Alice_Schmidt

The 16th Event of the Vienna Evaluation Network took place on Thursday, 26 November 2020, 4-5.30pm

Topic: Methodological and practical insights into the participatory development of a MEL system: A case study on tracking social outcomes in Ferrero’s hazelnut value chain
by guest speaker Alice Schmidt (Global Health & Sustainability Expert)

View the video recording here

View or download the slides (PDF) here


Ferrero, the chocolate producer and confectionary company, and GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) entered into a Strategic Alliance to promote sustainable sourcing in Turkey, where 70% of the world’s hazelnuts originate. Ferrero has set up an extensive support system to improve the social and agricultural practices of farmers under its Ferrero Farming Values Hazelnut (FFVh) programme. As part of this collaboration with GIZ, Ferrero sought to improve its system for monitoring & evaluation, and to maximise learning about the effects of its social activities in the hazelnut sector.

In her presentation, Alice Schmidt will describe the process of developing a sustainable MEL system for Ferrero’s social activities in Turkey. She will introduce the tools her team developed, tested and applied, highlighting both challenges and opportunities for creating a sustainable MEL system. Besides methodological insights she will discuss broader lessons that may be applicable to MEL system development in the context of public-private cooperation.

Alice Schmidt is a policy advisor, business consultant and lecturer on global health and sustainability. She has worked at the intersection of social, environmental and economic issues for 20+ years in 30 countries with 60+ organisations. Her clients include a range of public and private institutions, from UN agencies and the World Bank to various NGOs as well as large corporates in various industries. Alice currently works as a Global Health Adviser for the European Commission and advises the Extinction Rebellion movement on impact measurement. She regularly teaches BA and MBA students at European universities about sustainable business and management for the future.

Alice recently supported the development of a MEL system for hospital management solutions in low-income contexts (Kenya and Sri Lanka). Previously, she led the development of a MEL system to track social impact of Ferrero’s activities in the hazelnut value chain in Turkey as well as engaging in several research rounds of the ihp+ Results monitoring exercise. Earlier, she designed a partnership evaluation for collaboration between Save the Children, Plan International and a health and hygiene company in India, Nigeria and Pakistan, as well as facilitating the development of a MEL system for a social business in the energy sector in Madagascar.

WHEN: Thursday, November 26, 2020, 4-5.30pm

WHERE: The venue took place ONLINE.

This event was organised with the support of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research.

The event started with a presentation by the guest speaker. During the presentation, participants can pose questions and comments in the chat function. After the presentation, participants can also ask questions.