Relational Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)

Video Poster Image

Sharpen your practice without sacrificing trust, dignity, or community voice.

MODULE OVERVIEW

  1. Reimagining Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)

    1. What Is MEAL For — And For Whom?

      1. A New Purpose for Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)
      2. What is MEAL for? Who does it serve?
      3. A MEAL Snapshop
      4. Purpose, Power, and the Risk of Evidence Without Relationship
      5. A MEAL Realty Check
      6. From Proving to Improving

    2. From Monitoring to Learning: Naming the Tension

      1. Moving Beyond Monitoring
      2. Where does learning live?
      3. Monitoring vs Learning: Why the Tension Matters
      4. When Monitoring Crowds Out Learning (and What to Do About It)
      5. Name Your MEAL Mode
      6. What does learning feel like in your organisation?
      7. Protecting Learning: From Data to Sensemaking

    3. The Cost of Compliance

      1. Reclaiming Accountability
      2. What Happens When Feedback Doesn’t Fit?
      3. Breaking the Compliance Trap
      4. Why Compliance-Driven MEAL Can Become Extractive
      5. Lina and the Compliance Trap
      6. Match the Harm to the Pattern
      7. Before You Move On

    4. Introducing Relational Practice — Building MEAL With People

      1. Relational MEAL in Practice
      2. What Is Relational Practice in MEAL?
      3. What Does Accountability Feel Like?
      4. What Relational MEAL Can Look Like: Three Practice Stories
      5. Relational MEAL Story-to-System Lab
      6. Centring Relationship
      7. Relational Upgrade

  2. Power-Aware Evidence: Positionality, Politics, and What Counts

    1. Data Is Never Neutral: Power & Positionality in MEAL

      1. How Data is Shaped
      2. Positionality Mapping
      3. How Neutral Is Data?
      4. Power & Positionality: Why MEAL Evidence Is Shaped, Not Found
      5. The MEAL Data Journey: Where Power Hides in Plain Sight
      6. Spot the Hidden Power Point
      7. Expanded Positionality Mapping
      8. From “Neutral Data” to Power-Aware Evidence

    2. Whose Knowledge Counts? Broadening Evidence Without Losing Credibility

      1. The Evidence Hierarchy
      2. What Counts as Evidence Here?
      3. Building a Strong Evidence Mix
      4. From Evidence Hierarchy to Evidence Mix: Practical Credibility in MEAL
      5. Build an Evidence Mix 
      6. Whose Knowledge Is Missing?
      7. Credibility Beyond Numbers

    3. Inclusive Sensemaking: Turning Evidence Into Shared Meaning (and Better Decisions)

      1. Taking a Relational Approach to Interpreting Evidence
      2. Who Interprets the Data?
      3. Sensemaking Is Where Power Lives
      4. Inclusive Sensemaking: A Practical Routine for Power-Aware MEAL
      5. Sensemaking Circle
      6. Improve One Sensemaking Space
      7. Sensemaking: A Power Point

    4. Ethical Data Practice & Reciprocity: Consent, Safety, and Do No Harm

      1. Power-Aware Data Practice
      2. What Do We Owe People Who Share?
      3. Ethical Data Practice: Consent, Safety, and Reciprocity
      4. Do No Harm in MEAL: Practical Ethics for Real Constraints
      5. Rewrite a Consent Script
      6. One Ethical Upgrade
      7. Power‑Aware Evidence: What You’re Taking Forward
      8. How Does Power Show Up?
      9. Ethical MEAL by Design: What We Owe Back

  3. Designing Systems with Relationships at the Centre

    1. What Does a Relational MEAL System Look Like?

      1. Moving beyond tools
      2. The Relational MEAL Model
      3. Where Is Relationship Missing?
      4. Relational MEAL Design: Turning Values into System Choices
      5. The Relational MEAL System: Six Components That Work Together
      6. Map the “Relationship Points”
      7. Choose Your Redesign Target
      8. Relational MEAL Is Built in the Details

