Safe Schools Common Approach – Action Pack 5: Monitoring, Evaluation and Research

Evidence is crucial to understanding what works to protect children from hazards and risks in and around school contexts, but it is often lacking. This action pack provides guidance on monitoring, evaluation and research activities, which are a key component of Safe Schools implementation. The purpose of which is to increase the quality of Save the Children’s interventions and better address the unique risks encountered by children in and around school contexts. Evidence gathered through this process will be used to inform future program design and research activities – both within Save the Children and externally.

To gather evidence about the impact of the Safe Schools common approach interventions, the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and in-depth research frameworks aim to fill data gaps in education and child protection. The framework outlined in this toolkit provides a way forward in which to continue to build the evidence-base for the Safe Schools common approach, specifically to identify what aspects of the common approach work best, under what conditions, where, when and for whom. The evidence will be gathered and used at multiple levels:

1. the country office level, for continuous improvement of programming,
2. the organisational level, to validat​​​​e the effectiveness of the common approach, and
3. the global level, so that Save the Children can contribute our findings to evidence-based approaches worldwide to prevent violence or harm against children. ​​​​​​

If you have any feedback or needs for support in how to use this Action Pack, please contact the Safe Schools helpdesk: safeschoolscommonapproach@savethechildren.org​.​​​​​​​​​

This Common Approach is a collaboration between Child Protection and Education Themes. For more information, please contact Sarah Morgan, Safe Schools Common Approach Lead, or Bianca Gallagher , Program Officer, Safe Back to School & Learning – Program, Quality and Impact.  ​