USAID/MALI PMEP PROJECT QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT, OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2018

AID-688-1-15-00006. The project's goal is to support USAID/Mali's management information needs, facilitate program management decisions, and help shape long-term strategic direction and decision-making. The primary objective of the contract is to establish and implement an M&E platform that builds the capacity of USAID/Mali staff, mainly agreement/contracting officer's representatives (A/CORs) and M&E staff and selected implementing partners to perform high-quality performance monitoring and verification. The platform's activities are organized into three components: Component 1: Capacity Building/Performance Monitoring, Component 2: Impact and Performance Evaluation Assistance, and Component 3: Special Studies, Assessments and Surveys. This report includes the activities implemented during the first quarter of FY2019, October - December 2018. The report describes key activities undertaken, progress toward implementation targets, implementation challenges and solutions, and any management issues. Component 1: Capacity Building/Performance Monitoring is focused on building the capacity of USAID/Mali staff and implementing partners to perform high-quality performance monitoring and verification. Sub-task 1: Training & Capacity Building includes office hour sessions, tailor-made capacity building support for Inna Bagayogo, and community of practice sessions. The office hour sessions continued during this quarter, with the Senior M&E Advisor holding a total of 16 office hour sessions, interacting with 8 USAID staff on 24 occasions. The office hour sessions were used to plan, coordinate, and implement data quality assessments (DQAs) and third-party monitoring (TPM) activities with the AEG and PDG teams. The PMEP team also provided technical assistance to the mission, including project monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans. The PMEP received comments from the Education office on December 14th regarding the revised MEL plan, which had been submitted to USAID on August 14th. The comments focused on the PIRS of the new Mission PMP indicator "Number of Out-of-School Students Gaining Access to Schools in Crisis Affected Areas" and the update needed to the "Performance Indicator Summary Table" with some custom indicators according to the AMEPs of Implementing partners. The platform also organized the first quarterly M&E workshop on October 31st, 2018 between the USAID/PDG Team and PDG IPs to discuss key issues from fiscal Year 2018. Ten participants, including 4 women from USAID PDG team, as well as M&E specialists and COPs of implementing partners attended this workshop. The Workshop covered the following items: Reviewed PPR Indicators, discussed the PIRS of the new Mission PMP indicator, and updated the "Performance Indicator Summary Table" with some custom indicators according to the AMEPs of Implementing partners. The PMEP team also worked with the AEG and PDG teams in completing the design and implementation of 8 DQAs for 8 AEG implementing partners and 1 DQA for a PDG IP. The office hour sessions were also used to discuss the progress and provide updates to the USAID teams during the implementation of these DQAs as well as to discuss solutions to implementation challenges, such as consultants being unable to continue with the TPM and resampling of communities due to changes in the security situation. The PMEP team also used the office hour sessions to discuss and plan 4 TPM activities for the AEG team and a TPM for the PDG team. During these sessions, the PMEP team and USAID discussed work plans, data collection strategies, and implementation challenges. These sessions were also used to provide feedback on progress made in the TPM implementation. The PMEP team has continued with the provision of technical support to Inna Bagayogo in the assessment of the quality of data from NDI and in writing a comprehensive DQA report. The draft report has been finalized. The platform organized a community of practice session on October 12th, 2018 to discuss program design and learning. The session was facilitated by Ousmane Samake, the M&E Specialist of the USAID Agriculture and Accelerated growth (AEG) office and was attended by 14 participants (9 USAID Staff and 5 from the PMEP team).