Integrated MEL Modules – Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning in the context of public policies, 25 February 2025

On February 25, 2025, the second module “Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning in the context of public policies” of Integrated Modules MEL, led by Mimoza Agolli, an expert on MEL. This workshop had a combination of theory and practice as well as teamwork where participants were divided in groups and encouraged to work together on a chosen topic based on strategic documentation of policies in the field of Rule of Law, formulating an objective and analysing the best methodologies to use for the monitoring and evaluation of these policies.

Mimoza Agolli delivered a comprehensive  presentation on the MEL Framework through its different stages: mapping, implementing and evaluation methodologies. She emphasised the mapping process as the backbone of successful monitoring, focusing on the importance of context, of impact flow and of the interaction of the different outside and inside, as well as those that are considered hidden factors. She demonstrated this through two examples that show the relationship of causality in observational data. The presentation focused on the different approaches possible in the monitoring and evaluation processes and on how to choose the best methodology case by case. At the end of the presentation, the implementation of MEL through MIS to ensure that high quality data are first obtained (data collection), appropriately managed and stored (data management and analysis), and appropriately integrated (data synthesis) to support sound evaluative judgments and conclusions was highlighted by Agolli.

The second part of the Module gave way to discussions and group work for the participants, ensuring active participation through the implementation of the information received on the MEL System based on the documentation and topic chosen by each group. After the independent work done by each group, their findings were discussed with the lecturer and the rest of the participants increasing their interactions, communication and cooperation. This practical exercise reinforced the clarity of the MEL system concepts and the different methods that can be used to monitor and evaluate public policies based on the objectives, primary characteristics, indicators or target groups that are being monitored and evaluated. The issues and documents studied by the working groups are the Roadmap for the Functioning of Democratic Institutions, the civil society component and the creation of an enabling environment for this sector; The EU’s New Growth Plan for the Western Balkans and the National Reform Agenda for Albania, with a focus on the Human Capital Development component; The newly adopted Anti-Corruption Strategy and the assessment of the achievements and results of the previous Strategy; The Gender Equality Strategy; The Youth Strategy; The impact of the new judicial map on reducing the backlog in the courts, etc. This Module served as a basis to clarify the framework for the design of the MEL system that will serve to continue the research and monitoring work and to draw accurate and valuable conclusions during the development of the next Module for all the working groups involved.