REMAPP Network
(Research, Evaluation, Monitoring, Appraisal, Planning and Policy)

1. BACKGROUND

REMAPP is a [UK-based] group of networking professionals concerned with planning, appraisal, monitoring, evaluation, research and policy. An NGO evaluation network was first proposed in 1991 by Tina Wallace, then at Oxfam.

The network has no formal leadership. The work of arranging meetings, chairing, etc. rotates between participants who include people working at ACORD, ActionAid, the Aga Khan Foundation, the British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE, Christian Aid, IPPF, ITDG, NEF, Oxfam, Plan International, SCF, SoS Sahel, Tear Fund, VSO, WaterAid, World Vision, WUS and WWF.

Since 1992, the group has met three or four times a year and discussed ideas and topical issues, using short presentations from participants and, on occasion, from external researchers. Through such presentations and agency updates, the group reflects on experiences of organisational learning and good practice in the south and the north and shares information on research and evaluation of development and emergencies.

2. PAST TOPICS

Topics considered over the last four years have included:

• A preview of the results of Water Aid's impact assessment study, and the methods used (March 2000)
• A report on World Vision's Peer Appraisal Process (October 1999)
• feedback from Evaluation Department, DFID, on the consultative process on "strengthening civil society"
• a presentation from INTRAC on the Participatory Approaches to Learning Study (PALS), commissioned by DFID.
• the use of information technology to support planning, monitoring and evaluation,
• best practice in the evaluation of humanitarian assistance
• organisational self-assessment
• a joint meeting with BOND to consider the OECD/DAC NGO Evaluation Synthesis Report,
• children and PME
• the place of evaluation in the organisational chart
• a special meeting to consider Roger Riddell's draft report on linking costs and benefits
• indicators for integrated conservation and development
• an interim presentation on processes and problems of the multilateral evaluation of humanitarian assistance to Rwanda and the Great Lakes, and
• meeting with the Carlos Lopes of the UNDP's Office of Evaluation and Strategic Planning.