Many human rights and women organizations in the impact sector are conducting grants, development or community programs that require a structural approach to design and implementation. However, oftentimes by choosing to build Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning systems, important data concerning the realities of marginalized and vulnerable groups gets lost or simply, go unnoticed.

Not acknowledging the diversity of identities and contexts of communities can lead to:

• Data collection processes and insights that can, directly or indirectly, reproduce or deepen unequal power and gender, racial, or class dynamics
• Overlook the experiences of exclusion or discrimination of different stakeholders that that a program or grant should address, or
• Results that are counterproductive or not as effective as they could be.

In an effort to address these challenges, the application of gender, contextual, and diversity analysis tools and frameworks should be used.

An intersectional approach teaches us to analyze people’s diverse identities and explore how their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, religion, migration or disability status may privilege or lead to discrimination based on the context.

Taking an inclusive and intersectional approach requires more time, but is critical for relevant and equitable investments, program development, implementation, and learning.  

An inclusive MEL system can be beneficial to organizations in the impact sector because:

• Intersectional analysis helps to surface often unseen inequalities in a given context and supports better investments and programs to reduce bias.
• Quantitative and qualitative data can be disaggregated from the beginning to avoid purposely or unintentionally excluding marginalized or vulnerable groups or reducing their differences only by gender.
• Participatory and accessible data collection and analysis methods  fosters trust and cooperation between stakeholders, encouraging their interest and engagement in outcomes and learnings.
• It can better equip operational or programmatic staff to better understand and respond to unequal gender and power relations in their work and daily lives.
• It can help organizations strengthen their commitments and track their impact towards achieving a more fair, just, and equitable world.

ImpactMapper has helped several organizations including Norwegian Human Rights Fund, International Dalit Solidarity Network and Codigo DH Mexico reframe their MEL systems with gender and inclusivity lens. We offer consulting and training solutions tailored to each of our client’s particular needs. If your organization is seeking expert support, schedule a meeting with us today.

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