MONITORING & EVALUATION

Monitoring & Evaluation
This topic will be discussed under the following headings;
 Principles and Purpose
 Planning and Implementation
 Evaluation,
 Management Information
 Participation in Monitoring
 Levels of Monitoring
 Monitoring and Reporting
 Monitoring Forms


 Principles and Purpose
What is Monitoring?
• Monitoring is the regular observation and recording of activities taking place in a project or programme. It is a process of routinely gathering information on all aspects of the project.
• To monitor is to check on how project activities are progressing. It is observation; –– systematic and purposeful observation
• Monitoring also involves giving feedback about the progress of the project to the donors, implementors and beneficiaries of the project.
• Reporting enables the gathered information to be used in making decisions for improving project performance

Purpose of Monitoring:
• Monitoring is very important in project planning and implementation.
• It is like watching where you are going while riding a bicycle; you can adjust as you go along and ensure that you are on the right track.
Monitoring provides information that will be useful in:
• Analysing the situation in the community and its project;
• Determining whether the inputs in the project are well utilized;
• Identifying problems facing the community or project and finding solutions;
• Ensuring all activities are carried out properly by the right people and in time;
• Using lessons from one project experience on to another; and
• Determining whether the way the project was planned is the most appropriate
way of solving the problem at hand.
 Monitoring, Planning and Implementation

• A project is a series of activities (investments) that aim at solving particular problems within a given time frame and in a particular location.
• The investments include time, money, human and material resources. Before achieving the objectives, a project goes through several stages. Monitoring should take place at and be integrated into all stages of the project cycle.
• The three basic stages include:
1. Project planning (situation analysis, problem identification, definition of the goal, formulating strategies, designing a work plan, and budgeting);
2. Project implementation (mobilization, utilization and control of resources and project operation); and
3. Project evaluation.
• Monitoring should be executed by all individuals and institutions which have an interest (stake holders) in the project.
• To efficiently implement a project, the people planning and implementing it should plan for all the interrelated stages from the beginning
• They can be modified, using "where," instead of "what," while the principles are the same
The questions become:
Where are we?
Where do we want to go?
How do we get there?
What happens as we do?

Situation Analysis and Problem Definition:
• Situation analysis is a process through which the general characteristics and problems of the community are identified. It involves the identification and definition of the characteristics and problems specific to particular categories of people in the community. These could be people with disabilities, women, youth, peasants, traders and artisans
• Situation analysis is done through collecting information necessary to understand the community as a whole and individuals within the community. Information should be collected on what happened in the past, what is currently happening, and what is expected to happen in the future, based on the community's experiences.
• Information necessary to understand the community includes, among others:
i. Population characteristics (eg sex, age, tribe, religion and family sizes);
ii. Political and administrative structures (eg community committees and local councils);
iii. Economic activities (including agriculture, trade and fishing);
iv. Cultural traditions (eg inheritance and the clan system), transitions
(eg marriages, funeral rites), and rites of passage (eg circumcision);
v. On-going projects like those of sub-county, district, central Government,
non Governmental organizations (NGOs), and community based organizations (CBOs);
vi. Socio-economic infrastructure or communal facilities,
(eg schools, health units, and access roads); and
vii. Community organizations (eg savings and credit groups, women groups,
self-help groups and burial groups), their functions and activities.

• Information for situation analysis and problem definition should be collected with the involvement of the community members using several techniques. This is to ensure valid, reliable and comprehensive information about the community and its problems
• Some of the following techniques could be used:
1. Documents review;
2. Surveys;
3. Discussions with individuals, specific groups and the community as a whole;
4. Interviews;
5. Observations;
6. Listening to people;
7. Brainstorming;
8. Informal conversations;
9. Making an inventory of community social resources, services and opportunities;
10. Transect walks, maps; and
11. Problem tree.
• Situation analysis is very important before any attempts to solve the problem because:
1. It provides an opportunity to understand the dynamics of the community;
2. It helps to clarify social, economic, cultural and political conditions;
3. It provides an initial opportunity for people's participation in all project activities;
4. It enables the definition of community problems and solutions; and
5. It provides information needed to determine objectives, plan and implement.
• Situation analysis should be continuous, in order to provide additional information during project implementation, monitoring and re-planning. Situation analysis and problem identification should be monitored to ensure that correct and up dated information is always available about the community and its problems. Since monitoring should be integrated into all aspects or phases of the process, let us go through each phase and look at the monitoring concerns associated with each.
Setting Goals and Objectives:
• Before any attempts to implement a project, the planners, implementors and beneficiaries should set up goals and objectives.
• A goal is a general statement of what should be done to solve a problem. It defines broadly, what is expected out of a project.
• A goal emerges from the problem that needs to be addressed and signals the final destination of a project.
• Objectives are finite sub-sets of a goal and should be specific, in order to be achievable.
• The objectives should be "SMART." They should be:
Specific: clear about what, where, when, and how the situation will be changed;
Measurable: able to quantify the targets and benefits;
Achievable: able to attain the objectives
(knowing the resources and capacities at the disposal of the community);
Realistic: able to obtain the level of change reflected in the objective; and
Time bound: stating the time period in which they will each be accomplished
• To achieve the objectives of a project, it is essential to assess the resources available within the community and those that can be accessed from external sources.
• The planners, implementors and community members should also identify the constraints they may face in executing the project and how they can overcome them. Based on the extent of the constraints and positive forces, the implementors may decide to continue with the project or to drop it.
• The goals and objectives provide the basis for monitoring and evaluating a project. They are the yardsticks upon which project success or failure is measured.

