NGO-IDEAs Survey Report
12/22/2011
A survey on utility, effects and suggestions for follow up of the NGO-IDEAs Toolbox application has been carried out by Martina Rithaa. The vast majority of the NGO-IDEAs from the Global South have documented their experiences on benefits and challenges of the Toolbox application, and their ideas on how to continue working with this approach. The survey report can be downloaded here.
Three brand new publications
10/13/2011
Three brand-new publications have now been released. They are available here for download. The printed versions will be distributed from 27 October 2011 on, at our International Symposium „No Development without Self-Effectiveness“.
These are the three new publications:
The Impact Toolbox describes simple tools for participatory planning and monitoring of grassroots’ projects. It is designed to enable NGOs, groups and group members to steer a project to enhance positive outcomes or impacts, and reduce negative ones. For download of the NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox (910 KB), please click here.
- “How do they do it? – Civil Society Monitoring Self-effectiveness”: An NGO-IDEAs documentation of field experience
The publication presents descriptions of examples of outcome and impact analysis, which illustrate to staff of development organisations how outcome and impact assessment can be implemented and used in different ways. For download of the documentation of field exeperience (1 MB), please click here.
- „Monitoring Self-Effectiveness“: A Manual to Strengthen Outcome and Impact Oriented Project Management
The Manual intends to support an organisation to focus its planning, monitoring and evaluation procedures towards increased outcome and impact orientation. For download of the Manual (1,47 MB), please click here.
Programme for the NGO-IDEAs Symposium on 27 October
10/10/2011
On 27th October 2011 the International Symposium „No Development without Self-Effectiveness“ will be held in Bonn, Germany in order to present results of NGO-IDEAs II. Mary Mate from the Catholic Diocese of Embu and Alma de la Paz from Kapwa Upliftment Foundation will present their experiences with NGO-IDEAs. National and international M&E experts will comment on the NGO-IDEAs concept. A panel with Robert Chambers, Institute for Development Studies Sussex, Michaela Zintl, German Ministry for Development, and others will discuss NGO-IDEAs in the context of the international discussion on impact monitoring and evaluation. The main focus of the event will be the relevance of participatory methods for impact assessment and potentials of the NGO-IDEAs approach of poor people setting their own goals and monitoring their achievements. Download the programme here
NGO-IDEAs in East Africa plans for 2012
09/06/2011
NGO-IDEAs in East Africa plans for 2012
The final NGO-IDEAs workshop in East Africa took place 30th of August to 2nd of September 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. 30 participants from four East African countries and Germany discussed their experiences with the NGO-IDEAs tools and planned for their continued collaboration.
Participants shared the common experience that the NGO-IDEAs tools help beneficiaries to become more focus, take their own initiatives and progress much faster. Participants from a programme working with persons affected by leprosy in Tanzania reported that the groups applying the tools become much more effective in acquiring and implementing small government funded projects so that other groups want to join or form new groups. Adherence to treatment routines also improves in these groups, according to government medical staff.
Field staff of the programmes applying the NGO-IDEAs tools understand better what they are working for, get a clearer idea of the value they are creating in the communities and can work less hands-on. The programmes become more adjusted to the priorities of beneficiaries. Facilitation skills have improved. Organisations learn more about the impact of their work. Some have started integrating the tools into their M&E systems. Making use of the quantitative data generated needs to be developed further.
Ways were described how Persons with Disabilities can assess inclusion, and how these can be reported upon, and examples were given how peace committees use the NGO-IDEAs tools to set relevant goals that help reducing tension in areas that suffered from post-election violence.
All ten East African organisations participating intend to continue using the tools and extending them to more groups. Some plan to spread the tools to other projects and to other partners within their field of work and to other countries. Most committed to taking these tools an integral part of the M&E systems, making self-evaluation on group level the source of indicators for program goals. German NGO-IDEAs partners committed to supporting the process further, building on the priorities and plans of their East African partner organisations.
Participants analysed factors for success. They had adapt an Indian concept into a very different context and to different sectors. Nothing could not be copied from elsewhere. This worked out according to participants because they allowed themselves a long process of trial and error, they learned from each other and were open about their challenges. In workshop evaluation participants emphasised the value of this strong participation and open sharing. They appreciated the technical support that could help them through these challenges. Crucial was also the support from the leadership of the organisations and the commitment of the German partners to the process.
