Using Systemic M&E Tools in Feed The Future Uganda

The SEEP Network presents a new cycle of webinars focusing on inclusive market facilitation tools. In this special edition SEEP will have three one-hour webinars that form a complete set.

In this series, Eric Derks and Leanne Rasmussen will share learning from this five-year, multi-million dollar USAID program, the objective of which is to increase Ugandan farmers’ use of good quality agro-inputs by fostering more inclusive systemic changes in the agro-inputs industry.

As of late 2014, the program developed and began utilizing an M&E scheme that is expected to:

Monitor the responses from actors in the agro-inputs sector to the program’s interventions and provide the program’s teams with timely information to improve their interventions

Gauge systemic change—shifts in predominant patterns of behavior and business practices—in the agro-inputs industry and explore the impacts on smallholder farmers

Explore the limits of reasonable attribution to interventions

 This first webinar in the series, titled “Using Systemic M&E Tools in Feed The Future Uganda,” will cover the context and objectives of the program; the theory of change used; the strategic approach applied by the team; the features of the tools they selected; and how they combined tools to monitor structural changes in the access of Ugandan farmers to appropriate and affordable agricultural inputs. 

Stay tuned and check back here for details on the second and third webinars in the series!

This webinar is organized by SEEP's Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI), USAID's LEO project and the BEAM Exchange as a part of the "Learning with the Toolmakers" webinar series.

Recommended Reading

Feed the Future M&E Scheme - This paper will give you an overview of the project, its theory of change, and its key interventions. It also describes the different tools the team used to gauge systemic change and emergent lessons.

Speakers

Eric Derks

Eric Derks designs and advises on system change projects, applying concepts and tools from complexity science. He currently advises on several international market systems initiatives. He recently managed a USAID/Uganda Feed the Future agricultural inputs project, focused on shifting patterns of behavior in Uganda's agro-inputs market.

Leanne Rasmussen

Leanne Rasmussen is an Associate with Adam Smith International, where she is currently working as the Technical Advisor on the USAID Uganda Agricultural Inputs Activity, implemented by Tetra Tech. Previously, she supported various market systems facilitation projects and organizations in East and Southern Africa while working with Pollen Group/Engineers Without Borders Canada. Leanne is interested in how complexity and systems theory translates into practice on market systems and M4P projects, especially with how to measure systemic change.