Blog: Monitoring & Evaluation Marathon

Blog: Monitoring & Evaluation Marathon

You might have read about the Kisiki Hai Tour with which we show our documentary in Tanzanian villages… Last month we have launched something alike: a Monitoring and Evaluation Marathon! Our goal: gather data for a baseline research with which we can monitor and evaluate the re-greening over the years.

Let me give you an insight into one of my research days!….

….. The minibus that visits 27 villages in the 7 districts where we are active now is packed with an enthusiastic team of 10 Tanzanian students, two interns from MetaMeta, MetaMeta’s project manager Francesco and me (Justdiggit’s M&E project coordinator Lieke).

After a humpy bumpy ride on the unpaved roads of Dodoma region, we arrive a bit battered and brused in one of the selected villages. But we quickly recover from the bumby journey when it’s time for action. While the students join forces on the focus group discussions and surveys, another team goes into the field.

To gather important data on the physical conditions of the landscape, we do activities such as taking soil samples, measuring trees (height and width), testing the infiltration of water into the soil and taking drone shots of the farm land.

The students take up the task of conducting 30 surveys per village and 1 focus group discussion: in total 27 discussions and 810 surveys. Again we are well received by the villagers whom participate actively in our research. They share their views upon their environment, life situation and farming issues with us; their input is as interesting as it is important!

Time for the lunch! There is always a villager that cooks a meal for us: (again ;)) rice, spinach, kidney beans and some meat. And with a lot of data, filled stomachs and interesting farming stories we return back to Dodoma city or sleep in a nearby village.

Another tour day accomplished!

Best,

Lieke Hulshof

Monitoring & Evaluation coordinator, Justdiggit