GRANT PROPOSAL WRITING:

MONITORING AND EVALUATION,

CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND
SUSTAINABILITY

DR SOPHIA M. NDETHIU
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL
COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY, 28TH
JUNE, 2017
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
 DEFINITION
- cuts-across, criss-cross, intersect, inter-twine, touch,
meet, join, come together
- inter-related issues with regard to a bigger
issue
- competing issues that need addressing for a
stable sustainable system
- linking traditionally separate and independent
parties
-integrate key themes, integration of key aspects
-cross-cutting also means mainstreaming
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
 DEFINITION (cont).
◦ - also key concerns in reference to those aspects that
need to be considered in order to positively affect or
improve a system
◦ - introducing changes other than established norms
◦ - US English equivalent is cross-division according to the
Oxford advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English
“ vision of a group according to more than one factor at
the same time so that sub-divisions inter-relate”.
◦ - Major goal in linking cross-cutting aspects is to
enhance ownership of users which leads to project
success and sustainability
EXAMPLES OF CROSS-CUTTING
TOPICS OR THEMES
 Technology innovation: new products, quality
assurance and standards, education and
training, environment, governance, public
engagement, ethical aspects, international
co-operation, cultural aspects, human rights,
disability, climate change, trans-disciplinary,
geographical, poverty reduction, private
sector, communication
EXAMPLES OF CROSS-CUTTING
TOPICS OR THEMES (cont).
 Community development: youth, gender
equality (women, girl child, boy child),
education and training, governance, human
rights, disability, environment, poverty,
climate change, agriculture, water, cooking
fuel, cultural, HIV&AIDs, communication,
trade and markets, private sector, NGOs,
geographical, quality standards, micro-
finance, business and industry.
EXAMPLES OF CROSS-CUTTING
TOPICS OR THEMES( cont).
 SECURITY: disarmament, poverty, drug and
human trafficking, culture, refugees, gender,
environment, education and training, security
forces, borders, religious fundamentalism,
terrorism, corruption, national intelligence,
human rights, international co-operation,
peace and conflict resolution, governance,
communication.
MORE EXAMPLES
 MEDICAL CURRICULUM: CROSS-CUTTING
THEMES: behavioural health, ethics,
communication skills, diversity and cultural
awareness, domestic violence, pain
management, socio-economic dynamics,
geriatrics, palliative care, evidence-based
medicine ( inter-disciplinary curriculum)
 MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH ( Social and
human sciences working together with other
disciplines in science, technology, health,
engineering and vice-versa.
SUSTAINABILITY
 DEFINITION – Planned continuation of all, some
or one of the project services and/or activities
beyond the lifetime of the project i.e project
completed and no more donor funds.
 Can be short-term or long-term continuation
 The activities must be related to the initial

project goals and objectives

 Planning is key and sustainability just never

happens
 Sustainability is related to project impact and

should be evidence-based
SUSTAINABILITY PLANNING PROCESS
 Clarify your vision
 Determine what activities you want to sustain
 Build collaborations
 Choose your desired sustainability strategies

and methods
 Develop action steps for sustainability
 Document and communicate your

sustainability success
SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES
 1). Establish a formal or informal group to address
sustainability
 2). Write out your goals and vision of your project beyond

the current and consider if you want to make any changes.

 3). Look at how you want to fund sustainability considering

preferences, needs and desired outcomes

 4). Identify strategic partners for aspects of the project you

want to sustain (especially those that had provided

leveraged resources and will provide leveraged resources
in future
 5) Market the idea both internally and externally to

colleagues, strategic partners, board members, industry

associations and other state and national organizations
STEPS IN DEVELOPING A
SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
 Base you decision on data as much as possible to
understand past and current performance of your
project
 Specify whom you want to serve (with reference to a

number of specified project beneficiaries)

