NGO IDEAs II. is a cooperation of 08 African, 22 Asian and 13 German NGOs working in the field of development cooperation. It is a unique concept as it intends to identify and develop, jointly with all partners some genuine concepts and tools for NGOs in the areas of Outcome and Impact Assessment and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E).
NGO-IDEAs is not just another study evaluating the impact of NGOs‘ work - it combines research & development, knowledge management, learning & training and advice & coaching to trigger a collective learning process for all partners involved. Additionally, NGO-IDEAs intends to create a valuable resource base for use by NGOs.
The Karl Kübel Stiftung für Kind und Familie in Bensheim, Germany, has assumed the responsibility of the Head Office of the "NGO-IDEAs II"-Project and is monitored by the Steering Group. The scope of duties of the Karl Kübel Stiftung includes administrative coordination with the Regional Offices (East Africa, South Asia and Philippines), the preparation of workshops, selection of the project coordinators, general services and the administration of the homepage.
NGO-IDEAs aims at:
- Empowering community based organisations (CBOs) and the poor among the rural communities to use impact monitoring for project management; and thus contributing to the sustainability of their project activities- Empowering NGOs to further improve the effectiveness, impact and sustainability of their efforts by identifying best tools for impact Monitoring & Evaluation and best practices in the area of Savings & Credit
- Making social changes more visible in implementing and funding NGOs thus improving the development policy work
- Improving public recognition of NGOs and CBOs and their contribution to development.
Expected results of NGO-IDEAs:
- Impacts of the NGOs' activities, especially of the Savings & Credit programmes, are culled out and recognised.
- Tools and methods for impact Monitoring & Evaluation that are particularly suitable for NGOs and CBOs are identified, refined and applied
Improvement of M&E practices through NGO IDEAs:
Partner organisations participating in NGO IDEAs aim at the improvement of their M&E practice in a number of areas. Main subjects of improvement pointed out by partners are:
- M&E Systems need to be focused more towards the benefit of the primary stakeholders of the NGOs, i.e. the poor.
- Outcome and impact monitoring tools addressing sector specific needs and suitable to local context are required.
- Training and capacity building of CBOs and NGO staff is needed.
- An appropriate data management software and respective training of staff is needed.
- Raising awareness on intended and unintended outcomes, and how the NGOs and community based organisations can think and plan more in terms of impact than in terms of activities.
- Help the poor to set goals for their development, so that they can monitor their achievements.
- Raise awareness on the fact that others use terms differently and compare their use of the terms with our own understanding of terms.
- NGO-IDEAs Toolbox has to be updated continuously.
- Training materials in local languages are needed.
