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FACT SHEET
March 2013
Building Local Capacity for Delivery of HIV Services
in Southern Africa: Monitoring, Evaluation and
Communications Team: Integration for
Improved Effectiveness and Efficiency
Launched in 2010, the USAIDfunded
Building Local Capacity for
Delivery of HIV Services in Southern
Africa Project (BLC) strengthens
government, parastatal, and civil
society entities to effectively
address the challenges of the HIV
and AIDS epidemic.
Throughout the Southern Africa
region and with specific activities in
six countries, BLC provides technical
assistance in leadership, management,
and governance as well as organizational
development in three key program areas:
1) care and support for orphans and
vulnerable children; 2) HIV prevention;
and 3) community-based care.
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Communications
(MEC) team’s vision is that by 2015, BLC will have:
efficiently and effectively implemented the five-year
project; monitored implementation of its annual work
plan; collected data at various levels of the results
framework, including immediate results, outputs,
and intermediate results; provided data for decision
making in a timely manner; communicated results
to both internal and external stakeholders; utilized
lessons learned to improve implementation of project
activities; and built the capacity of both BLC staff
and country partners in monitoring, evaluation, and
communications.
The MEC Team
The role of the MEC team is to improve the project’s
performance in achieving its desired outcomes through
monitoring and evaluation, and documentation and
communication of results and lessons learned.
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The MEC team consists of six staff in the main
office in South Africa, as follows: MEC Director;
Senior M&E Advisor; two M&E Advisors; two
Communication Advisors. There are also currently
M&E staff in three of BLC’s six country programs:
Angola, Lesotho, and Namibia. As a regional project,
M&E and communications staff work as an entire
team. The MEC team in the main office supports all of
the country offices, but the country offices also support
each other in addressing common and complex
technical challenges.
The MEC unit has a unique structure, with M&E and
communications staff organized as one team. This
organization is more effective than the more common
separately managed functions — it serves the goals of
knowledge management, which is critical to effective
public health programming. By combining MEC
staff in a single unit, the team’s contributions to four
key knowledge management processes are facilitated,
namely: knowledge capture and organization;
knowledge generation and synthesis; knowledge
sharing and communication; and knowledge
adaptation.
Knowledge management is especially
important in light of the BLC project’s
regional scope and commitment to
leveraging effective program approaches,
best and promising practices, tools, and
lessons learned across the countries in which
it works and within and beyond the regional
and country projects it is implementing.
M&E and communications functions and MEC staff
are involved in each stage of the project cycle. For
example, MEC staff collaborate with program staff
in designing country projects, including helping to
develop appropriate indicators, contributing lessons
learned, and planning for communications products.
The MEC team conducts quarterly data validation
visits in order to maintain high quality standards
and the reliability of data reported, thereby ensuring
regular monitoring of project activities as well as
reflection on progress and needs. During these data
verification visits, MEC staff also collect information
2
Project design
7
Reformulaion
of needs
1
Situational
analysis & needs
assessment
3
Implementation
6,1
Lessons learned
The Project
Management
Cycle
4
Monitoring, review
& reflection
6
Evaluation
5
Reporting
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and materials for the development of communications
products, such as case studies, lessons learned writeups,
and to prepare stories profiling beneficiaries and
the HIV services they have received.
MEC Liaisons
MEC staff are assigned as liaisons to BLC regional
and country projects and to thematic areas (e.g.,
Global Fund, orphans and vulnerable children, HIV
prevention, etc.). In this way, country projects and
technical areas benefit from continuous M&E and
communications support. The liaison assignments
allow BLC country and technical staff to have M&E
and communications “coaches”. When supporting
programs, MEC staff simultaneously build BLC
internal capacity in M&E and communications, which
further integrates the M&E and communications
functions. Thus, both the structure and organization of
the MEC team benefit the entire BLC project in ways
greater than if M&E and communications functions
were not integrated. MEC staff benefit from this
working relationship as they, in turn, learn about and
are “coached” in capacity building and other technical
areas. This is another unique feature of the BLC’s team
approach to project management and implementation.
Tools and Products
Several tools that standardize M&E and
communications processes for the BLC project have
been developed by the MEC team. Many of these
tools facilitate the preparation of key products that
benefit all BLC staff, stakeholders, and the general
public. For example, information collected and
provided for routine quarterly reporting to USAID
is used to prepare or update factsheets on country
programs, technical briefs, and case studies. Success
stories profiling beneficiaries and key features of
specific programs are shared with the larger MSH
for its global e-newsletters and with USAID for its
publications.
Tools Developed
Performance Monitoring Plan
M&E Framework
Communications Strategy
Data collection and Reporting
Templates
Database
Description
Monitors and project progress against expected results and
timeframes. It describes all indicators, specifying data source,
responsible person, collection methodology, and frequency of
collection.
A collection of standards, strategies, plans, information management
and reporting systems, and accountable relationships for effective
project M&E.
Directs how the project positions itself and communicates results
with various stakeholders.
Developed to facilitate collection and presentation of project
information and results. Examples are reports and story templates,
registers, and forms.
On and offline tool to record, track and analyze BLC information,
including plans and results.
The relationship between the team’s two key functions of M&E and communications is further illustrated in the
graphic that follows. This diagram describes, in effect, a continuum, from the collection of simple data on inputs to
the documentation of intermediate outcomes and impact, and the associated production of a range of increasingly
sophisticated and complex communications materials.
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Relationship between the Results Framework and Communications Mechanisms/Products
Results Framework Levels and Definition
Communication Mechanisms / Products
Impact
Highest level of change
reasonably attributed to the
intervention – long-term
sustainable effect from one or
more IRs
Journal Articles
Abstracts
Intermediate
Outcomes /
Results
Change in behaviour or practice
– are medium-term effects that
logically occur from one or
more immediate results
Technical Briefs /
White Papers
Immediate
Outcomes
/ (Long and
short-term)
Results
Outputs
Change in abilities, awareness
and access – are short-term
effects of outputs
Direct products, goods
or services resulting from
completed activites
Fact Sheets
A Closer Look
Success Story
Lessons Learned
Quarterly & Annual Reports
Activities
Action taken or work
performed through which
inputs are mobilized to produce
outputs
Case Study
Friday Forwards
Inputs
Financial, human, material and
information resources
Blogs
This publication is made possible by the generous support
of the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) under the Leader with Associates Cooperative
Agreement GPO-A-00-05-00024-00. The contents are the
responsibility of The Building Local Capacity for Delivery of
HIV Services in Southern Africa Project and do not necessarily
reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
For more information contact:
Building Local Capacity Project
Ditsela Place
1204 Park Street (Cnr Park and Jan Shoba Streets) Hatfield,
Pretoria, South Africa
Tel: +27 12 364 0400; Fax: +27 12 364 0416
blcsouthernafrica@msh.org; www.msh.org
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