Designing the monitoring system of a mentoring programme

In this project the Budapest Institute was commissioned by Bagázs Association to design a monitoring system related to their mentoring programme at the Roma settlement in Bag. We designed the system in active collaboration with Bagázs, and built on already available data collections.

The new system has four functions: (1) it helps the management of Bagázs to identify programme elements that are highly efficient or on the contrary, are not efficient and need intervention; (2) it helps to identify the causes of problems; (3) it generates data requested by donors; (4) it provides data for future impact evaluations.

In the first phase of the design process we mapped the impact of the association’s operations in collaboration with its staff members in a Theory of change (TOC) framework. We discussed what happens in specific programmes, through which mechanisms, what are the external influences and who, why, and how are affected by each of the service-elements. We recorded the results in a process chart. In the second phase we assessed what should be measured for the internal monitoring of the organisation’s operations. Finally, for the mentoring programme we prepared the questionnaire for mentors and mentees, the schedule of data collection and the monitoring indicators. 

We were commissioned by Bagázs Association to design a monitoring system and the project was funded by the Erste Foundation.