Since 2013 – and with an extension into 2020 – Baastel has led results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for a US Department of State-funded initiative that connects 30 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across Latin American and Caribbean, selected for their promising solutions for promoting sustainable economic growth. La Red de Innovación e Impacto (or simply “La Red”) is a collaborative network that serves as a forum for testing and scaling innovations from demonstration projects. It seeks to accelerate the adoption of effective policies and practices for inclusive growth by sharing lessons with governments, the private sector, academia, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders.
Baastel’s contributions to La Red have drawn on our characteristic capacity development approach. The team aims to build partners’ confidence in applying new skills to better identify their goals, measure their achievements, learn from their experiences, and share their stories. The mandate has required a challenging combination of standardized M&E across the program and customized, smaller-scale capture of unique results from member projects running the gamut from support for farmers shifting to organic agriculture, to a mentoring model for empowering women entrepreneurs, to a tool for monitor the environmental and social impacts of MSMEs. To meet this challenge, the Baastel team coached the individual project teams through a mapping of expected results (developing logic models), testing logical assumptions, and developing customized indicators and monitoring tools. Then, the Baastel team designed an overall M&E system and tools, including consolidated indicators, to facilitate consistent program-wide monitoring and reporting.
Coordinating a team of M&E experts across the Latin America and Caribbean region, Baastel has led in-person workshops and online webinars with network members, as well as carrying out regular monitoring and reporting for La Red. Baastel’s services were also called on to conduct midterm and final evaluations of four projects funded through the initiative, and a program evaluation of La Red in 2017.
La Red members embraced Baastel’s assistance enthusiastically. During a mid-term assessment a large majority said working with Baastel to develop a performance measurement framework (or PMF, the key piece in the results-based M&E toolbox) was one of the greatest benefits they gained from participating in La Red. They said this tool sharpened their focus on results, made it easier for them to tell their stories to partners and funders, and increased their effectiveness by helping them learn from evidence about successes and mistakes.
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Summary:
Project Timespan
2013-2020
Country
Latin America and Caribbean
Categories
No categories found.
Client
World Environment Center (WEC)