Capacity and Team Building of the IPPC Secretariat though Monitoring and Evaluation Training

A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) training workshop of the IPPC Secretariat took place from 28-30 November 2016 at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Cecile Kusters from the Centre for Development Innovation of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, with a full participation of the IPPC Secretariat s staff. The Workshop provided an opportunity for all units (team) of the IPPC Secretariat to collaborate and exchange ideas for working more cohesively, with particular importance placed on streamlining the work of facilitating the development of international standards and supporting their implementation.

Under the Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS) contracting parties implementation of the Convention and its international standards are evaluated in an effort to identify successes and challenges, using various methods. To compliment the work of the IRSS a M&E framework is being developed that will seek to understand how the IPPC operates on three levels, implementation of IPPC frameworks, IPPC policies and procedures and the IPPC Secretariat work areas, to allow for responsiveness and improvement. In addition to the IRSS, other existing processes and tools used to monitor work will be incorporated into the new framework to formalize an overall IPPC M&E approach.

The three day M&E training workshop was designed to give the IPPC Secretariat an understanding of planning, monitoring and evaluation processes, managing for impact, including effective communication and an introduction to and development of a draft Theory of Change (ToC) plan, which contains key elements that will form the basis of the M&E framework for the IPPC. To measure progress of work the IPPC Secretariat also started to identify possible indicators that could be used. The workshop included a combination of theoretical lectures, practical exercises and group discussions designed to enable learning.

Next steps for the IPPC Secretariat include further work on the ToC and plan to link the future M&E framework to the three operational levels identified, analysis of existing processes and tools that can be incorporated into the framework and identification of associated indicators. This work will be completed by April 2017, followed by a second phase of work to begin to implement the M&E framework.

The development of an M&E system works towards the internal IPPC Secretariat goal of One IPPC in a positive and constructive way and the general goal for IPPC towards 2020 to increase the overall capacity of contracting parties to implement the Convention. There was a strong commitment made by the IPPC Secretariat to continue the M&E work with an enhanced collaborative approach.