It is now more important than ever for practitioners working in fragile and conflict affected environments to justify the relevance and effectiveness of their programs to achieve a desired social change, particularly when resources are limited.

Generation Change program in Kenya. Photo courtesy of USIP.
Generation Change program in Kenya. Photo courtesy of USIP.

Course Overview

This course presents an overview of essential principles in design, monitoring, and evaluation practice that enables peacebuilding professionals to successfully apply new skills to implement more effective projects that produce measurable results. If projects are designed well at the beginning, the monitoring and evaluation tools will be more effective to gather necessary data to ensure they are on target towards the intended outcomes and impact. This helps ensure that risks to stakeholders are minimized, outcomes are clearly measured to maximize program impact, work is contributing to the knowledge base of the field, and that limited resources are being used efficiently.

Note: This course is not for monitoring and evaluation professionals, but rather for individuals who manage projects and programs. It was designed and developed in partnership between USIP and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Learning Objectives

After taking this course, participants will be able to:

  • Design effective programs in fragile and conflict prone environments;
  • Articulate a theory of change to reveal and test underlying assumptions in a program;
  • Design and implement a results framework to track a program’s intended outcomes and impacts;
  • Determine relevant data collection methods in fragile environments;
  • Understand the essentials of evaluation design.

Agenda

Chapter 1 - Introduction to DM&E

This chapter examines the critical role that DM&E plays in the work of peacebuilding, security, and development. It addresses the unique challenges of designing, implementing, and evaluating programs in fragile and complex environments and the role of evidence-based decision making to ensure programs achieve their intended outcomes. This chapter also describes the integral role of design that enables effective monitoring and evaluation. Finally, project cycle management is introduced as a practical tool to integrate design, implement, and evaluation.

Chapter 2 - Program Design & Theories of Change

This chapter addresses the foundations of strong project design to enable effective monitoring and evaluation. The results-based management framework is introduced to help you design towards outcomes and impacts. The chapter then discusses the role of strategic planning and the need to adaptive to specific contexts. Project cycle management is introduced as a tool to effectively integrate design, implement, and evaluation. Finally, this chapter provides practical tools to map underlying problems and causes of a program, and to identify potential solutions for maximum impact.

Chapter 3 - Designing a Results Framework

This chapter introduces the results framework as a tool to implement results-based management into DM&E practice. It outlines the four basic building blocks of the results framework (outcomes, baselines, indicators, and targets) and challenges students to apply it as an initial evaluative framework. The role of monitoring is introduced as a means to track progress towards a program’s intended outcomes and impacts.

Chapter 4 - Designing an Evaluation

This chapter conveys the foundational knowledge and skills to practically design an effective evaluation. It examines the three different types of evaluation questions and describes potential sources of questions that can feed into the evaluation design process. This chapter also explains the three different types of evaluation design: experimental, quasi-experimental; and non-experimental.

Chapter 5 - Data Collection Methods

This chapter describes different ways to collect information and data as part of the monitoring and evaluation process. The two different types of data are introduced, as well as the most commonly used data collection tools that are best suited for fragile environments. This chapter examines essential considerations when trying to decide which methods to implement: interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation, and existing data. Participants are challenged to evaluate the methods which are most appropriate for different contexts.

Chapter 6 - DM&E in Complex Environments & Practical Tips

This chapter focuses on the different contexts in which we work and how they impact the implementation of DM&E in practice. It introduces the concept of “complexity” and the associated challenges of conducting DM&E in difficult, fluid, and fragile environments. This chapter addresses institutional factors which also impacts the success of DM&E projects. Institutional “line of sight”, in particular, helps participants conceptualize how individual programs contribute to broader institutional goals. This chapter concludes the course by offering practical tips to strengthen and integrate DM&E practice into their own institutions.

Instructors

  • Andy Blum, Executive Director, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego
  • Caty Clement, Associate Fellow, Global Fellowship Initiative, Geneva Centre for Security Policy
  • Ray Rist, Co-Creator and Co-Director of the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET), former President of IDEAS.

Related Publications

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

Monday, March 25, 2024

By: Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps

In the past few years, life in Haiti has been dominated by gangs’ growing control over huge swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince. For Haitian families, this crisis has meant extreme violence, pervasive unemployment, lack of education for children and reduced access to health care. 2023 Women Building Peace Award finalist Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps serves as the deputy executive director, the head of the women's health program and the manager of the clinical research unit of GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince. She spoke to USIP about how her work helps women and their families, and what the global community can do to help Haitian civil society address this devastating humanitarian crisis.

Type: Blog

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGender

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Monday, February 26, 2024

By: Ye Myo Hein

Earlier this month, Myanmar’s ruling junta enacted a compulsory conscription law that had been dormant since 2010. General Guan Maw, a leader of the Kachin Independence Organization, greeted the junta's decision by comparing it to the 2021 military coup: "If February 1, 2021, was the beginning of the end, the law enforced on February 10, 2024, can be said to mark the end of the end.” As popular reactions to the new conscription plan roll out across the country, General Guan Maw’s pronouncement becomes increasingly prescient.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Monday, February 19, 2024

By: USIP Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its four partner countries in the Indo-Pacific—Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and New Zealand—have entered a period of increased engagement. This engagement is taking shape in the context of the war waged by the Russian Federation (Russia) against Ukraine, NATO’s growing awareness of the security challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (China), and important structural changes in the international system, including the return of strategic competition between the United States and China and Russia. It is occurring not only in bilateral NATO-partner relations but also between NATO and these Indo-Pacific countries as a group.

Type: Report

Conflict Analysis & PreventionCivilian-Military RelationsGlobal PolicyMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

View All Publications