By: Abdul-Mumin, C&AO, School for Life
School for Life had an in office
workshop on Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) with the Monitoring Team
from Denmark, consisting of the SfL Committee in Denmark (Dorte and Inge-Lis)
and the GV Secretariat (Inger). The workshop effectively built the capacity of
SfL Staff and Management and the Technical Committtee, as well as the E4L
Programme Coordinator and Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Documentation officer
(MERO) to better do monitoring, evaluation, reporting and proper documentation
of changes the SfL Programme is contributing to. The Monitoring Team assisted
SfL to do a self assessment of the 2013 Annual Report, with attention paid to
the Milestone matrix and special emphasis and analysis made of the reflections
vis-à-vis the set indicators and results chalked for the reporting period.
Participants in the workshop were better resourced with key tools such as the
Impact Ladder and the Action Learning Cycle, which were understood as very
crucial tools for conducting proper monitoring, evaluation, reporting and
documentation. The workshop started on the 26th May 2014 to the 28th
May 2014. On the 27th May 2014, a member of the Monitoring Team made
a field visit to the Demonstration School at Gbulahagu and held discussions
with the Head Teacher and the Local Committee members. Debriefing from the field was done on the 28th
May 2014. The Team held bilateral discussions with SfL Management on the 29th
May 2014 and concluded the monitoring visit on May, 30 with a debriefing
session at the GDCA office.
Inge-Lis (a member of the Monitoring Team) Debriefing Management and Staff on Field Visit to the SfL Demonstration School
SfL Management, Staff and the
Technical Committee alike were very thankful and appreciative of the efforts by
the Team that lead to enhancement in the capacity of SfL in doing proper
reporting and documentation of changes. During the workshop, a participant
shared, “It is only today, I have gotten to know that cost effectiveness is not
only limited to the economic considerations of procuring goods at a lower cost
from one place compared to the other, but also the most quality of output
yielded from inputs”. Indeed, SfL is making efforts to sustain the benefits and
lessons learnt from the MER workshop, by holding sessions within the office to
apply what was learnt and do some more reflections and analysis of the 2013
Annual report. The MER workshop has placed SfL in a more formidable state to doing better and improved monitoring, evaluation, reporting and documentation of real changes the programme contributes to.
