Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute was commissioned by Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Planning of Lao PDR to deliver an intensive training program on Project Monitoring and Evaluation. The training program was tailored make for monitoring and evaluating ODA Projects in Lao PDR. The training program was co designed by the MI and Dr. Savengkith Phommahack, Deputy Team Leader. The training aimed to develop participants’ capacity to design, plan and implement effective monitoring and evaluation missions or assignments especially on projects which received funding from international donors.

Seventeen Government Officials who are directly involved in Aid Management participated in the training; Ten from six divisions of DIC, two from Infrastructure Sub-Working Group and five from Macro SWG. Ten of the participants are female.   

Mr. Bouasavath Inthavanh Deputy Director General of DIC and Mr. Sysomphorn Phetdaoheuang, project Manger of Enhancing Aid Effectiveness Project, and Dr. Savengkith Phommhak, Deputy team Leader of the Project were actively participated in the training as local resource persons and provided much needed case studies, Lao ODA context, past experiences and good practices throughout the training course.

Four sub-projects under the North-South Economic corridor Development Project were used as case studies fro participants to practice developing Design and Monitoring Framework, reviewing Project Administration memorandum, planning project monitoring and evaluation , conclusion and recommendations and using lessons learned for future project design and planning.

Different M&E tools were employed during the course including Mood Barometer, suggestion box, feed backing, focused group discussion, end-of-workshop evaluation and plan to action. The evaluation results show that participants are satisfied with the training contents, methodologies and the competence of resource persons. Case studies, exercises and simulations are relevant and applicable to their works. Several participants recommended that a follow up workshop be organized after a six-month application period to share lessons learned and good practices and learn more in-depth using M7E methods and tools.