A number of residents, particularly in the civil society organization are now better able to understand what donors are looking for to gauge a project’s achievement.

This week, over 20 men and women were trained in monitoring and evaluation, following a National Capacity Building Workshop here.

The three-day workshop formed part of the Strengthening Civil Society to Alleviate the Impact of COVID-19 on Vulnerable Communities in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean project, also referred to as the Strengthening Civil Society Capacity (SCSC) project.

According to a statement to the media, the workshop also aims to support regional civil society organizations as they rebuild and retool from the severe socioeconomic fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two-year initiative is managed by the Caribbean Policy Development Centre and is funded by the European Union.

CPDC Project Officer, Christon Herbert, explained that the training was developed

as a result of key findings from the 2021 CPDC Institutional Assessment Report,

where it was noted that there was limited technical capacity building available in the sector in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Organizations reported the need for improved capacity in several areas — including monitoring and evaluation. Therefore, the workshop focussed on the development of essential M& E competencies among trainees to enable them to improve their operations by reporting more comprehensively on program delivery and results,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Elizabeth Lloyd said that the participants were introduced to the foundations of the field, key definitions, and the basics of implementing an M& E system.

He also underscored that effective Monitoring and Evaluation are important for non- governmental organizations as it can assist them in making “confident” and informed decisions about the use of their resources, programming direction, and how effectively they are meeting the needs of their beneficiaries.

“It is through M& E that organizations can ascertain the impact of their programs, through a comprehensive analysis of the intended and unintended outcomes… M&E can help to determine the success or failure of a program, help you set realistic targets for your programs [and] help us to do things differently and better understand elements of program success,” she said.

Other topics covered under the eleven-module workshop included Data Collection

Methods for M& E, Data Quality and Data Management, Developing M& E plans and Disseminating M& E Findings.

And Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party Senator, Caleb Gardiner expressed gratitude for the in-depth and hands-on workshop, which provided the group with the tools needed to evaluate their projects and overall programming to fit the needs of their beneficiaries.

“In the longer term, it is expected that CPDC’s capacity-building efforts will result in

greater efficiency and effectiveness of NGO programming,” he said.