Monitoring & evaluation
- MEAL
- Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning. → Full guide
- M&E
- Monitoring & Evaluation, the base of MEAL without the accountability and learning dimensions. → MEAL vs M&E
- Baseline
- A measurement of the starting situation, before the project begins, used as the point of comparison.
- Midline
- A mid term assessment, halfway through the project, that allows adjustments.
- Endline
- A measurement taken at the end of the project to assess change against the baseline.
- PDM
- Post-Distribution Monitoring: the follow up run after a distribution. → PDM cash guide
- DQA
- Data Quality Assessment: checking the quality and reliability of the data collected.
- KAP
- A Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices survey.
Project framework & design
- Logical framework (logframe)
- A matrix linking a project's objectives, results, activities, indicators and assumptions. → Full guide
- Theory of change
- The causal reasoning explaining why and how the activities lead to the intended change. → How it differs from the logframe
- Output
- What the project produces directly and controls.
- Outcome
- The change brought about among beneficiaries, partly outside the project's direct control.
- Impact
- The long term change, at the level of society, to which several projects contribute.
- SMART indicator
- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound.
- ToR
- Terms of Reference: the document that frames the objectives, the method and the timetable of an assignment or an evaluation.
Cash & cash transfers
- CVA
- Cash and Voucher Assistance: humanitarian assistance in the form of cash transfers or vouchers.
- PDM cash
- Post distribution monitoring specific to cash transfers. → Full guide
- Targeting
- The process of selecting beneficiaries against defined vulnerability criteria.
- Complaints and feedback mechanism
- The channel through which a beneficiary can report a problem with the programme.
Collection tools
- XLSForm
- A spreadsheet format (survey/choices/settings) used to describe a questionnaire. → Full guide
- KoboToolbox
- An open source data collection platform, designed for humanitarian work. → Kobo and ODK guide
- ODK
- Open Data Kit, the open source project behind the XForms standard. → Kobo vs ODK
- Enketo
- The engine that renders an XForms form directly in a web browser.
- Skip logic
- A rule that shows or hides a question depending on earlier answers.
- Group / Repeat
- A grouping of related questions, or a block repeated a variable number of times.
- Disaggregation
- Breaking data down by subgroup (gender, age, status) so that no inequality is hidden.
Protection & accountability
- AAP
- Accountability to Affected Populations: answering to the people you are helping.
- Protection mainstreaming
- Building protection into every sector of a project rather than treating it separately. → PM-KOI guide
- PM-KOI
- Protection Mainstreaming Key Outcome Indicator, the DG ECHO tool for monitoring protection mainstreaming. → Full guide
Standards of the sector
- CHS
- Core Humanitarian Standard: 9 commitments on quality and accountability for humanitarian action.
- SPHERE
- The minimum standards of humanitarian response (water, shelter, health, food security, and more).
- OECD-DAC
- The reference evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability.
- ALNAP
- The reference network for learning and evaluation in humanitarian action.
These terms, put to work with Opti'
Every definition above turns up concretely in the Opti' ecosystem: logical frameworks and ToR generated by OptiBot, XLSForm and PDM questionnaires generated by Opti Gemba, and skills on each of these subjects through Opti Academy.
