FY 09 Microsoft CIS Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy

There are three primary opportunities to pursue as we enter year 3 of the partnership:
1. To build towards a more integrated and comprehensive understanding of eSkills to employability, culminating in a book that draws on what we have learned over the past two years (analytical studies, stories, cybergrants reports, and evaluations)
2. To improve the quality and relevance of impact evaluations by channeling the management and funding of these studies through the UW (thereby eliminating the funding for 3rd party evaluations that were built into grantee budgets…a savings of $700,000 using FY08 budgets).
3. To leverage the expanding research agenda and capacities of CIS to the mutual advantage of all our research partners. With a staff of 12 researchers and support staff, and major funding from the Gates Foundation and IDRC, we are better positioned to attain the higher bar we are setting for ourselves in FY09.