Robin Pocock

I am a Cape Town-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data consultant specialising in data management and reporting systems for non-profit organisations.

My passion is helping organisations collect meaningful data so that they can make informed decisions, report to donors and provide quality services to their beneficiaries.

I completed my Masters in Programme Evaluation at the University of Cape Town in 2009 and have worked with a variety of NPOs in the education, health, food-security and youth-development sectors. I’ve also taught quantitative data collection, statistics and data visualisation as part of the MPhil Monitoring and Evaluation Methods programme at Stellenbosch University.

My areas of expertise include the following:

Automated reporting dashboards in Google Data Studio
Data management in Google Sheets
M&E data collection tools
Paperless data collection using Google Forms
Infographics
Theory of change and logic modelling

Theory of change
A programme’s theory of change (TOC) should be the foundation of any M&E system. The TOC communicates how programme activities lead to benefits (outcomes) for your target group. The development of a TOC is a great way to ensure that all programme staff are on the same page in terms of programme activities and outcomes and is an effective tool for communicating with potential donors about your programme.

Logic modelling and M&E frameworks
The development of a logic model allows an organisation to further define programme activities and outcomes and how they will be defined and measured. Outputs, indicators and sources of evidence are also defined during this process. A logic model forms the basis of the M&E framework. It is the document that will define your evaluation questions and guide your M&E data collection.

Best practices for development and administration of data collection tools
Designing great M&E data collection tools that link to your indicators of success is imperative for collecting useful and meaningful data. In this workshop, I cover best practices for designing great tools, including item development, formatting, and paperless options (such as Google Forms) for tool administration.

Data management in Google Sheets
You organisation’s data should be stored securely in a way that supports quality assurance, sharing and reporting of data. I train NPOs on features in Google Sheets that support these processes, including data validation, importing data across sheets, and development of dashboards.

Robin's professional interest in both the NPO space and the need NPOs have within the realm of G Suite was so encouraging. I think this is because she loves M&E and has passion for what she does. We were hesitant to get in an outside person to filter through all our project documentation but found that she was quick to understand the operational aspects of our team's work and rapidly got to grips with how she could create efficiencies for us! Our interactions were quick and simple. Robin implemented and supported our independent use of Google apps in a way that both managers and administrators could understand. She had multiple options for us and found solutions creatively. We would recommend her to other organisations without hesitation.

Robyn Hills, Food & Trees for Africa

Robin helped us immensely and her service was efficient and extremely professional. The Breteau Foundation is a small organisation supporting schools with digital technology in South Africa and several other countries globally. We were in need of a specialist to fine-tune our measurement tools and configure the backend of our reporting spreadsheets. Robin was very helpful in doing so by solving our immediate needs and collaborating on a long-term plan for better measurement and evaluation. We were very impressed by her willingness to help, utmost professionalism and quick turnaround time for completion. We would look forward to utilising her expertise again in the future

Mona Ewees Mkumatela, Breteau Foundation

It has been an absolute pleasure working with Robin over the last few months. She has completely transformed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) within our organisation. We recently submitted our annual reports to our donors and they were beyond pleased with our new reporting tools. They absolutely loved the quality of the reports that they received. Robin has taken the time to develop a sincere understanding of our work and we feel very confident with the tools she has produced. She has honestly taken our organisation to the next level, both in terms of reporting to our stakeholders and in terms of having high-quality data to constantly evaluate and improve the quality of our work. I would recommend Robin’s services to any NGO looking to put in place a high-quality M&E system.

Taryn Casey, Edufundi

The Board was hugely impressed by our fabulous system. And you could feel the pride around the whole room as [we] showcased slide after slide of thoughtful, relevant, beautiful, and (nogal) real-time and interactive reports that we now have at our finger tips. It was also great to hear programme staff discussing some of the reports with familiarity and a satisfied sense of ownership! The working model that you and Isabella have co-developed over the 18 months has been a real joy to observe in-development. I was so glad to have been in and around so many of your conversations and working sessions and to see the respectful, effective and creative way in which you worked, always with a commitment to making a system that genuinely met our needs, a preparedness to reflect, think again and improve - always with the intention of building our internal capacity and independence, and ensuring as the practical usefulness of the system at all levels of the organisation – making it both innovative and sustainable!

Jane Coombe, Wordworks

It has been such a treat working with Robin and Chris - I feel like I have learnt so much about the way M&E can really help support the smooth running of an organisation and how it can positively impact the actual work we do and how we operate as a team. I also feel like I've come to appreciate what it's like to work with real experts. I am grateful Robin had a gap to work with us in 2020 and I am looking very forward to continuing. I am also looking forward to the whole team really starting to use and engage with these systems and dashboards.

Janna Kretzmar, Earthchild Project

Services

On-site support to set up an M&E system

M&E data analysis and reporting

M&E workshops

Contact

Client Testimonials