Given the manifold issues and challenges programme managers and planners face in designing accurate food security monitoring systems, the two country programmes joined together to exchange on M&E knowledge and to discuss:

• Specific challenges that arise in monitoring project activities carried out by partner institutions — governments & NGOs — in the two countries
• Methodology of their baseline, midline and endline studies and the specific challenges
• Best practices and monitoring tools, such as the GIZ web-based Result Monitor
• Further collaboration opportunities to share methodologies, approaches and results with a wider audience

The M&E teams benefited from their specialized knowledge and experiences and identified challenges in the implementation of their respective monitoring systems. The country teams will continue to cooperate more deeply in the future and plan to include other francophone country teams in the collaboration. The next meeting is scheduled for January 2018 – this time in Togo.

About the meeting

On 2 October monitoring & evaluation experts Raymond Keke, Kerstin Hell, Lambert Gbokou, Carsten Riedel and Nadescha Beckmann met in Cotonou/Benin. The exchange was the first follow up to a general meeting between all the team members in March 2017 in Natitingou/Benin, which had also included experts from the sister project in Mali.

More than geographic proximity

Benin and Togo are geographically close sharing many context-specific characteristics. Agro-ecological conditions, farming systems, food habits – which are mainly cereal, root and tuber-based – and economic contexts are similar, even some languages.

Contacts

For more information, please contact nadescha.beckmann@giz.de, or zula.tesfai@giz.de

About the Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience Programme

The Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience Programme of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) special initiative “ONE WORLD – No hunger” is active in 11 African and Asian countries.