Advice for the monitoring and evaluation system of the global project “AgriChains”

The global project "Sustainability and Value Added in Agricultural Supply Chains" (GV AgriChains) promotes the sustainability of selected agricultural supply chains such as cotton, banana, coffee, cocoa, natural rubber, palm oil or soy, which are key to rural development in many developing and emerging countries (Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, Colombia and Uzbekistan).

In order to be able to ensure steering and data aggregation across countries and agricultural commodities, a monitoring system is needed that pragmatically and flexibly ensures the needs of the steering unit in Germany as well as the individual partner countries.

• Development of an Excel-based data based monitoring system
• Establishment of data collection processes and continuous development of the M&E system, e.g. design and support for tracer studies to monitor effects on income and yields of smallholder farmers
• Adaptation of questionnaires for mobile data collection systems
• Consultation of M&E staff as well as implementation managers of the commodity hubs
• Training of M&E staff at country level
• Support in the evaluation and interpretation of the collected data

"We work along 7 main agricultural supply chains (e.g. coffee, cotton, palmoil) and implement activities in more than 11 countries. Mainlevel has been crucial in supporting us in the set up of our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system.

Mainlevel has enabled us to systematically collect data in our complex and heterogeneous programme, while ensuring that all indicators can be aggregated by commodity, commodity hub and globally. This way we are able to assess and report our results. As a global project, this gives us a detailed overview of the progress achieved across all commodity hubs and agricultural supply chains and indicates areas that need attention in terms of project steering and design!"

Felix Ruhland, GIZ, Programme Manager