German participants appreciated that they could meet with representatives of other German organisations and with more partners than were just in their own network of organisations. Some were surprised to learn that through fluctuation of personnel, the tools were introduced to some of their partner organisations or projects that had not participated in the process. Participants left with a sense that the basis for cooperation in Germany had also been strengthened.
The East African NGOs decided to continue their cooperation. An annual sharing meeting is planned from 2012 onwards. A steering group has been formed with representatives from the four countries (Catholic Diocese of Embu for Kenya, GLRA Ethiopia and Tanzania, Uganda Kolping Society). Pact Kenya was nominated as secretariat for initially 18 months. Partners expressed their intention to create a network that can integrate more organisations.
This workshop was the last of the regional workshops in Africa and Asia of the current phase of NGO-IDEAs. The concluding workshops will be the international symposium on October 27th in Bonn and the German partner workshop the next day. For information on the symposium, see www.ngo-ideas.net/news, the item of June 30th.
Final Workshop in the Philippines Looks Ahead
08/19/2011
Final Workshop in the Philippines Looks Ahead
The final NGO-IDEAs workshop in the Philippines concluded on the 18th of August. 35 participants from ten Philippine and six German organisations discussed the benefits of the NGO-IDEAs tools and planned for their continued implementation.
Participants emphasised that the NGO-IDEAs tools significantly improve their work. The application of Participatory Well-being Ranking gives the opportunity to focus on the poorest sections of the population. The formulation of goals for individuals and groups, and their continuous monitoring, makes groups of beneficiaries more engaged in the development process, lets them take better decisions and gives guidance to the supporting organisations on what needs and priorities people have. It has led in some cases to program adaptations.
The successful application of the tools requires a genuine participatory approach and good facilitation skills, but also enhances participation. A number of organisations experienced that new leaders emerge because of the tools and that they can devolve to the people’s organisations some of what used to be their work.
The tools generate figures because people rate the achievement of their goals and their well-being status. These figures have now been consolidated on the level of the individual organisations and create a basis both for analysis and for reporting to funding partners. Running projects have linked some of the goal ratings to indicators of their program plans. Others have meanwhile started new projects that use the NGO-IDEAs tools as indicators.
There was a strong sentiment that these tools improve development practice, need to be sustained where they are applied now and be extended to other projects and organisations. Partners made concrete plans to disseminate the tools to more organisations in the Philippines and other countries of the region.
Participants planned for cooperation beyond the end of the project. JPIC-IDC (www.jpic-idc.org.ph) was appointed as the coordinating organisation that will facilitate cooperation. A steering group was selected. Amongst other things, participants plan for annual sharing meetings, the next one in 2012.
Impressions and conclusions RW 4 South Asia
08/18/2011
Impressions and conclusions RW 4 South Asia
From July 06 to 09, the 4th and last Regional Workshop of NGO-IDEAs for South Asia was held at KKID in Coimbatore. The workshop ended with workshop brought very inspiring and encouraging results.
The main highlights of the workshop results were:
Partners shared the experiences of 2nd/3rd application of PWR, SAGE and PAG and PIAR
in Savings and Credit, Health, Education, Disability and Agriculture sectors. The experiences proved that the toolbox is applicable to all sectors with sector specific modifications, articularly more relevant to CBO based approaches.
Mainstreaming of SAGE and PAG, i.e mainstreaming the participatory outcome and impact monitoring in the project cycle, and linking it with the Logical Framework was intensively discussed. The conclusion was drawn that the gap between the two should be reduced for effective management of the project, and the ways to combine the two approaches were shown by several application examples.
The simplified PIAR tools introduced by Mrs. C.Rajathi have manifold benefits: Partners learnt and have clear understanding about the roles of CBO/village level, NGO level, NGO Network level in PIAR i.e, in data collection, verification/validation, analysis, interpretation / reflections of results, cause- effect analysis and impact oriented actions. It also extends the space to the requirements of the funding partners and their reflections on implementing NGOs.
Important learning was derived from the experience sharing of PIAR analysis results by 5 partners in different sectors. This tool also opens an avenue to partners on how to set up an outcome and impact monitoring system in their organisations which is the next step the partners to take it forward.
Eberhard Gohl presented a new structure of the Toolbox which follows the logics of the project cycle, i.e. not the tool wise structure. This guides the organisations to use the NGO-IDEAs tools not only for monitoring and evaluation, but also for situation analysis and planning. The new structure was generally approved by the participants.