Generating Structures and Strategies:
• The planners and implementors (communities and their enablers) should decide on how they are going to implement a project, which is the strategy.
• Agreeing on the strategy involves determining all items (inputs) that are needed to carry out the project, defining the different groups or individuals and their particular roles they are to play in the project. These groups and individuals that undertake particular roles in the project are called "actors”.
• Generating the structures and strategies therefore involves:
1. Discussing and agreeing on the activities to be undertaken during implementation;
2. Defining the different actors and outside the community, and their roles; and
3. Defining and distributing costs and materials necessary to implement the project.
• After establishing the appropriateness of the decisions, the executive should discuss and agree with all actors on how the project will be implemented. This is called designing a work plan.
• A work plan is a description of the necessary activities set out in stages, with rough indication of the timing.
In order to draw a good work plan, the implementors should:
1. List all the tasks required to implement a project;
2. Put the tasks in the order in which they will be implemented;
3. Show allocation of the responsibilities to the actors; and
4. Give the timing of each activity.
The work plan is a guide to project implementation and a basis for project monitoring. It therefore helps to:
1. Finish the project in time;
2. Do the right things in the right order;
3. Identify who will be responsible for what activity; and
4. Determine when to start project implementation.
• The implementors and planners have to agree on monitoring indicators. Monitoring indicators are quantitative and qualitative signs (criteria) for measuring or assessing the achievement of project activities and objectives.
• The indicators will show the extent to which the objectives of every activity have been achieved. Monitoring indicators should be explicit, pertinent and objectively verifiable.
Monitoring Indicators are of four types, namely;
1. Input indicators: describe what goes on in the project
(eg number of bricks brought on site and amount of money spent);
2. Output indicators: describe the project activity (eg number of classrooms built);
3. Outcome indicators: describe the product of the activity
(eg number of pupils attending the school); and
4. Impact indicators: measure change in conditions of the community
(eg reduced illiteracy in the community).
• Writing down the structures and strategies helps in project monitoring because they specify what will be done during project implementation.
• Planning must indicate what should be monitored, who should monitor, and how monitoring should be undertaken.

Implementation:
• Monitoring implementation asks the fourth key question "What happens when we do?"
• Implementation is the stage where all the planned activities are put into action. Before the implementation of a project, the implementors (spearheaded by the project committee or executive) should identify their strength and weaknesses (internal forces), opportunities and threats (external forces).
• The strength and opportunities are positive forces that should be exploited to efficiently implement a project. The weaknesses and threats are hindrances that can hamper project implementation. The implementors should ensure that they devise means of overcoming them.
• Monitoring is important at this implementation phase to ensure that the project is implemented as per the schedule. This is a continuous process that should be put in place before project implementation starts.
• As such, the monitoring activities should appear on the work plan and should involve all stake holders. If activities are not going on well, arrangements should be made to identify the problem so that they can be corrected.
• Monitoring is also important to ensure that activities are implemented as planned. This helps the implementors to measure how well they are achieving their targets. This is based on the understanding that the process through which a project is implemented has a lot of effect on its use, operation and maintenance.
• Therefore implementation of the project on target is not satisfactory hence a need for implementors to ask themselves and answer the question, "How well do we get there?" (What happens when we do?).

