Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for NARS Organizations in Papua New Guinea Day 5. Session 14. Work Plan and Budget for M&E

Learning objectives By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Explain what M&E work plans are and their role as a prerequisite to developing an M&E budget. Develop M&E work plans for interventions. Explain the M&E budgeting process. Develop a budget for an M&E activity. Explain how to develop an overall M&E budget for an intervention

Work plan and budget for M&E planned M&E arrangements have to be costed in preparation for their implementation inform senior management about the resource requirements make informed decisions about the allocation of resources to M&E finance administration has to make sure the necessary resources are made available in the right amount and at the required time M&E costs approx % of total budget of an intervention

M&E work plan develop M&E work plan in order to come up with an M&E budget M&E work plan is an action plan, listing all activities that are necessary to implement the M&E plan over a defined period (one year or multi-year)

M&E work plan Aims of the M&E work plan: to plan the implementation of M&E activities over a specified period of time to determine the personnel resources required for M&E activities, who is responsible, when they will be used and have to be made available to convince decision makers of the feasibility of the M&E plan in order to approve the required resources to provide a timeframe to implement the M&E activities

M&E work plan M&E work plan shows: the M&E activities to be performed when the M&E activities will be implemented (time frame) who will implement the M&E activities (personnel); and the total cost estimate to implement an M&E activity (if a costed M&E work plan is required)

Developing M&E work plans Step 1Identify the planned M&E activities from the M&E operations plan or the overall M&E plan for the organization. Step 2Determine the logical sequence of activities and their time frame over a specified period. Step 3Review the responsibilities and estimate personnel requirements for implementing the M&E activities. Step 4Calculate all resources required to implement the M&E activity; develop cost estimate/budget for the M&E activity Step 5Prepare a final costed M&E work plan by recording the information in an M&E work plan format.

Costed M&E work plan format M&E Activity Timeframe Personnel required for implementation Total cost Q1Q2Q3Q4

Developing M&E work plans a recurring activity, based on the information provided in the M&E operations plan or overall M&E plan for the organization M&E work planning is a prerequisite to developing a realistic overall M&E budget helps to develop cost estimates for the identified M&E activities by aggregating the cost estimates for individual M&E activities the total M&E budget can be calculated M&E work plans will mostly be developed annually in time for the organization’s annual budgeting cycle

Developing M&E work plans for both the M&E operations plan for interventions and the overall M&E plan for the organization work plans should cover all activities necessary to implement the M&E plans M&E work plan for M&E in interventions concentrates more on the operational aspects of doing M&E M&E work plan for the M&E system of the NARS organization will include the activities required to implement the conditions and capacities for the M&E system to work M&E work plans included in the M&E operations plan for the intervention or the overall M&E plan for the organization

M&E activity a group of tasks, or a work package, leading to a major output required to implement the components of the M&E system sessions in this module discussed the various components of the M&E system for a NARS organization sessions discussed how to design and implement the various elements within the component M&E activities in the M&E work plans will be broadly related to the components and elements discussed in the sessions of this module

M&E budget a written plan predicting the expenses for implementing the M&E operations during a specified period used to allocate and authorise the financial resources necessary to complete all M&E activities for the intervention or the NARS organization to deliver a functional M&E system may contain information on the sources of funding serves as a baseline for managing the M&E resources, such as for resources planning, allocation, accounting and auditing

Preparing cost estimates for M&E activities preparing the overall M&E budget requires aggregating the cost estimates for individual M&E activities into an overall cost estimate for all the M&E operations M&E work plan is the starting point to develop the cost estimates for M&E activities it describes the M&E activities, personnel and time prepare a separate cost estimate for each M&E activity

Preparing cost estimates for M&E activities Step 1Identify the personnel requirements in person days, and calculate actual personnel costs to implement the M&E activity. Step 2Identify the cost for material and equipment that these people need to implement the M&E actions. Step 3Identify the operational costs. Step 4Record the identified costs in the organization’s specific budget format. Steps to develop a cost estimate/budget for an M&E activity:

Preparing cost estimates for M&E activities Examples of costs to consider: please see summary of presentations

Example of a budget format used for a project evaluation budget Budget Line/Cost ItemBudget Estimate Salaries/wages External consultant(s) Internal staff Project leader Project manager Other staff Casuals Training & staff development Workshop facilities Materials Catering Other Data collection Data collection methods Purchases/development Printing Distribution and collection Other collection costs Hire of equipment/facilities Travel & accommodation Travel costs Accommodation Meals, etc. Other continued …

Example of a budget format used for a project evaluation budget Budget Line/Cost ItemBudget Estimate Data processing and analysis Hire/use of equipment/facilities Purchase of software Other Printing of reports Printing Mail out Miscellaneous office costs Telephone, fax Meeting room hire Stationery TOTAL … continued Source: University of Tasmania (no date)

Preparing the overall M&E budget for an intervention add up budget lines from the individual budgets of M&E activities for the intervention incorporate into the full intervention’s budget identifying all funds needed to implement the intervention, M&E and non-M&E, for the specified budget period include as a separate section in the M&E operations plan

Preparing the overall M&E budget for the M&E system add up budget lines from the individual budgets of M&E activities planned in the organizational M&E plan add up the M&E budgets for all interventions incorporate both into the organization’s operating budget identifying all funds needed to implement the M&E system over the specified budget period include overall M&E budget as a separate section in the organizational M&E plan

Justification of M&E budget budget sections in each M&E plan should include a budget justification explanatory note justifying briefly why the various items in the budget are required why items that may seem questionable or that are particularly costly are needed how complicated expenses have been calculated used by managers to get further information on the cost estimates and calculations inform their decision making process on the allocation of resources to M&E strong budget justification makes it less likely that essential items will be cut during the resources allocation and authorization process

Budget format budget formats vary with each organization each organization’s finance unit may use budget lines and budget items/cost items that are specific to their financial management system budget format should be developed taking the needs of financial management and operational management of the interventions into account if funded by a donor obtain also the donor’s budget format