Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) workshop was organised under the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) programme in London from the 9th-11th of October, 2018.

The event brought together the four alliance partners of CDKN: ICLEI South Asia, Fundacion Futuro LatinoAmericano (FFLA), SouthSouthNorth (SSN) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to discuss and agree on the initial design of the MEL Framework.

CDKN is committed to supporting social inclusion and gender equality in its programme. This objective recognises that the way climate change is caused, experienced and remedied is not gender neutral and that social inequalities impede effective and sustainable climate compatible development. 

The workshop was organised with the objective of developing a process of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) to enable the gathering of evidence especially with a focus on gender and social inclusion along its Theory of Change (ToC) over time.

‘Hard’ technical aspects like the tools and data as well as the ‘soft’ aspects including understanding and capability of the stakeholders, which form an important part of MEL framework, were discussed in detail.

Besides, tools to map and collect evidences from different knowledge brokering events and products were developed. Appropriate indicators were also developed and agreed for future usage.

Relevant stakeholders in each region were also identified based on their interest and impact on climate compatible development.

It is expected that the MEL framework will build on a systematic approach to develop impact pathways, identify appropriate indicators/areas of interest for gathering data on indicators, impact monitoring of changes for stakeholders and beneficiaries and revising pathways on a regular basis.

The workshop helped to clarify expectations, roles and governance of the MEL thereby helping to strengthen the programme.

From ICLEI South Asia, Mr. Emani Kumar and Ms. Ritu Thakur attended the workshop.