ICARDA supported the MENARID program through results-based monitoring and evaluation systems and knowledge sharing activities. It implemented an IFAD-funded project focused on knowledge management and harmonizing M&E across 10 projects in 6 countries. ICARDA developed cross-cutting indicators, an online M&E facility for data entry and reporting, and organized knowledge exchange workshops. It also provided targeted research support to projects through baseline studies, impact assessments, and guidelines. Lessons learned include the need for building M&E capacity and ownership, linking projects to research, and ensuring online systems can handle weak IT infrastructure. The MENARID program promoted knowledge sharing and strengthened participating projects' M&E systems through ICARDA's

1. Achievementsof ICARDAin supporting
ResultsBasedMonitoring and Evaluation
systemsand knowledge sharing activities
across the MENARIDprogram
Hugo Remaury, Social, Economic and Policy Research
Program, Project coordinator, ICARDA
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2. About the GEF MENARID program
• 10 national investments projects in 6 countries: Algeria, Iran, Jordan,
Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen
• Global Environment Facility executing agencies: IFAD, UNDP, UNIDO,
UNEP, World Bank
• Executing partners: Ministries of Agriculture, Water, Environment,
Sahara and Sahel Observatory, ADA/ANDZOA
• Two objectives:
1. To promote Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) in
the production landscapes of the MENA region;
2. To improve the economic and social well-being of the targeted
communities through the restoration and maintenance of
ecosystem functions and productivity.
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3. List of MENARID projects (1)
• IFAD:
• Jordan: Mainstreaming Sustainable Land and Water Management
• Morocco: Participatory Control of Desertification and Poverty Reduction in
the Arid and Semi Arid High Plateau Ecosystems of Eastern Morocco
• Tunisia: Support to Sustainable Land Management in the Siliana Governorate
• Regional: Cross-cutting Medium Size Project on Monitoring and Evaluation
and Knowledge Management for Integrated Natural Resources Management
• UNDP:
• Algeria : Conservation of Globally Significant Biodiversity and Sustainable Use
of Ecosystem Services in Algeria’s Cultural Parks
• Iran: Institutional Strengthening and Coherence for Sustainable Land
Management
• Morocco : A circular Economy Approach to Agro-biodiversity Conservation in
the Souss Massa Draa region of Morocco 3
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4. List of MENARID projects (2)
• UNEP:
• Algeria, Tunisia & Libya: Reducing risks to the sustainable
management of the North West Saharan Aquifer System
• World Bank:
• Tunisia: Second Natural Resources Management Project - Land
and Water Optimization Project
• Tunisia: Ecotourism and Conservation of Desert Biodiversity
• Yemen: Adaptation to Climate Change Using Agro-biodiversity
Resources in the Rain-fed Highlands of Yemen
• For more information : http://menarid.icarda.org/ 4
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5. MENARID projects in numbers
Country Area Targeted communities
Algeria 850,670,000 ha 200,000 people
Iran 49,230 ha 10,000 people
Jordan 18,000 ha 9,000 people
Morocco E. Plateaus 120,000 ha 61,018 people
Morocco Circular
Economy
3,000,000 ha (730,000
argan trees)
129,000 people
Regional (Algeria,
Tunisia, Libya)
1,000,000,000 ha 4,000,000 people in the
basin
Tunisia Siliana 28,000 ha 12,000 families
Tunisia PGRN2 70,000 ha 14,000 farmers
Tunisia Ecotourism 175,000 ha 40,000 people
Yemen Not available Not available
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6. A few Pictures from MENARID
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7. Role of ICARDA in MENARID
• Implement an IFAD-funded MENARID project : « Cross-cutting
Medium Size Project on Monitoring and Evaluation and
Knowledge Management for Integrated Natural Resource
Management »
• Focus on Knowledge Management across MENARID and
harmonization of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems
• Two objectives:
1. to generate tools for systematic cross cutting and aligned M&E
functions throughout the MENARID framework;
2. to develop a user-friendly knowledge management (KM)
platform promoting information dissemination, harmonization,
and dissemination mechanisms of INRM best practices.
