Case Study of an NGO Capacity Development in Mexico: Developing a Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, 2002

This 32-page case study provides information from a group of Mexican nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) participating in the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) in Mexico to enhance access, quality and sustainability of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) services and information for vulnerable populations in targeted areas.

This project was designed for eight priority states, selected under the USAID/Mexico national five-year plan, to help improve external relations and strategic alliances among leading AIDS NGOs, persons living with HIV/AIDS groups, civil society activists, and other institutions.

Through its capacity building focus, the Alliance sought to help expand and make more professional, the work carried out by many voluntary groups and NGOs, while promoting cross-fertilization of skills, experience, and perspectives between these two categories of civil society actors. As a result, according to this report, HIV/AIDS information and other services were strengthened through capacity building in strategic planning and external relations. The report describes the most important tangible gain for NGOs as "project training and technical support" which helped achieve greater clarity in organisational direction and strategy."

The report defines a successful monitoring and evaluation ( M&E) plan as "depending wholeheartedly on regular contact with the field, in order to continue to reflect field reality and re-planning priorities." According to this report, the M&E process was successful to the point that NGO's involved in the process incorporated the M&E process in to their wider institutional plans.

In the words of the women’s reproductive rights
group, UNASSE, "this was the first time in the history of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Mexico that the most important NGOs took collective and strategic action ... and it is the first time that the strategic focus was internal capacity building of the groups concerned. The transparency of the process, and the sensitivity of Colectivo Sol [host-country coordinating NGO for the project] in driving this process, was, from our point of view, the key factor behind overcoming resistance to collaboration, smoothing over past conflicts, and finally bringing together key leaders in this field."