Where would 1%CLUB be without co-creation session? That’s like cappuccino without milk, or like Lois without Clark. Therefore this April 23rd a group of Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) innovators got together in Amsterdam to co-create the future of M&E 2.0 for development cooperation. Based upon the outline presented in our previous blog representatives of Akvo, Butterfly Works, Ventanaz, Frog Design, Text to Change, and Oxfam Novib all gathered to ‘develop the ideal M&E 2.0 tool that follows all M&E 2.0 principles’. The upcoming pilot in Kenya provides a short-term opportunity to test the outcomes of this co-creation in practice.
As Joost van der Made of Frog Design puts it in the opening session of the co-creation ‘need is the mother of all inventions’. Therefore a more in-depth dialogue about the value of M&E 2.0 is started. What’s the real need? What’s the question behind the question? A brainstorm provides the insight that one specific need does not exist, but that several target groups each have their own needs and expectations from M&E 2.0: project owners, local communities, 1%members, funders, other project owners, scientists, etc. The current challenge is to invent a 2.0 tool that benefits project owners and local communities, and also has potential value for the other target groups.
A number of ideas is brought forward to respond to this challenge. A gallery of short video clips in a catchy format can for instance transfer basic info about projects and project progress to several target groups. An Open MSC process or Open Knowledge platform can build upon existing knowledge and methodology, and increase openness, crowd participation and real time communication. Participants receive incentives for uploading new stories, videos and photos. An Open data tool can connect data of 1%Project owners to other existing data. This enables project owners to learn and to put their project in a bigger picture, with ‘Hans Rosling’-like presentations and countrywide benchmarks. Using an online Dashboard project owners can moreover reflect their ambitions and planning (‘begin with the end in mind’). This will make it easier for funders/investors to compare projects and make a contribution. In addition to this dashboard Storytelling can provide a way for realtime communication using videos, geo tag photos, blogs, sms and an apps on telephones. Project are able to share updates and news quick and easy through a ‘one click update’-system.
But, as the famous T.S. Eliot already stated ‘there falls a shadow between conception and creation’: execution! Out of all the ideas brought forward, the participants consider the following characteristics of a tool most valuable an relevant to be executed in the pilot:
− An open, 2.0 translation of MSC (Most Significant Change),
− that uses different tools for data collection: mobile, texting, video, photo,
− that connects data gathered in a project and ‘open data’,
− based upon a format of questions that combines both quantitative and qualitative  data and is easy to use, and
− tested on different types of projects: (1) projects that are still designing their activities, (2) projects that have just started and (3) project that have been implemented already.
To further develop these elements into a tool three critical questions remain for the last part of the co-creation:
1. Which tools (mobile, video, photo) can be used best for data collection and how?
2. How can the input generated through these tools be visualized (e.g. a dashboard, through mapping) and which software is needed to do this?
3. How can we motivate and engage project owners to use this tool?
In three separate groups specific input related to these questions is given. And with that, the co-creation M&E 2.0 comes to an end. Thank you Mark Tiele Westra (Akvo), Ineke Aquarius (Butterfly Works), Jaap van ‘t Kruis (Ventanaz), Joost van der Made (Frog Design), Arjen Swank (Text to Change) and Peter Huisman (Oxfam Novib)!
Now, allow us to take all the input related to these three last questions back to the drawing table first, before we share the provisional answers in our next blog. This also creates the opportunity for you to become part of this co-creation process and to come up with your suggestions. Be our guest, all input is appreciated…
Keep you posted!
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