Many programmes collect large volumes of indicator data that arrive too late, or in the wrong form, to influence what happens on the ground. Meanwhile commitments made under the Grand Bargain and wider localisation debates require international organisations to let national partners and communities shape priorities, define success and use evidence on their own terms. Monitoring and evaluation therefore has to change: from compliance reporting upward towards timely learning and accountability that runs in several directions.

The Monitoring and Evaluation of Adaptive Management & Locally Led MEAL Training Course works through that shift in practical steps. Participants revisit theories of change as testable hypotheses, set up learning questions and review cycles, and choose methods suited to complexity, including contribution analysis and rapid feedback tools. The course then turns to locally led practice: co-designing indicators with communities, strengthening partner MEAL capacity, running feedback and complaints mechanisms and agreeing data ownership and safeguarding rules.

The final sessions deal with documenting adaptations, negotiating flexibility with donors and building organisational habits that make learning routine. Work is based on programme scenarios from health, livelihoods, protection and governance, and each participant produces an adaptive MEAL plan for their own project.

Participants will leave able to:

• Reframe a theory of change as a set of assumptions to be tested and revised during implementation.
• Design learning agendas, decision points and pause-and-reflect cycles linked to work planning.
• Select complexity-aware methods such as outcome harvesting, contribution analysis and Most Significant Change.
• Co-create indicators and success criteria with communities and local partners.
• Establish feedback, complaints and response mechanisms consistent with the Core Humanitarian Standard.
• Assess and strengthen the MEAL capacity of national and community-based partners.
• Document and justify programme adaptations in reports to donors.

Participants usually come from humanitarian, development and funding organisations, in roles such as:

• MEAL officers, coordinators and managers
• Programme and project managers in NGOs and UN agencies
• Country directors and heads of programmes
• Localisation, partnership and capacity-strengthening advisers
• Accountability to affected populations focal points
• Grant managers and programme officers in donor and foundation offices
• Leaders and staff of national NGOs and community-based organisations
• Evaluation consultants working with adaptive programmes

Expect to finish the week with:

• An adaptive MEAL plan built around learning questions and decision points.
• A facilitation guide for quarterly pause-and-reflect sessions.
• A participatory indicator set co-designed through a community simulation.
• A partner MEAL capacity assessment and support plan.
• A template for logging adaptations and reporting them credibly to funders.
• A checklist for community data ownership, consent and safeguarding.

Facilitation mirrors the adaptive practice being taught. Participants learn through:

• Short inputs followed by structured reflection on their own programmes
• A running programme scenario that changes each day, forcing real adaptation decisions
• Community role-plays to practise participatory indicator setting and feedback handling
• Peer coaching in small groups organised by sector
• Review of real-style learning agendas, adaptation logs and feedback reports

On completing the five days, including the scenario exercises and the adaptive MEAL plan, each participant receives a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.