CultYvate reposted this
Every year, crores are spent on water security and conservation initiatives in India, but not all of them are effective and scalable due to the lack of robust evidence. While many organisations already conduct monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) exercises on these interventions, the practice is plagued by various challenges as it is primarily seen as a donor requirement. It is also not uniform across the water sector. To address these issues and systematise the evaluation of water interventions in India, we are collaborating with Environmental Defense Fund to build a MEL toolbox. Towards this effort, we organised a roundtable on 'Systematising Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) in the Water Sector', which brought together 40 experts from nonprofits, academia, consultancies, and donor organisations. This article by Ishita Jalan and Pavan Srinath outlines a few key insights from the discussions: https://bit.ly/4fI4wgM For more on the role of MEL in creating data-driven solutions for India’s groundwater crisis, read this article by Leah Beaulac: https://www.edf.org/Z6Ez We'd like to thank all the participants from A.T.E. Chandra Foundation, Arghyam, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Foundation, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Tata Consumer Products, Foundation For Ecological Security (FES), Tarun Bharat Sangh, WASSANIndia, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), World Wildlife Fund, Geovale Services, impactDash, Sattva Consulting, and CultYvate for their invaluable feedback. A special shoutout to EDF team (Leah Beaulac, Gopal Penny, Jonathan Seefeldt, Ann Hayden and Nikhil Goveas) and the WELL Labs team (Veena Srinivasan, Vivek Singh Grewal, Ishita Jalan, Lakshmikantha N R, Syed Saad Ahmed, Pavan Srinath, Susan Varughese, Abhishek Das, Nidhi Rao, Anika Choudhary, Megha Manjunath, Yogita Dashora) for making sure everything went seamlessly!