It’s that time of the year again… We all arrive at the spin class on time with a green smoothie in hand and buy local the ideal of going completely plastic-free.

No matter what anyone tells you, new years’ resolutions are great for you! By setting an intention, we can all make the world a little better.

That goes for M&E as well. So, here is our list of ten things Khulisa and other M&E professionals can aspire to in 2020:

1. Keep reports shorter. Yes, it’s an old one, visualise, visualise, visualise. Yet, once the brilliant thoughts start flowing, we all go off on a tangent and pen them down in lengthy paragraphs. Khulisa has always practiced precise and punctual writing, and this year we’ll continue to make our reports concise, supporting them with great data visualisations and infographics

2. Practice decent data hygiene. Forbes published this blog on a few good practices, and the go-to M&E resource Better Evaluation has developed a useful guide to help you obtain cleaner data in 2020.

3. Do an annual Theory of Change check-up. View this in the same light as going to the doctor – only it’s for the health of the program or intervention you’re evaluating. A Theory of Change isn’t a static document. Have the program goals changed? Are all the assumptions and causal linkages still relevant and clear? Here is a useful article for interrogating your Theory of Change.

4. Pay your membership fees for your local evaluation associations. I don’t think we need to say more on this one!

5. Create an #evaluation book club that meets regularly to discuss classic and new books about evaluation.

6. Reduce paper use, go electronic. This goes for survey forms, report drafts, everything really. Apart from the fact that it’s good for the environment, reduced reliance on paper also increases accuracy and efficiency.

7. Apply metrics, indicators and principles internally. You may have heard about the story of the plumber with the broken pipes? As evaluators we must practice what we preach and develop measurable indicators for our own organizations, and not only for external programs.

8. Share knowledge. We learn through sharing! Let’s all get into the habit of writing up our learnings and documenting our challenges so that we can share them with our peers.

9. Publish. Identify digital platforms and journals and plan to write blogs and journal articles.

10. Be nice to yourself. Try not to be so hard on yourself in 2020. Failure leads to learning. So, if you don’t get these resolutions right this year, there is always 2021!

The holidays are behind us. Here is Khulisa’s happy holidays & 2020 message to all staff, partners and clients, in case you’ve missed it.