Unlock the power of locally-generated knowledge and evidence-based decisions.
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.
Hands-on courses and practical tools that allow individuals and organization to effectively design and adopt community-led initiatives. Sign-up for our email updates (scroll to the bottom of this page) or reach out to us to learn more about the CoLMEAL ABC Course.
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.
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.
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.
As CoLMEAL is an emerging and living approach, it integrates constant learning and adaptation processes. At first, we researched who is doing what in community-led development and what tools exist, so we could build on existing best practices and identify gaps. Now, we are looking into research on 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 interested in conducting research on CoLMEAL, please get in touch info@salanga.org.
ADRA Canada and its implementing partners, funded by Global Affairs Canada are among the early adopters of the CoLMEAL Approach. This case study highlights some of the early results and lessons learned.
Community-led development, and CoLMEAL in particular, focuses communities leading their own initiatives, while participatory development involves engaging communities in decision-making processes related to development projects. Community-led development emphasizes community ownership and control, while participatory development may involve external organizations leading the process and seeking community input. Additionally, community-led development prioritizes building local capacity and sustainability, while participatory development may focus more on immediate project outcomes.
CoLMEAL and Feminist M&E are complementary approaches that prioritize the perspectives and experiences of community members facing social, economic, and political exclusion. CoLMEAL involves community members taking ownership over monitoring and evaluation, while Feminist M&E takes a gender-transformative approach to M&E that seeks to address gender inequalities and power imbalances.
Together, these approaches can help ensure that development initiatives are responsive to the needs and priorities of community members whose voices are commonly not heard, including women and girls. By combining these approaches, development initiatives can be more effective, equitable, and sustainable.
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:
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.
For me, CoLMEAL is a new approach to community programming where the community identify their own problems and devise their own solutions. In CoLMEAL, the communities design indicators, monitor, and evaluate. It’s a great approach that is worth venturing into.
I think CoLMEAL will work in project communities because of the way it has so far been embraced. Communities are quickly grasping the concepts and volunteering to serve their fellow communities.
I’m grateful for the learning experience I get from participating in the committee. I wish there is always a meeting. I learn and somehow forget my problems in a meaningful way.
Before the first training for the CoLMEAL committee, my worry is more about how can I participate. What if I can’t answer their question or I will be asked to present in front of many people? How will my co-members react? But when I facilitated, I realized that I can do it and it was not that hard at all.
For me, the success of CoLMEAL depends on the cooperation of the entire community.
I am overwhelmed with joy to be a member of the [Community Management Committee]. I came with a lot of stress over several issues in my life that I lacked solutions to. However, after the training I feel more empowered with the knowledge on how to address some issues and am ready to transfer the knowledge to my community members when am fully trained. CoLMEAL has helped us to identify common issues in our community and how to address these challenges.
CoLMEAL is a true bottom-up development programing aimed at engaging the community to participate in the development of their area with the community being in the forefront. […] COLMEAL is more sustainable since the local structure is comprised of all category of people from the different professions including the local leadership. ColMEAL will create a lot of impact in the TOGETHER project implementation area because of high level of capacity building that will be given to the different structures with emphasis on mindset change and community encouragement to work for their own development.
Webinar 1: What Is CoLMEAL?
Webinar 2: Is your organization ready for CoLMEAL?
