The ambition

Established in 1993, Transparency International is a global movement that operates in more than 100 countries. The movement’s vision is to achieve a world free of corruption. In 2021, Transparency International released its first ten year strategy that outlines the movement’s way forward. Along with the strategy process, the organisation worked on a revised approach towards monitoring and learning.

Transparency International EU (TI EU) serves as the regional liaison to the European Union of the global movement. Through its activities, TI EU aims to prevent corruption and promote integrity, transparency and accountability in EU institutions, policies and legislation. The organisation closely cooperates with the wider TI movement. To respond to the strategic changes laid out by the global movement, TI EU commissioned Firetail to assess and refine its EU-focused Theory of Change (ToC). In addition, TI EU sought to strengthen its learning approach and accordingly Firetail was asked to develop an actionable Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework.

Our approach

Over a period of six months, Firetail closely collaborated with the TI EU team and its partners. In an inception phase, we explored how TI EU thinks about change, which areas of work they seek to engage in, and the challenges they face when tracking and demonstrating the outcomes of their work. Building on this, we conducted an in-depth review of internal documents and a number of internal and external stakeholder interviews to generate knowledge about the field and activities TI EU engages in. The data collection was complemented by a full-day workshop. In this workshop, the TI EU team shared their perspectives on the organisation’s impact and discussed the outline of future pathways to change as well as potential strategic priorities. We used these insights to draw out a ToC framework draft that demonstrates how TI EU aims to achieve change over the course of the next two EU parliamentary cycles.

The ToC set the operational basis for the development of the MEL framework. We initiated a second interview phase with TI staff and close partners of the movement to a) test and further refine the draft version of the ToC and b) gather first insights on recent MEL experiences and best practices in the field. During a second full-day workshop, we revisited the ToC and facilitated an in-depth discussion around TI EU’s future interventions in the field. We used the results of this discussion as guidance for the development of the MEL framework. Workshop exercises dedicated to MEL were designed to explore how to best measure the aspired impact and ensure a more useful learning approach to accompany future monitoring activities.

Working with Firetail has been a real pleasure. Thanks to the expert guidance provided by Andy and Sophie, we were able to develop a brand new Theory of Change and MEL framework in the space of just a few months, with buy-in from our team.

Transparency International EU

The impact

We continued with the process by finalising the ToC and the MEL framework. Several feedback loops allowed TI EU staff to further align the frameworks to their needs and resources. It also helped the team to generate ownership around future MEL activities from an early stage onward.

The ToC offers a clear and logical pathway towards achieving change that is in line with the overall ten year strategy of the wider movement. TI EU can use this framework as a basis for future strategic decision-making.

To better understand its contribution to the field, learn from existing practices, and challenge future thinking, the TI EU team is now equipped with a hands-on MEL approach and framework. This framework was also shared with the entire TI movement as an exemplary MEL system.

Insights and further reading

Transparency International EU

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