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Monitoring and Evaluation Methods and Applications

A Professional Summer Training Programme
for Development Experts and Practitioners
Outcome Mapping and Outcome Harvesting
Adaptive Management For Complex Development Programmes
2016 Annual Edition
Outcome Mapping -- Wednesday-Friday, 15-17 June 2016
Outcome Harvesting -- Monday-Wednesday, 20-22 June 2016
New early-bird application deadline (thanks to our sponsors)!
Our Course

This is the eleventh season of the Professional Summer Training Programme for Development Experts and Practitioners jointly promoted by the Bologna Centre for International Development (CID Bologna), the University of Bologna Department of Economic Sciences (DSE-Unibo) and by the Fondazione di ricerca Istituto “Carlo Cattaneo”. This year, the Center for International Development at the State University of New York (CID-SUNY) is also joining the sponsors (allowing us for new early-bird application deadlines!).

Our focuse this year is on two methods for planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) - Outcome Mapping and Outcome Harvesting - that enable programme managers to plan, implement and report on their outcomes in dynamic environments where development results can be both planned and unanticipated.

Development and social change programs that are responsive to the contexts in which they operate and which seek to empower local stakeholders face a dichotomous challenge.  They balance the need for plans, strategies and performance targets with the reality of uncertainty, dynamic environments and unplanned and emergent conditions and outcomes.  To be effective, interventions that start with specific actions and defined outcomes, must then adapt as they engage with and learn from their partners and other actors and respond to the contextual influences which emerge.  To stay relevant, programmes monitor their interventions, adapting their strategies and outcomes in response to experience in implementation.

This Professional Summer Training Programme offers two proven tools that planners, managers, and evaluators of development programmes can use to manage risks, make informed decisions and support programme adaptation.

Outcome Mapping is a set of tools used for planning, monitoring and evaluating interventions aimed at bringing about social, economic or technological change.  It is based on the idea that, to succeed, an intervention needs to involve multiple stakeholders, each with its own particular commitments, interrelationships and definitions of success.  Outcome Mapping tools help identify and create working relationships with and among the relevant actors. It offers a template for creating mutually supportive intervention strategies.  It connects ‘outputs’ to ‘outcomes’ by focusing on the patterns of action and interaction among stakeholders.  By defining changes in these patterns of behaviour, influenced by an intervention, as outcomes, Outcome Mapping provides the basis for engaging participants in measuring, learning from and adapting their desired outcomes.

The Outcome Mapping module:
•    Introduces ‘complexity’ as it relates to planning monitoring and evaluating development initiatives;
•    Lays out seven practical steps for clarifying an intervention’s intentions;
•    Engages participants through discussion and break out group exercises in the application of the seven steps of the “Intentional Design” framework.
•    Applies complexity-oriented thinking in assessing the practical value of Outcome Mapping for different contexts and purposes.

For more information on this method visit the Outcome Mapping Learning Community website at: http://www.outcomemapping.ca/

Outcome Harvesting is used to identify, formulate, analyse and interpret what was achieved and how, regardless of whether it was pre-defined or not. When a project, programme or organization is implemented in dynamic uncertainty, conventional monitoring and evaluation can be inappropriate because what is done and what is achieved may vary considerably from the original plan. The special value of the tool is that it enables people responsible for monitoring and evaluating development work to identify and formulate intended and unintended, positive and negative outcomes, determine how the intervention contributed to them and make sense of it all. The Outcome Harvesting module includes:

•    Implications of complexity science for monitoring and evaluating development initiatives
•    Practical exercises applying Outcome Harvesting to a case study written for this course
•    Examples from real-life applications that demonstrate the principles underlying Outcome Harvesting approach
•    Illustration of how Outcome Harvesting could be applied to a project that used Outcome Mapping as its planning framework.

For a less-than-three-minute explanation of Outcome Harvesting (video).