Partners prepared a broad outline for their future cooperation in application of toolbox and dissemination of NGO-IDEAs. The results show that most of them are interested in continuing their cooperation in further application of toolbox, establishing NGO-IDEAs resource centres, dissemination through workshops, training programme, NGO networks, few will do small research and development.
Some more details:
Application of PWR, SAGE and PAG
The workshop has shown the continuous performance increase in Well-being Ranking, SAGE and PAG. The partners reported that the second and third applications were much easier than the first, and that the CBOs now understand better how the procedure works, and what it is good for. Many groups have been surprised to get aware of the changes they have brought about. In some cases, however, the second self-assessment brought lower results that the first: because the first assessment had been made without full understanding of the context, and of the rating mechanisms. To be more precise, some partners shifted from yes/no questions to ratings, mostly on a 5-point scale.
One important topic was the linkage between NGO-IDEAs indicators and Logframe indicators. To what extent can (and should) the goals and indicators of the groups be influenced to match with the Logframe indicators? It was discussed that a part of the goals and indicators could be uniform for all the groups of a project, in order to allow for meaningful consolidation and analysis of the results and for complying with the funding partner’s reporting requirements. And it got clear how useful the NGO-IDEAs tools can be before starting a new project: the contribute considerable to situation analysis and planning, not only to the subsequent monitoring.
Participatory Impact Assessment and Reflection
Many partners reported on their experiences with PIAR: although it seemed complicated at the beginning, it soon became clear that a part of this analysis had already been made naturally directly after the assessments with PWR, SAGE and PAG:
- What has changed since the last measurement (or as compared with the first assessment)?
- Who has performed well, more than the others? Who performed less than the others?
- For which indicators did the group perform well, more than for others? For which did the group perform less?
C. Rajathi introduced a “simplified PIAR tool”. It guides the stakeholders by examples of documentation and reporting formats:
- The formats for PWR, SAGE and PAG are filled in manually at the grassroots’ level, and also the first aggregation and some filtering can be done there.
- Guiding questions for analysis are a part of the formats.
- The formats stay with the group; and the facilitator copies the summary of the data.
- These summaries are forwarded to the NGO, and they can them be entered to the computer; examples of Excel sheets are given. The NGO consolidates the results from the groups, and aggregation and filtering are done according to its monitoring needs.
- The NGO can then forward there summaries to its network or to the funding partner. The network (or partner) can then further consolidate these data.
The model of reporting formats, in combination with the analytical questions, can easily be extended to serve as a “M&E Manual” of an organisation.
One important topic in the workshop was how to make sure that the data coming from the field are reliable. A model of checks and balances at all levels was presented and worked out; it will be included into the next version of the toolbox.
Potentials of the NGO-IDEAs Tools
“NGO-IDEAs is not just a tool for impact monitoring, it is a way of implementing a project.” This was a comment made with regard to the tools’ potential to guide a participatory and outcome/impact oriented project implementation.
“The NGO-IDEAs tools do not only serve for project management. They are a tool for strengthening awareness creation and self-determination” This is another comment which shows that the focus on the potential at project management level is still too narrow; the NGO-IDEAs tools can contribute considerable to strengthen people’s empowerment.
Mainstreaming in the organisation
The workshop participants explored to what extent the NGO-IDEAs approach could be mainstreamed in their organisations. It is, of course, a matter of convincing the directors and the colleagues. These potential benefits as shown above should be made clear.
- Mainstreaming as a part of the outcome and impact monitoring has already been experienced.
- Mainstreaming in a project can happen when a new project is conceived. It can be used to guide the project cycle management.
- Mainstreaming in an organisation would be supported by a M&E Manual, more or less in the concept of the “simplified PIAR tool”.
- The application examples of NGO-IDEAs tools will help to visualise how continuous analysis and decision making at each level of the project, starting from the grassroots, can be practiced.
- This means, that participatory learning and accountability are simultaneously enhanced.
It was also said repeatedly, that the tool application requires additional resources for training and regular handholding. One partner, however, said that for his project there is no additional effort – just a change of the working practice!
Nevertheless, the efforts of introducing NGO-IDEAs approach has to be quantified. The participants agreed to make such calculations soon, based on a format the Regional Coordinator will forward to them.
