Conservation International’s Vital Signs Programme conducted a training on Monitoring and assessment for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) experts from the country projects participating in the Global Environment Facility-funded Resilient Foods System (RFS) Program. The training was conducted in three sessions on February 23, 25 and March 2, 2021. The aim of the training was to enhance skills in monitoring and assessing ecosystem resilience by enhancing the understanding, the interpretation, and the application of the Resilient Atlas for planning and decision making. The training was held online in English and French.
The training covered topics including definition of resilience in different contexts, identification of priority stressors and shocks and assets and capacities specific to the different countries; tools for measuring resilience for food security projects, and how to use the customized resilience atlas to assess the projects. The training also covered importance of partnerships and linkages in monitoring and assessment.
Over 25 participants attended the sessions from the RFS country projects of Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ghana, Burundi, Malawi Uganda and representatives of the hub Project.. The participants applauded the use of Resilience Atlas as a one stop platform with useful data for monitoring food security and environmental projects. They found that the data therein could be used for many more interventions other than the current food security projects being undertaken in their countries. They requested that reporting format for their individual projects be structured in the same format as the data in the Altas.
Participants also shared their reactions regarding other sources of data used in monitoring food security projects, challenges experienced in acquisition of data, hindrances to data sharing and collaborations in M&E and opportunities for getting real time data to be used at grassroot level in planning food security projects. For example, mistrust, control issues and lack of policy guidelines were cited as main hindrances to data sharing. In Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria, security challenges on the ground greatly affected local data collection activities. The national meteorological departments in Senegal and Eswatini were cited as good sources of weather and climate data and information.
Below please find the links to the training videos:
- Session I: Defining and assessing resilience for Resilient Food Systems project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9jScCa4Xsc&feature=youtu.be
- Session II: Introduction to the Food Security Resilience Atlas: https://youtu.be/tLIHpJfSkTA ; Available datasets in the Food Security Resilience Atlas: https://youtu.be/m0Vfd0BUltE
- Session III: Partnerships and linkages in monitoring and assessment: https://youtu.be/zUGVz0TXXfw
For more information, please email endenga@conservation.org