Welcome to The MERL Tech Initiative!

MERL Tech is a term for digital tools and approaches that enable monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL). The term also describes the wider field of work at the intersection of technology and MERL.

The MERL Tech Initiative and its core collaborators work with social sector organizations to achieve thoughtful tech-enabled program design, implementation, and MERL. We convene communities of practice to share learning and advance responsible, ethical, realistic digital approaches that center people, communities and societies. We advocate for a strong focus on equity, justice and avoiding harm. Learn more about our work!

 


Upcoming Events

Join MERL professionals to connect, network and learn.

DALL-E: a group from a grassroots organization discussing AI and MERL

January 29, 10-11.30 ET

Kick-Off Meeting: Gender, MERL and AI Working Group

Are you AI curious as well as AI critical, and ready to collectively dive in and unpack the good, bad, promising, and scary aspects at the intersection of gender and MERL and AI? Join us for the kick-off meeting of the NLP-CoP’s Gender, MERL and AI Working Group on January 29th to further explore ways that researchers and evaluators working on intersectional gender issues are thinking about AI for MERL and the MERL of AI.

Register now!
A room full of humans working on computers surrounded by towering shelves, overseen by an octopus like oveerseer

February 6th 2025, 10-11am ET

Humans in the Machine: the impact of AI on workers. February 6th Ethics & Governance Working Group event

Join our first Ethics & Governance Working Group meeting of 2025 on February 6th at 10am EST/3pm BST – on the topic of AI and labour. We’ll be discussing the role of humans in the development of AI models, the impact of this work on the very real humans powering machine learning, and what we can do as development and humanitarian professionals to acknowledge and address the human impact of AI model development.

Register now!