This article draws on real-world experience: the deployment and real-time evaluation of Reemi, an innovation in women’s health, in Gaza and southern Lebanon during the 2024–25 conflict. Bringing together expertise in humanitarian innovation and systems-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E), this ELRHA-supported initiative tested new evaluation approaches. Numerous lessons have emerged from this work, which are summarized in this article under four key themes: taking into account the complexity of the system, learning and adapting in real time, assessing robustness and flexibility, and fostering collective learning within a diverse partnership.
This article outlines what worked, what did not work, and the lessons to be learned for the future of MEAL in the context of innovations involving complex systems, for both evaluation practitioners and humanitarian innovators.