The Importance of M&E

There are many things I love about being a Peace Corps volunteer. I love that it is part of my job to hang out on a porch and explain to people that no, JFK and Lincoln were not assassinated by members of the same secret society and that we have 50 states in the US, not 52 as most people here believe. I love teaching and planning projects. I love that moment when the person you are working with realizes the importance of innovation and begins to champion new ideas. Something that is not my favorite thing is “Monitoring and Evaluation”. I know it is incredibly important to measure the impact of your work, but since so much of what we do is hard to measure, it is easy to throw up your hands and say that it is better to devote my time to working instead of seeing if my work worked. Since I know that I don’t enjoy monitoring despite its importance, I made is my “new year” resolution (new year being my second year as a volunteer) to do more M&E.

The graduates of YETP at AGUIDEP, my partner organization

So this morning I decided I would follow up with the young entrepreneurs I trained at two different locations. One group is at the 3-month mark and the other is at their 2-month mark. I split the work with my YETP partner in crime, Mariame and started making phone calls. Talking on the phone here, especially in French, is a real chore. The connection is bad, calls are dropped, and French is used creatively so it is really much harder to understand things over the phone. As much as I was dreading it, by the end of the morning I was excited. I trained 18 people two months ago in the creation of a business. As of today, 6 have started businesses (they are agricultural so everything is bought and in the ground, but they have not sold anything yet), 7 are in the planning phase either doing research, finishing up their business or action plans, and seeking financing, 3 were unreachable (people change phone numbers quite frequently), and only 2 had not started anything. They were two friends who wanted to work together and are going to come into my office for a refresher so they can move forward. This is such a new program that we were honestly not sure if it worked, but it does! Mariame has not finished talking to everyone, but out of the 3-month old group, already 4 people have reported that not only did they start a business, they have started receiving income.  One of this group also got a 4,500,000 GNF loan which means that his business plan was flawless since microfinance institutions are incredibly hesitant to lend to youth.

So while the act of M&E is not fun, getting to hear my students excitedly talk about how they have applied what they learned made my morning. Also knowing that our Youth Entrepreneurship Training Program (YETP) actually works will be a source of motivation as I start my most current course with 135 university students.