Seefar is supporting The Asia Foundation in implementing PNPM Peduli, Indonesia‘s national development program focused on addressing social inclusion. Our job is to provide the monitoring, evaluation and learning team, as well as to design and maintain the management information system (MIS) that will coordinate and monitor action among the 70+ NGOs participating.
PNPM Peduli works with six diverse groups:
- vulnerable children and youth
- indigenous communities reliant on natural resources
- religious minorities facing discrimination
- victims of gross human rights violations
- waria (transgender)
- people with disabilities
For monitoring and evaluation purposes, the diversity of the groups, the focus of the program on social change and the number of organizations involved pose some exciting challenges. Implementation and reporting will include hierarchies of log-frames, but it is also critical to develop actionable, contestable and evaluable theories of change to guide performance. Throughout October and November, participating NGOs are investing energy in elaborating a theory of change that will inform their activities and support learning over the years.
Observing some of the preparatory sessions among facilitators and NGO staff, two contrasting points stood out: the diversity of groups’ needs and some similarities across groups in the dynamics of social inclusion and the potential positive changes that could assist. As the local theories of change come in, we’ll be refining, compiling and analyzing the whole package, including to feed it into the MIS and the frameworks and processes for monitoring and evaluation. Weaving these together is a task we’re looking forward to!