Development of the Monitoring and Evaluation plan of Agricultural Services Support Programme (ASSP) and Agricultural Sector Development Programme– Livestock (ASDP-L) of Zanzibar
A partnership activity to develop a Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation plan for the Agricultural Services Support Programme (ASSP)/Agricultural Sector Development Programme - Livestock (ASDP-L) was organized from April 17th to 26th, 2008 in Zanzibar.
The ASSP/ASDP-L is a Government of Zanzibar Programme financed by IFAD. The activities of ASSP/ASDP-L include empowerment of farmers; reform and enhancement of research and extension capabilities; and provision of services. It has a national mandate and targets all smallholder farmers and fisherfolk of the nine rural districts covering both islands of Zanzibar (i.e. Pemba and Unguja).
The participatory M&E development work was carried out through a scoping study and workshop to prepare the M&E plan with representatives of the different stakeholder groups. The scoping study was conducted to gain some understanding of the stakeholders, including their existing information and sharing mechanisms. This was carried out in a workshop setting, with one day in Pemba and one in Ugunja. Following the scoping study, a six day workshop was facilitated to develop the M&E plan. The workshop was attended by forty three participants representing farmers, extension officers, researchers, private service providers, FFS facilitators and the Programme Implementation Unit.
During the workshop, participants;
- Mapped out the theory of change of ASSP/ASDP-L in line with their stakeholder group's role in the Programme;
- Agreed on the purpose and scope of M&E;
- Identified information requirements through the use of performance questions;
- Discussed conditions and capacities required to establish the M&E system of the programme;and
- Reviewed the existing information sharing avenues in their stakeholder groups and identified appropriate mechanisms for critical reflection
The output of this workshop will be utilized for the development of the information gathering formats and protocols. This is expected to be followed by field testing of the information collection tools in June; after which the monitoring and evaluation plan will be finalized.
This activity is being facilitated by two members from the SMIP EA SRI team, CARMPoLEA, (Sindu Workneh and Elias Zerfu); a SMIP MfI Associate, Sylvester Baguma, and the SMIP Regional Programme Facilitator, Mine Pabari.
For more information on some of the lessons & experiences of the team during this activity, visit the SMIP M&E Blog:http://mande4mfi.wordpress.com/
Information sharing on pre-testing of participatory monitoring tools and on-the-job Training of Trainers (ToT)
Pre-testing of participatory monitoring tools and on-the-job Training of Trainers ( ToT) of Shehia, district and ASFT members who will be involved in monitoring and evaluation of Agricultural Services Support Program (ASSP)/Agricultural Sector Development Program– Livestock (ASDP-L) was carried out from June 8th to 16th, 2008 in Zanzibar.
The pre-test and the on the job training was carried out based on the results of the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Plan Development Workshop which was organized two months earlier to identify and decide on purpose and scope of the ASSP/ASDP-L M&E, information needs, monitoring and evaluation tools, participating stakeholders and conditions and capacities.
The objective of the pre-test was two fold. One; to test the applicability of the monitoring tools and second to give on-the-job ToT to people who will be participating in the collection, compilation, analysis and reporting of monitoring and evaluation information.
A total of fourteen participants which included Block Development Officers(BDOs), Subject Matter Specialists(SMSs), Program Development Officers (PDOs), who came from three representative districts of Unjuga and Pemba including Agriculture Service Facilitation Team ( ASFT) from both islands involved in the 10-day pre-test and on- the job-training.
Before participants went to the field to test the monitoring tools they reviewed them and made necessary changes. Furthermore, they explained in a plenary how they will administer and test the tools assigned to them. This helped to know how much the tool was understood by participants and gave chance for SMIP facilitators to identify areas requiring guidance.
The whole process involved pre-testing one monitoring tool for training session, two monitoring tools for activities and outputs (Monitoring FFS action plans and monitoring service provision), four tools for change in behavior (use & usefulness of the information/new technologies introduced in the FFS training sessions, sharing information/knowledge with others, research & service provision and organizational capacity of FFS group) and four tools for changes in livelihoods( changes in sources of income, changes in household expenditure, unintended impact and changes in wellbeing) were done. This was pre-tested with ninety one participants from six representative FFS groups of three districts (two from Unjuga and one from Pemba) involved in crop and livestock enterprises for two days.
The pre-test was carried out by the ToT participants and focused on looking to the relevance of the pictures and question used in the tools, time taken and ease of understanding by respondents/ participants.
The results of the pre-test was summarized and presented by participants who facilitated the pre-test. Accordingly, necessary changes were made based on the feedback collected.
Furthermore, to help participants appreciate the whole process and get motivated in the data collection process, the data entry process was demonstrated to participants. In addition to htis, the overall data collection, collation, analysis and reporting process was explained and demonstrated to the ASFT for one full day.
Sindu Workneh and Elias Zerfu from CARMPoLEA and Sylvester Dickson Baguma an MfI Associate from Uganda facilitated the event with a day to day technical backstopping by Mine Pabari Wageningen International regional facilitator.
