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Aspiring development worker wishing to specialise in A,M&ESubmitted by desireec on February 3, 2008 - 2:15pm.
Greetings, I've always wanted to work in the development/relief field in Africa, but in the process of my studies and practical work (spending 6 months volunteering for an NGO in S. Africa and most recently in rural Kenya) I've become disillusioned with the efficacy of NGOs. In particular I've witnessed dismal to non-existent M&E processes in many NGOs, with little regard for receiving direct feedback from beneficiaries & programme participants. I've decided I'm very interested in specialising in M&E improvement for both NGOs and private companies working in Sub-Saharan Africa. My other major interest is post-conflict reconstruction, but I'm not sure if/how to integrate these two interests into a cohesive specialisation. I've applied to a few graduate development studies-related programmes here in the UK, but they are of course quite general. Often there is only one course offered in M&E and I suspect this is inadequate preparation to actually enter into this specialisation. What else can I do to strengthen my knowledge of M&E at this stage? I've read through many posts in this forum in the past couple of days, and the emphasis for aspiring development workers is to always specialise and gain practical skills. I want to gain the practical skills to make it in the M&E specialisation and so would appreciate any feedback from those in this particular sector of the field, esp. in Africa, for how to receive adequate training & preparation. [Just a bit about me: I'm an American who has just relocated to Oxford, England, where my spouse is attending graduate school. I will soon be completing my BSc in Community Development, w/ a concentration on Housing & Economic Development, at Portland State University in the US (after I complete an independent research project-- which I'm working on here in England).] Many thanks, Do you have a recommendation for specific organisations that do M&E training here in England (with someone who isn't already a seasoned professional)? Hi. Well, to be honest, many NGOs are disillusioned by the lack of M&E. At my organization, all of our M&E specialists focus on monitoring ourselves rather than our projects. It's great that you want to go into this field, but honestly the "development industry" is set up to sort of ignore M&E, I believe. this is because we are accountable to dispurse the funding of donors according to their budget cycles and not really accountable to the people we are supposed to be serving. Similarly, alot of M&E reports are just put on a shelf because it is something that must be done, but they unfortunately seem not to lead to recommendations in the future. So don't think that additional skills will change the whole system. That being said, within the Sociology discipline, there are quite a few courses you can take to collect and analyze data. Alot of it will be geared towards surveys, but a number of universities offer courses on PRA and other types of methodologies more suitable to the 3rd World. In addition, you should have some basic understanding of statistics as well. This is crucial and often overlooked by qualitative evaluations. Good luck and it seems like you are a solid and thoughtful path. Well, in Zambia I was at a Child Aid project, which actually involves the whole community. Together with a colleague, we had weekly meetings with 2 village support groups(almost everyone with HIV/AIDS), advising on income generating activities and holding presentations about common diseases, we were also involve with youth clubs, water and sanitation projects, farmers, tree planting, orphan sponsored program(which I was most involveld)... And besides that, we also had a project of our own, considering we brought a few donations for schools and also cash money. The problem in rural Zambia, as I believe it might also be in many other countries, is that the goverment doesn't invest in pre schools.So I decided to do that, and after talking with my colleague, we decided to fund the construction of 3 community pre schools and to rehabilitate 1, in the areas we worked. It was a hell of a work to organize the community and plan everything. Hi, Catarina. I'm a bit confused. How does your story relate to increasing skills in M&E--which I thought was the point of this thread? I am a young lady from Kenya and i have done BSc in IT, a very close friend of mine talked to me about M&E and i was so motivated to get into the field, i have thus been desiring to get a job and develop myself in the area of Monitoring and Evaluation and as a result of this i joined a USAID funded project (APHIA II) within the Rift Valley (Kenya) as a Data Management (M&E) personnel (consultant), i've held this position for the last 1 and half yrs but now my problem is am so willing to deeply progress and be part of a dynamic organization but my work is so involving and in the process haven't made it to get more 'papers' to propel me towards my goal but a helpful site that i could give is: http://www.globalhealthlearning.org/ If someone could offer me more meaningful insight i would gladly appreciate. Thanks |
Hello, fellow relocated American.
"What else can I do to strengthen my knowledge of M&E at this stage?"
-- read everything you can get your hands on regarding M & E regularly. Good resource for this:
http://www.developmentgateway.org
You need to read both theory and actual M & E reports. This is a task that you will never finish; you need to do it regularly.
-- get formal training in M & E if you don't have it already. England abounds in these kinds of training.
-- when you feel comfortable and ready for such, volunteer to undertake small M & E projects at nonprofit organizations in your immediate area, and/or ask out-and-out to volunteer with an existing M & E project in your immediate area, even just job shadowing. You will need to make a lot of personal connections and build a lot of trust to make this happen. The result will be practical experience and official endorsements of your work.
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Jayne Cravens
www.coyotecommunications.com/development/
Bonn, Germany