GALVmed’s Learning Journey
GALVmed is privileged to be working on a mission that has truly remarkable potential to improve the livelihoods of a vast number of people. Our ability to achieve exceptional results is down to the exceptional benefits afforded by livestock vaccines and other animal health products. These represent an investment to the small-scale livestock producer that can be matched by very few other agricultural inputs and, with over half the world’s poor being farmers in developing nations, this extraordinary potential can be readily appreciated.
However, despite this potential our mission remains a challenging one. We still have a great deal to learn in the small-scale livestock field and we can still anticipate failure in some of our projects and initiatives. The key to transforming our theoretical potential to tangible reality is learning.
In the GALVmed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) function we are very much part of this GALVmed learning journey. We follow a developmental evaluation approach where pragmatic levels of information are sought to rapidly assess progress and, where necessary, course corrections can be proposed and discussed within GALVmed and with private sector partners. It is our responsibility to serve as the ‘honest broker’ in ensuring a transparent assessment of impact alongside the performance of our initiatives.
We have much to learn and will continue to evolve as iterate as new evidence comes to light, bringing with it new challenges, new lessons, new opportunities and greater understanding.
Written by Neil Gammon