C4D: Manage

Stakeholders are people, community groups and institutions with a stake in the C4D initiative and the associated research, monitoring, evaluation and studies. It is important to ensure their active participation before, during and after the evaluation. In cases where this is not possible, one alternative would be to involve representatives who can advocate on their behalf.

Many decisions will need to be made in the course of planning and implementing research monitoring and evaluation. To think about and implement effective decisions it is useful considers several factors.

Research, monitoring and evaluation tasks (such as developing an M&E Framework, undertaking small studies and evaluations) can be done internally by existing staff (within one organisation or as a partnership or joint activity involving a number of implementing partners), externally by a consultant, or a hybrid of these two options (where there is a combination of internal staff and stakeholders and external researchers and evaluators).

Resources needed for R,M&E might include funding (to engage consultants, to cover travel costs, catering, R,M&E materials), time, expertise, willingness to be involved, and existing data. It is important be clear about available resources, and to be able to estimate the resources that will be required to do the R,M&E tasks well.

It is important to be agree on and be clear about what both the quality standards are for the R,M&E (issues such as rigor, contextuality, gender sensitivity, impartiality and other criteria about the quality of R,M&E), and what the ethical standards are (being respectful, sensitive, transparent and avoiding causing harm or raising false expectations). Quality and ethical standards should be agreed to early on, and adhered to throughout implementation.

To undertake this task you need to bring together all the decisions made (manage, define, frame) and develop the documents that reflect these decisions.

A number of documents (such as Terms of Reference (ToR), Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or Scope of Work) need to be created as part of the management of research, evaluations and studies. Such documents provide guidance, and they are particularly important when commissioning external evaluators. The documents state the roles, resources, and responsibilities of the researchers or evaluators and the scope of the study or evaluation. 

A review process (also referred to as a meta-evaluation) is an important part of the implementation process. It enables critical reflection and reviews of the effectiveness of R,M&E systems, studies and evaluation capacity development strategies. Reviews can be undertaken on evaluation or research plans and M&E frameworks prior to implementation, and on evaluation and assessment reports after implementation.

Assessing the capacity, and support for the capacity development needs, of organizations and key partners and community groups and others involved in the R,M&E will help to increase the effectiveness, quality, rigour and utilisation of the overall R,M&E processes and outcomes.