These two hands-on courses present practical steps, examples and participatory exercises in applying these PM&E tools to strengthen adaptive management for development results. Special attention is given to situations where there is uncertainty about the causal relationships linking inputs, activities and outputs with outcomes and impacts.  Tools and concepts will be examined through discussion, individual reflection, working group applications and feedback sessions. Participants will leave with practical skills in using these complementary approaches to plan, monitor and evaluate their interventions and achievements in order to be accountable and to improve performance.

The courses are targeted to people who commission, manage or carry out PM&E:
  • Government officials, department heads and programme managers 
  • Policy makers and programme implementers 
  • Foundation and development funders
  • Development practitioners and activists 
  • NGO and CSO staff 
  • Development graduate students
The two training courses are designed for people with practical or theoretical experience either in development work or in PM&E or in both.
  • If you have ever needed to find alternative approaches to make decisions in mid-stream when conventional frameworks for planning, monitoring and evaluation failed to generate useful processes and results;
  • If you have ever wanted to know whether a development intervention is having the desired effects and is achieving the aimed objectives before it is too late to make changes in your strategy;
  • Then you may find these practical approaches for adaptive management to be valuable additions to your skills.  These are tools that have a global track record in supporting dynamic, complex development interventions!
Want to know more about the programmes of the two modules? Here is the OM programme and here is the OH programme!

Our People
Direction and management:
  • The director of the Summer Programme is Pier Giorgio Ardeni, professor of development economics at University of Bologna, policy advisor, expert in poverty reduction programs and statistical development. 
  • The course will be managed by our staff at CID-Bologna and Istituto Cattaneo.
Our trainers are well know development experts with extensive field experience in low-income countries and recognized international experts in Outcome Mapping and Outcome Harvesting:
  • Terry Smutylo (OM), advisor, former Director of Evaluation at IDRC for 15 years, currently an expert on M&E and Outcome Mapping with extensive experience in M&E Training around the world. Co-author of the Outcome Mapping Manual.
  • Ricardo Wilson-Grau (OH), monitoring and evaluation advisor and organizational development consultant. With colleagues, developed the Outcome Harvesting tool, monitoring and evaluating thousands of outcomes of almost 400 networks and associations, NGOs, community-based organisations, research institutes and government agencies in 143 countries on all seven continents.
Want to know more about the trainers? Read here!
How to apply

Applicants may participate in either one or both modules (courses):
  • Outcome Mapping: Wednesday to Friday, 15-17 June 2016
  • Outcome Harvesting: Monday to Wednesday, 20-22 June 2016
Enrollment fees and applications deadlines are:
Early Bird Registration
(before 15 May 2016)
this is a new deadline!!!
Full registration
(between 15 May and 14 June 2016)
Both modules
(full course)		 1.500 euro 1.600 euro
One module only
(either one)
750 euro
800 euro

The enrolment fee includes tuition and materials.
Room and boarding and travel expenses are not included.
Various lodging arrangement suggestions can be provided on request.
Partial tuition waivers are available for 
a limited number of applicants from developing countries only!
Please indicate in your application whether you need funding!
For those requesting funding, acceptance will be evaluated 
together with their granted fee status
Payment instructions will be given to accepted applicants only
(credit cards are not accepted).

IF YOU WISH TO APPLY:
Please send an application form and a short CV to:
summer-school@cid-bo.org

Download an application form
Click HERE!!!

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Applicants must have an undergraduate degree and must be proficient in English.

Enrol in this summer program in the exciting setting of Bologna!
Send in an application! Tell your colleagues!

For any information, please contact:
CID Summer School programs: summer-school@cid-bo.org
PIER GIORGIO ARDENI (Academic Director): piergiorgio.ardeni@unibo.it

Important deadlines to remember


Application for Early-Bird Registration 15 May 2016
Credited payment (bank transfer) of Early-Bird Registration Fee 30 May 2016
Application for Full Registration 14 June 2016
Credited payment of Full Registration 14 June 2016