6. Learning Framework
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Learning is a key purpose for monitoring and evaluation.
Monitoring and evaluation aim at providing an in-depth understanding of the performance of an intervention or of strategic issues, thus forming a solid base for deriving lessons for future interventions or programming decisions.
The concept of learning through evaluation is based on a triple-loop:
- Single loop learning occurs when a practical problem has to be solved. The actual situation is analysed and changes are implemented accordingly.
- Once the problem is solved, double-loop learning may lead to reflection by individuals - or teams - on their own contribution to the creation of the existing problem.
- Triple-loop learning examines the implicit assumptions held by individuals and organizations. This type of learning challenges the existing intellectual models and encourages analysis of what has been learned and how it happened.
TEI provide an opportunity to work better together, experiment and learn about different monitoring systems and approaches, which will be part of their added value to development cooperation.
Promoting dialogue between TE actors and encouraging as much as possible the involvement of counterparts and beneficiaries will be key.
For optimal results, TEI members should combine learning from evaluations with learning from monitoring (including internal monitoring, external monitoring support, and results collection) and ensure that both budget and expertise for these purposes are available.
At coordination meetings, TEI members will jointly analyse and discuss the learning process and lessons learned along TEI’s cycle. This can include lessons learned and factors that have led to results or impeded positive developments and their policy implications.
This analysis will allow TEI members to appreciate the underlying mechanisms or drivers of change and reform processes, which lead to outcomes in specific conditions. Without explicit analysis and learning efforts, these mechanisms and drivers are mostly invisible.
Lessons learned should be used by TE actors to develop joint strategies and priorities for policy dialogue and future programming. To enable double loop learning, TEI should also share their lessons learned in Stories of Change that will be collected for aggregate reporting.
In addition to internal sharing of knowledge and lessons learned (among TEI members), activities in this field should also extend to TEI national partners. Sustainable development and development results from programmes are context-specific and country-owned. Therefore, learning is in the first place for and by the national partners at all levels in society. TEI will be a broker facilitating this participatory and inclusive process.
Capacity4dev.eu, is the knowledge sharing platform set up by the European Commission for capitalizing on lessons learned, documentations, sharing ideas and experiences.
Topic-based groups such as TEI can consider using this platform to share knowledge and lessons learned from past and current interventions.
TEI members will disseminate evaluation lessons learned and recommendations with national partners, as well as stories of change identified during the monitoring process as appropriate. As noted in the Methodological note on TEI design, TE actors should reflect, for example, on ‘how best to use European public sector expertise through tools such as TAIEX and Twinning, how other peer to peer learning tools can complement budget support or how best to use technical assistance to build pipelines of ‘green’ bankable projects with private sector actors’.