Future of NGO-IDEAs
All the participants were fully aware that this was the last Regional Workshop in South Asia of this NGO-IDEAs project. But many of them will continue applying the tools, even extending them to new groups or new projects. Some partners will even present the tools and their potentials to other NGOs in their networks or in their regions. One participant working at national level announced he would suggest the mainstreaming of these tools to his directors.
Many participants announced that they would lobby for the NGO-IDEAs concept:
- individually in their organisations to convince the directors;
- forming consortia with other NGOs to convince the funding partners and the national governmental institutions;
- organise symposia or similar events to inform other non-governmental and governmental organisation.
It is crucial that the partners express this demand – otherwise their will not be any possibility to get the respective funding for application.
Main conditions for this dissemination and for the sustainability are
- continuous training offers;
- a resource centre with the possibility of giving advice by phone and e-mail, and if necessary by regular field visits:
- a homepage where the news on NGO-IDEAs experiences are updated regularly.
C. Rajathi, Regional Coordinator for South Asia
Eberhard Gohl, Project Leader
International Symposium in Bonn, 27th October 2011
06/30/2011
A group of 14 German NGOs came together in 2004 in a joint venture, NGO-IDEAs (NGO Impact on Development, Empowerment and Actions), to develop concepts and instruments of participatory impact monitoring and participatory statistics. The project is being implemented in cooperation with more than 40 partner organizations from India, Bangladesh, East Africa and the Philippines, as well as by Parität and VENRO, the umbrella organisation of development non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Germany.
After a successful first project period, NGO-IDEAs II was started. Based on the experiences of NGO IDEAs I, this project period aims to further develop and expand the instruments of participatory impact monitoring on new sectors and countries.
The project will end in December 2011. To present results, on 27th October 2011 an international symposium “No Development without Self-Effectiveness” will be held in the “Haus der Evangelischen Kirche” in Bonn. VENRO and NGO-IDEAs will present the results of this process, which are documented in various publications, to an interested public, development and M&E experts. Two partner organizations from the Global South will present their experiences with NGO-IDEAs and national and international M&E experts will comment on the NGO-IDEAs concept. The symposium will be conducted in English. We will discuss the relevance of participatory methods for impact assessment and possibilities to take forward the specific NGO-IDEAs approach of grassroots setting goals and monitoring their achievements. This issue is subject of an intensive and partly controversial debate questioning the validity and reliability of information generated at grassroots’ and field worker level.
For a registration on this symposium, please use the registration form: registration form.
Regional Workshop in the Philippines May 11
05/31/2011
Regional Workshop Philippines concluded
The regional NGO-IDEAs workshop in the Philippines concluded on May 26. 20 participants from eight partner organisations shared their experiences with the NGO-IDEAs tools, particularly on how to make sense of all the experiences on the NGO-level, and discussed how to proceed.
Many organisations are now spreading the tools to more projects. The tools, participants said, increase the effectiveness of community development work and they empower the beneficiaries to take development into their own hands. And they help NGOs to better understand what happens on the ground.
More aggregate data on the effects of development work are now emerging and are soon to be expected in reports to donors. Partners discussed the challenges in linking data from the tools with their existing plans and logical frameworks and saw opportunities to introduce information from NGO-IDEAs tools into the reporting formats of various donors. The tools are currently being integrated into the M&E Systems of many partners, using NGO-IDEAs data as indicators in new projects.
Fr. Eugene Docoy of JPIC-IDC reported that JPIC-IDC has applied the tools now in three cooperatives, after initially only one had been included in the NGO-IDEAs test phase. They plan to extend the tools to all five projects they are working with and have already scheduled a facilitators training in the last week of June this year.
Roldan Gonzales of GITIB, a terre des hommes partner in Mindanao, reported that GITIB now uses the NGO-IDEAs tools also in a project funded by Misereor, thus extending them to more communities.
Antonia “Maan” Salamat and Mulaca “Vivian” Baldezanso of World Vision shared that the Area Development Program (ADP) North West Leyte has applied Well-being Ranking (PWR) in 9 villages (Barangays) already. In their experience, Well-being Ranking helps poor people to focus on their progress. Groups develop responsibility to prioritise the advancement of the poorest and most vulnerable. And local government concentrates its social welfare support more on the most needy, which is one of the advocacies of World Vision. This experience could be confirmed by occasional visits by the NGO-IDEAs regional coordinator, Godofredo Limotlimot, to villages in which Well-being Ranking had been applied.
