Arthan strengthens its efforts toward Building Impactful and Inclusive M&E Organisations

New Delhi (India), April 19: In an effort to center-stage capacity building and inclusion efforts as key levers to strengthen India's Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) ecosystem, Arthan organized a conference on ‘Building Impactful and Inclusive M&E Organizations’ to frontline these conversations. The conference brought together a curated group of eminent leaders, practitioners, visionaries, and changemakers who deliberated on the findings of a landscaping study conducted by Arthan in 2022 to understand the M&E Ecosystem in India. The conference also hosted discussions on good practices, challenges, recommendations, and collaborations around making research participatory, the urgency to build skills in M&E within grassroots organizations, and the pragmatism in prioritizing gender equity and diversity in organizational strategy, operations, and programs.                                                                                                      

The study highlighted critical insights on organization development, talent management and skills, and capacity deficit in grassroots NGOs. It also gave insights into inculcating Diversity, Equity Inclusion principles in the M&E process and leveraging technology to access relevant data. It was well received and duly appreciated as an endeavor that could inform interventions to build capacities of the M&E ecosystem and its stakeholders. 

Lauding Arthan’s efforts in conducting a landscaping study of the M&E ecosystem, Dr. Neeta Goel (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) acknowledged, “Arthan had the advantage of not working in the M&E space and hence could provide an outsider perspective to understand the challenges of the organizations that do not have evaluation expertise. I want to congratulate them for having the courage to step into a field that is elite and trying to get a deeper and more objective understanding of the M&E sector’s improvement areas.” 

The conference hosted two-panel discussions. The first panel, titled ‘Building Capacities in Evaluation: Integrating Grassroots Organizations at every step,’ garnered insights on the need to overhaul capacity building in the M&E ecosystem by identifying and weighing the needs of grassroots organizations. The speakers for this panel were Dr. Neeta Goel (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Gayatri Rao (IMAGO Global Grassroots), Megha Pradhan (CLEAR - JPAL South Asia), Rahul Agrawal (Intellecap Advisory Services Pvt Ltd) and the conversation was moderated by Koushik Yanamandram (Climate Asia). 

On building an efficient M&E team, Dr. Neeta Goel opined, “The evaluation team must be the conscience keeper of the organization, and I think this is such a beautiful thought. We as donors, researchers, and evaluators can do a lot more than we currently do by working with grassroots organizations, communities, and youth groups.” Emphasizing the importance of empowering the communities at the grassroots level during M&E research, Rahul Agrawal deliberated, “Keep (the monitoring and evaluation process) simple and make them (communities) a part of the journey of data collection and data design and whatever has been handled should be shared with them (communities).”

The second panel, titled ‘Building Inclusive Research Organizations,’ discussed the nuances of developing an inclusive, intersectional, and equitable approach to research in the social impact sector. The speakers for the panel were Dr. Monica Jain (International Initiative for Impact Evaluation), Sabina Dewan (JustJobs Network), and Aditi Vyas (International Centre for Research on Women) and the discussion was moderated by Aiswarya Ananthapadmanabhan (Women at Work, Arthan). 

Talking about the perpetuated bias existing in the system, Sabina Dewan remarked, “The systems, methodologies, and the ways of thinking are designed by men, and for men that do not take into account the realities of women. So, you have to push against that on a systemic level. The male domination and male way of thinking about things dominate the methodological choices that we all make in research.” 

Reflecting on the importance of strengthening the civil society ecosystem of grassroots NGOs in India, Anchal Kakkar (Co-founder, Arthan) said, “Our landscaping study clearly highlights the need for more collaborative approaches, standardized material, and a common platform to disseminate knowledge in the M&E Ecosystem. We now aspire to work on this common platform as well as capacity-building programs with DEI deeply integrated at the center of these programs.”

Both panels ended with an interactive round of questions from the audience on strengthening M&E at the grassroots level, inculcating DEI practices at the research and organizational level, and sharing best practices in the M&E ecosystem. 

The Civil Society Academy initiative by Arthan and Climate Asia was highlighted towards the conference’s conclusion. This initiative aims to build capacities, improve organizational efficiency and facilitate the scaling up of grassroots NGOs working with the most marginalized and socially excluded communities in India.

If you want to learn more or collaborate, write to us at anchal@arthancareers.com

About Arthan

Arthan works relentlessly to strengthen the effectiveness of civil society in the Global South in challenging poverty and inequality, empowering organizations and its people to gain greater control over their impact. Since our inception in 2016, we have worked with 1,000+ social impact organizations in India, engaged with 500,000+ job seekers, and curated 25+ forums with 400+ speakers and 7,000+ attendees.

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