1. Monitoring and Evaluating Rural Advisory Services
Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS)

2. 1│Introduction to RAS
RAS encompasses different services, providers and organisations
Provide rural people with skills to improve livelihoods and arrive at best farming practices
Gives out info on technologies, markets, inputs and financial matters
Help farmers develop agricultural, management and marketing skills
Promote interaction among farmers and other rural actors, private sector, research institutes, education institutions and government

3. 1│Introduction to RAS RAS includes services in four main areas:
Knowledge, technology and information sharing
Advice related to management of farms, organisations and agri-business
Strengthening of farmer-based organisations
Facilitation and brokerage in rural areas and value chains

4. 1│Introduction to RAS Stakeholders in RAS are:
Policy and decision-makers
RAS managers
M&E personnel, experts and evaluations of RAS
Famer organisations
End users of RAS: producers, rural households, etc.

5. 1.1│RAS in innovation system
Innovation vital to agricultural development: producers must adapt to changing conditions
Innovation involves network or organisations bringing new products, systems and processes
Innovation requires collaboration, needs capacity by all stakeholders
Path: identification > technology/solution > testing > assessment > adoption

6. Important RAS contributions in agricultural innovation process

7. 1.1│RAS in innovation system
RAS provides recommendations, knowledge and business development services to enable farmers to adapt
Innovation improves:
RAS policies, practices and performance
Extension systems and make policy and investment decisions

8. Generic agricultural innovation system

9. 1.2│Principles of modern RAS & interventions
Five principles of RAS:
Focusing on best-fit approaches
Embracing pluralism
Increasing accountability to rural clients
Developing human resources
Ensuring sustainability

10. 1.2.1│Best-fit approaches
Making design based on good analyses of intervention conditions and learned experience
Challenges to achieve sustainable change involves addressing structural inequalities, gender bias
Changes this approach tackles are:
Strengthening women ownership and control
Increasing number of women in RAS
Using gender-sensitive approaches, practices in service delivery

11. 1.2.2│ Embracing pluralism
Pluralism means there is more than one service provider:
Public RAS institutions
Civil society organisations
Farmer-based organisations
Private RAS providers
Private agri-business enterprise
Challenges of pluralism are:
Ensuring coordination of providers
Ensuring all clients have access to relevant and effective RAS

12. Various stakeholders in RAS

13. 1.2.3│Accountability to rural clients
Services must respond to users and service provides accountable to users
Number of ways to increase accountability:
Involvement and empowerment of farmers through farmer organisations
Decentralising responsibility and decision-making regarding services to entities farmers have influence over
Financing mechanisms can empower farmers in decision-making regarding content

14. 1.2.4│Human resource development
Crucial to addressing challenges and rapid changes in rural development
Required at farmer level, RAS agents and education/training institutions
Continuous human resource development necessary to maintain ownership

15. 1.2.5│Sustainability Depends on three factors:
Adaptability to local conditions like weather, institutions, policies, markets, which requires capacity
Clear and strong ownership at level of users, RAS providers, decision-makers, who take responsibility for development of institutions and adoption of integration of approaches and results
Sustainable and reliable financing via financial participation by users (direct payment, membership or production levies or taxes), public funds or service provision in producer-own organisations

16. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
Way to check that RAS interventions effecting intended changes
Planning, monitoring and implementation allows organisation to apply best practices consistently and systemically
Results-based management (RMB) provides:
Tool for learning and improving organisation or programme performance
Reliable tool for accountability to stakeholders

17. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
RMB involves:
Planning: Designing intervention nand defining intended results
Monitoring: After implementing, continuously tracking results, reflecting on them and making adjustments
Evaluation: Provides evidence of intervention performance and captures lessons learned

18. RMB process

19. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
Goals must be defined to be measured against results
Three types of results:
Outputs: Immediate results of intervention, e.g. courses, conferences, workshops, meetings
Outcomes: Medium-term changes in knowledge, behaviour and relations leading to increased knowledge of agricultural markets, improved management and access to market stakeholders
Impact: Lasting economic or social changes in conditions of end-user, e.g. empowering women

20. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
Point of results-based intervention design is to develop programme theory of change (ToC)
ToC is a description of how and why a desired change is expected in a certain context
ToC describes casual connection between inputs, activities and desires results
Inputs > processes > outputs > outcomes > impacts

21. Programme ToC for RAS intervention

22. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
After intended results defined, determine how to view and measure results
Use SMART indicators:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
Then establish baseline comparing current situation with intended changes to monitor and evaluate (M&E) changes

23. Monitoring and evaluation in results frameworks

24. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
Monitoring involves collecting and analysing data and to take action
Evaluation is systematic assessment of an intervention during or after intervention
Evaluation assesses intervention’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability
Three types of evaluation:
Mid-term: Assessment of ongoing intervention to improve practices
End-of-project evaluation: Assessment of completed intervention with recommendations for future interventions
Impact studies: Measurements of long-term effects on income, poverty, food security, etc. Has knowledge, behaviour and attitudes changed?

25. Evaluation process

26. 2.1│Basic principles of RAS
Good planning in results-based framework and M&E can enhance RAS intervention performance:
Proper planning > it is clear what to monitor
Results-based planning > know what to look for
Monitoring > necessary data for evaluation is collected
M&E > changes to programme planning > further changing intended results and data collection for monitoring

27. 2.2│Role of M&E in RAS Stakeholders in and using M&E in RAS:
RAS agencies and other service providers
Ministries of agriculture
Farmer organisations
Other civil society groups
Private agri-business companies
Aid agencies
Farmers/users
All have different roles. Three types:
Provide accountability
Support policymakers and RAS managers on how best to structure and invest in RAS
Support learning on how to improve performance of RAS

28. 2.2│Role of M&E in RAS Accountability
RAS providers accountable to funders for results
Accountability increases relevance, effectiveness and probability of creating impact at farmer level
Tools include participatory RAS methods, decentralisation, control of funding and competition
Must develop M&E of accountability where users are involved

29. Accountability in RAS

30. 2.2│Role of M&E in RAS Evidence to structure and invest in RAS:
RMB M&E data can be used by policymakers and to inform decision-making through documentation
Supporting learning on improving RAS performance:
Implementation must lead to continuous learning
This provides adjustments and decision-making through feedback mechanisms
Monitoring information informs planning of new interventions

31. RAS feedback loop

32. 2.2│Role of M&E in RAS Mechanisms for learning can include:
Participative approaches for data collection
Regular meetings for reflections of monitoring data
Meetings with stakeholders to review performance of intervention
Electronic system to facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing mistakes and failures
Participation in RAS networks to share experiences and advice from peers and experts

33. 2.3│Importance of M&E in RAS
RAS must establish, strengthen and maintain institutional relationships with all stakeholders
Different RAS organisations face different challenges
Challenges affect M&E methods and approaches:
No. of actors in RAS and agricultural innovation system overlap or have conflicting roles and interests
Nonlinear impact affects knowledge and capacity building
Open systems makes discerning reasons for reuslts challenging

34. Acknowledgements
This module was made possible through the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The contents of this module are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of GIZ and USAID or respective their governments.
All work by Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services is licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Unported License