World Vision has now trained 27 staff of local organisations and 30 community leaders in Well-being Ranking who will be involved in a roll-out. World Vision plans to extend this to all 65 Barangays of the ADP North West Leyte in 2012. World Vision has made Well-being Ranking also an element of their situational analysis in new programs and applied Well-being Ranking in 23 villages in five more Area Development Programmes already (Data from WVDF NGO IDEAS 3rd and 4th regional sharing reports).
Another focus of the regional workshop was making sense on an NGO-level of the data that are being created when people apply the NGO-IDEAs tools. The NGO-IDEAs instrument for this is PIAR: Participatory Impact Analysis and Reflection. PIAR involves a couple of steps, from the collation and critical analysis of data quality to drawing conclusion, cross-checking with other information and compiling this information in reports. Participants realised that they had done much of PIAR already, or similar analysis with other information, and that they only needed to add a few elements to their data analysis. Handling such a large amount of data was described as a challenge, but the opportunity to start PIAR on group or member cooperative level, where it is much easier, was appreciated. The understanding that PIAR was not a solid block, but something where NGOs can pick out what is most useful for them, increased confidence.
All organisations want to continue with NGO-IDEAs in 2012 after the project ends. Participants planned for cooperation and expressed the wish to organise a workshop for sharing of experience in 2012, and to continue cooperation of NGO-IDEAs in the Philippines beyond that.
Partner Workshop in Frankfurt, 7 April 2011
05/05/2011
About 30 NGO IDEAs partners met on 7th April in Frankfurt for a German partner Workshop. As special guests three external experts from Misereor (Dorothee Mack), Learning by Design (Irene Guijt) and IDS Sussex (Jeremy Holland) were invited to share their opinion on NGO IDEAs and to give feedback on the toolbox. Furthermore two Indian field workers gave a presentation of a case study. Beside these presentations, topics of the workshop mainly affected the future changes and perspectives for NGO-IDEAs.
Experienced through their work in both phases of NGO-Ideas, the two fieldworkers Vidhya and Ganesh Tantry from KRWCDS (Karwar, India) gave an introduction of the project from the view of initiators of the program and people working together with the target group. Their main aim was to share their experience of the use of PWR, PWbR, SAGE and PIAR.Afterwards the three external experts Dorothee Mack, Irene Guijt, Jeremy Holland were invited to give their feedback on NGO IDEAs. They all appreciated the toolbox and its philosophy very much and gave some positive criticism.
Dorothee Mack of Misereor holds the opinion, that PIAR is too ambitious and needs to become simpler from a field perspective. Irene Guijt of Learning by Design from the Netherlands stressed the aspect that the concept of NGO IDEAs is too much limited to NGOs and CBOs and should rather be opened to the government as well. Furthermore she suggested to put more emphasis on context analysis. At last Jeremy Holland from IDS Brighton shared his view about the concept of NGO IDEAs with the group. He focused on the data and pointed out that only the data we need should be collected. Furthermore he stated that by using the tools in mechanistic way the “why?” can easily get lost and the whole evaluation may become too descriptive.
In the afternoon three working groups were formed, discussing the presentations of the morning. The worked on three different questions: a) What changes can be seen? b) How to spread the tools? c) Participatory statistics.
Following the workshop in Frankfurt, an internal meeting was held to discuss the perspectives for NGO-IDEAs. A group of three representatives (KKS, KNH, Schmitz) was formed that will work out a proposal how to continue.
On the whole, the workshop was an overall success and the participants expressed satisfaction with what the learned.
Highlights of South Asia Third Regional Workshop
02/28/2011
The workshop was held at KKID in Coimbatore, India, from 22nd to 25th of February 2011. Main topics were the experiences from the second applications of PWR, SAGE and PAG in different sectors, and the analysis of these results with PIAR. The facilitators also gave inputs on PIAR and some new tools (process guide, tiny tools, and community based action plan).
Some reflections on the effects of the application of NGO-IDEAs concept and tools and its sustainability were shared. Concrete examples on the linkages between Logical Framework and SAGE and PAG were given and reflected. Conclusions were made on the applicability of the different tools. Lots of experiences and new lessons learnt contribute to the further improvement of the tools. At sector level, they took some decision to further coordinate their activities through e-mails and peer visits.
