Date: July 27-August 1, 2009
Venue: Held at the University of Ottawa, Canada
This Six-Day PM&E Workshop will show you how to:
*Rethink your own monitoring & evaluation strategies and approaches;
*Master and learn new innovative participatory PM & E tools for the workplace;
*Facilitate PM & E processes for your project, programme or organization;
*Develop monitoring and evaluation plans in a more participatory manner;
* Integrate gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality issues and concerns to your PM&E work;
*Integrate qualitative and participatory methods into monitoring and evaluation.
Background
Monitoring and Evaluation is a vital management tool. Communities, organizations and development organizations need to know how effective their efforts have been. But, a key question being asked is “Who should make these judgements, and on what basis?”. Too often, it is outside “experts” who are completing the report card primarily to fulfill an accountability function for the funding organization.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is a different approach involving a wide range of stakeholders such as local people (women and men, boys and girls) , community organizations, NGOs, and development agencies deciding together about how to measure results and what actions should follow once this information has been collected and analysed. PM&E can reveal valuable lessons and improve accountability for all stakeholders, not simply the funding organization.
For local women and men stakeholders, PM & E is an opportunity to build their own capacity to reflect and analyse their program’s progress and the action that might be required to take corrective action. These are essential ingredients to helping stakeholders to establish, own and implement their own monitoring and evaluation systems.
Why You Should Attend?
It is imperative that we begin to critically examine more conventional approaches to monitoring and evaluation that have failed to build capacity of local stakeholders to reflect, analyse and act on their own initiatives. Development initiatives must be more responsive and accountable to local communities, organizations and Government. Involving local stakeholders in a more participatory monitoring and evaluation process is critical to building capacity, learning and action for informing their own decision-making. Development agencies, NGOs and intermediaries can take a leading role to
spearhead such efforts and develop monitoring and evaluation systems that are more responsive.
Who Should Attend?
The workshop is intended for
* Project Managers & Officers who are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of their programs/projects;
* Directors and Program staff of Monitoring and Evaluation units;
* Community leaders and workers with project responsibilities;
*Decision-makers who are looking at new ways to redesign their own operations to make them more participatory and responsive to local needs;
* Consultants called upon to provide technical expertise in the areas of PM and E.
*Action Researchers interested in applying qualitative research methods to their work.
Workshop Structure
This is an intensive six day workshop set in the community to maximize learning, group interaction and networking. Sessions begin at 8:30 in the morning and run all day including some evenings.
Day 1 Introduction to Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E)
*Setting the context the origins of participatory monitoring and evaluation
*Key concepts related to participatory monitoring and evaluation
*Who are the Question-makers in PM&E?
*Skills and attributes of a PM&E facilitator
Day 2 Learning the PM&E Tools
*Participants will learn a wide range of tools that are essential to facilitating participatory monitoring and evaluation processes.
*Participants will learn semi-structured interviewing, formulating open vs close-ended questions, using qualitative and quantitative indicators.
*Participants will have many opportunities to practice and hone their facilitation skills learning how to effectively deal with saboteurs and dominators.
*Finally, participants will be exposed to a range of PRA and PLA tools such as community mapping, ranking and sorting, venn diagrams, seasonal calendars, and gender -race/class sensitive tools to be applied to a PM & E context.
Day 3 More PM&E tools and Preparing for the Community Practicum Clinic
*Participants will learn more PM&E tools to apply to the workplace.
*Anaylze team strengths and weaknesses
*Set team objectives
* Define team strategies for the community assignment
* Departure for the community assignment.
Day 4 & 5 Practice PM&E Assignments in the Community
Mosaic will organize three-day community assignments based on monitoring and evaluation needs and issues identified by the community. Project teams will work together intensively, practicing tools learned in the workshop and adapting them to real life situations.
Day 6 Group Reports, Building Your Action Plan & Evaluation
*presentation of team reports by each group
*preparing an action plan for when you return to your workplace
*evaluation and wrap-up.
How Will This be Achieved?
This is a practical, iterative and hands-on workshop. The format will vary between small group work and discussion, plenary, and practical community assignments to encourage the sharing of knowledge and application of participatory concepts and tools to real life situations. Participants will go out into the community on a daily basis to apply tools and to learn by doing.
The community practice assignments will be in one of five different communities in and around Ottawa. Teams of participants will carry out a simulated participatory development exercise, using the tools learned in the workshop. Where appropriate, links will be made to existing community groups and their issues. Evening meetings and on-going team-building exercises will be part of this process.
The Workshop Site and Accommodations
The workshop site has been selected to maximize the learning experience and will take place at the University of Ottawa conveniently located in
the heart of Ottawa.
Participants are responsible for arranging their own accommodations and meals. Accommodations range in price from CAD $25-$120 per night depending on your budget and taste. Accommodations listed on our enclosed information sheet and the web site Briefing page are all within walking distance of the workshop. Reservations should be made early to avoid disappointment.
Workshop Facilitators
Françoise Coupal is Director of Mosaic.net International, Inc. a private consulting firm dedicated to providing innovative solutions to development. Françoise is an experienced facilitator and trainer in participatory methods having designed and delivered successful workshops for the World Bank, the UNDP, CIDA, UNIFEM, the World Food Programme and a variety of International Non-Governmental Organizations. Françoise has worked closely with organizations to mainstream participatory methods and approaches into their management practices. She worked on developing a PM&E system for a Maternal and Child Development Program in China and is working in Niger and Mexico to do the same. Françoise holds graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Carleton University in International Affairs and Development Studies in particular. She undertook her Bachelor of Arts at UCLA .
Philip Cox specializes in performance management as it relates to international and local social development initiatives. He applies participatory approaches to evaluation, project/program planning and to training on the methods of results based planning, management and reporting. In the past four years, Philip and his colleagues at Calgary, Canada -based PLAN:NET have pioneered a training/coaching approach to assist project managers grapple with new results-focused funding requirements. The approach centres on the image of a person dropping a rock into a pond, creating a splash and ripple. The image is used to demystify the vocabulary of performance management and to help people visualize and document their activities and intended results. Philip and colleagues offer hands on training and post training coaching/advice as needed. To date, he has delivered more than 50 such trainings to participants of more than 500 non-profit organizations, university teams, and government departments/agencies.
Helen Patterson works with Agrodev, a private consulting firm. She has worked with various organizations including the World Bank, UNDP,CIDA, GTZ, and has lived and worked in Malawi, Madagascar, Costa Rica and Egypt. She has carried out training in participatory methods for project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation with a wide variety of organizations and community groups. Helen holds a B.A. in Economics from McGill University, an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wales, and is currently carrying out graduate work at Concordia University in Organizational Development and Change.
Registration Fee
Fee per participant CAD/USD $1150. (A 10 % discount is given to NGOs, community groups and full-time students). Please note that all participants should have a basic knowledge of English and be able to express themselves in the English language.
The workshop fee includes Workshop fees, a binder of tools and resource materials, snacks and coffee.
We look forward to your participation. Full details are available at http://www.mosaic-net-intl.ca [2]. We look forward to your participation.