Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for NARS Organisations in Papua New Guinea Day 3. Session 7. Managers’ and stakeholders’ information needs

Learning objectives By the end of this session, participants will be able to Present why it is important to identify the information needs of managers and stakeholders when designing an M&E system. Discuss how to identify information needs of stakeholders and managers in their organisation. Explain what information needs managers and stakeholders of an intervention may have.

Identifying the information needs In order to decide what information the M&E system has to deliver it is important to understand the information needs of managers and stakeholders. Ask questions: What do you need to know about the intervention in order to manage it well? What do you need to know to about the intervention to learn for the future?

Identifying the information needs Identify information needs from the reports they require or need to prepare. Present them with a list of potential or possible information needs to choose from. Identify questions that managers and stakeholders may ask or will be asked by others, for which they need an answer.

Identifying the information needs Once identified, plan the detailed M&E arrangements for the interventions further: define indicators and decide what data needs to be collected and how. Information needs change over time and may need to be re-assessed at regular intervals. Check the validity and usefulness of the defined indicators during implementation of the intervention.

Information needs Two categories of information needs: Information on achievement of objectives Information regarding the context of objectives

Information on achievement of objectives Information that relates directly or indirectly to assessing the achievement of the different levels of objectives. Activities and outputs: operational information; whether activities have been done and whether outputs have been produced. Purpose: overall achievement of the intervention over its lifetime, including the short term changes for the target group. Goal: long term changes or development changes for the target group or the contribution of the intervention to these changes.

Information on achievement of objectives Consider ‘basic’ information needs during indicator definition. Defining high quality indicators makes it possible to collect the data and generate the information that is needed to assess the level of achievement of objectives Allows managers and stakeholders to make decisions on corrective actions, if necessary.

Information on achievement of objectives Example Indicator: ‘By 2009 agricultural production of coffee, tea and cassava for farmers in Lowland Region has increased’ provides important information on what the program has achieved in the region.

Information on achievement of objectives Examples of questions that managers or stakeholders may ask by level of objective: Input How much money did we spend? How much did it cost? What physical resources did we use? How much staff time did we spend implementing? Activity What have we done? When did we do it? Who did it? Output What tangible products have we delivered as a result of the activities? When did we deliver the results? To whom did we deliver? Purpose/Outcome What have we done/achieved when intervention ends? What are the short or medium term changes in target region or for target population? What has been achieved as a result of the outputs? Goal/Impact What is the long term development change that the intervention has achieved? What change has the intervention brought about in the region in the last 5 years?

Information regarding the context of objectives Objectives are complex and may not be summarised or explained by one or two indicators. Information on indicators will only provide a partial view and can only represent a simplified indication of the complex situation of an intervention. Qualitative and quantitative information may not explain why, if and how this can be attributed to the intervention. Why there was success or failure or what has been learned from the intervention for future interventions.

Information regarding the context of objectives managers and stakeholders may need information that provides additional information on context and background of intervention information to understand and interpret the indicators better information that explains what is happening; how it is happening; and why it is happening

Information regarding the context of objectives Information beyond the ‘basic’ information needs may relate to: environment of intervention: political, social, economical cross cutting issues related to the intervention: gender, HIV/AIDS, natural environment unexpected results: outputs, outcomes and impact partnerships and networking in the intervention risks to intervention technical aspects

Information regarding the context of objectives Specific information to assess the value and quality of an intervention: relevance effectiveness efficiency impact, and sustainability

Examples of information needs Examples of specific information needs of managers and stakeholders of a NARS organisation: Human Resource Department on implementation of activities, work plan of intervention’s staff members for performance assessment. Finance Manager on use of finances disbursed to the intervention. Program Leader on tangible outputs produced by intervention. Extension Agent on beneficiaries of intervention: types, characterisation. Donor on representation of women among beneficiaries and solutions benefitting women. CEO on the mitigation of risks that may prevent the NARS organisation to achieve its goal. Project Leader on project outcomes and sustainability of project outcomes. Department of Agriculture on regions targeted by intervention.

Information needs – checklist Seek the information needs of different stakeholders with them. Do not consider only project management information needs. Be sure to include information that can help you answer the five core evaluation questions: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. Include information that can help you understand how well the project is dealing with cross-cutting issues. Remember to include information for each level of the objective hierarchy. Include enough operational information to know if you are making optimal use of resources and that operations are good quality. Seek information that can help you not only to check targets but, especially, to explain progress. Why something is happening or why not? Look out for the unintended. Last but not least, stick to the "less-is-more" principle. Regularly revise your list of information needs to filter out the information that does not seem to be critical. Source: adapted from IFAD 2002 Thank you!.