Monitoring and Evaluation Basic Concepts

A well-functioning M&E System helps guide the intervention strategy and ensure effective operations for all key stakeholders. The M&E System help the organizations to determine the relevancy, manage its project’s effectively & efficiently, impact and look on the sustainability of the project or interventions. Other hand it’s provide useful information to management and project team to take timely decision to fine tune the on-going interventions. The M&E System facilitate the organization toward systematic evidence base evaluation of project’s or program to learning from its intervention, document the success stories and raise fund for future intervention.

I have 10 years experience in development sector (specifically 6 years experience in project/programs planning, monitoring and evaluation) in different national and international organizations in Pakistan. Blogging is platform for me to share my experience with other people who interesting in project management and M&E. On series of blogs on M&E, I like to start from the definition of Monitoring and Evaluation used my OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Monitoring:

 A continuing function that uses systematic collection of data on specified indicators to provide management and the main stakeholders of an ongoing development intervention with indications of the extent of progress and achievement of objectives and progress in the use of allocated funds.

•  Continuing function: Monitoring is done continuously throughout the whole project period. Usually by management and staff involved in the implementation of the project.
• Systematic collection of data on specified indicators: There is a system in place composed of protocols for gathering and compiling data, verifiable indicators and sources of verification.

Evaluation:

The systematic and objective assessment of an on-going or completed project, programme or policy, its design, implementation  and results. The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, development efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. An evaluation should provide information that is credible and useful, enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision–making process of both recipients and donors. 

Evaluation also refers to the process of determining the worth or significance of an activity, policy or program. An assessment, as systematic and objective as possible, of a planned, on-going, or completed development intervention. 

• Objective:Evaluation is usually done by externals (unlike monitoring which is done by the project implementers).
• Relevance: Answering the questions: “Are we doing or did we do the right thing? Does achieving these objectives matter to anyone?”  In other words, the objective is subject to discussion.
• Efficiency: Answering the question: Have results been achieved while making economic use of resources available?
  (at the lowest possible cost, in the shortest possible time and making the best use of expertise available?)
• Effectiveness: Answering the question:To what extent was the project successful in achieving the objectives.  
• Impact: Here you look beyond the planned objectives and try to answer the question: What are the positive and negative, primary and secondary long-term effects produced by a development intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended?
• Sustainability: Answer the question: Will the benefits last after the intervention has come to a conclusion?
• Lessons Learned: What are the best practices and success stories of the project or intervention ?, which will be use in the existing and future interventions.
• Decision Making Process: The evaluation of the project help in the decision making of a current or future intervention.
• Worth or significance of an activity, policy or program: Worth Answering the questions: “Are we doing or did we do the right thing? Does achieving these objectives matter to anyone?”  In other words, the objective is subject to discussion.

* Source: Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management, OECD DAC
    (http://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/18074294.pdf)