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8. ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)
• Concepts of Results Based Management M&E systems:
• Presentation during writeshop in March 2013
• Discussion during field visits in Sep. 2013
• Presentation & discussion during learning workshop in Dec. 2013
• Definition of “A la carte” cross-cutting indicators cross-cutting
Results Based Management indicators through the program:
• Brainstorming sessions with representatives of MENARID projects
during workshops (Rabat-June 2012, Amman-December 2012),
“Writeshop in March 2013”.
• Discussed with projects during field visits in September 2013
• Finalized by a short term consultancy in Dec. 2013 (see M&E
matrix)
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9. Example of cross-cutting
indicators for SLM (1)
9
Proportion of project participants who are living below the
locally-accepted poverty line %
Total number of beneficiaries of the project Number
Natural Resources productivity in the project area t/ha/yr
Land coverage - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index %
Area on which INRM techniques are implemented Hectares
Allocation of financial investments leading to socio-economic
improvement in local communities livelihoods USD
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10. 10
Soil quality evolution
Quantitative data
(time series data)
Number of farmers reporting production/yield increase Number
Land under Sustainable Land Management techniques Hectares
Number of farmers adopting Sustainable Land Management
techniques Number
Number of relevant policies harmonized and/or national land
use policies for SLM mainstreaming adopted Number
Percentage increase of national/local institutions that use SLM %
Number of staff, persons and institutions trained to sustainably
promote SLM techniques Number
Example of cross-cutting
indicators for SLM (2)
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11. ICARDA outputs in MENARID (M&E)
• Implementation of a cross-cutting online facility:
• Created in December 2013
• Presented to projects during learning workshop in Dec. 2013
• Projects trained in March/April 2014
• Data entry form:
https://menarid.icarda.org/MAE/_layouts/me/Manage-Project-
Indicators.aspx
• Search database feature:
• https://menarid.icarda.org/MAE/SitePages/SearchDatabase.aspx?C=
5||&P=7||&I=18||&Y=2009||2010||2011||2012||2013||2014||
• Schedule automatic reports:
https://menarid.icarda.org/MAE/_layouts/me/Manage-Scheduled-
Reports.aspx
• IFAD Project Implementation Report feature recently added
• https://menarid.icarda.org/MAE/_layouts/me/Project-
Implementation-Report.aspx?ProjectId=3&PIR_Year=2013
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12. ICARDAoutputsin MENARID(M&E)(cont’d)
• Targeted support – bringing research expertise to
development:
• Baseline in Morocco (Dr. Bendaoud - session VI on Wednesday);
• Gender study in Jordan (Dr. Najjar – session II today);
• Impact study in Iran (Dr. Mighasemi – session V on Tuesday);
• Impact study in Jordan (Mr. Al Adaileh – session V on Tuesday).
• Guidelines/Handbook for RBM, RBB and M&E systems
(currently being finalized)
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13. Lessons learned – M&E (1)
13
• Insufficient capacities for M&E systems:
• Projects strive for implementing cheap, effective and efficient M&E
systems. MENARID decided to emphasize its efforts not only on
programmatic level, but at projects’ level.
• Quite often, there are too many indicators to monitor. Importance of
using “SMART” RBM indicators (no more than 15) that can be tracked.
• Difficulties in creating cross-cutting indicators that are widely accepted
but necessary if program-level assessment is needed.
• External support:
• Existing opportunity: support projects in their M&E-related tasks
(baseline study in MENARID Tunisia ecotourism), but also mid-term
evaluations.
• Running impact studies to identify and document activities (positive as
important as negative) is crucial.
• An opportunity would be gather all reporting requirements in a unique
online system (GEF executing agencies + GEF + ministries).
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14. Lessons learned – M&E (2)
14
• Rigor of M&E methods:
• Challenge to evaluate the socioeconomic benefits of activities of natural
resources management. However tools are available (example of the
impact study in Iran).
