1. Strengtheningand scaling-upIntegrated
NaturalResourceManagementacross
Middle East and North Africa
MENARIDKM and M&Eproject
Aden Aw-Hassan
Director
Social, Economic and Policy Research Program, Project coordinator, ICARDA
Lessons learnt: Knowledge sharing, M&E systems strengthening, and groundwater
management in the GEF MENARID program”
16-18 June 2014, Beirut, Lebanon

2. ICARDA-led MENARID project
• Focus on Knowledge Management and harmonization of
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems
Objectives of MENARID Project;
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.
2
MENARIDworkingmeeting,Beirut,9thofMay2014

3. Features of KM and M&E in
project cycle
Important features:
• Less tangible aspects of development work compared to physical works
• Promotes learning (feedback) and dissemination (out-scaling)
• Provides easy access of progress and facilitate reporting
• Provides tractable record of project implementation
• Essential elements of project management (RBM)-good practice
• Provides means of accountability for public investments
• Facilitates means of quantifying project impacts
• Improves project management, saves resources, reduces waist and
increases returns to investment
• Allows to attract resources for further investments in INRM projects
Challenge:
• These are often not seen as critical in project implementation
• Not sufficient resources are assigned
• Lack of capacity
InternationalConferenceon
PoliciesforWaterandFood
SecurityinDryAreas–24-26June,
Cairo,Egypt
3

4. MENARID outputs
• Knowledge Management (KM):
• 3 Learning workshops in collaboration with UNESCO IHP and GEF
IW: Learn
• Organization of Knowledge Exchange workshop => 19 INRM
activities analyzed across the MENARID program
• Dissemination of best practices through an online platform
• Communication of results through the website
(https://menarid.icarda.org/ ) and Youtube
• “Innovation sharing” feature
• ICARDA working paper on capturing and disseminating best
practices, and success stories booklet
• Examples of KS outcomes:
• Water harvesting activity (Vallerani plough) replicated from Morocco to
Jordan (1,000 ha of rangelands and 600 of cereals by June 2015)
• What next??????
4
MENADELPPresentation,Jordan,5thofMay2014

5. Harmonizationof Monitoring and
Evaluation(M&E) systems:
• AT the program level:
• Definition of cross-cutting indicators for Results Based Management
through the MENARID program
• Implementation of a cross-cutting online M&E database, and projects
trained
• Project specific M&E support:
• Support for projects to complete essential M&E documents and
Tracking tools
• Support project to implement specific Examples M&E steps: Baseline
in Morocco, gender study in Jordan and impact study in Iran
• Lessons learned from implementation of RBM, RBB and M&E systems are
being finalized
• What next ???
InternationalConferenceon
PoliciesforWaterandFood
SecurityinDryAreas–24-26June,
Cairo,Egypt
5

6. Objective of the workshop
• Share experiences and lessons learned from KM and M&E
support activities implemented within the MENARID
Project
• Discuss and agree on the way forward: How to provide
continuous support to INRM projects on:
• On Knowledge sharing/Management
• On modalities for strengthening the M&E system that respond to
the RMB requirements of the projects
• Develop Recommendations on how to advance truly RBM-
based on the experiences learned form the MENARID
Project
InternationalConferenceon
PoliciesforWaterandFood
SecurityinDryAreas–24-26June,
Cairo,Egypt
6

7. Thanks for your attention!
Your ideas and suggestions are more than welcome !
MENADELPPresentation,Jordan,5thofMay2014