Commitment 4.3:
We invest in quality assessment of our work.
Compliance Indicators
Compliance with the Commitments will be assessed against the following Compliance Indicators. All of the applicable Compliance Indicators must be met by every ACFID Member to be considered compliant with the Code. Each of the Compliance Indicators has one or more compliance Verifiers. Verifiers are the description of evidence that is required to substantiate compliance with each Compliance Indicator. Guidance is also provided.
4.3.1 Members assess the quality of their strategies, designs and plans.
Appraisal/selection process that requires designs and plans to be critically assessed against a set of criteria or equivalent.Â
Guidance
Using a documented appraisal/selection process with clear criteria or principles increases the shared understanding amongst staff and partners of the range of expectations your organisation may have in regards to the nature and quality of initiatives and it enhances transparency, accountability and rigour. The process could be undertaken by staff or a committee with external specialists. You can download an example of an initiative appraisal/selection tool in the Resources Section below.
Download and read ACFID’s PMEL Guidance tool from the resources section below for further guidance on developing planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks and tools that meet this requirement.Â
4.3.2 Members monitor, evaluate and learn from their work.
- Policy, statement or guidance document committing the Member to monitoring, evaluation and learning across the whole organisation.
- Monitoring and evaluation framework, tools, templates or approaches that consistently show evidence of monitoring and evaluation in practice
Guidance
Your policy, statement or guidance document could include: an outline of the principles underpinning your organisation’s approaches to monitoring, evaluation and learning; and an outline of the procedures or practices required to achieve this.
Your approaches could include: scheduled reporting processes with associated report templates or guidance to enable consistency and rigour; scheduled field visits with associated report templates; guidance on evaluation terms of reference and methodologies to enable consistent approaches, quality and rigour; and scheduled and resourced events to share learnings amongst staff and partners.
Your monitoring and evaluation framework, tools and templates could include: an articulation of expected outputs and outcomes, associated methods for measuring this (indicators, targets or equivalent), how this information will be collected and by whom and these processes should be adequately resourced with time, people and funds.
Download and read ACFID’s PMEL Guidance tool from the resources section below for further guidance on developing planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks and tools that meet this requirement.
Good Practice Indicators
The following Good Practice Indicators describe a higher standard of practice than that set out in the Compliance Indicators. While Members do not need to meet the Good Practice Indicators to be considered compliant with the Code, they will self-assess against these indicators once every three years. This provides a clear pathway for Members to strengthen and improve practice over time.
- Specialised monitoring and evaluation staff are in place.
- External specialists undertake reviews and evaluations using a range of data collection methods and tools.Â
- Monitoring and evaluation training is provided to key personnel, partners and relevant primary stakeholders.Â
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The results of reviews and evaluations  are published on organisation website, and made available through other mediums to partners and primary stakeholders.
- Monitoring and evaluation systems include the participation and leadership of partners, community members and primary stakeholders.
Good Practice Guidance
Here are some practical suggestions for your organisation to further deepen and improve practice over time.
Organisational
- Develop operational plans including activity schedules, monitoring and evaluation plans, budgets and risk management plans to guide the implementation of the development activity. These documents ensure shared understanding between you and your partners and provide an objective basis to monitor, measure and report progress.
- Focus on the impact or long term outcome of an activity – this will encourage the analysis and articulation of how the changes will likely occur and who the main actors or change agents are in this process.
- Undertake this analysis and planning with the full participation of partners, community members and other important stakeholders
- Jointly define with your partners and other stakeholders what success or progress will look like and how it will be assessed and measured. This could involve defining indicators and targets or could be done in a more open-ended manner.
- Establish monitoring and evaluation systems that regularly and systematically include the participation and leadership of partners, community members and other critical stakeholders
- Use a range of data collection methods and tools, both qualitative and quantitative, for monitoring and evaluation processes
- Present findings and seek feedback in an accessible and appropriate way to your stakeholders
- Demonstrate a commitment to mutual accountability through sharing results, good practices and lessons learned with stakeholders
- Make program review reports available throughout your organisation, to partners and other stakeholders and on your website.
- Organise events or opportunities for stakeholders and staff to reflect on lessons learned and explicitly incorporate them into forward planning
- Use data to inform decision-making, to adjust approaches where necessary and to continually improve performance.
- Through your appraisal processes, link project funding and approval to organisational strategies, priorities and mission.
- Plan and budget for your monitoring and evaluation at the project design stage.
- Use the finding of evaluations to inform future programming and provide learning within the organisation as well as feedback and accountability to implementing partners or projects.
- Appoint staff or use consultants with expertise in monitoring and evaluation methods.Â