“… being attentive along the journey is as important, and critical to, arriving at a destination..”
Michael Quinn Patton, Foreword of the OM guidebook
The journey of Outcome Mapping in the MENA region started in 2006, where ESDU met with the IDRC Evaluation Unit and IDRC MERO staff in Cairo to explore the possibility of organizing regional activities related to OM in the region. Two main activities were identified: organizing a regional workshop in Beirut during the second quarter of 2007 and translating the OM introductory brochure into Arabic.
In May 2007, ESDU organized a regional workshop entitled “Introducing and Exploring the Applicability of Outcome Mapping in the Middle East and North Africa Region” in Beirut. The workshop was attended by 19 participants across and managed to lay solid foundations for the OM work in the MENA region, setting-up a wiki page for a first attempt concerning the Arabic terminology.
Afterwards, OM applications started emerging in MENA, with pilot activities being carried in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen. IDRC MERO programs such as ACCA, FCI, KariaNet and WaDImena gave increased recognition and importance to OM in their work and spread it further across MENA.
In April 2008, the first “Outcome Mapping Users in MENA” workshop was organized by ESDU in Cairo and was attended by 14 participants that are involved in conceptual and/or practical work related to OM. Participants shared experiences and refined further the Arabic terminology.
Later in 2008, the ESDU OM Focal point engaged in a series of iterative discussions with the IDRC Evaluation Unit on a possible way forward.
The translation of the OM book was entrusted to Dr. Mohamed El Fouly from Egypt. Dr. El Fouly took an active part in both workshops organized by ESDU and structured his translation around the terminology developed by the previous project.
In October 2008, ESDU applied first for a planning grant that enabled the unit to develop a full proposal in a collaborative manner.
At the same time, ESDU and the IDRC Evaluation Unit commonly agree to capitalize on the opportunity of having the 4th edition of the African Evaluation Association international Conference (AfREA) held in Cairo to organize a set of joint activities that would feed into the preparation process and consolidate the regional outreach of ESDU in the evaluation field. In fact, 20 participants from around Mena were sponsored to attend the 4th edition of AfREA in Cairo (March 29 – April 2, 2009) and to capitalize on their presence, ESDU held a 2 days seminar on M&E in order to think forward in establishing a Development Evaluation Society in MENA that could bring together M&E practitioners from across the region.