85511 - Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Cooperation Projects

Learning outcomes

The workshop will introduce how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems are designed in World Bank interventions. In particular, the workshop aims at giving the students the tools to understand theory of change behind development interventions and how best to measure progress on outputs and outcomes. The workshop core focus will be on impact evaluations methodologies of investment projects when the outcome variable is jobs related (e.g., hours of work, participation rates, earnings, employment rate, net jobs created). Indeed, the workshop will particularly focus on the link between an array of WBG interventions and job-related results in the form of intermediate and higher level outcomes. The students, at the end of the workshop will be equipped with general knowledge of how M&E systems work and in particular how they are used in WB interventions and how best to design them to produce relevant and useful information. The students will also have the tools to understand how WB interventions can be better designed to be more impactful in terms of jobs outcomes and to clearly measure jobs – related outcomes.

Course contents

1. Introduction
2. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL): what is and how it works
3. OECD-DAC principles for evaluation
4. MEL and change: Theory of Change and other approaches
5. MEL good practices
6. Determine the purpose, context and practicalities
7. How NGOs and international organisations use MEL
8. Baselines, mid-term evaluations and final evaluations
9. Desk review and field work
10. Monitoring and evaluation in conflict-affected areas
11. Decolonising MEL: utopia or the way forward?

Readings/Bibliography

Materials will be distributed in class and the detailed bibliography will be uploaded here in September 2021.

Teaching methods

Students and instructor will embark on a collaborative learning experience. Knowledge is continuously gained through personal and environmental experiences. Students will be invited to reflect on and apply their own experiences and knowledge, to use analytical tools to conceptualize the experience and to gain new skills and insights.

The instructor will present theory along with practical case studies from his field experience and from other contexts. The course foresees working groups, small groups and individual exercises, learning games and other work and experiential activities. The instructor will share handouts during the workshop. Students’ participation and preparedness are crucial to ensuring a successful learning experience.

Assessment methods

Attendance, class participation, indivdual work on assignments, class working groups and presentations.

Teaching tools

Class working groups, presentations, short documentary movies, simulations, indivdual readings and tasks, etc.

Office hours

See the website of Bernardo Venturi