Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning

Unlock the power of locally-generated knowledge and evidence-based decisions.

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is about communities owning the MEAL process end-to-end. It is an approach that capacitates diverse community members, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators they define to take action to achieve their goals and vision.

What we do

CoLMEAL Ignite

Engaging webinars, talks and interactive sessions about CoLMEAL delivered to inspire thought-leaders, practitioners and donors to re-imagine power and ownership in development. Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on the latest CoLMEAL events.

CoLMEAL Capacity Building

Hands-on courses and practical tools that allow individuals and organization to effectively design and adopt community-led initiatives. Sign-up for updates on the CoLMEAL Design Course or reach out to us to learn more about the CoLMEAL ABC Course.

Learn More & Register

CoLMEAL Aggregate Toolbox

This toolbox helps organizations tell the story of its impact through efficient use and aggregation of existing qualitative and quantitative data blended with community-led MEAL. The foundation is the Common Scale of Progress (CSP), an approach that allows for efficient aggregation of results across diverse contexts and a variety of data collection processes and tools that are either community or project-based.

CoLMEAL Partnership

The most efficient way for funding agencies and implementing partners to support, design and implement Community-led initiatives utilizing the CoLMEAL methodology. Get Salanga’s CoLMEAL expert practitioners on your side to guide and mentor your team through each step of the CoLMEAL process. From integration in funding mechanisms, design, localization and contextualization, capacity building for stakeholders and training of trainers for community mobilizers, to peer-review and evaluations.

CoLMEAL Validate

A self-driven (or peer-reviewed) assessment process to assess to which extent an initiative implementing the CoLMEAL approach fulfills its foundational principles and core values across the implementation team and community groups.

CoLMEAL Research

We work with practitioners to expand our knowledge base and understanding of community-led methods in the development space. As a first step, we researched who is doing what in community-led development and what tools exist, so we could build on existing knowledge and identify gaps. In the next phase of research, we are looking into topics like: CoLMEAL’s impact on people whose voices are commonly not heard and the ability of the CoLMEAL approach to provide reliable, localized data in areas where traditional data collection processes commonly fail. If you are you interested in conducting research on CoLMEAL, please get in touch info@salanga.org.

CoLMEAL with ADRA Canada

Salanga is piloting CoLMEAL in partnership with ADRA Canada and its implementing partners in two projects funded by Global Affairs Canada. Read more in this Case Study about the initial findings and results.

Read the Case Study

Salanga’s Role

Salanga is a thought-leader and innovating practitioner of CoLMEAL as part of the global movement of community-led programming.

Community-ownership is a core principle of Salanga’s practice and work with its partners. We support development organizations in the practical implementation of MEAL systems and enhancing their capacity in MEAL through partnerships in project implementation, training, consultancy and technology.

To support organizations in adopting the CoLMEAL approach, Salanga partners with organizations to:

  1. Assess organizational readiness to implement CoLMEAL
  2. Develop joint proposals for/advise on CoLMEAL integration into project design – including consideration for structure, systems, and accountability
  3. Update/develop policies and guidance on their CoLMEAL process
  4. Adapt the CoLMEAL capacity building framework to their organizational approach and project contexts
  5. Provide capacity building for project staff to implement CoLMEAL
  6. Facilitate reflective processes to ground and mainstream CoLMEAL into their organization

Contact us at info@salanga.org for more information about support and partnerships related to CoLMEAL.

Watch our webinars “What is CoLMEAL?” and “Is your organization ready for CoLMEAL?” and be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for our CoLMEAL newsletter so you never miss any updates.

Testimonials

Watch our webinars “What is CoLMEAL?” and “Is your organization ready for CoLMEAL?”

Scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for our CoLMEAL newsletter so you never miss any updates.

Webinar 1: What Is CoLMEAL?

Webinar 2: Is your organization ready for CoLMEAL?

ColMEAL News

Q&A Adapting CoLMEAL to Context

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is an approach to MEAL that capacitates diverse key community members/change agents, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to continually monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators/metrics they define to take action to achieve their goals/vision.

Is your organization ready for CoLMEAL?

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is an approach to MEAL that capacitates diverse key community members/change agents, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to continually monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators/metrics they define to take action to achieve their goals/vision.

CoLMEAL: Getting your organization and colleagues on board

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is an approach to MEAL that capacitates diverse key community members/change agents, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to continually monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators/metrics they define to take action to achieve their goals/vision.

Implementing CoLMEAL: Key Benefits & Considerations

Community-led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) can offer wonderful opportunities for capacity-building, improved engagement and participation, among other major benefits, but the approach also comes with some important considerations and limitations. 

CoLMEAL: Why it helps development

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is an approach to MEAL that capacitates diverse key community members/change agents, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to continually monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators/metrics they define to take action to achieve their goals/vision.

Community-Led MEAL: What is it and should you use it.

Community-Led Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (CoLMEAL) is an approach to MEAL that capacitates diverse key community members/change agents, including the marginalized and vulnerable, to continually monitor, analyze, share, and reflect on progress against their community development plans based on outcomes and indicators/metrics they define to take action to achieve their goals/vision.

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