M&E from the ground up: lessons from monitoring the Swashakt program

How can M&E frameworks for complex development programs be more inclusive and adaptive to ground realities? In developing capacity and supporting monitoring systems of grassroots projects promoting women’s economic empowerment across ten states of India, 3ie and grant management partner LEAD at Krea University are learning about enabling factors and trade-offs. In this session they share key milestones and lessons for developing and implementing an M&E framework for the measurement of complex outcomes along with implementers who are part of the Swashakt program in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. 3ie launched the program, whose name means self-empowered in Hindi, in late 2020 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Swashakt is supporting project implementation and evaluation to generate evidence around interventions that support women’s collective enterprises and enhance their viability, scalability and returns.
The session will discuss insights about building monitoring capacity inclusively and sensitively and what trade offs may be involved in collecting data for measures of women’s agency and economic empowerment. An expert discussant will help highlight what this experience may mean for innovating and recentering M&E.