Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: Co-creating Evidence

Description

Designing a programme is not a linear exercise of planning, implementation, and assessment; rather, it is a collective process shaped by the experiences, knowledge, and actions of diverse stakeholders. At the heart of this process are communities -the individuals and groups whose lives programmes seek to influence and improve. Yet, too often, social interventions are designed, monitored, and evaluated without the meaningful involvement of those most affected by them. Decisions about what constitutes success, whose voices are heard, and what evidence matters are frequently concentrated among donors, experts, and institutions, reinforcing existing power imbalances and limiting the agency of communities.

Traditional Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) approaches have often relied on top-down and expert-driven methods that privilege technical knowledge over lived experience. Such approaches can result in evaluation processes that are extractive, where communities are treated primarily as sources of data rather than partners in generating knowledge and driving change. Existing social hierarchies related to gender, caste, class, ethnicity, age, disability, and other forms of marginalisation can further influence who participates, whose perspectives are valued, and who benefits from programme decisions.

What is Participatory MEL?

Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (PMEL) emerged in response to these challenges. By bringing together communities, civil society organisations, programme teams, local institutions, funders, and other stakeholders, PMEL seeks to democratise the production and use of evidence. It creates opportunities for stakeholders to jointly define goals, identify indicators of success, generate and analyse evidence, and use learning to improve practice, drawing on participatory action research and participatory research methodology to ground this collaboration in rigorous, community-owned inquiry. In doing so, PMEL helps shift relationships from consultation to collaboration and from accountability upwards to accountability in multiple directions, particularly towards communities.

Central to PMEL is the recognition that measuring change is not simply about counting outputs and outcomes. It is equally about understanding shifts in power, agency, inclusion, voice, relationships, and collective action. PMEL asks critical questions: Who defines what change matters? Whose knowledge is considered legitimate? Who controls resources and decision-making? How are the perspectives of marginalised groups represented?

Addressing these questions requires intentional strategies such as inclusive facilitation, community-led data collection and analysis, safe spaces for dialogue, disaggregated data, participatory sense-making processes, and shared decision-making mechanisms that ensure diverse voices influence programme directions.

Learning Objectives

• Develop a clear understanding of the principles, tools and methods used for PMEL
• Strengthen practical skills in applying participatory tools, frameworks, and data systems for monitoring, evaluation and learning 
• Develop the skills to design grounded and context -specific PMEL plans

Who Should Attend

This workshop is designed for a wide range of development professionals, including:

• Development practitioners, programme officers, researchers and project managers interested in monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)

• CSR  teams involved in social impact assessment and evaluation of programmes

• NGO staff engaged in strategic planning for organisations and management.