Sphere x P-FIM: Manila Exercise

To have a two-way discussion with community groups, teams consider the most important issues from the 8 goal-free discussions e.g. WASH, exclusion of vulnerable groups, micro finance, etc. The top five issues are selected – it may be more or less. A limited number of issues an agency may wish the community to discuss can be added. The community may raise the same or similar priority issues as agencies e.g. WASH is a community priority and also an agency sector focus. When this occurs it is considered a community priority issue. When community and agency issues are aligned, it may show that an agency is aligned to community priorities i.e. ‘doing the right things.’

Community based M&E: When community project ownership is established, ongoing two-way engagement is used to develop a community based M&E:

• Agree monitoring components: e.g. community appoints representatives; agrees monitoring criteria i.e. community and agency inputs, monitoring timeframe, procedure to address challenges-opportunities, and make changes e.g. necessary technical adaptations to increase well depth to increase water column, etc.
• Agree evaluation components: e.g. community appoints representatives; agrees evaluation criteria for each programme stage e.g. if the water column is adequate to provide a continuous water supply for people and livestock, and if social-financial changes are required to achieve outcomes and objective