Often it transpired, among many other recommendations, that the active interest in the tool application shown by the German partners is decisive for sustainability of the NGO-IDEAs concept. It could be reflected through emails, feedbacks to reports, phone calls, and site visits. Participants realized that NGO-IDEAs is not a separate project but part of their programmes, and would be integrated to future project plans.
Participants expressed their satisfaction with the results of the workshop, and they confirmed having obtained more clarity for application of the tools and the analysis of the data.
More detailed information will be shared through the minutes of the workshop.
Philippine Regional Workshop
11/30/2010
The Philippine NGO-IDEAs partners met in Davao On November 23-25 to share their progress in the application of the NGO-IDEAs tools and plan for 2011. The Workshop ended in an upbeat mode. 30 participants from the Philippines and Germany reported that they are well progressing in promoting impact assessment by grassroots groups and planned for a systematic analysis of these experiences on NGO level.
The Philippine partners plan for a regional workshop focusing on training on Participatory Impact Analysis and Reflection (PIAR), May 24-26, 2011. The concluding regional workshop is then planned for August 16-18, 2011. It will take stock of the experiences in the Philippines and feed into the final documents produced by NGO-IDEAs.
Four partners have applied Poverty Well-being Ranking (PWR). Experience shows that this leads to a greater focus on the poorest, and the poorest themselves are energised to move out of their situation.
The goal setting tools PAG and SAGE have been applied by all eight partners. All have facilitated groups to establish goals and have a first assessment. Around one thousand households have now experienced this. Half of the partners have also facilitated a second assessment. The others will follow soon. PAG and SAGE, according to partners and the group members themselves, lead to more participation in the groups, group members focus more on achieving improvements, people take more initiatives on their own and the cooperation between group leaders and members improves, particularly if the tools are applied in a way that people actually reflect on their achievements and discuss the implications. Scoring especially is new to many group members and helps them to see better where they stand and that improvements can be gradual. Overall it became clear that the tools can work and can be adapted to the specific work of the NGOs. The tools bring positive change because they lead people to think what they want and if they achieved it.
The NGO-tool PIAR (Participatory Impact Analysis and Reflection) posed challenges. During the workshop, participants experimented with the eight steps of PIAR on specific cases which helped understanding. Some will now apply PIAR while others will wait until the PIAR training in May while they facilitate second scorings. Another challenge is to not only apply tools but to create a culture of reflection in the groups that comes naturally to some, but needs facilitation in others.
Participants wrote up their action plans for the NGO-IDEAs application in 2011. Evaluating to what extent they knew the direction for the next year on a scale of 1 to 5, all stood at 5. Participants expressed that they feel well on track adopting the new empowering tools.
East Africa Regional Workshop
11/30/2010
East African NGO-IDEAs partners met in Kampala on October 6-8 for the third Regional Workshop. 30 participants from four East African countries and Germany discussed the progress of community-rooted impact assessment.
Ten partners have applied some of the NGO-IDEAs tools in groups – some of these in many. Five work in the Disability and Inclusive Development sector. The others are in agriculture, human rights and saving & credit. Recently, one partner has started applying the tools in Ethiopia. Partners agreed that the assessment of impact by grassroots can enhance ownership, promote change and make groups more able to handle challenges they are facing. The tools are also very suitable to assess less tangible change like self-esteem, inclusion of persons with disabilities, a culture of peaceful conflict resolution, and other socio-cultural changes.
Partners resolved to now focus more on the analysis of change on an NGO level. Many are collecting data, some do newly apply the software GrafStat that is particularly suited for easy data entry and analysis. Two workshops are planned for 2011, one in March/April as a training in Participatory Impact Analysis and Reflection (PIAR), the other one in August/September to assess the overall experience for a final analysis of the NGO-IDEAs tools before the process ends in December 2011.
German Partner Workshop in September
11/30/2010
German partners met to take stock of NGO-IDEAs on September 13 and 14 in Bensheim. They took stock of what had been achieved over the last two years and planned for the process until December 2011.
The NGO-IDEAs process will be concluded in the regions in three regional workshops with participation of staff from the German partners. Learnings from these will flow into the final publications that are to be produced in October 2011.
There will a “small symposium” in Germany on April 7, 2011, on the experiences of NGO-IDEAs for interested NGO staff. Two partners from the South will be invited to present their application of the tools and an international panel of experts will discuss the relevance of NGO-IDEAs in the context of increasing expectations to increase impact.
A “big symposium” in Germany is planned for October 2011. The publications will be presented and two Southern partners will report on their experiences. This is meant for the wider German public.
