Strengthening social impact: application of an influence MEAL system in non-governmental organizations

Abstract

The organizations that implement programs or projects seek to generate transformations in the development of the territories where they intervene through influencing the holders of obligations, responsibilities, and rights. In this regard, the application of a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system plays a key role as it allows organizations to monitor, evaluate and strengthen the impact they seek to achieve in each project they implement. For the elaboration of this article, a qualitative methodology was applied based on an exhaustive documentary review of search engines, NGO manuals, websites, articles, theses, among others, in order to determine the importance of the implementation of a MEAL system of influence, establishing a comparison with the traditional MEAL, identifying the main differences, advantages and challenges. As a result, although traditional systems have been widely adopted by most organizations in the world, the incorporation of an influence MEAL system in organizations for their programs, projects and social actions represents an extremely valuable alternative to apply in their strategic plans and to promote strategies that are sustainable over time and that generate impact and incidence in civil society.