The SDVC project aims to double incomes of 35,000 small dairy farmers in Bangladesh. The M&E system's primary clients are producer groups and project staff, and secondary clients include CARE, private sector, and government. The M&E system routinely measures dimensions like market prices, women's empowerment, and technical knowledge. Tools used include participatory performance tracking of farmer practices and group maturity, as well as surveys of livestock workers and producer groups. Lessons learned emphasize building on existing data systems and ensuring accurate and transparent value chain data.

1. M&E Presentation for CARE WEBINAR#1
Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain (SDVC) Project
11-Apr’2012
Prepared by:
Toufique Ahmed
Technical Coordinator (M&E),
SDVC Project,
CARE Bangladesh.
toufique@bd.care.org

2. Briefing Points
1. About SDVC
2. M&E system clients
3. What we are measuring
4. Some of our tools
5. Knowledge management
6. Lessons learned
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 2

3. Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
funded dairy value chain project
(2007-2012) to double dairy related
incomes of 35,000 small farmers in
northwest Bangladesh

4. Bangladesh Dairy Value Chain

5. Progress
Current Target
Aug, 2011
Participating Households 36,400 35,000
Farmer Leaders 3,294 3,500
Milk Collectors 283 350
Livestock Health Workers (LHW) 201 165
Information Service Centers (ISC) 49 50
Community Agri-Shops (CAS) 100 -
Artificial Insemination (AI) 9,136 12,000
HHs' Avg. production (lit/day) 1.70 2.40
HHs' milk consumption (lit/day) 0.39 -
HHs' Avg. milk sales income (Tk/day) 35 45

6. 2. Who do you consider the primary clients for your M&E system?
Primary Clients:
 Producer groups and their member
 Project staff
 Donor
Secondary Clients:
 CARE,
 Private sector
 Govt
 Other interested groups (research
organization, education institutes)
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 6

7. 3. What dimensions of the VC does SDVC routinely measure?
Market Level (Observation) = Ongoing, Six-monthly
- Formal market prices
- Informal market prices
- Market dynamics / market relationships
Women’s Empowerment (Integrated in All Tools & Gender Specific Tools)
- Sex disaggregated data
- Women’s access to / control over productive resources
- Women’s control over income
- Women’s mobility
- Perceptions of men
- Daily time use
- Women’s knowledge
- Women’s leadership
- Change in barriers to change
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 7

8. 4. What are some of the tools we are using?
Tools Respondents Freq. Subject to enquire
PPT: Producer Group Semi- Group members practice tracking and groups’
(Participatory performance members annually maturity scoring.
tracking)
GPF Producer Group Semi-  Production, consumption & sales, Income
(Group members progress  Farm mgt. technical Knowledge & Practice
members annually
assessment)  Input Service (costing, source, adoption & frequency)
 Leadership facilitation
 Collection (Group selling, Distance, Client satisfaction-
Cheating)
 Women access and control over resources
LPF Livestock health Monthly  Service, Income, expenditure, linkages.
(Livestock health workers worker (LHW)
progress assessment)
CPF Collector Quarterly  Collection, service area, Income.
(Collectors’ progress
assessment)
TPF Project Monthly  Teams’ activity progress and output of various
(Team progress format) participants activity against project set target.
Case Study Producer, LHW, Need Success and failure of System , progress.
Collector, Farmer based
leader, others
FGD Producers, LHW, Quarterly Women asset ownership, control over resources,
(GAAP related) April 18, 2012 Collector barriers to own, control.
Briefing on SDVC M&E System 8

9. Participatory Performance Tracking (PPT) Steps
PART-1 : PRODUCERS’ INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE TRACKING PART-2 : GROUP MATURITY SCORING
1.1 Review the group PNA targets 2.1 Ask about group maturity indicators
1.2 FL recaps the past session topics and learning of the
group 2.2 Discuss each 10 indicators with sub-indicators
sequentially
1.3 Producers recall the key Farm Management &
relevant practices
2.3 Based on discussion, identify the groups status on
each sub-indicator through matching the context
1.4 Briefing given to members about the symbolic
statement.
picture of the learned practices
1.5 Producers recall the key Farm Management & 2.4 Write appropriate score for each sub-indicators and
relevant practices and raise their ID-VIPP card for record. count the total score.
1.6 FL records producers’ practice at those respective
producers practice row. 2.5 Share the group maturity score with the available
members and let them recall the previous round score.
1.7 FL counts the practice score of all the attended group
members & shares the result. 2.6 Compare the present and previous round score and
identify the success areas and development need areas.
1.8 FL matches the target of the group PNA and group
members evaluate the result jointly for taking further 2.7 Plan for future based on result.
Briefing on SDVC M&E System
actions. April 18, 2012 9

