approach 1: Incentives for Peace

If, for example, a program takes an eliminating incentives-based approach to peacebuilding,

Approach 2: Addressing Root Causes of Injustice

Approach 3: Addressing Individual Attitudes and

Chapter 2: Peacebuilding Approaches: Defining What Peace Looks Like | page 14

 Encourage coexistence and include joint problem solving projects, multi-ethnic

If a program defines peacebuilding as addressing individual attitudes and relationships and

Summary: Key points from this chapter

Learning Activity: Identify and write out your peacebuilding approach

Chapter 2: Peacebuilding Approaches: Defining What Peace Looks Like | page 15

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis

What is situation analysis?

Types of Situation Analysis

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis | page 16

Table 3.1: Types of situation analysis

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis | page 17

Conflict analysis and the project cycle

Context analysis examines existing political, economic, and social structures

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis | page 18

Disseminating Situation Analysis Findings

Summary: Key points from this chapter

Chapter 3: Situation Analysis | page 19