Developing Simple and Cost Effective M&E Tools and Techniques

The evolving nature of RSP programmes implies that M&E tools and techniques have to be regularly fine tuned to measure and track the programmes, outputs and activities. RSPN synthesises and shares knowledge and learning from within and outside the RSPs through training and technical support. For instance, RSPN played a pivotal role in promoting the use of the Poverty Score Card that NRSP and Grameen Foundation USA developed with the help of Dr. Mark Schreiner.

In 2006, Dr Schreiner developed a Poverty Score Card (PSC) for Pakistan with ten indicators of household poverty by carrying out an econometric analysis of the datasets of the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS, 2001). NRSP piloted the PSC with its Community Organisations and found it to be an effective and cost efficient tool for poverty targeting that could be used on a large scale with little training. By building on NRSP’s experience, RSPN advocated the adoption and replication of the PSC by the RSPs and arranged trainings and workshops for the RSPs, especially their M&E staff. At the same time, RSPN invited Dr. Schreiner to develop a PSC tailored specifically for the urban and rural areas, while engaging with the World Bank and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund to formulate a Poverty Score Card that was acceptable to all stakeholders. Later, the Government of Pakistan’s largest social protection programme, the Benazir Income Support Programme, adopted a PSC prepared by the World Bank, and piloted it in 15 districts in the first half of 2009 and replicated the poverty targeting survey across the country in 2010-11. RSPN is one of main partner with BISP to implement the national poverty targeting survey across the country.

Similarly, RSPN engaged Dr Mahmood Hasan Khan to develop a robust methodology for conducting baseline surveys. The methodology devolved in these baseline surveys are designed in way that it not only provides the socio-economic profiles, including the incidence, depth and severity of poverty, of rural households in the surveyed districts but it can also allows us to do an impact assessment of the RSP programmes on participating rural household incomes, expenditures, asset poverty, and educational and health status in say 5 to 7 years from the baseline survey. The samples are thus designed with these objectives to include respondents from treatment (CO members) and controls (non-CO members) groups.

Using this methodology developed by Dr. Mahmood Hasan Khan, RSPN has conducted sample baseline surveys for 16 RSP districts. The first baseline survey of five districts of Sindh, where SRSO started working in 2003, was conducted by Dr Mahmood Hasan Khan in the year 2004. The other 11 baseline surveys for selected districts were conducted in the year 2006 and 2007 by RSPN MER team.

Click www.rspn.org/publications/baseline_surveys.html for the baseline survey reports.

The baseline surveys include information pertaining to a range of socio-economic indicators including household demography, adult literacy, schooling of children, health status of household members, household incomes and  sources, household consumption and expenditure, poverty and inequality, household assets and household loan and debt. The following table gives the findings of some of the important variables as an example.

Summary of Findings from the Baseline Surveys