The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge for the humanitarian sector and has immobilised many aspects of relief interventions. In accordance with the Do No Harm principle, one of the primary activities of humanitarian assistance, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), has been scaled back as evaluators risk both spreading and contracting the virus.
In this fraught context, humanitarian practices for M&E must be adapted in order to continue this critical component of humanitarian relief efforts, while mitigating the risk of further spread inherent to infield M&E exercises.
About the Research
A number of leading humanitarian agencies have proposed safety measures to reduce the risks associated with data collection during the pandemic. However, dissemination of information regarding the actual implementation of such measures, limitations of newly adapted data collection tools, and implications for future M&E planning have not been widely explored so far. In order to address this gap, Trust conducted an online survey in May and June 2020 intending to answer the following questions:
1. How have M&E activities been affected by COVID-19?
2. What are the most useful practices for M&E practitioners during this pandemic?
3. Which groups of people and sorts of interventions are going to be most adversely affected by this crisis in terms of monitoring and data collection, and are therefore at risk of being excluded from M&E findings?
4. What are the lessons learned and lasting changes for M&E going forward?
Methodology
Fifty respondents from 27 different countries participated in the survey: from Malaysia to the USA, South Africa to India. Respondents were comprised of three types of humanitarian professionals: internal M&E practitioners (those working in M&E departments of humanitarian and development agencies), external M&E practitioners/consultants (those hired externally to carry out M&E for other humanitarian and development agencies), and program staff.
Main Findings
Overall, it has been found that M&E activities have been severely impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practitioners responses have illustrated how routine M&E activities have been limited and some of the ways in which they have had to adapt their planning to ensure they are limiting the spread of the virus. This has been most evident for in-person data collection methods, particularly for conducting FGDs, community surveys, monitoring and observation visits.
Respondents suggested a plurality of technological platforms, applications and software to aid in remote data collection. However, the dependence of this re-orientation towards remote data collection methods relies on access to technologies, primarily mobile phones and internet connections. Practitioners predicted that the most vulnerable groups affected by this would be this with low-literacy skills, those who do not have access to such technologies or those who are particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, including the elderly, the economically disadvantaged, and persons living with disabilities. These limitations must be accounted for moving forward to ensure that there are ways to adapt in order to foster their inclusion, and also to be cognisant of these potential gaps in data attained during the pandemic.
