Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning | A Guide for NHRIs in the Asia Pacific Module 3: Developing your MEAL Plan Section 3.6. Operating the MEAL Plan The MEAL cycle usually involves collecting three sets of data: i) before, ii) during and iii) at the end of your activity. Baseline data will have been collected as part of the MEAL Framework (Module 2: Section 2.2 and 2.5). The MEAL Plan involves monitoring (during) and evaluation (at the end) of your activity. Figure 10: When to collect data and for what purpose22 MEAL Plan MEAL Framework Baseline data Monitoring data during the activity Evaluation data at the end of the activity Monitoring (during the activity) Your monitoring information will let you know how activities are progressing towards achieving the outcomes, indicators and targets, and whether they are on time and within the allocated budget. Monitoring involves an ongoing process of reviewing, planning, acting and reviewing again and will let you know: • what is working well, for whom, in what circumstances, and why, • what is not working well, for whom, in what circumstances, and why, • how to improve progress, • what, if any, changes are needed to improve progress. Information gained from the monitoring process will enable your NHRI to report on the progress it is making towards its outcomes and identify changes that may be required to improve progress. The monitoring results will most likely require some adjustment to the MEAL Plan or certain components of it, such as scope, activities, inputs (such as personnel and resource allocations), timeframes, and/or the communications about the activity. It may even require a review of the outputs and/or outcomes. This is natural and to be expected as no MEAL Plan is ever “perfect” and the ‘L’ component in MEAL allows for continuous improvement. 70