In each of IICD's country programmes, a local Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) partner coordinates the M&E activities.

Online M&E tool

Each M&E partner gathers quantitative data through IICD's online auto-evaluation tool. The tool contains 12 straightforward questionnaires. The M&E partner informs end users, project owners and training participants which questionnaire they need to fill in on a regular basis. Each questionnaire takes 10 to 25 minutes to complete and allows all those taking part in the programme to give their views on the progress being made by agreeing or disagreeing with statements such as: 'This project has offered me an insight on how to improve on my standard of living' and 'Through this project I now help other people', and by answering open-ended questions. This data is then analysed in order to filter out important information and identify common problems. If technical problems arise, hard-copy questionnaires can be used.

A demonstration version of the online auto-evaluation tool can be found at: testsurvey.iicd.org. The tool allows for cross-country and cross-sector analyses on all projects. The overall analyses are continuously presented in an annual Monitoring and Evaluation reports. For more information on results and reports, go to results.

Focus Group Meetings

After collecting the questionnaires and analysing the data they contain, the M&E partner presents the findings to project managers, representatives of national training partners and the coordinators of local ICT Networks at biannual Focus Group Meetings. Participants are briefed prior to the meeting on the main findings in order to prepare for the discussion. Focus Group Meetings give project partners and trainers the chance to discuss the causes of the identified problems of the data analysis and, in some cases, use these findings to adjust the focus of activities within a Country Programme. In Ghana for example, based on monitoring and evaluation feedback, project partners there are now given extra training in project management and finance to help them (re)formulate their ICT projects.

Output-to-Purpose Reviews

Another monitoring tool used to review a project's progress is the Output-to-Purpose Review (OPR). The OPR is a one-off exercise which is applied to some projects to help them get back on track. It does this by analysing the project's original goal (purpose) and then linking this with its achievements (outputs). Additional impacts and unanticipated results are also taken into consideration. If necessary, the future course of the project can then be redefined.