The impact of Caritas Switzerland’s work

Caritas Switzerland has a monitoring and evaluation system at the three levels of project, country programme and overall programme.

Projects are closely followed by our specialists on the ground and at head office in Lucerne. Regular visits, together with project indicators, form the basis of detailed reports which are produced half-yearly or annually about every project. The reports provide information about project progress, achieved impact, the budget and the challenges. They also point out options for action if necessary.

In addition, most projects are evaluated by external specialists halfway through and at the end of the project period. This process assesses factors such as the project’s relevance, cost-benefit ratio, and sustainable impact, and proposes potential improvements and adjustments.

Country programmes and overall programmes are monitored using standard indicators and metrics and are also periodically evaluated.

Two key aspects in monitoring and evaluation are the internal learning processes and knowledge transfer.

Employees in the field systematically collect their findings, experiences and samples in the projects. The learning processes aim at a continuous improvement and development of our projects and programmes. The findings are also used for planning and managing successive phases or similar projects. They are freely available to all projects and countries.

We actively and systematically share the acquired knowledge with our partners internally and externally. On the one hand, knowledge gained is processed, summarized and disseminated in the form of thematic papers, and on the other hand, various internal and external exchange forums are available.