Malika [user:field_middlename] Bounfour

Hello everyone,

I have tried to answer each question and my answers are below. They are based on some of my experience with small farmers.

1. Striking a balance between depth and length of assessment: 

Small farmers are very busy because they have to find alternative / complementary sources of income. In addition, social time is important (marriages, tea time, football for the young, carpet making for women...).

Thus, assessment time should fit within their schedule. I suggest short questionnaires that are meaningful to them, which brings in that the programme should take into account their actual needs and not 100% according to organizational needs.

• How can the burden on smallholder farmers be reduced during M&E assessments?
• What are the best ways to incentivize farmers to take part in the survey (e.g. non-monetary incentives, participation in survey tailoring, in presentation of results)?

1. Make it a social time and talk about what is meaningful  to them (ex cereals in the mountainous areas). The usually preferred time is the afternoon. ex. plan assessment time during tea time and work with focus group. If the questionnaire is preferred then it will take more  time for the evaluator because she / he will have to adjust to each farmer;
2. Allow women to bring in toddlers or small infants ( up to 5 years);
3. Give away written information on the programme. They will keep it and show it to their schooled children;
4. Plan on lunch or afternoon tea with snacks.

2. Making findings from M&E assessments useful to farmers: 

- Like for the assessment, plan on information workshops in "a between seasons" time to avoid getting on the way for "actual" work;

- Provide leaflets, audios, videos, pictures;

- Allow for Q&A sessions.

• Do you have experience in comparing results among farmers in a participatory way? What method have you used to do this? Was it effective?
• How can the results be used for non-formal education of farmers (e.g. to raise awareness and/or build capacity on ways to increase farm sustainability)?

1. Comparing results among farmers is effective in showing results and making farmers adopt new techniques. I used a treatment / non treatment method . The non treatment was actually from farmers not adhering to the programme. Once results were obvious, they asked to be included.

2. Results could be used in  non-formal education of farmers through exchange visits among peers, audios and videos distributed through instant messaging, result presentations on field visits of extension workers. 

Malika Bounfour

Hello Community

First of all, I would like to thank you for your contributions by describing your very rich respective experiences and by proposing approaches and tools to ensure that Rapid Evaluation process responds to expectations.

The responses highlighted common problems, namely the time and resources needed for a rapid evaluation of the effects of an intervention or of COVID 19. These resources are often more than planned.

Slow communication between different partners and the availability of archived and analyzed data are also raised as major factors that slow down the implementation of rapid measures.

As for the proposed solutions and tools, Jennifer Mutua advised to pay attention to unexpected factors  when estimating the budget for the evaluation. Carolina Turano suggested ways to improve communication between partners to make the process agile. Elias SEGLA proposed data collection tools and suggested that the rapid evaluation team should be internal with its own organisation chart and modus operandi. Nayeli Almanza's response describes the rapid data collection methodology to measure the impact of COVID 19 on migrant populations and Aurélie Larmoyer gives practical suggestions for individuals and teams to work in order to improve timeliness of protocols and reactions that can be crucial for the intervention.

To summarize, I think that 1) it is necessary to work on the communication time between partners during the development of the approach as well as the feedback and reaction; 2) it is necessary to use modern tools, especially virtual means and mobile phones; 3) the budget issue remains and could require innovative work from the team to optimise the results within the budget allocated.

Finally, I hope that this issue of rapid evaluation will receive the attention it deserves and will be developed especially during this COVID 19 crisis.

Thanking you once again for your answers and shared references, I remain at your disposal for further exchanges on this issue.

Yours sincerely

Malika

[This comment was originally posted in French] 

In order to have a full picture of the Government gender approach in an agricultural value chain, we used mixed methods approach coupled with literature review and analysis of Ministerial strategies document.

What gave us most useful insights were the document analysis and focus group.

Document analysis requires access to the documents and is demanding