BOND has just published a study, written by Itad, which is focused on better understanding the costs to NGOs of measuring and evaluating development programmes.
This study was commissioned by Comic Relief, DFID, Big Lottery Fund, NIDOS and Bond to address the lack of evidence available to support NGOs working in international development in deciding what resources to commit to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL).The study focused on understanding the full investment that NGOs are making on MEL, the kinds of MEL systems that NGOs have, and how NGOs use and value their MEL systems.
Itad’s Associate Director, Sam McPherson, who led this assignment (and incidentally previously managed a MEL department within a large international NGO) said:
“Itad is really pleased with this report. It begins to address a very important issue facing those who work at and manage NGO’s: how to think strategically about implementing and funding Monitoring Evaluation and Learning within traditionally tight resource constraints. It’s been fascinating to see how other NGOs have been thinking about the issues that they face, and there have been really valuable insights that we have gained from listening and learning from their experiences. Hopefully this will start a much bigger conversation about how NGOs can best resource the increasingly stringent demands on them to demonstrate results” . He added, “It’s also really important to recognize that this study was funded by some of the major UK donors that support NGOs, highlighting how they too are very aware that this conversation needs to take place and how they are committed to supporting NGOs as they navigate this difficult territory”.
To read the report, click here.
