1. DEFINITIONS (have consequences)

1.1 Be careful with the use of significant terms.

• Influencing is a generic term. Where possible use more specific terms
  • Monitor where the term "influencing" is used in preference and ask why.

• Differentiate:
  • Influencing from awareness raising
    • Changes in behavior not just understanding
    • More specificity about the desired changes
  • Advocacy from capacity building
    • Agreement as an outcome versus a starting point
  • Lobbying from campaigning.
    • Private versus public disagreements
    • Complex versus simple messages
• Recognise different strategies have different consequences for M&E

1.2 Advocates have clients: Identify who the clients are and how they can be involved

• E.g. UK electorate, assisted national governments, civil society in those nations, the global poor.
• In the planning, and implementation and monitoring of DFID's multilateral influencing strategies.
• Answers will vary according to the specific type of practice being targeted within the multilateral

2. STRATEGIES

2.1 Plan for a sustainable process of improvement in the target multilaterals

• Not only by directly influencing multilaterals, but also
• By building the capacity of other stakeholders to influence multilaterals, and
• By developing opportunities (political space) for processes of influence to take place.

2.2 Think about DFID being part of a network of influencers rather than as a sole or primary actor.

• Identify allies at both global and recipient nation levels
• Identify where DFID has the most comparative advantage
• Identify mechanisms for mutual accountability about plans and progress

2.3 Give explicit recognition to the political nature of the advocacy aspect of influencing activities.

• Conflicting views will be the starting point. Agreement on particular objectives and methods will be a desired outcome (contra capacity building)
• Recognise DFID as a target as well as agent of influence, and monitor reciprocal influencing.
• Transparency strategies will be needed, not just blanket policies or neglect

2.4 Take a balanced approach to monitoring the process of policy change

• Focus on establishing normative aspects of the process, despite valid descriptions of the actual policy development process as politicised and chaotic.
  • E.g. policies should be evidence based, policies should be implemented, implementation should be monitored.
• Develop a project cycle like conception of policy, which directs attention to implementation and monitoring, not just agenda setting, formulation and approval.

3. MONITORING AND EVALUATION PROCEDURES

3.1 Use M&E procedures that can cope with change and conflict

• Monitor and analyse unexpected changes
• Monitor the emergence and resolution of significant conflicts of opinion.

3.2 Document the expected process of influence as well as the end result.

• To help clarify their plausibility,
• To identify where to look for evidence when assessing achievements,
• To help weight the significance of any partial achievements

3.3 Develop the current list of meeting process indicators suitable for lobbying activities

• Check their DFID applicability, and add
• Look specifically for trust indicators
• Test "emergence and resolution of differences" approach

3.4 Treat multilaterals' budgets (and expenditure) as important statements of policy and evidence of implementation.

• Monitor their accessibility and transparency to stakeholders in the change
• Contextualise reports of changes achieved in budget allocations (include other changes and non-changes)

3.5 Manage the likely bias in analyses of DFID's role in reported policy changes by building in compensatory requirements:

• Willingness to expose claims to external audiences
• Contextualised reporting, of other changes and non-changes
• Explicate claims through justified ranking exercises

4. ISSUES FOR DFID

4.1 Internal M&E practices

• How to integrate central office and country level processes
• How to develop better means of documenting parallel processes of change and their interactions
• What types of objectives should be documented in public ISP-type statements.

4.2 Strategies for monitoring implementation of policy changes

• Identify when to use:
  • Direct follow up by DFID, or allies
  • Self-reporting by multilateral, and associated degrees of transparency
  • Third party monitoring
  • Public monitoring
• Monitor ownership of the monitoring process, as indicated by who pays the costs and how much they pay (absolute and proportion)

4.3 Designing a learning process: What elements in what combination?

• External evaluations of ISP achievements (E.g. IFRC)
• Internal reviews of the ISP revision process (E.g. PAN & Phil Evans UNIFEM review)
• Peer agency reviews of progress reports on influencing of specific multilaterals
• M&E consultant reviews of monitoring and evaluation provisions within influencing plans, and their implementation in progress reports.

--o0o--

Since 11/10/2001 there have been visits to this page.

Return to Rick Davies - Home Page or MandE NEWS