Room to Read is committed to the highest quality programs that provide the greatest benefits to children in the developing world. To this end, we carry out monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of our programs on an ongoing basis to:
- Track project information to ensure that we work effectively toward our goals and objectives
- Identify strengths and weaknesses to inform program decisions and make timely improvements
- Facilitate dialogue with stakeholders regarding progress toward desired objectives
- Provide accurate, relevant and timely data and information to stakeholders
Monitoring
Our in-country staff and partners visit our programs regularly and use a variety of methods, such as interviews with and surveys of key stakeholders, students and teachers to gather information about program effectiveness. Through this monitoring, our staff is able to provide regular feedback to highlight areas for future improvement for each program in each country.
One example of this was the development of our Local Language Publishing Program. In 2003 Nepalese students indicated to our local team that our libraries were not being optimally utilized because of a lack of Nepali language children's books. We quickly realized that there simply were not many children's books available in Nepal. As a result, we began sourcing and self-publishing culturally relevant, brightly colored children's books written in Nepali. We are now one of the largest publishers of Nepali children's books, and this successful program has been expanded into all of our countries. We have published 226 new children's titles to date and will publish an additional 90 titles in 19 local languages in 2008.
We have also made other modifications as a result of monitoring feedback, including:
- Extending training to three years for our Reading Room and Computer Room Programs
- Adding toilets and access to clean water to the building designs for our School Room Program, to decrease the likelihood of female attrition
- Providing tutoring and mentoring as part of our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program
In 2007 we focused our M&E efforts on strengthening our monitoring system. We refined the goals, objectives and indicators for our programs and developed country monitoring plans for each program. In 2008 we will be implementing these monitoring systems.
Room to Read has hired a Global M&E Director and an M&E Associate at our Global Office in San Francisco, as well as M&E Program Officers for each of our Asian Country Offices.
Evaluation
In 2005 we conducted our first external evaluation of five programs (School Room, Reading Room, Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship, Computer Room and Language Room) in four countries (Cambodia, India, Nepal and Vietnam) to assess program effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. This evaluation asked 880 teachers and students about their involvement in these programs, as well as their perceptions about the quality of operations and the value and impact of the programs. For further information, please download a summary of the 2005 Independent Monitoring & Evaluation Study (Adobe PDF, 138kB).
At the end of 2007 each Room to Read country in Asia conducted an evaluation of the Reading Room (RR) and Local Language Publishing (LLP) programs. The evaluations were managed by our in-country M&E Program Officers and designed and conducted in collaboration with our in-country program teams. Each country team chose evaluation topics based on what it considered most important to its programs:
- Cambodia assessed library management and the extent to which LLP books are age appropriate and culturally relevant
- India assessed two RR models for enhancing access and studied children's perspectives on children's literature
- Laos assessed usage of RR resources, sustainability of Reading Rooms and the extent to which LLP books are age appropriate
- Nepal assessed usage of RR resources and the relevance of LLP books
- Sri Lanka assessed the relevance of the library management training program and the quality and use of LLP books
- Vietnam assessed mobile carts (book cabinets on wheels) and the extent to which LLP books are age appropriate
If you have further questions regarding monitoring and evaluation, please visit our Frequent Questions.
