I recently put together a quick list of resources for an international foundation interested in embarking on the design of an M&E system with strong learning, participation components.
1) From Forging Alliances North and South, this relevant report on evaluating social change emerged from a dialogue between funders, CS and social movement groups from the North and South (see in particular the recommendations/takeaways starting on page 5) This is http://www.for-al.org/english/documents/Evaluating_Social_Change_ForAL.pdf
(available in Spanish here – http://www.for-al.org/english/documents/Evaluando_el_cambio_social_ForAL.pdf)
2) A document detailing Action Aid’s Accountability, Learning and Planning system. It seems to be one of the only comprehensive public documentation of a MEL system for a large int’l NGO or foundation.
There is also a review of ALPS and recommendations here – http://www.syrialearning.org/resource/10296
3) From Just Associates their power and empowerment framework which has been drawn on in various forms by many of the large Int’l NGOS to inform their Theories of Change and evaluation frameworks.
4) This is a breakdown of approaches, frameworks and tools for evaluating women’s rights work, in general, but it is applicable to all social change work, and I’ve found to be one of the best overviews out there. https://www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/capturing_change_in_womens_realities.pdf
5) This report is specifically about funding networks for social change – http://www.monitorinstitute.com/downloads/what-we-think/catalyzing-networks/Catalyzing_Networks_for_Social_Change.pdf
6) Here is a post from a recent conference on evaluating the “value” that emerges from collective activities (which is useful for naming and claiming the shifts in knowledge, understanding, relationships, which are the first changes on the path towards “collective impact”
7) A few interesting articles on evaluating human rights & development work in general.
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