Towards a Monitoring and Impact Evaluation Toolkit for Agricultural Development Projects In Egypt
Hagar ElDidi and Hoda ElEnbaby
Meeting Objective
The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MoALR) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded-project called “Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity” (EIBC) is planning to build a database and toolkit for enhancing its Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) capacities. Such a toolkit will help to better keep track of all the agricultural development projects in Egypt, with the ultimate goal of improving agricultural project planning, coordination and effectiveness. In order to get started with the process of building such a toolkit, the MoALR hosted roundtable meeting titled “Towards a Monitoring and Impact Evaluation Toolkit for Agricultural Development Projects in Egypt” on April 21st. Participants from MoALR and international partners involved in the agricultural sector in Egypt discussed MoALR’s needs, took stock of the current situation, and learned what data is currently being collected, what systems are being used, and how these systems can be tailored to develop a toolkit for MoALR’s project M&E system.
Outcomes
M&E Definitions and Importance for Development Impact and Learning
Different organizations have different definitions for M&E. Generally, monitoring is to be the continuous tracking of information about a project, sector or policy to inform stakeholders of progress, outcomes, and corrective action that may be needed for achieving goals. Meanwhile, evaluations are periodic and systematic assessments to identify the effects of a program, project, or policy (intended or unintended; positive or negative) for accountability and learning. (See Meeting Slides).
Both monitoring and evaluation are important as they make people and organizations accountable for their practices and allow development projects’ implementers to identify problems early in the pre-planning process, and propose solutions based on previous experiences. Moreover, M&E provide the evidential basis for building consensus between stakeholders. The process also allows for developing a knowledge base of what works, what does not and why. Finally, M&E give organizations working on developing projects the knowledge to reach better results for their spending “more bang for the buck.”
The Case of Egypt: Who is Doing What?
During the meeting, representatives from different international organizations with activities in Egypt, described their M&E systems. For instance, UN agencies apply a results-based management (RBM) system for planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting on their programs and activities (UNDP, 2011). RBM is a management approach that focuses “on setting medium-and short to medium-term targets, regularly assessing progress and learning from results information with a view to adapting operational plans in a way that maximizes achievement of longer term strategic objectives.” (IFAD). In applying a RBM strategy, it is essential to understand how the project is believed to achieve certain outputs, while setting performance targets for key outputs and outcomes. An assessment of the results is conducted throughout the projects’ lifecycle to inform and potentially alert projects implementers about progress and potential problems. Ideally at the project planning stage, M&E officers develop a logical framework, to reflect the project/program expected results and impact pathways. Most participating organizations in the roundtable meeting use such log frames for monitoring their projects. After designing the log frame, the template is filled for recording key log-frame elements, indicators, information needed at baseline, responsibilities, data sources, frequency of data collection and costs, collection methods, and reporting; among other details (IFAD). Some organizations further expand on such M&E methods. For example, within this framework, IFAD developed a Results and Impact Management System (RIMS) to guide projects in the measurement and reporting of results. It has also created a handbook and a computer application for the implementation of RIMS. Data can be either from external or internal sources, but it has to be credible, relevant and of high quality. Meanwhile, USAID has tools especially designed for agricultural projects – Feed the Future (FtF) initiative: established a database for all FtF countries; whereby missions around the world enter their indicators on the website yearly – based on the activities they are implementing: https://feedthefuture.gov/progress
Opportunities and Challenges for Agricultural Projects’ M&E
Based on the Paris declaration, there is a commitment from international organizations to support/use national planning and M&E systems (OECD). In Egypt, an M&E system for Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded projects is currently being developed by the Ministry of International Co-operation. For the M&E of agricultural projects in Egypt, participants identified several opportunities, including better coordination, cooperation and data sharing. One of the main problems facing M&E is the limited interaction between operational units, the M&E unit and the implementers. In addition, there are often limited M&E funds and a lack of awareness on its importance. There are also difficulties in collecting high quality data.
Information sharing among agricultural project implementers can have huge benefits, both in terms of cost savings and knowledge generation. Evidently, the lack of data often leads to duplicate efforts. Ideally, international organizations and different stakeholders would be able to rely on publicly available data instead of recollecting the same data. In addition, donors and implementing partners should also share the data among themselves (including raw data, survey results, indicators, etc.) to save time, costs and manpower. This would provide a solid and cost-effective basis for others to focus on impact evaluations without having to start from scratch every time.
Establishing M&E Tools for Agriculture: Way Forward
There is a need for M&E tools that are tailored to the needs of each ministry and the specific nature of the sector. In the case of agriculture in Egypt, MoALR needs both monitoring and impact evaluation tools and capacity. In the short run, there is a need for a consolidated database with all agricultural projects in order to review and report on their progress in an efficient and effective manner, as well as to avoid overlaps and assess new proposals. A spatial portfolio mapping tool where such a database is embedded will be most useful as a visualization and decision making tool. Such a database should include categories for the project status, partners, budget, location, beneficiaries, expected impact (using key indicators to be identified), responsible staff, etc. Once such a spatial monitoring system has been developed and related capacity built, the focus should shift to introducing tools for rigorous impact assessments of agricultural projects.