    2. Participatory Indicators — Measuring What Matters (and Who Decides)

      1. Participatory Indicators Made Practical: Co-Create What Matters
      2. Who Decides What Gets Measured?
      3. Participatory Indicators: Rigour With Shared Ownership
      4. What participatory indicators are (and what they are not)
      5. Convert a Standard Indicator into Participatory Versions
      6. Build an Evidence Mix for One Outcome
      7. Indicator Quality Checklist
      8. Your Participatory Indicator Commitment
      9. Rethinking Rigour: Participatory Indicators
      10. Deepening Practice

    3. Feedback Loops That People Trust — Designing for Safety, Access, and Loop Closure

      1. Building a Feedback Loop
      2. Do We Close the Loop?
      3. Feedback Isn’t a Tool — It’s a Relationship Loop
      4. Designing Feedback Loops People Trust: A Practical Guide
      5. Design the Feedback Loop
      6. Match the Barrier to the Fix
      7. Close the Feedback Loop - Template
      8. Upgrade Feedback
      9. Lock It In
      10. Level Up Practice

    4. Learning Rhythms & Adaptation — Making Sensemaking a Habit (Not an Event)

      1. Learning That Drives Change
      2. How Often Do We Actually Learn?
      3. Learning Rhythms: How MEAL Becomes Useful
      4. From Reporting Cycles to Learning Cycles: Designing MEAL for Adaptation
      5. Interactive Design Lab — Build a 45-Minute Learning Rhythm
      6. Common Learning Failure → Design Fix
      7. Your Learning Rhythm Commitment
      8. Lock It In

    5. Upgrade Pack

      1. Relational MEAL Upgrade Pack
      2. Relational MEAL = Values in System Design
      3. Quick Pulse Check

  4. Practicing Accountability & Learning as Relationship

    1. Rethinking Accountability — From Reporting Up to Being Answerable With

      1. Upward vs Relational Accountability
      2. From Compliance to Care
      3. How Is Accountability Experienced?
      4. Accountability as Relationship: What People Experience Matters
      5. Accountability Beyond Reporting: Three Dimensions of Being Answerable
      6. Accountability Mapping
      7. One Accountability Shift
      8. Optional discussion board
      9. Lock It In

    2. Closing the Loop — Transparency, Response, and the Ethics of “No”

      1. From Feedback to Follow-Through
      2. What Happens After Feedback?
      3. Closing the Loop: Accountability People Can Feel
      4. The Ethics of Loop Closure: Responsiveness, Limits, and Trust
      5. Write the Loop Closure
      6. “You said / We did” Message Types
      7. Build Your Loop Closure Plan
      8. Deepening Practice
      9. Lock It In

    3. Learning Culture — Making Honesty Safe and Adaptation Normal

      1. Building a Learning Culture
      2. Is Learning Rewarded or Rushed?
      3. Learning Culture: Why Evidence Doesn’t Always Lead to Change
      4. What Makes Learning Unsafe (and How to Design Safety Without Lowering Standards)
      5. Learning Culture Scan
      6. Barrier → Design Fix
      7. Scenario: A Hard Finding Appears
      8. Your 30‑Day Learning Culture Experiment
      9. Build Your Practice
      10. Lock It In

    4. Commitments & Next Steps — Embedding Relational MEAL Into Real Workflows

      1. Operationalising Relational MEAL
      2. What Will You Commit To?
      3. Small Changes That Stick: How Relational MEAL Becomes Normal
      4. Making Relational MEAL Stick: From Ideas to Implementation
      5. Build Your 30‑Day Commitment Plan
      6. Resistance Mapping — “What Might Push Back?”
      7. Write Your “Leadership/Donor Translation”
      8. Your Relational MEAL Commitment
      9. Commitment Wall
      10. Relational MEAL Assessment

WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR

PRICING

PRICING

PRICING

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN