Archive for the News Category

5 golden MER rules for 2012

For those who came in late, MER stands for Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting.  Many of you who receive this newsletter have worked with us in some way in the MER process – and hopefully found some tools and information through the newsletter and website to further develop your own MER capacity.  We thought we would
Continue Reading >

Monitoring Uptake strategies

Posted on November 28th by QualDATA | , , , , ,

by: Jeff Coutts In the QualDATA Log Frame there is a level that is called “Uptake Strategies”. This is the link between research and development and achieving change on the ground. We don’t call it “extension” (as in the old technology transfer model which sees a linear transfer from research to farmer through extension) because
Continue Reading >

Monitoring is a road map to success

Posted on November 28th by QualDATA |

When you go for a drive in unfamiliar territory you generally take a map (in my case Google maps on my iPhone – how did I ever survive without it!) and you check where you are using road signs and landmarks. It’s the same with monitoring. It provides the signs along the course of the
Continue Reading >

Making monitoring and evaluation easy to implement at project level

Posted on November 28th by QualDATA | , , , , ,

by Gordon Stone I recently worked with two project teams (representing several grain projects and a horticulture project) supporting them in gaining skills for developing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Activity Plan.  The aim was to give team members the personal skills and a common understanding at team level to manage this within their projects.
Continue Reading >

Organic food and ploughs – Gordon’s postcard from Italy

Posted on October 28th by QualDATA | ,

During September all QualDATA directors were out of Australia.  I attended a business development program held in Italy – so it appeared to me to be quite sensible to take another week and a half off and experience some of the real Italy myself! Not surprisingly the focus on food (pizza and pasta) and wine
Continue Reading >

The context can make or break your KRAs

Posted on October 28th by QualDATA | , , ,

We spend a lot of time determining our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas) as it’s critical to be clear about what we are trying to achieve in a project or program.  They are also central to guiding the logic of planned activities and the logic of monitoring and evaluation. However, sometimes
Continue Reading >

KPIs and KRAs – Top of the QualDATA pops

Posted on October 28th by QualDATA | ,

I’ve just gone into Google analytics to have a look at the most popular articles on the QualDATA site since we sent out our first newsletter three years ago in October 2008. At the top of the list is the article about measuring your achievements with key performance indicators (KPIs) with the next most read
Continue Reading >

Jeff’s postcard from Canada

Posted on September 29th by QualDATA | ,

As I enjoy some very unseasonal warm weather in New Brunswick, Canada, I would like to be able to report on everything I have found out about extension services or evaluation over here….. but my association with agriculture in Canada to date has only been apple picking near Moncton!