Julianti Kallwei is DM&E Manager for MercyCorps in Afghanistan and spoke to me about her experiences. She is responsible to revamp and harmonize the M&E system in her organizations, across all programs.
After 3 days of seminar, what main messages do you take home?
That it's also possible to implement results measurement at a small scale, that you don't need a large project with a big M&E budget. I try to always draw the lessons from the examples presented and see how we can adapt to our different programmes. I also see the challenges that come when changing the system in an ongoing project, compared to implementing it for new ones.
Throughout the seminar, we have mostly heard about applying the standard in PSD. You are thinking of applying it in Vocational Skills Development projects. How are you planning on doing that?
We are working with a training center for youth and trying to place the trained youth in the market. Even though it's a small scale project, we haven't defined yet how to measure employment and income, beyond a certain period of time, to see how sustainable the interventions are. We hope that using results measurement, alongside the log frame, will help us. We see this as a pilot.
Can you tell me anything about applying results measurement in conflict zones?
Security of course is an issue. But also because of this, everything is often short term, short term funding, short term interventions … It 's difficult to be able to see long term impacts. We need more certainty, and long term commitment from donors.
And of course, women inclusion is a great challenge, especially outside of Kabul.
