Monitoring & Evaluation

Women's Light Foundation adopts a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework to ensure programme quality, measure impact, and remain answerable to both communities and donors.

Indicators, baselines and targets

A MEAL plan with clear indicators, baselines and targets is developed for each of the seven thematic pillars. Baselines are established through participatory needs assessments before programming begins, because a result that cannot be compared to a starting point is not a result.

Review cycle

Quarterly internal programme reviews.
Bi-annual external evaluations conducted by parties independent of delivery.
Learning sessions at least twice per year to integrate findings into improved programming.

External evaluation matters specifically because internal review has an obvious incentive problem. A team assessing its own work is not well placed to conclude that it is not working.

Disaggregation

All data is disaggregated by sex, age, disability status and geographic location. This is how we detect the failure mode that matters most in inclusive programming: a programme performing well in aggregate while systematically missing the groups it was designed to prioritise.

Interpreting our figures honestly

Some measures are routinely misread, and we report them in a way that prevents it.

Prevalence data and service data are reported as distinct measures. A rise in recorded GBV cases after a safe space opens reflects improved access, not worsening violence.
Reach is not impact. The number of people who attended a session is an activity measure, not evidence that anything changed.
We state the limitations of our own data, including sample size and the conditions under which it was collected.

Accountability to communities

MEAL is not only reporting upward to donors. The Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanism feeds community feedback directly into programme review, and communities see findings about themselves before external audiences do.