From 18th to 19th June, 13 representatives of the Monitoring Matrix working group (MM WG) – either original experts who developed the MM or staff conducting the monitoring – met in Skopje to reflect on the 1st year monitoring and devise the approach in measuring progress in the current and future years.
The representatives reviewed the MM and suggested several refreshments or merger of indicators, agreed on developing a joint sample questionnaire for surveys and interviews in all countries and defined 12 proxy/core joint/regional standards that are to be monitored in each country, while the rest 12 will be monitored on biannual level and/or can be added based on monitoring needs in each of the 7 monitoring countries. The 12 standards were selected according to importance, the EC Guidelines and the potential for change. Finally, different approaches to scaling have been discussed and a smaller WG including a statistical expert will work on the proposal in the coming month.
After one year of a full monitoring cycle according to the MM in 8 countries, BCSDN with its members produced 8 country reports and 1 regional report, has worked constantly on advocacy for the identified problems in the enabling environment for CSOs and has promoted this concept widely. The use and promotion of the MM as well as the feedback from other stakeholders have lead BCSDN to refine the MM as such, to work on a common methodology and to further develop the measuring of progress/regress for the following years.
More photos from the workshop are available at this link.