VSO’s 'PLAY' project empowered with improved approaches for engaging key stakeholders in measuring and reporting project results

VSO’s Lets Learn Through Play project facilitators this week received a training in the usage of MILE as an improved methodology for engaging key stakeholders (including the project’s primary actors) in measuring and reporting projects results.

About twenty of the project’s staff including Early Childhood Education (ECE) facilitators, an adviser and the project leads and staff converged at One Click Hotel, Kiyovu (Kigali) for a training workshop in MILE.

Lets Learn Through Play (also known in Kinyarwanda as Twigire Mumikino Rwanda – TMR) is a four-year project delivered by VSO and funded by the Lego Foundation. The project seeks to support Learning through Play (LtP) at all levels of the ECE system and amongst in Rwandan parents and communities.

 By championing play-based learning, TMR’s main objective is to strengthen play-based ECCE as the basis for lifelong learning in all 30 Districts of Rwanda by positively impacting over 250,000 children, 3,500 teachers, 2,400 school leaders, 145,000 parents as well as local leaders and community members in the school community.

MILE is an acronym for ‘Measuring Impact for Learning & Empowerment.’ Its VSO’s new adopted systematic process of designing, setting up and practicing participatory planning monitoring, evaluation, and learning (PMEL) introduced in 2018.

According to Joseph Orem VSO’s Global Monitoring Specialist (Knowledge, Evaluation & Learning), the workshop was designed to build capacity for TMR’s project ream and volunteers to understand MILE and practice it while in the field.

“The value of MILE is to enable engagement of primary actors and the project stakeholders to be part of the monitoring and evaluation project cycle ensuring they understand the project. Basically, monitoring of TMR now becomes a shared responsibility and not necessarily only VSO,” Orem said

“MILE helps bring coherence and consistency to MEL and it is guided by the VSO’s Monitoring and Evaluation standards. The MILE approach is also in line with VSO’s principles, that puts emphasis on programming approaches that are people-centered, evidence based, appropriate and effective, accountable, reflective, and collaborative,” he added.

It is the basis and the foundation for global reporting processes like scale and reach, quarterly reports, evidence summaries, community led monitoring.

 “One of the District Coordinators of TMR Bosco Muhirwa (participating in the MILE training workshop) said, “MILE is great way of involving TMR’s primary actors (project beneficiaries) by introducing simplicity in the M&E process. It allows them to support the monitoring progress of the project and monitor the implementation of activities,” Muhirwa said.

“This will be a value addition to the TMR because project monitoring them becomes every stakeholders’ responsibility, allowing them to own the project. It leads to effective sustainability even when the project closes,” he added. 

MILE basically creates a meaningful and well-structured engagement of other stakeholders. It is executed in 3 phases including the co-creation phase (planning), co-evidence phase (for collection of data) and the co-learning phase, where stakeholders now reflect, analyse and forge a way forward.

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