• A tool that could precisely evaluate the NRM technologies that are
applied would be very useful for increasing the activities’ impacts.
• M&E has to start from the very beginning (example of baselines).
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15. ICARDA outputs in MENARID (KM)
• Organization of a knowledge exchange workshop “writeshop”
• 19 knowledge fact sheets analyzing INRM activities across the MENARID program are
available online
• ICARDA working paper #18 “Capturing and disseminating lessons learned from INRM project
in the MENA”
• Stories of success brochure
• 4 learning workshops in collaboration with UNESCO IHP and GEF IW:Learn:
1. Applying traditional knowledge in water resources management, February 2012, Yazd,
Iran;
2. Opportunities for Managed Aquifer Recharge, December 2012, Amman, Jordan;
3. Groundwater economics, December 2013, Agadir, Morocco.
4. Closing workshop, June 2014, Beirut, Lebanon.
• Dissemination of best practices through an online platform
• Possibility for MENARID projects to create their own knowledge fact sheet
https://menarid.icarda.org/FR/Pages/Promote-activities.aspx
• Communication of results through the website (https://menarid.icarda.org/ ) and Youtube
(http://www.youtube.com/user/menarid) 15
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16. ICARDAoutputsin MENARID(KM)(cont’d)
• Organization of a knowledge exchange workshop “writeshop”
• 19 knowledge fact sheets analyzing INRM activities across the MENARID program are
available online
• ICARDA working paper #18 “Capturing and disseminating lessons learned from INRM project
in the MENA”
• Stories of success brochure
• 4 learning workshops in collaboration with UNESCO IHP and GEF IW:Learn:
1. Applying traditional knowledge in water resources management, February 2012, Yazd,
Iran;
2. Opportunities for Managed Aquifer Recharge, December 2012, Amman, Jordan;
3. Groundwater economics, December 2013, Agadir, Morocco.
4. Closing workshop, June 2014, Beirut, Lebanon.
• Dissemination of best practices through an online platform
• Possibility for MENARID projects to create their own knowledge fact sheet
https://menarid.icarda.org/FR/Pages/Promote-activities.aspx
• Communication of results through the website (https://menarid.icarda.org/ ) and Youtube
(http://www.youtube.com/user/menarid) 16
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17. Lessons learned – KM (1)
17
• Rooms for improvements:
• Gaps between PMUs and field level activities. Importance of including
civil society and field actors in the discussion and knowledge sharing
process.
• Insufficient capacities of KM systems (not mandatory for MENARID
projects).
• External support:
• Opportunities in linking with research for development - Experience of
ICARDA in performing research in rangelands rehabilitation (including
Vallerani) and socioeconomic analysis.
• To support MENARID projects in creating knowledge products.
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18. Lessons learned – KM (2)
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• Effective KM processes:
• « Dynamic » workshops are more effective and produce more results
than « passive » workshops. Example the “Knowledge exchange
writeshop” (outputs: 19 knowledge products produced, one working
paper, one success story booklet).
• Confirmed usefulness of a single platform gathering events, news,
contacts, database, document repository related to projects’ activities.
• Create ownership, involve partners in the conception, the design of the
platform.
• IT infrastructures:
• The online system should cope with weak IT infrastructures.
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19. MENARID impacts
• Promoting knowledge sharing:
• Water harvesting activity (Vallerani plough) replicated from
Morocco to Jordan (1,000 ha of rangelands and 600 of cereals by
June 2015).
• Collaboration between the Land Degradation Assessment in
Drylands (FAO) approach with the PGRN2 project in Tunisia.
• 18,000 pageviews and 3,500 visitors for the MENARID website.
• Strengthening M&E systems:
• Support in establishing a M&E baseline in Morocco, impact
studies in Iran and Jordan, and a gender analysis in Jordan.
• Reporting facilities available online.
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20. Thanks for your attention!
Your ideas and suggestions are more than welcome !
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