German partners discussed a draft of the planned publication “Monitoring Self-Effectiveness. Improving Impact-Oriented Monitoring Systems” and focused on making it more easily applicable for implementing partners and on issues of reporting on impact.
Bernward Causemann, 28.11.2010
South Asia Regional Workshop
07/20/2010
51 participants representing 25 NGO partner organisations from India, Bangladesh and Germany gathered at the Karl Kübel Institute for Development (Coimbatore) on June 30-July 2 and shared, assessed and synthesised their experiences in the application of the NGO-IDEAs Toolbox for outcome and impact monitoring in different sectors.
The workshop highlights:
16 NGO-IDEAs partners actively participated in application/testing of the NGO-IDEAs Toolbox in 328 villages in India and Bangladesh in various sectors such as Savings and Credit, Health, Education, Disability, and Agriculture and shared their inspiring experiences during the workshop.
Different approaches to Participatory Well- Being Ranking were presented; a comparison study on Wealth Ranking and Well-Being Ranking applied in the same community group, presented by one partner from India, showed that these tools had led to different results. The distinction between PWR (wealth) and PWbR (well-being) was taken up. PWbR was widely accepted by the participants.
SAGE (Situation Analysis and Goal Establishment) was generally reported to be very appropriate for the specific context of partners. However, some options were presented and discussed:
First step SAGE Tools for Health, Disability/Human Rights and Education Sectors were introduced and discussed. These tools integrate the cross cutting issues of Poverty, Gender and Inclusion and allow for a differentiated analyses of the respective outcomes and impacts. Integrating these cross cutting issues – including other social issues – across all sectors was widely accepted by the participants.
In PAG (Performance Assessment of Group), the method of scoring with different colours was experienced as good practice as it facilitates the communities’ easy understanding and active participation.
The concept of Community Based Action Plan which guides NGOs and community steering of impact oriented planning and implementation was introduced, discussed and accepted. One of the partners shared the experience on the importance of this concept.
PIAR (Participatory Impact Assessment and Reflection) was presented in a completely new structure, focussing aggregation and disaggregation, and thus on its linkage with the software application (Excel or GrafStat). It includes then the qualitative analysis of data with the help of several questions, and also the critical analysis of the quality (validity) of the data collected. A more detailed presentation shall be displayed soon on the internal NGO-IDEAs platform.
The GrafStat software (which is being tested by 3 partners) indicates more hopes for user friendly software for data analysis.
The NGO-IDEAs concept/tools received increased recognition and acceptance at NGOs and community level.
There is a gradual increase in knowledge and skills of NGOs up to field level staff in participatory outcome and impact monitoring.
Participants found it inspiring to hear some voices from partners that the NGO-IDEAs experiences have guided them to adapt their program approaches to become more effective. Some statements from South Asian partners:
“We shift our program delivery approach from “General approach to Pro-poor approach””.
“The project proposal development got a shift from “top level perspectives to grassroots level perspectives.”
“Our staff review meeting approach is now changed, its focus is not only activity/target focused but also inclusive of the process of outcome and impact monitoring and management decisions are taken accordingly.”
“NGO-IDEAs helps to guide our project management and preparation of activity plan for the staff.”
Philippine mid-year sharing
07/20/2010
On July 1, the Philippine NGO-IDEAs partners met on the island of Bohol to share their progress in the application of the NGO-IDEAs tools. They drew many insights from that.
Tools were applied in 36 groups, of these were 7 children groups, and in 22 tribal clans. In total, members of an estimated 700-900 households were involved in applying at least one of PWR (Participatory Well-Being Ranking), SAGE (Goal establishment and assessment by groups for individuals and households) or PAG (Goal establishment and assessment by community groups). Most used more than one tool.
According to participants, the tools helped NGOs to get to a better understanding of the processes and changes within the communities they work with. The communities or groups increased their awareness of development and some decided to take action on issues that they raised during discussions. For one NGO, the question what was group and what was individual goals could not easily be decided so that they facilitated the establishment of goals first and then had the community decide which was for PAG and which for SAGE.
The Tiny Tool LifeLine was applied by people who are involved in NGO-IDEAs, but they used it in programmes outside. One organisation used SAGE and PAG as central information for their internal evaluation. Three organisations are about to be ready for using the data as an instrument in a differentiated analysis of performance and impact of their projects (PIAR).