Gender equality commitments are now written into most donor agreements, national development plans and organisational strategies, yet reporting often stops at counting how many women attended an activity. That tells a programme almost nothing about whether power, access or opportunity has changed. Without sound monitoring and evaluation, gender goals remain aspirations and unintended harm, such as increased workloads or backlash against women, goes unnoticed.

The Tracking Progress: Monitoring and Evaluation for Gender Equality Programs Training Course takes participants through the whole M&E cycle with gender at the centre. It starts with gender analysis and the logic of change, moves through results frameworks, indicators and baselines, and then covers data collection methods that respect confidentiality and consent. Later sessions examine quantitative and qualitative analysis, evaluation design, gender-transformative approaches and the use of evidence for adaptive management and advocacy.

Learning is practical. Participants work from sample programme documents drawn from health, livelihoods, education and governance work, and they leave with a draft gender-responsive M&E framework tailored to their own context, together with tools they can adapt immediately.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Carry out a gender analysis and translate its findings into a programme theory of change.
• Develop gender-responsive logframes and results frameworks with realistic targets.
• Select and write quantitative and qualitative indicators that capture changes in agency and norms.
• Plan sex-, age- and disability-disaggregated data collection with sound sampling.
• Apply ethical and safeguarding principles when collecting data on sensitive gender issues.
• Analyse data to show differential effects on women, men, girls and boys.
• Design evaluations that test whether a programme is gender-transformative.
• Communicate findings so that they inform decisions, learning and accountability to communities.

The course is intended for people who plan, run or fund programmes with a gender equality aim, including:

• Monitoring, evaluation and learning officers in NGOs and UN agencies
• Gender advisers and gender focal points
• Programme and project managers in health, education, livelihoods and governance
• Government planning and statistics officers
• Donor programme officers who review grantee results
• Researchers and evaluation consultants
• Women's rights organisation leaders and community-based organisation staff

Participants leave with practical products and skills, including:

• A draft gender-responsive M&E plan for a real or sample programme.
• A bank of gender-sensitive indicators with definitions and data sources.
• Interview and focus group guides built around consent and confidentiality.
• A checklist for reviewing proposals and evaluations through a gender lens.
• A simple template for reporting gender results to donors and communities.
• Ideas for running reflection sessions that turn findings into programme changes.

Teaching centres on applying each tool to realistic programme material. Methods include:

• Facilitator-led explanations of frameworks and standards
• Case files from gender-focused programmes in health, agriculture and governance
• Small-group workshops to build indicators and data collection tools
• Role-play of sensitive interviews with peer feedback
• A closing clinic where each participant refines their own M&E plan

Participants who attend the sessions and complete the practical exercises are awarded a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy, confirming the skills practised during the programme.