Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Plan for the Coffee Value Chains Project in Guatemala

The project is implemented by Federación de Cooperativas Agrícolas de Productores de Café de Guatemala, Responsabilidad Limitada (FEDECOCAGUA, R.L.) and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Feed the Future initiative. The project's development objective is to improve agricultural productivity, expand markets, and improve nutrition. The project's theory of change is based on the hypothesis that increasing the income of rural families and improving the resilience of small-scale producer households will reduce poverty and chronic malnutrition. The project's intervention is focused on improving agricultural practices, post-harvest management, and the application of new technologies to increase sales volume and family income. Additionally, the project aims to diversify coffee farms and promote new entrepreneurships, particularly among women and young people, to complement income. The project's Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Plan (PME&A) will guide the project's technical committee and manage the evaluation process to report progress towards the achievement of project goals. The PME&A incorporates learning strategies and approaches that support the development hypothesis of the Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) of USAID Guatemala. The plan will provide details on performance indicators, data sources, and roles and responsibilities for data collection and analysis. The project's geographic focus is on the western highlands of Guatemala, specifically in the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché, and San Marcos. The project aims to reach 15,000 recipients, with 35% being women and 15% being young people. The project's total budget is US$19,000,000, with funding from USAID. The project's monitoring plan will focus on performance monitoring, which includes the collection, storage, and management of data. The plan will also include context monitoring to understand the project's environment and stakeholders. The evaluation plan will focus on assessing the project's progress towards its goals and objectives. The learning plan will focus on operational research, special studies, and data use and dissemination for adaptive management. The project's M&E system will consist of monitoring specialists, technical personnel, leadership, and governance. The generation of quality data and the use of information for adoption will be the key results for the project's M&E system. The PME&A will be a living document and will serve as a base document to establish development standards and operational procedures for the efficient and effective management of the M&E system.