Monitoring and Evaluation of Livelihood Programmes

Two-year project

£1 million

Department for International Development, Afghanistan

40 staff months of expertise in project management; monitoring and evaluation; livelihoods; support and logistics.

DFID Afghanistan wanted to improve the level of Monitoring and Evaluation and Impact Assessment taking place within the National Programmes they were funding in Afghanistan and within key line ministries in the rural sector. Three key outputs were foreseen:

1. improving livelihood M&E capacity of the Government of Afghanistan;
2. strengthening M&E and impact assessment of the DFID livelihood programme; and
3. improving information available on livelihoods in Helmand and other focal provinces.

DFID contacted the HTSPE-managed Livelihoods Resource Centre (LRC) requesting assistance to help address the first two issues. Work commenced in May 2008.

The Livelihoods Resource Centre provided a flexible Technical Assistance (TA) resource to help develop and strengthen M&E of livelihood programmes, and conduct selected evaluations and impact assessments. The overall focus was on improving data collection, monitoring and evaluation to monitor and deliver the livelihood outcomes in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

The TA developed an inception report followed by six-monthly rolling workplans to cover activities such as:

• training;
• short term consultancies to assess, design or strengthen M&E mechanisms (including indicator frameworks, data collection and reporting processes, analysis and dissemination, impact evaluation frameworks);
• provision of experts to participate in review missions; and
• evaluations and impact assessment.

The TA was focused on DFID programmes and the three main Ministries involved in livelihoods within Afghanistan i.e. Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development – MRRD; Ministry of Counter Narcotics; MCN; and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock – MAIL. Provision for providing support to other Ministries, such as the Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ministry of Education and Public Health, if this is requested.