Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan

This goal is driven by the understanding that energy is an essential input to sustain economic growth, and demand is driven by growing economies. Throughout Southeast Asia, primary energy demand is projected to grow 2.1 percent per annum until 2040, requiring large investments in new power generation capacity and in the systems that sustain this growth. The power generating capacity in Southeast Asia will need to double by 2035 to accommodate the growing demand, requiring an addition of 270 gigawatts (GW) of additional capacity and an investment of $500 billion. Functioning utilities are the backbone of national security and economic growth, but many utilities in Southeast Asia are not financially viable and suffer from mismanagement, tariffs are not cost reflective, and there are high levels of both technical and commercial losses. Increasing the representation of women in corporate leadership roles has been correlated with stronger business outcomes. Companies with more women on their boards perform better with regards to their return on investment, sales, and equity, and performance during times of crisis or volatility. Globally, women comprise only five percent of executive board members in power companies and only 14 percent of senior management leadership teams. Increasing gender equality can improve business performance and help energy agencies meet their bottom-line goals by improving employee retention rates, increasing productivity, and enhancing financial returns. The E4SEA Activity will measure progress toward objectives and results and capture how interventions work over the Activity period of performance. The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan outlines the MEL approach, specific tasks, and timelines for the Activity. It will inform implementation activities and management, so that USAID/RDMA, program implementers, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders understand the progress being made toward the achievement of objectives and results. The MEL Plan is driven by deliberative and collaborative learning practices that will serve to advance knowledge generation, learning, and adaptive management. This plan provides metrics and analysis to both the Implementing Partners (IPs) and USAID/RDMA to facilitate evidence-based decision-making throughout the life of the Activity. The MEL Plan will help the CORE Team to gather information to build, test, validate, and iterate the E4SEA Activity logic. The E4SEA Activity will focus on improving gender equality in the energy sector in Southeast Asia by increasing the representation of women in corporate leadership roles and improving business performance. The Activity will also aim to improve employee retention rates, increase productivity, and enhance financial returns. By increasing the number of women working in the energy sector, the Activity will provide a significant opportunity to improve gender outcomes within developing economies and lead to tangible economic empowerment outcomes for women. The MEL Plan outlines the specific tasks and timelines for the Activity, including monitoring, evaluation, and learning approaches. The plan also outlines the roles and responsibilities of the MEL team and the budget for the MEL activities. The Performance Indicator Tracking Table (PITT) in Annex I provides a detailed tracking of the performance indicators, and the Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRS) in Annex II provide more details for each indicator being tracked.