Summary of the Relationship:
• The above illustrates the close relationship between monitoring, planning and implementation.
• It demonstrates that:
1. Planning describes ways which implementation and monitoring should be done;
2. Implementation and monitoring are guided by the project work plan; and
3. Monitoring provides information for project planning and implementation.
• There is a close and mutually reinforcing (supportive) relationship between planning, implementation and monitoring.
• One of the three cannot be done in isolation from the other two, and when doing one of the three, the planners and implementors have to cater for the others.

 What is Evaluation?

Meaning of Evaluation:

• Evaluation is a process of judging value on what a project or programme has achieved particularly in relation to activities planned and overall objectives.
• It involves value judgement and hence it is different from monitoring (which is observation and reporting of observations).

Purpose of Evaluation:
• Evaluation is important to identify the constraints or bottlenecks that hinder the project in achieving its objectives. Solutions to the constraints can then be identified and implemented.
• Evaluation also enables the project planners and implementers to assess the benefits and costs that accrue to the intended direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project. If the project implemented is, for example, the protection of a spring, evaluation highlights the benefits to the people who fetch and use water and the cost to the people whose land is wasted and whose crops are destroyed during the process of water collection.
• Evaluation is essential for drawing lessons from the project implementation experience and using the lessons in the planning of other projects in that community and elsewhere.
• Finally, evaluation should provide a clear picture of the extent to which the intended objectives of the activities and the project have been realized.

The Process of Evaluation:

Evaluation can and should be done: (a) before, (b) during, and (c) after implementation.
• Before project implementation, evaluation is needed in order to:
1. Assess the possible consequences of the planned project(s) to the people in the community over a period of time;
2. Make a final decision on what project alternative should be implemented; and
3. Assist in making decisions on how the project will be implemented.
• During project implementation: Evaluation should be a continuous process and should take place in all project implementation activities. This enables the project planners and implementors to progressively review the project strategies according to the changing circumstances in order to attain the desired activity and project objectives.
• After project implementation: This is to retrace the project planning and implementation
process, and results after project implementation. This further helps in:
1. Identifying constraints or bottlenecks inherent in the implementation phase;
2. Assessing the actual benefits and the number of people who benefited;
3. Providing ideas on the strength of the project, for replication; and
4. Providing a clear picture of the extent to which the intended objectives
of the project have been realized.
 Management Information

• Management information and information management are different; management information is a kind of information (the data); information management is a kind of management (the system).
• Information management is the process of analysing and using information which has been collected and stored in order to enable managers (at all levels) to make informed decisions. Management information is the information needed in order to make management decisions.
• Monitoring provides information about what is going on in the project.
• This information is collected during the planning and implementation phases. The information helps to detect if anything is going wrong in the project. Management can therefore find solutions to ensure success.


The Importance of Management Information:

• Management Information is important to:
1. Make decisions necessary to improve management of facilities and services; and
2. Implement participatory planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

How to Use Information Management:

• To be able to use information to make management decisions, the information should be managed (collected, stored and analysed). Whereas information management (the process of collecting and storing information) and management information (the information needed to make informed decisions) are different; they always reinforce each other and cannot be separated in day to day operations.
• Management information therefore involves:
1. determining information needed;
2. collecting and analysing information;
3. storing and retrieving it when needed;
4. using it;
5. disseminating it.
• Determining Information Needed for Management: During project planning, management and monitoring, much information is generated. Some is needed for making management decisions on spot; other for later management decisions.
• good management information system should therefore assist the project managers to know the information they need to collect, for different management decisions at different times.
• Collecting and Analysing Information for Information Management: Information can be got from reports of technical people, village books, forms filled by the different actors, community meetings, interviews, observation and community maps.
• Storing Information: It is important to store information for further references. Information can be stored in the village book, project reports, forms and in the mind. The major principle in information storage is the ease in which it can be retrieved.
• Using Information: Information can be used for solving community problems, determining resources (amount and nature), soliciting for their support and determining future projects.
• Dissemination or Flow of Information: For information to be adequately used it needs to be shared with other stake holders or users. The other stake holders can also use this information for their management decisions and they can help the one collecting information to draw meaning and use out of it for management purposes.
• Information should be shared between the village, parish, sub-county, district, national office, NGOs and the donor.
• Management information is part and parcel of monitoring because such information is got during monitoring and helps in the planning and implementation of monitoring activities.

Another very good paper on Moniotoring and Evaluation has been authored by the World Bank. It can be downloaded by clicking on the link below. You need Adobe Acrobat reader to view the document.

Monitoring and Evaluation Document