Course Description
Social organisations, across sectors and both established and new, are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate the impact of their programs and interventions by donors. There is often also the need to demonstrate accountability directly to communities where interventions occur. There is greater consciousness about efficient allocation of resources not only because resources are limited but also because of the need to identify what works and what is worth investing in. Social organisations with a focus on solving real-world problems are sometimes unable to track their work and demonstrate evidence of their efficiency and effectiveness. Decisions about workability and scalability of programs need to be based on availability of such evidence. Unless social organisations integrate an ‘evaluative thinking’ in their program planning and design, it is difficult to answer questions of what worked and what was achieved at the end of the program period. This pertains not only to the understanding of program impact but also to the understanding of intervention dynamics (processes). A short-term course on Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) for Social Organisations is intended to prepare social organizations for monitoring and evaluation of their programs and interventions.The current offerings, in both the development sector ecosystem and in the education ecosystem, are often driven by donor/funder-driven requirements and resort to standard off-the-shelf solutions, rather than a deeper and critical engagement with the specific ecosystem in which each organisation operates. These offerings are also often financially burdensome for small and medium-sized organisations in terms of claims of technical expertise and scale of work of the consulting organisations in the domain. The course, thus, also intends to intervene in this ecosystem to offer more financially accessible and rooted M and E perspectives and solutions for medium-sized organisations that form the main partner group of Wipro Foundation.
Course Objective
The course is designed to meet the following immediate objectives:- Develop conceptual clarity about key ideas and methods used for monitoring and evaluation of programs
- Inculcate skills required to use monitoring and evaluation strategies
- Learn to apply commonly used tools to their organisation or program
Long-term objective
Initiate a community of practice that is interested in mutual sharing and exchange on what works in M and E and measuring what works. We envisage this community to also interrupt the current ecosystem of M and E for education organisations in two ways: (a) providing perspectives and solutions that are more contextually embedded; (b) providing M and E services that are more financially accessible; (c) creating a pool of resource persons/organisations who can carry forward the ideas and values of this course in the future, and at scale.
Course Outcomes
The expected outcomes from the course include:- Development of more contextually specific perspectives on M and E related to the programme interventions of the organisations.
- Learning basic skills and tools related to M and E that can be applied to the programmes implemented by the organisation.
- Learn to apply commonly used tools to their organisation or program
Expected Commitment
Module 1: 16 sessions, around 2 hours each session. Self-learning/work time: at least 2 hours for each session.Module 2: 8 online sessions of 2 hours each. Self-learning time: 3 hours approx. for each session.
Module 3: 3 working days (mandatory). Self-learning time will be built into the 2-day workshop.
About The Resource Organization
This is an independent collaboration of three mentors who bring in their individual expertise and experience on Monitoring and Evaluation in the development sector. The combined expertise and experience of this team encompasses academic teaching experience of relevant courses in postgraduate programmes of development; lead role in implementing and evaluating large-scale education projects across India; and, specific needs-based work on monitoring and evaluation with small educational organisations and NGOs.Course Facilitator
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Suraj Jacob is a Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. He is also a visiting faculty with the School of Development, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Starting from 2015, he has taught a semester-length course on M and E for MA students in Development and Policy and Governance. He is part of broader evaluation networks such as the Evaluation Community of India. He also served as chief executive of Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur. |
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Dwithiya Raghavan is a development professional and researcher. She has over a decade of experience in leading the implementation of and evaluating large-scale education projects across India. She has a Masters in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, UK, is a trained teacher and a qualified Chartered Accountant. Her focus is education in public schools and in working towards quality education for all children in the country |
