Monitoring & Evaluation: anchoring in reflection, active learning, and adaptability

Contributed by Lisa Hilt

Lisa leads monitoring, evaluation and learning for the Euphrates Institute. She is an independent evaluation and research consultant with 15 years of experience, who works primarily with organizations focused on peacebuilding and social justice.

Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems help organizations and teams to assess progress in reaching their goals, to hold themselves accountable to their stakeholders, and to identify ways to improve programs and projects.

At Euphrates, we strive to continuously learn and improve our work. We believe in and value ongoing deep reflection and active community participation. We do this through various MEL activities (e.g., surveys, focus groups, team debrief sessions) that allow us to gather program data and feedback from our program participants and community members, and to reflect on what we are learning as a team. 

Our Peace Practice Alliance (PPA) program has had a strong MEL system in place since its inception, including participant surveys and focus groups designed to measure changes in participants' understanding and practice of peace leadership, and to gather participants' suggestions on how to improve the program for future cohorts. To strengthen our evaluation efforts and enable concurrent adaptability, the PPA is anchored by a Learning Committee. The Learning Committee is a group of Euphrates alumni, partners, advisors, and staff who serve as supporters and facilitators of the PPA program. They meet regularly throughout the program to harvest and reflect on ongoing learning and how to adapt in real time to meet emerging needs of participants. Holding an intentional space for monitoring active learning and nourishing curiosity and real-time improvement has been invaluable. 

Over the years we have continuously adapted our MEL systems to increasingly align with our values and respond to our evaluation and learning needs. We have created more opportunities for our community members to share their feedback and suggestions with us. In our PPA program, we have integrated storytelling and other participatory evaluation approaches that allow our program participants to identify and share, in their own words, the impact the program has had in their personal and professional lives. We greatly value the insights of our program participants and community members, and continue to improve our work in response.