Monitoring the Impact of the IFAD-funded Participatory Resource Management Project (PRMP) in Tuyen Quang Province, Viet Nam Objectives of PRMP Improved income and food security of poor farm households through increased crop and livestock production and improved access of the poor to social and technical services Major activities of PRMP to achieve impact Institutionalising PRA as a planning and evaluation tool, teams composed of village representatives and extension workers Forming Village Development Boards to follow up PRA exercises and implement development projects in a participatory manner Forming water user groups and setting up irrigation schemes Providing extension and training to farmer groups Disbursing loans to women’s saving and credit groups formed and trained under the project Decentralising funds from the national to provincial level and delegating responsibilities from provincial to lower levels Upgrading rural roads

Stepwise Procedure of Introducing and Implementing PIM Agreeing on the objectives of PIMobjectives Deciding on impacts to be monitored / assessed Formulating impact hypotheses impact hypotheses Examining existing M&E data on impacts Collecting and processing data and information Analysing results in joint reflection with stakeholders Deciding on corrective measures and future PIM Developing indicators and survey methods indicators Deciding on sample size and composition composition Pre-testing indicators and survey methods Identifying ex- pectations and fears regarding impactsex- pectations and fears

Objectives of Participatory Impact Monitoring (PIM) PIM: the continuous observation, systematic documentation, and critical reflection of project impact, done by project staff and target groups, using own survey results Improving project steering Improving interaction Promoting learning processes Promoting capacity building Li nk

Identifying expectations and fears regarding project impact Target groups’ expectations and fears IFAD’s expectations and fears PRMP’s expectations and fears Link

Formulating Impact Hypotheses (example) Impact: Increased number of food self-sufficient farm households External factors Project activities and outputs Irrigation services Loans Extension services Influence of groups formed by project Access to agriculture and forestry services Family planning pro- gramme (re- duction of birth rate) Welfare policy (pro- motion for the poor, e.g. subsidies) Loans from other institutions Exchange of experience within the community Link

Composition of the Sample: ‘With’ / ‘Without Project’ Approach DIFFERENCES IN OBSERVED CHANGES Villages with  1 year of project Villages with  5 years of project DIFFERENT INPUTS Villages with  1 year of project Villages with  5 years of project PRMP + Other programmes Other programmes + Other external factors Additional PRMP/ IFAD input PRMP’s / IFAD’s impact Food security Capacity of VDBs Quality of services Role of women Li nk

Indicator sheet IMPACT Finally agreed formulation of the positive or negative change to be observed DEFINITIONS Definition of key terms used in the impact formulation INDICATOR(S) Detailed description of impact, largely based on the definition of key terms RESPONDENT(S) Who is most knowledgeable about the impact, who else should be asked METHOD(S) Which tools are going to be used to measure the indicator(s) SAMPLING How the respondents are selected, how big the sample size is INDICATOR RATIONALE AND LIMITATIONS Why it is a good indicator, which aspects are covered by the indicator, which are not INSTRUCTIONS FOR DATA COLLECTION Interview guideline (questionnaire), instruc- tion on how to facilitate the RRA / PRA tool LIMITATIONS OF THE METHOD(S) Assessment of the user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness of the method INSTRUCTIONS FOR DATA PROCESSING Instruction on how to document, store, and present data / information Link