Coached Program: MEAL for Humanitarian and Development Professionals: 23 September - 21 October 2025
Track progress, demonstrate impact, and ensure accountability through effective data collection and analysis systems.
Enroll NowCoached Online Learning Program
- Format: 5 Coached live sessions plus self-study
- Dates: 23 September - 21 October 2025
- Live Sessions: Tuesdays at 13:00-14:30 UTC
- Time Commitment: 4-5 hours per week over 5 weeks
- Investment: $495 (or $395 for limited budgets)
Good Data Should Lead to Good Decisions
Coached learning program for humanitarian and development professionals to master MEAL systems through live group sessions and personalized feedback. In humanitarian and development work, projects can fail to demonstrate their impact—not because they lack results, but because they can't measure or communicate them effectively. Without strong MEAL systems, projects face:
- Missed opportunities to adapt and improve programs in real-time
- Inability to prove project impact to donors and stakeholders
- Accountability gaps that erode community trust
- Reduced community impact when programs can't adjust to changing needs
- Repeated mistakes when lessons learned are missed
This coached program equips you with practical tools to design MEAL systems that track progress, demonstrate results, and drive adaptive management. You'll develop data collection skills and create feedback mechanisms that put communities at the center. Through effective MEAL implementation, you can:
- Adapt programs based on real-time data and feedback
- Make evidence-based decisions that improve outcomes
- Demonstrate clear impact to communities and donors
- Build trust through transparent accountability mechanisms
- Capture and share learning across teams and projects
Who This Is For
This coached program is for people working in relief, development, or humanitarian contexts who want to enhance their MEAL capabilities. It's ideal for:
- Monitoring and evaluation officers seeking to strengthen technical skills
- Project managers and coordinators integrating MEAL into project cycles
- Field staff responsible for data collection and analysis
- Program development teams designing MEAL systems
- Field staff aligning MEAL systems with community needs
- Anyone whose work involves demonstrating results, accountability, and learning
No prior experience needed—the course delivers clear, practical guidance for newcomers while providing strategic insights and advanced applications for seasoned practitioners.
Your Instructor
With over 25 years of expertise, Neil Kendrick, founder of ELD Impact, specializes in Professional Writing, Reporting Skills, Proposal Writing, Results-Based Management, and Monitoring & Evaluation. Originally from the UK and now based in Turkey, Neil has trained and coached humanitarian and development professionals across more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
Regularly praised for his ability to demystify complex topics, Neil makes challenging concepts accessible to practitioners at any level - from field staff in rural NGOs to program managers in multilateral organizations.
How You'll Learn: Coached Interactive Workshops
Coached meetings are interactive skill-building workshops where you work alongside an expert to develop practical capabilities through real challenges.
What makes this different:
- Thinking partner approach - The coach asks probing questions and helps you work through your actual MEAL challenges, not just deliver content
- Personalized attention - Small groups (max 8) allow deeper exploration of your specific context and projects
- Hands-on practice - You actively build your MEAL framework during sessions and see techniques applied to real examples
- Collaborative problem-solving - Focus on "what might work for your situation" rather than one-size-fits-all solutions
- Immediate application - You build working frameworks and tools you can use right away
Think of it as cooking alongside a chef rather than just reading a cookbook - you practice the skills while getting real-time guidance tailored to your specific needs.
Program Structure:
- Weekly live sessions: 90-minute interactive workshops with maximum 8 participants
- Apply between sessions: Practice concepts in your actual work, then bring insights back to the group
- Self-paced materials: Videos, templates and tools to work through between sessions
- Personalized feedback: Submit your MEAL framework for detailed video feedback
- Impact Community: Ongoing support after the course
What You'll Learn
Click any week to see detailed content
- Welcome to the Course
- Course Logistics
- Meeting Guidelines
- Watch: The What and Why of MEAL
- Watch: MEAL in Action
- Reflection Task
- Pre-Meeting Task: Your Expectations
- Meeting 1: Orientation
- Introduction to MEAL
- Integrating MEAL into Project Design
- MEAL during Implementation and Close-out
- MEAL and Sustainability
- The MEAL Framework
- Progress Assessment
- Discussion
- Reflection & Application
- Monitoring
- Understanding Monitoring Systems in MEAL
- Indicators
- Data Collection Methods in MEAL
- Developing a Monitoring Plan
- Data Collection Tools in Humanitarian and Development Projects
- Case Study and Practical Exercise
- Data Management
- Data Analysis
- Data Visualisation
- Case Study - Data Management in Action
- Case Study - Data Quality and Integrity
- Data-driven Decision-making
- Progress Assessment
- Discussion
- Reflection & Application
- Meeting 2: MEAL Concepts & Monitoring in MEAL
- Evaluation
- Types of Evaluation in the Project Lifecycle
- Evaluation Ethics and Standards
- Planning and Designing Evaluations
- Case Studies - Reflection and Application - Evaluation Checklist
- Steps for Conducting Evaluations
- Defining Evaluation Questions
- Selecting Data Collection Methods
- Selecting Sampling Approaches
- Data Analysis in Evaluations
- Linking Data Analysis to MEAL
- Reporting Evaluation Findings
- Evaluation in Action - Case Study
- Progress Assessment
- Discussion
- Reflection & Application
- Meeting 3: Evaluation in MEAL
- Accountability
- Accountability in MEAL
- The Cycle of Accountability
- Understanding Stakeholder Expectations
- Feedback and Complaint Mechanisms
- Ensuring Transparency
- Ensuring Participation
- Implementing Feedback Mechanisms in Humanitarian Response - A Case Study
- Progress Assessment
- Discussion
- Reflection & Application
- Meeting 4: Accountability in MEAL
- Learning
- Why Learning Matters in MEAL
- Learning Frameworks and Approaches
- Capturing and Sharing Lessons Learned
- Learning from Evaluations: A Case Study
- Adaptive Management in MEAL
- Adaptive Management Techniques
- Real-time Data and Decision-making
- Case Study and Reflection
- Progress Assessment
- Discussion
- Reflection & Application
- Wrapping Up
- Meeting 5: Learning in MEAL & Wrapping Up
- Key Concepts of MEAL
- Action Planning
- Practical Application and Case Studies
- Post-course Assignment
- Your Next Steps
- Congratulations on Completing the Course
Impact Stories
9.2/10 Rating (based on 47 reviews)
"I now understand MEAL in depth and can apply it to projects without needing specialized staff. The course gave me confidence to handle both qualitative and quantitative indicators and data analysis independently."
— Participant, Médecins Sans Frontières
"This course taught me to design logical frameworks and indicators to track long-term impact of our SDG projects. I've built skills in data collection and analysis and can now embed MEAL throughout our project cycle for strategic decision-making."
— Kathrin E.
"I feel like I have gone through a whole degree program by just taking this course. I am already applying it in my work. Value for money 100%."
— Alice Wanjiru Ngahu
Course Details
Start: 23 September 2025
Duration: 5 weeks (4-5 hours per week: 90-minute live session + 3 hours self-study)
Investment: $495 (or $395 for limited budgets)
Group Size: Maximum 8 participants
Includes:
- Lifetime access to all course materials (videos, handouts, templates, transcripts)
- Five 90-minute live coaching sessions with expert facilitator
- Personalized video feedback on your assignment (72-hour turnaround)
- End-of-module assessments
- Certificate of completion and letter of achievement
- Post-training access to MEAL Impact Community
Payment Options: To enroll, pay by credit card below. Both options include identical training and materials - choose the standard fee or reduced fee based on your budget.
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