10. PPT (Part-1): Group members’ individual practice tracking
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 10

11. PPT (Part-2): Group maturity scoring
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 11

12. 5. How do we support the use of this information?
TASKS FREQUENCY OUTPUT
Collecting information through- As per M&E •FF wise M&E report,
•M&E formats, Other formats & Other •Learning, Success case, Challenges identified as per each
schedule FF field progress & context.
•Success case, learning & Challenges (Qualitative Information)
Team level Documenting & Learning •Team compiled M&E report,
Monthly •FF’s progress sharing on qualitative aspect
•M&E Reports compilation (TPF, LPF, CPF, GPF, CPS, PPT)
•Learning, Success case, Challenges verification and confirmed
•Other formats (Price, Training, Etc.) at team level.
•M&E Findings sharing
Regional mgt. team documentation & Learning
•M&E Reports compilation (TPF, LPF, CPF, GPF, CPS, PPT) By-monthly •Team will share key qualitative findings, progress, success cases &
Learning.
•Validate the achievement and document for further sharing
•Other formats (Price, Training, Etc.)
•M&E Findings sharing
Regional all staff level documentation & Learning
•M&E Reports compilation (TPF, LPF, CPF, GPF, CPS, PPT)
Quarterly •Team will share key qualitative findings, progress, success cases &
Learning.
•Validate the achievement and document for further sharing.
•Other formats (Price, Training, Etc.)
•M&E Findings sharing
SDVC Key Mgt. level documentation & Learning
Six-monthly •Region mgt. will share key regional qualitative findings, progress,
•M&E Reports compilation (TPF, LPF, CPF, GPF, CPS, PPT)
success cases & Learning.
•Other formats (Price, Training, Etc.) •Validate the achievement and document for further sharing.
[
April 18, 2012
CARE-Bangladesh Six-monthly •
Briefing on SDVC M&E SystemFormat filled up through reflection workshop in a participatory12
mode.

13. SDVC Information flow
Project participants Field level
Field Facilitators
Team level
Project Officers (Team leaders)
M&E Support Officer Technical Officer-M&E
Region
&National
level
Technical SDVC Staffs GOB/Private
CARE-B
Coordinator-M&E & Mgt. sectors/INGO
International
CARE-USA DONOR Other International Audiences level
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 13

14. 6. What have we learned about effective M&E for VC projects?
 Institutional/organizational information system is key to rely on and build on.
Parallel data collection or proxy for institutional contribution measurement is
very tough to measure and also costlier.
 Govt. data source is necessary to see the contribution factor.
 Value chain Data accuracy and transparency is essential to design effective M&E
for VC projects.
 Literacy rate of information givers matters as awareness of information keeping
helps a lot in data collection and validating data.
 If formal sectors role is dominant in VC, then M&E system development becomes
easy.
 Too much extractive way of data flow will not be cost-efficient and not
sustainable for VC projects.
 Regarding policy and higher level of change measurement, M&E team need
access to that level.
 Evaluation of VC project is complex as many variables are responsible for success
of failure.
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 14

15. Previous & Existing Challenges
 Project theme new, thus needed to set M&E by trial & error method.
 Project strategy changed over time.
 Large area covered vs. previously M&E staffing strength
 Respondents (Collector, LHW) are mostly indirect participants, hesitates in
giving correct data
 Dairy related various Registry system not strong, thus info flow not systematic
and reliable
 Collectors are not fully dependent on SDVC participants, so their register don’t
reflect full picture
 Collectors and LHWs don’t want to disclose their business secrecy
 Group members are not literate and aware enough to keep their records
 Institution based M&E-PM&E system introduction
 Still dependent on SDVC-FF, thus requires more time to collect data.
 Donor focused more with numbers, thus required more info as per milestones.
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 15

16. T NKS
HA
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 16

17. Sample Documentation of Study/Assessment/Monitoring
Vet - Paravet Flow service Diagram Value Chain Diagram
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18. Sample Documentation of Study/Assessment/Monitoring
D airy R e s ou rce M ap p ing D airy R e s ou rce M ap
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19. Sample Documentation of Study/Assessment/Monitoring
Well-being Analysis (WBA) Exercise WBA output
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 19

20. Regular monitoring
PPT session
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 20

21. Regular monitoring
Livestock health worker (LHW) progress Group member’s progress format
survey (LPF) (GPF) survey
April 18, 2012 Briefing on SDVC M&E System 21