 Develop a detailed description of the services and

activities you want to sustain

 Identify the resources required to sustain these

services and activities

 Are current and potential partners aware of your

sustainability plans?
 Find champions
SUSTAINABILITY FUNDING AND
CONTINUATION ACTIONS
 Education and training, cleaning, selling
products, publicity, community project,
outreach, lobbying, fundraising, building
collaborations, future grants, identify labour,
equipment, space and work around obtaining
them, integrate with existing community
projects, institutionalization through policy.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
 Justabout any human activity can be documented
(monitored) and can render itself for evaluation
 Monitoring: is seen as a continuing function and relies

on systematic data collection to provide project

managers and other stakeholders of the extent of
progress and achievement of objectives
 Key goal is to report progress, identify lessons, and make

improvements during the life time of the intervention

 M&E ensures good practice in project planning and

management and its continued improvement

 Ensures needs of stakeholders are being met ( primary

and secondary beneficiaries, government, funders,

communities)
 M & E can be done internally or externally
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
(cont).
 Uncovers opportunities for programme
improvement
 M&E is necessary for project sustainability
 Lessons learnt useful in future project design
 Enhance social development outcomes
 Useful in learning about efficacy of different

interventions
 Useful in communicating project activities

and goals
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
(cont.)
 Essential for approving further project funds
 Winning funding as M&E data important for

funders
 A key incentive for M&E is publications
EVALUATION

 A systematic and impartial assessment of an activity,

project, programme, strategy, policy, topic, theme,
sector, operational area, institutional performance, etc.
 It focuses on expected and achieved accomplishments,
examining the results chain, processes, contextual
factors and causality, in order to understand
achievements or the lack thereof.
 It aims at determining the relevance, merit and value,
impact, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of
the interventions and contributions of the
organizations
EVALUATION (continued)
 Assessment conducted at a single point
(before, during, after)
 Goal is to determine if planned activities

happened and why or why not

 Focus is to assess relevance, impact,

effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability.

 Data is collected from key project

beneficiaries
WHY EVALUATION?
 Understand why and the extent to which
intended and unintended results are achieved
and their impact on stakeholders
 Results act as evidence of performance and a

basis for institutional change and also co-

operate accountability
 For individual and organizational learning
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MONITORING
AND EVALUATION
 Monitoring is interested in finding out if
activities are delivered in time, in the right
quality and quantity
 Evaluation confirms if activities were done in

time, right quantity and quality and incase not,

gets answers as to why they were done as
expected or why they were not done as
expected
 Monitoring is interested in adjusting should that

be deemed necessary and evaluation is

interested in impact
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
METHODS AND TOOLS
Logical Frameworks
Surveys
Participatory monitoring and evaluation
LOGICAL FRAMEWORKS
Objectives Activities outcomes Indicators Impacts
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WHY LOG FRAME?
 Assist in planning of M&E process
 Reflects a whole chain process model
 Assist in effective M&E implementation
 Articulate programm goals
 Refine relationship among objectives,

activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts

 Demonstrate how activities will lead to

desired outcomes and impacts

CONSIDERATIONS IN DEVELOPING
M&E LOG FRAME
 What are the objectives?
 What activities are required to meet

objectives?
 What kind of questions will need to be asked

to determine if activities are being

implemented as per plan?
 What kind of questions need to be asked to

determine the success and impact of

intervention?
CONSIDERATIONS (cont)
 Who should be questioned?
 Determine if the questions are appropriate in

gauging success of intervention

 At what stage in progress of programme

should questions be asked?

 What are the indicators that intended

outcomes are being realized?

BENEFITS OF LOG FRAMES
 Provide short and convenient summary of a
project that is useful for internal and external
communication
 They simplify complex social situations ( this

is often cited as a weakness of Log frames)

 Link budgets to actions and expected results
 Useful for approving projects and allocating

resources
BENEFITS(cont)
 Serves as a basis for assessing performance
of goals
 Serves as a basis for holding implementing

organization to account
 Encourage logical thinking about project

goals , actions and expected outcomes

 Logical approach is participatory ( involves

partners and key beneficiaries in identifying

objectives and indicators).
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
METHODS &TOOLS (cont.)

1) Qualitative desk studies of secondary data from

websites, organizational policy statements,
annual reports. These help understand the
setting or context of a programme
2) Quantitative data collected through
questionnaires ( useful for collecting sector
wide insights)
3) Qualitative in-depth interviews through key
informants and focus groups
MONITORING AND EVALUTION
METHODS & TOOLS
4) Informal tools; emails, telephone calls,
follow up if necessary and if funds permit
5) mini-quasi experiments to evaluate impact
6) Participatory approach
THANK YOU!