Overview

Our dedicated, in-house Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team trains and equips local counterparts to continuously measure the efficacy – or lack thereof – of our work. Nuru’s M&E Team seeks to objectively monitor and evaluate the Agriculture, CED, Healthcare, Education and Leadership programs to determine if the activities being conducted are making an impact and ending extreme poverty in the communities where Nuru works.

Nuru International (NI) established three types of metrics: poverty, program and operational metrics.

1. We measure the level of poverty in the communities where we work using the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT). MPAT is a 10-component, survey-based thematic indicator for rural poverty developed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations agency. Data are combined for each village to calculate MPAT categories, using standardized valuations and weightings. Through MPAT, NI measures the poverty level in year one to assess needs and to provide a baseline, as well as a midpoint and endpoint within a country to determine social impact.
2. We employ rigorous impact evaluations to calculate program metrics for each impact program. Implementing a difference-in-differences technique “to compare the changes in outcomes over time between a population that is enrolled in a program (the treatment group) and a population that is not (the comparison group),”¹ we utilize existing, validated measurement tools when possible. We also work with local government officials to carry out household surveys in Kikurian (local mother tongue) and Kiswahili in the communities where we work.
3. Nuru Kenya monitors each impact program, reporting Operational Metrics, to provide continuous feedback loops on program efficiency and effectiveness. We have strengthened monitoring systems through the implementation of a Salesforce cloud-based customized database for data storage and reporting.

Nuru’s M&E team also established “Exit Criteria” based on Leadership and program impact data, that when achieved, we feel that the country staff is ready to successfully run a project without the presence of NI staff. Our M&E approach, combined with defined exit criteria, will help Nuru in the quest to be the world’s first self-sustaining, self-scaling, integrated development model to end extreme poverty.

(1) Gertler PJ, Martinez S, Premand P, et al. (2011). Impact Evaluation in Practice. The World Bank.