1. Sierra Leone Consortium for Relief and Development (CORAD) CARE Int., AFRICARE, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision Int. Action Plan for Making Monitoring and Evaluation More Participatory

2. What Needs to Change Program Monitoring and Evaluation needs to change from being “accountability-focused” to facilitating learning by all stakeholders. Monitoring and evaluation should be made more participatory, and should (to the extent possible) involve all key stakeholders. Specifically, target communities, community health workers, Government extension workers, district health and agricultural management teams, Ministry of Health and Sanitation and Ministry of Agric. Food Security and Forestry should play an active role in monitoring the performance of the CORAD program The Role of the M&E Coordination Unit (managed by World Vision) should change from “ ensuring standardization and compliance for accountability” to a more “facilitative role” that builds the necessary capacity at levels and “maximizes learning” by all major stakeholders

3. Current StatusProposed changes“Methods”“Next Steps” Coordination and Compliance Unit (CCU) uses M&E Coordination Report to compile USAID Annual Results and Resource Request (CSR4) report The CCU and the M&E coordination unit will organize annual reviews for all stakeholders to assess progress, effectiveness, relevance, impact and sustainability. During these reviews problems and challenges will be discussed, solutions identified and responsibilities shared. The CCU and the M&E coordination unit will organize annual reviews for all stakeholders to assess progress, effectiveness, relevance, impact and sustainability. During these reviews problems and challenges will be discussed, solutions identified and responsibilities shared. Annual reviews will also be used to plan next FY operations Plan FY 2004 Annual Review meeting tentatively scheduled for January 20-24, 2005. Participants will include all major stakeholders (farmers, community facilitators, health workers, project staff, district line departments, line ministries, NGO management and M&E officers). Other strategic implementing partners (sub-grantees ) will also be invited to participate. Proposed changes to our M&E approach will be discussed and agreed upon M&E Coordination Unit uses NGO reports to compile consortium-level reports The M&E Coordination Unit will play a more facilitative role, build the necessary capacity at all levels and engage NGO M&E officers, sector heads, project managers, Line ministries and district line departments in analyzing performance data The M&E Coordination unit will organize and facilitate quarterly review meetings for NGO project staff, M&E officers, sector heads, and line ministries to assess progress, effectiveness and relevance and identify solutions to any challenges NGO HQ M&E officers collate and aggregate district level and compile Organizational-level reports HQ M&E officers will work with district-level project managers and community facilitators and health workers to analyze performance data (both quantitative and qualitative) NGO HQ M&E officers will organize and facilitate quarterly review meetings for all stakeholders (district project staff, line departments, sector heads etc) to assess progress. Following the Annual Review meeting, a brief stakeholder analysis will be conducted to assess M&E info needs, capacity and the necessary tools to facilitate participatory critical reflection District project managers collate and aggregate data collected from community facilitators Local-level analysis will be done by district project staff, district line departments, community facilitators, farmers and community health workers Monthly progress and quarterly review meetings will be organized for district project staff, line departments, community facilitators and health workers and farmers to assess progress, effectiveness and relevance. Challenges, solutions & responsibilities will be agreed upon Community Facilitators collect data from farmers and community health workers Farmers and community health workers will be involved in assessing their own progress. Simple techniques such as rich pictures and focus group discussions will be used to encourage participation

4. Moving Forward Dec 05-Jan 15 (Planning the FY 2004 annual Review Meeting) Sessions – Overview of our results framework – Startup and operational progress (lessons learned and progress) – Review of key components of our health strategy (activities, progress, effectiveness, relevance, impact, and sustainability, challenges, solutions and responsibilities) – Review of key components of our Agricultural strategy (activities, progress, effectiveness, relevance, impact, and sustainability, challenges, solutions and responsibilities) – Review our M&E approach, in order to determine the M&E info needs of the different stakeholders, assess current challenges and solutions moving forward). The major outcome of this session will be consensus on how to make M&E more participatory and maximize learning – Discuss FY 2004 baseline findings and plan FY 2005 activities (agree upon key activities, targets and responsibilities) – Summary of key agreements

5. Methods – A combination of “ facilitated sessions”, focus group discussions, group exercises, open discussions, (and a field tour of the nearest supported communities) – The selection of methods will depend on participants invited and their capacity