Nayeli [user:field_middlename] Almanza

Nayeli Almanza

M&E, Sustainable Landscapes Specialist Sr.
Rainforest Alliance
Mexico

Nayeli is a monitoring and evaluation professional based in Mexico City with more than 10 years of experience in project management of sustainable development programmes.

Currently, she is leading a project in Rainforest Alliance Mexico that provides technical assistance on landscape restoration practices and promotes market integration of mexican producers of coffee, cacao and timber products.

She has previously worked with UN agencies such as FAO, UNDP and IOM on the implementation of adaptative evaluation initiatives to improve the analysis on the impact of development initiatives.

Nayeli holds a bachelor on biotechnology engineering and a posgraduate degree on environmental sciences.

My contributions

  • A lack of learning in the monitoring and evaluation of agriculture projects

    Discussion

    • Nayeli Almanza

      M&E, Sustainable Landscapes Specialist Sr. Rainforest Alliance
      Mexico

      [Original contribution posted in Spanish]

      The process of implementing M&E schemes has been recent, perhaps in the last 6 or 7 years in a formal manner. The situation in countries that are subject to rural development and conservation projects from international donors, such as Mexico, is that the installed capacities respond to donor requirements and not to consolidated profiles. It is very interesting that in Mexico and Latin America, the development of M&E has been focused on programs in human rights, economy and education.

      It seems to me that as a sector we should make more use of the tools developed by UN agencies focused on rural development (FAO, WFP, IFAD), but their mainstreaming would be even more effective if these agencies were to seek promotion with governments and promote them as a reference to be followed.

  • The pervasive power of western evaluation culture: how and in what ways do you wrestle with ensuring evaluation is culturally appropriate and beneficial to those who legitimise development aid?

    Discussion

    • Nayeli Almanza

      M&E, Sustainable Landscapes Specialist Sr. Rainforest Alliance
      Mexico

      Greetings form Mexico to the Evalforward community! 

      In rural development, conservation and forest management projects, we have faced the challenge of giving the appropriate dimension to the worldview of indigenous peoples. In Mexico there are more than 68 native peoples and, as in other countries, they are mostly present in rural areas.

      In the different projects I have been involved in, we have tried to implement Free Prior and Informed Consent schemes with indigenous peoples throughout the management cycle of rural development projects. We have developed simple tools that have allowed us to propose projects, report on their development and appropriation, carry out process and impact evaluations, as well as the closure and exit strategy of our presence in the territories.

      In particular, in GEF projects, this is a requirement to be fulfilled whenever the projects have an impact on the territories of indigenous peoples. I would like to share with you a very useful course on this subject at: https://www.fao.org/in-action/capacitacion-politicas-publicas/cursos/ver/fr/c/1397095/ (in Spanish) 

      In addition, in the organisation where I work, we have the Dedicated Mechanism Specifically for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (Dedicated Mechanism) project, which is a special project of the Forest Investment Programme. This programme supports the efforts of developing countries to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) through the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in activities that contribute to REDD+ by promoting sustainable productive sub-projects that foster economic development and the exchange of knowledge to strengthen their capacities in the sustainable use of their territories. In this project, monitoring schemes have been developed for the systematisation of information and evaluation to verify the progress of activities in the territories. The development of the tools was very sensitive to the inclusion and context of the participants, so there are some manuals with guidelines and formats that allow the collection of information, even in places with limited internet access. I am sharing the link to the library in case you find it useful: https://www.mde-mexico.org/biblioteca/ (in Spanish) 

      [Contribution translated from Spanish]

  • Are you considering social and environmental criteria in your evaluations?

    Discussion

    • Nayeli Almanza

      M&E, Sustainable Landscapes Specialist Sr. Rainforest Alliance
      Mexico

      Hello Serge,

      In my organization, we are facing a challenge to integrate both aspects into our programmes' evaluations, because traditionally those areas were approached separatelly. We have found that we cannot separate the social impact from an internal or an external evaluation focused on the results of our interventions, including dimensions never considered before. For example, in the final stage of an Activity focused on producers strenghtening on better agricultural practices we are designing the terms of reference for an impact evaluation that will aim to include perspectives of the participation migrant work force in agricultural activities.

      In my experience, the main challenges we are facing are related to some lack of experience conveying the social aspects within the rural approaches we traditionally face. We are looking for internal peers assessment in the first stage and later will look for external assessment with experts from sister organizations.

      I think more reflection and work has to be done over the integration of both perspectives, but it is also a great oportunity area to collaborate with our peers.

      Thank you for the space and the post, best regards

      - Nayeli

       

  • Évaluation rapide pour mesurer l'impact de la pandémie COVID dans les zones montagneuses

    Discussion

    • Nayeli Almanza

      M&E, Sustainable Landscapes Specialist Sr. Rainforest Alliance
      Mexico

      Dear Malika and community,

      You have proposed a very interesting topic with an urgent need to obtain steady information as the pandemic evolves.

      As for the International Organization for Migration of the United Nations, we have developed and applied a methodology in Mexico and some countries in Central America based on telephonic interviews with key stakeholders in the field. This methodology is called Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) and is widely used by IOM since 2004. 

      We have identified that by asessing communities representatives, shelter directors and actors from the local governments and social organizations, we can obtain general information about the impact COVID-19 over mobility and needs of the migrant population settled in the borders, as well as in movement across the country.

      Particularly, I was leading the development of these studies in Mexico. So far we have 3, but the latest one in english is available here:
      https://dtm.iom.int/reports/mexico-emergency-tracking-southern-border-m…

      There is some information that synthetizes the methodology approach that you can access here: https://displacement.iom.int/system/tdf/tools/Methodological%20Framewor…

      If you have further comments or questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

      Greetings,

      Nayeli Almanza, MSc