Project comparison and prioritization

Do you want to re-focus your organization? Would you like to be very good at many things or the best at something? Can you tell which one of your projects was more useful to the people you serve? Can you answer the question: What would you do with another 10,000, 100,000, or 1,000,000 USD in funding? We think we can help you answer these questions.

Because we really want to help organizations be more useful to everyone, we provide this service for free (We might request some operational cost involved in answering the question properly).

Project Evaluations

Assessment of the effect of a project. We will assess whether the project worked as intended and if there were both positive and negative unintended effects. In every evaluation, EH tries to provide counterfactual insights (how would life look for beneficiaries if the project had not existed). The exact methodology will be adapted to the client needs and the project. This usually requires some level of field work. Consider engaging the team at the early stage to get the best results.

Facilitate Evaluation Meetings

These reflection sessions should be part of any project life cycle. We recommend having one at mid-term and one at the end.

We offer facilitation to provide a neutral perspective to your evaluation meeting and help your project team and key stakeholders to think deeply about the project’s effects. We sort all the details so you and your team only has to come to the meeting and give their honest opinion.

Mid-term reviews are particularly effective at steering high-value projects that are not working. Try it out. There is a subsidized rate for small organizations.

Activity Evaluation

Some activities are so critical or complex they require a specific evaluation. You might want to take a deeper look at a specific activity without going for a wide analysis of a project. This option is more economical and cuts to the most important aspects of your work. If you can’t afford a full evaluation an activity evaluation can get similar effects at a much smaller cost. Consider engaging us at the early stage to maximize results.

Baseline and end-line assessments

Assessments of the effects of the project across a span of time. Getting a professional third party to carry out your baseline and end-line assessments will provide extra credibility to your work and relieve you from all the stress related to conducting these exercises professionally. This activity does not need to be expensive, it often is because of unnecessary data collection. Consider the available budget and let’s discuss how to make it work.

Project Reviews

This is a shallow evaluation and much cheaper. We will only look at the available internal and external documentation and give you an assessment of how your project worked and valuable insights you and your partners might have missed. The review reports are short and cut to the point and can help you improve your next program and obtain some independent guarantee of the effect you are having on people's lives.

Counterfactual assessment

This is a form of project evaluation that focuses only on answering the question: How would life look like for a beneficiary if the project had not existed? We can do this with direct data collection or by sourcing quality data already existing, depending on the details of the project.

Data analysis - Project insights

Maybe you have lots of project data and you don’t really know what to make of it. Share with us, have a brief chat about what you would like to see, and we will mine it for valuable insights about your beneficiaries and the communities that you serve.

Third-Party Monitoring

Organizations can use third-party monitoring to gain credibility, increase oversight on its project teams, or simply to focus on implementation.

A donor organization might request third-party monitoring to have further assurance of the occurrence of activities as intended.

We can work for both.

Results Verification

Analysis of documentation behind project results for the purpose of assurance. This is a sort of Third-Party Monitoring post-factum. It can help your organization prepare for programmatic audits or spot-checks, and it can help donors have assurance of the work of their partners.

Training on M&E

This is a one-time training for your team to implement some of the best practices in monitoring and evaluation. We train free of jargon and update your M&E system with your team on the spot.

Coaching and mentoring M&E Officers

Coaching is life-long training that helps you walk through problems as they appear. We can keep a constant mentoring relationship with your key staff and work out problems until you don’t need us anymore.

Development of M&E plans and frameworks

A very short consultancy to work out your M&E plans. After, you can just follow the plan set to know exactly what the next task is and how to conduct it.

Development of questionnaires for monitoring and evaluation

Even more focused: Let us help you sort out your surveys so the effect of your intervention will come out clearly. Pre/Post-training surveys, assessment forms, baseline assessment surveys, etc. A one-time engagement that will keep generating the right data for you.

External M&E Officer

Sometimes it is hard to find funds and you cannot have a permanent professional on the organization’s payroll. You can subcontract this service to us and we can offer rates competitive to your organization’s size.

As external M&E officers you will get a team of M&E experts that can perform all the activities above listed as need arises.

Retainer

A permanent agreement with Effective Help entitles you to all the services above listed, with a brutal discount.

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