Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning | A Guide for NHRIs in the Asia Pacific Module 1: Understanding MEAL Section 1.9. When to develop a MEAL Framework or Plan Before working through the rest of the Guide, reflect on whether you need to develop a MEAL Framework or a MEAL Plan. If your NHRI does not have a MEAL Framework,7 you will need to develop that first. Module 2 provides a stepby-step guide on how to develop a MEAL Framework. If your NHRI already has a MEAL Framework, for example linked to its Strategic Plan, you may only need to develop MEAL Plans. Module 3 gives you a step-by-step guide on how to develop a MEAL Plan. A MEAL Plan can be developed at departmental, functional or major project level. A national inquiry, for example, may have one MEAL Plan, while the Education and Promotion Division may have another. MEAL Plans put your MEAL Framework into practice. It is important to decide the level and scope of both your MEAL Framework and your MEAL Plans (Table 1). Try not to have too many MEAL Frameworks across your NHRI or the MEAL activity will be time consuming and impractical. Table 1: Scope of MEAL Framework and MEAL Plan Planning document Responsibility MEAL document Scope of the MEAL Strategic Plan Ombudspeople, Commissioners, Senior Executive Officers MEAL Framework NHRI outcomes statement Heads of Department, Team Leaders MEAL Plans Department, programme or project outcomes Operational Plan 26 MEAL Framework will lay out the high-level outputs, activities (projects), inputs and indicators (performance measures). Each MEAL Plan will take a department (Investigations Unit), programme (Education and Outreach) or project (a National Inquiry) and outline how well it contributes to the NHRI outcomes.