Welcome to the Managing for Impact Newsletter. The content of this newsletter is provided by the implementation team for the Strengthening Management for Impact Programme (SMIP) and members of the MfI Network in eastern & southern Africa.
Contents
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ERIL, SMIP and MfI
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SMIP in 2008
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SMIP blog on M&E
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SMIP in Zanzibar
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MfI Training Workshop in September
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Experiences with MfI
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ERIL Resources
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The Editor’s Favourite
ERIL, SMIP and MfI
The Electronic Resource Information & Learning Center (ERIL) is a platform for discussion, debate and sharing of knowledge and practice about managing for impact (MfI). ERIL was established to promote interaction and learning among practitioners – both project staff and service providers – who all have lots of questions, ideas and experiences to share.
Do you have any ideas or experiences on ways to improve the impact of interventions on the ground? Sign up to ERIL and participate in the discussion forums, view and share materials, and learn about the latest activities and achievements of SMIP.
Have you forgotten your password? Contact us and we’ll make sure you are reconnected.
SMIP in 2008
The SMIP calendar for 2008 reflects the shift to the post-training phase as well as the lessons learned from activities and results during the previous phase.
Working with MfI Network Members: More MfI Network members will be involved in field work with pro-poor initiatives. Members (particularly the MfI Associates) are asked to look out for forthcoming opportunities that will be announced via ERIL.
Action-learning sites: A lot of SMIP activity will revolve around the two action-learning sites through which SMIP aims to contribute new knowledge on managing for impact in the region. SMIP is learning with the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Programme (SANReMP) in Lesotho and the Rural Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Support Programme (MUVI) in Tanzania).
Technical Support: SMIP will provide technical support to selected initiatives including:
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Training of the Department of Social Development (DSD) in the Northern Cape, South Africa, as part of the Social Impact Assessment Tool process.
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Incorporating MfI in the development of M&E systems of the Right-to-Work pilot projects in South Africa.
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Working with the Zanzibar Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASSP and ASDP-L) to develop a participatory M&E system.
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Supporting project partners of Diakonia in South Africa to incorporate MfI as part of their two-year initiative to enhance their capacity for monitoring, reflection and learning.
Documenting Lessons and Experiences: SMIP, the MfI Network members and other stakeholders that have been involved in implementing MfI will work together to document their experiences and lessons learned. A key event will be the ‘write-shop’ scheduled for August 2008.
Thematic Discussions: Using ERIL, SMIP will be developing new ways to host discussion forums—and generate more active engagement of network members—on the key MfI themes of Development, Learning, and M&E.Visit ERIL to read more about the new features of SMIP during 2008.
SMIP Blog on M&E
The discussion forum on monitoring and evaluation was launched in April 2008 via a new blog dubbed “Let’s talk about M and E”. The SMIP M&E Blog provides MfI practitioners with an additional platform to share their thoughts, knowledge and experiences. Based on the principles of ‘open space’, the blog is designed to help us develop a more informal culture of virtual communication.
Users can share anything they want related to the use of M&E for managing for impact—in any way they want! You can go directly to the space at http://mande4mfi.wordpress.com or access it via ERIL.
SMIP in Zanzibar
The Agricultural Services Support Programme (ASSP) and Agricultural Sector Development Programme– Livestock (ASDP-L) is an initiative of the Government of Zanzibar financed by IFAD. Programme objectives include empowerment of farmers; reform and enhancement of research and extension capabilities; and provision of services. ASSP/ASDP-L has a national mandate and targets all smallholder farmers and fisherfolk of the nine rural districts within both islands of Zanzibar (Pemba and Unguja).
As part of the partnership between SMIP and ASSP/ASDP-LA, a workshop was held on 17 to 26 April, 2008, to develop a participatory and learning-oriented M&E plan for the programme.
You can learn more about the interesting lessons and experiences of the SMIP team that facilitated this process from the SMIP M&E Blog.
MfI Training Workshop in September
The next training in MfI will be hosted by Haramaya University, Ethiopia, from 15 to 25 September 2008. Like those held in 2007, the workshop targets service providers and project staff interested in developing their skills and capacity to implement the managing for impact approach.
The content for this highly interactive workshop draws on the conceptual framework that guides the managing for impact approach and includes introductions to relevant theory, methods and tools.
More information on the workshop and the application form is available from ERIL at http://www.managing4impact.com/en/node/84.
Experiences with MfI
The ERIL discussion forum on Experiences with MfI remains open for members of the network to share their ideas and news of their achievements—and frustrations!
The dialogue on “Challenges of implementing MfI” is a great example of how practitioners can get any additional information and encouragement needed to meet the day-to-day realities of applying MfI.
ERIL Resources
The Resources section of ERIL was designed as a repository for reference materials on key components of managing for impact: Guiding Project Strategy, Effective Operations, and Learning Environments.
It is time to replenish the list of resources and links to related websites. Please think about the resources and links you could share with other members of the network and contact us so that we can add them to the site.
Editor’s Favourite: Mine discovers free software
Thanks to Mine Pabari for sharing information about Concept Mapping and the free software developed by IHMC that she’s found extremely useful in documenting the theories of change that participants put together during M&E planning workshops.
The CmapTools program is designed for anyone who needs to construct, share or review the types of knowledge and concept models used to map out programme strategies, etc. Learn why we favour this contribution by visiting Mine’s entry under the “Software” category at SMIP M&E Blog.
The SMIP Editors appreciate your efforts to share interesting news and ideas about managing for impact through this newsletter. Please contact us to make any contributions or suggestions for future editions.
