Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL), Explained: Why It Matters for Your Social Investment

Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL), Explained: Why It Matters for Your Social Investment

It’s difficult to tell if your social investment is making an impact when you don’t have the evidence to prove it. Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) is the umbrella term for the practices that make impact visible, credible, and provable. It’s the backbone of any social impact programme or initiative, and it’s a practice that Tshikululu has honed and perfected working across South Africa for close to three decades.

Below is a summary of key MERL terms, and why they’re important for your social impact strategy.

Definition: Systematic, ongoing tracking of programme activities and outputs during implementation. Monitoring tells us whether the work is actually happening. It might track sessions held, community members reached, or targets met.

Why it matters: “Monitoring tells us what is actually being done, not whether it is working.” Monitoring provides important data for reporting, giving you the evidence to show funders, boards, and partners progress. It makes sure your strategy and plan are on track, but it’s also critical for troubleshooting and implementation accountability. It catches issues when they are easier to fix, saving time and spend in the long run.

Definition: A systematic, periodic judgement of whether a programme was worth doing, whether it achieved its intended outcomes, and whether the results will last. It is ideally conducted by an independent or external party, though internal and self-evaluation are also recognised practice, provided the evaluation team can demonstrate objectivity and independence.

Why it matters: Evaluation answers the question a monitoring report can’t: did this actually work, and was it worth it? You need evaluation when deciding whether to renew, scale, replicate, or end a programme. Evaluation results also make for credible, independent evidence for a board, shareholders, or the public.

Depending on the question you’re asking, an evaluation might focus on:

Baseline study: an analysis of the current situation to identify the starting points for a programme or project, to set benchmarks

Process evaluation: focuses on how well a programme is operating and looks at the quality of delivery (activities), context, enablers and barriers, outputs and may also include early or preliminary outcomes

Outcome evaluation: focuses on outcomes against set targets and whether the programme’s objectives were met. Can look at changes in attitudes, behaviours and practices as a result of the intervention

Impact evaluation: tries to establish causality. Did the programme actually cause the change observed, or would it have happened anyway?

This is how businesses determine outcomes and prove attribution, for example, to defend a multi-year, multi-million-rand investment, or to make the case for renewing or scaling a programme based on more than good intentions.

For a read on progress that doesn’t require a full evaluation, businesses often use a social impact assessment instead: a check on outcomes achieved against what was intended, without a control group, usually run at natural checkpoints like a midline or project review. It is a faster way to know if a programme is delivering, ahead of a longer-term, attribution-focused impact evaluation.

Learning and Research: The ‘L’ and ‘R’ in MERL

Definition: Learning adds a commitment to actually using what the data tells you. It turns data into action by feeding insights back into programme decisions, adjusting what is not working, building on what is, and carrying lessons into future investments.

Research adds empirical research as a distinct component: intentional, structured studies that go beyond routine programme data. This spans formative research (baseline studies, needs assessments, feasibility studies) that happens before or during programme design, and summative research that happens at the end, to judge overall results.

Some questions can’t be answered by monitoring alone, like whether a community actually needs the programme you’re creating, or what’s already been tried elsewhere. Formative research stops you funding the wrong programme in the first place. Summative research tells you whether it’s worth doing it again.

MERL is for businesses that want their social investment strategy built on evidence from day one, not just measured after the fact.

Definition: The longer range, cumulative effect of programmes over time on what they ultimately aim to change. Often, this effect will be at population-level. For example in the health sector this could mean a change in HIV infection, morbidity and mortality. Impacts are rarely, if ever, attributable to a single programme, but a programme may, with other programmes, contribute to impacts on a population.

Why it matters: Impact is the reason social investment exists. It is the long-term, cumulative change in people’s lives that every programme, every rand, and every decision should ultimately be working toward.

Definition: A Theory of Change (ToC) or Impact Thesis is the underlying logic of why your work should lead to change. It maps the causal pathway: if we do X, then Y happens, because of Z assumptions, leading eventually to the long-term outcome or impact you’re after. It’s often visual (a pathway diagram) and answers “how and why do we believe this intervention will create the change we want?” It also surfaces the assumptions and preconditions that have to hold true for that logic to work.

Why it matters: A theory of change forces the question “why do we believe this investment will work?” before you allocate the budget and embark on the project. It’s the single most useful tool for making sure a social investment strategy is coherent, and for explaining that strategy to a board on one page.

Definition: The full blueprint for how measurement will work across a programme’s lifespan. It includes goals, your theory of change, a framework, data collection methods, roles and responsibilities, risks, and budget. It’s the operational document that sits downstream of the Theory of Change: the ToC is the map of the change you’re trying to create, and the M&E plan is the instrumentation that tells you whether you’re actually moving along that map, taking each link in the ToC’s causal chain and attaching indicators and data collection to it.

The plan also includes an M&E framework, or logical framework: a structured table that defines the indicators used to measure programme success at each level of the theory of change, including what will be measured, how, and against what targets.

Why it matters: An M&E plan outlines every measurement decision upfront and provides assurance that all decisions are backed by logic. It’s what prevents the “we should have tracked that” moment 18 months in. It’s also the tool that turns strategy into something you can actually report against. Any business that needs to show a funder, regulator, or board concrete numbers needs one.

Definition: Indicators (also called metrics) are specific, observable, and measurable values or characteristics used to track progress toward outputs, outcomes, and impact. A good framework mixes quantitative indicators (numbers, percentages, ratios) with qualitative ones (stories, case studies, interviews, narratives).

To mean anything, indicators need two reference points. A baseline describes the situation before the project begins and is used for comparison throughout implementation and at the end of the project. A target is the measurable result a project aims to achieve by a particular point in time.

Why it matters: Indicators make impact verifiable rather than anecdotal. If you need numbers you can defend in an annual report or a board presentation, you need well-designed indicators. Badly chosen indicators based on random criteria produce data nobody can use. Without a baseline, it is difficult to claim improvement. You need baselines and targets set before a programme starts if you want any credible way to show what changed because of your investment.

Definition: Checks whether the data and reported results are accurate and credible. An impact verification assesses data quality, not causality. It is normally embedded within a well-run M&E process as routine practice and is also offered as a standalone service for projects that did not have an M&E system in place from the outset.

Why it matters: If you’ve inherited a programme with weak M&E or simply need assurance that your reported numbers are real before publishing them, verification is the fastest route to credible figures without redesigning your whole measurement system.

Definition: The process of documenting and communicating the changes produced by a programme. Social Impact Reporting draws on evaluation evidence to show what has changed and how far it can be attributed to the investment.

Why it matters: This is the output you actually show people: the board, funders, the public. It’s tangible proof for presentations and annual reports. It’s not just about numbers. A good impact report turns MERL data into a narrative that’s easy to follow and tells real stories of how programmes are changing lives and communities.

Definition: Estimates the social value generated relative to the value invested. Put simply: “for every R1 invested, R11 was returned to communities.”

Why it matters: SROI translates impact into a single, comparable figure that business leaders and boards can act on. It’s useful for justifying budget, comparing programmes against each other, or communicating value externally.

Definition: Systems and tools, including databases and business intelligence platforms, that collect and visualise programme data, often in real time. We design these tools with accessibility and data transparency in mind, and build the manuals, handbooks, and standard operating procedures that mean clients can use them independently.

Why it matters: Dashboards turn MERL into an adaptive management tool. If you’re managing several social investment programmes at once, this is how you see performance at a glance rather than waiting for the next report.