The USAID/Malawi Education team is interested in building strong alliances to prepare the next generation of Malawian citizens in the workforce. Proposed activities should be responsive to the National Education Sector Plan goals and targets and should help promote knowledge, skills and self-reliance of in and out of school children and youth.

CARE Malawi, having recently completed a baseline study for the CRLSP and CRIMP projects, has expressed interest in accumulating lessons learned and best practices associated with the conduct of its baseline and evaluation study methodology. This report is meant to provide recommendations to CARE Malawi in the form of a guide for future studies. The report is based on a careful review of the CRLSP and CRIMP program baseline study as well as on the experience of the authors in conducting similar studies for CARE worldwide.