AMChas laid substantial emphasis on need for conducting research, participatory monitoring, evaluations, and institutional assessments etc. These exercises facilitate in assessing the results achieved, process of development undertaken, utilization of resources and the levels of capacity with a view to draw learning's and enhance efficiency and effectiveness.AMC professionals have extensively conducted the exercises for international agencies, national level, intermediary level and grassroots NGOs. Activities Include
Institutional Assessments: Participatory Institutional Assessment is a process which helps to reveal the different dimensions and crucial components of the institutions of which assessment is significant to enable the institution/ organization to mature and sustain itself. PIA helps in identifying institution's strengths and limitations and eventually improving its institutional capacities in terms of both structural and functional aspects.
Participatory Need Assessments: AMC specializes in conducting Participatory Need Assessments by eliciting perceptions and opinions from various stakeholders including the target group. This exercise facilitates in identification of actual needs of the community/ target group and also those spheres of their lives where support of an external agency is required to make a holistic and realistic intervention.
Credit Needs Identification: AMC believes that for holistic understanding of an issue or an area, both qualitative and quantitative data are required. The study on any issue is strengthened when both qualitative and quantitative information are used in conjunction with one another. Thus baseline surveys and PRA are complementary to each other. A survey tool is devised and similarly PRA techniques are selected on the basis of the objectives of the assignment. Facilitation for designing and conducting baseline surveys and PRA has been framed on the issues related to health, poverty, natural disaster: social and family problems, problems in governance, income generation skills, usefulness of infrastructure, etc. Besides PRA techniques are also widely used in Participatory Evaluations and during Strategic Planning.
Participatory Evaluations: AMC conducts both participatory mid-term and end line evaluations involving all major stakeholders viz. Institution's leadership, functionaries, beneficiaries, non-beneficiaries and agencies linked with. Perceptions from all these enable to ascertain the accomplishments, non-accomplishments and the overall impact of the development intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects are assessed. The evaluations also make use of the Process Evaluation Research Technique (PERT).
Simultaneously along with the participants the evaluation team works out realistic and feasible corrective strategies for inducing necessary changes and improvements in the development programme. The development issues on which evaluations have been conducted are, Empowerment of Women, Micro credit and Micro enterprise development, formal and non-formal education, child rights, good governance, rural development, etc.
Monitoring & Pre- Funding Appraisals: AMC believes that Monitoring leads to greater degree of awareness of results and constant improvement through efficient and effective use of resources; and ultimately in fostering the sense of responsibility amongst the people. For effective monitoring a system must be built into the programme design and management plan, and should provide continuous feedback on an ongoing basis. More significantly, it must actively involve the implementers as well as programme participants in measuring, recording, collecting, processing and analysing information.
Gender Analysis: Gender analysis helps in determining the potential, division of roles and responsibilities as well as the overall status of women vis-a-vis men in a given society / community. Further it enables to recognize the constraints on women and also the underlying factors. Perceptions of both women and men are integrated in conducting the analysis.
Documentation: AMC has the desired expertise and experience in the field of documentation. Process Documentation - AMC understands this as a facilitating approach for ascertaining "How" and "Why" of continuous happenings. Process Documentation creates an opportunity of reflecting upon and analyzing the happenings and documenting the major learning and insights for future planning. AMC is also involved in facilitating.