MER Monitoring Visit by GV Secretariat and SfL Committee in Denmark to SfL Ghana in Tamale

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 26^th May 2014 to the 28^th May 2014. On the 27^th 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 28^th May 2014. The Team held bilateral discussions with SfL Management on the 29^th 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.