Community Engagement

MARCO runs structured training workshops equipping local NGO staff and government officers with practical Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) skills. Modules cover survey design, digital data collection tools (KoboCollect, ODK, SurveyCTO), indicator development, data analysis, and report writing — all contextualised for Somalia's operating environment.

Participants leave with hands-on skills they can apply immediately. Where possible, training is delivered as Training-of-Trainers (ToT) so capabilities cascade across organisations. MARCO provides follow-up coaching for 30 days post-training.

Somalia's local NGO sector loses disproportionate amounts of humanitarian and development funding to international organisations — not because of a deficit in mission, but in the technical language of donor-compliant proposals. MARCO bridges this gap through structured proposal writing coaching, logframe development support, and budget narrative guidance.

We have supported multiple Somali NGOs in developing concept notes and full proposals for USAID, ECHO, FCDO, and UN agencies. Our coaching approach is hands-on: we work through actual live proposals with partners, not generic templates.

Through our market assessments and livelihoods programme work, MARCO actively contributes knowledge to organisations designing economic empowerment interventions for youth and women in Somalia. We share aggregated market data, labour market findings, and lessons from value chain assessments to inform programme design.

We also participate as technical reviewers and advisory partners for NGOs and CBOs designing cash-based interventions, vocational training, and market-linked livelihoods programmes — contributing technical expertise pro bono where capacity is most limited.

Research and evaluation findings are only valuable if they reach the people who can act on them. MARCO hosts periodic knowledge exchange forums bringing together NGO practitioners, government officials, community leaders, and donor representatives to review evidence from our evaluations and baselines — and discuss how findings should shape programmes and policy.

We publish accessible summaries of our evaluation findings (with client permission), contribute to sector coordination mechanisms, and regularly participate in inter-agency learning events. Evidence produced by MARCO belongs, ultimately, to the communities it was gathered from.