Monitoring
Monitoring:
Monitoring is the methodical and schedule selection of details from tasks and programs for four primary purposes:
To absorb from encounters to improve methods and actions in the next time;
To have inner and exterior responsibility of the sources used and the results obtained;
To take knowledgeable adoptions on the long run of the initiative;
To enhance power of recipients of the effort.
Monitoring is a regularly repeating process already beginning in the planning level of a venture or program. Tracking allows results, procedures and encounters to be recorded and used as a foundation to guide decision-making and learning procedures. Tracking is verifying improvement against plans. The info acquired through monitoring is used for assessment.
Evaluation:
Evaluation is evaluating, as consistently and logically as possible, a finished venture or program (or a level of an continuous venture or program that has been completed). Assessments determine information and details that notify ideal choices, thus helping the venture or program later on.
Evaluations should help to attract results about five primary factors of the intervention:
relevance
effectiveness
efficiency
impact
sustainability
Information gathered in regards to these factors during the monitoring procedure provides the foundation for the evaluative research.
Monitoring & Evaluation:
M&E is an included idea and constitutive part of every venture or program design (“must be”). M&E is not an enforced control device by the contributor or an optionally available equipment (“nice to have”) of any venture or program. M&E is preferably recognized as conversation on development and its improvement between all stakeholders.
In common, monitoring is important to assessment. During an assessment, details from past monitoring procedures is used to understand the ways in which the venture or program developed and triggered change. Tracking concentrates on the statistic of the following factors of an intervention:
On amount and quality of the applied actions (outputs: What do we do? How do we handle our activities?)
On procedures natural to a venture or program (outcomes: What were the consequences /changes that happened as a result of your intervention?)
On procedures exterior to an involvement (impact: Which wider, long-term results were activated by the applied actions along with other ecological factors?)
The assessment procedure is an research or presentation of the gathered information which goes further into the connections between the results of the project/programme, the consequences created by the project/programme and the overall effect of the project/programme.
Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation
INPUTS: The financial, human, and material resources used for the development intervention.
Technical Expertise
Equipment
Funds
ACTIVITIES: Actions taken or work performed. Training workshops conducted
OUTPUTS: The products, capital goods, and services that result from a development intervention.
Number of people trained
Number of workshops conducted
OUTCOMES: The likely or achieved short-term and medium-term effects or changes of an intervention’s outputs.
Increased skills
New employment opportunities
IMPACTS: The long-term consequences of the program, may be positive and negative effects.
Improved standard of living
Steps for designing a monitoring and evaluation system depend on what you are trying to monitor and evaluate. The following is an outline of some general steps you may take in thinking through at the time of planning your activities:
1. Identify who will be involved in the design, implementation, and reporting. Engaging stakeholders helps ensure their perspectives are understood and feedback is incorporated.
2. Clarify scope, purpose, intended use, audience, and budget for evaluation.
3. Develop the questions to answer what you want to learn as a result of your work.
4. Select indicators. Indicators are meant to provide a clear means of measuring achievement, to help assess the performance, or to reflect changes. They can be either quantitative and/or qualitative. A process indicator is information that focuses on how a program is implemented.
5. Determine the data collection methods. Examples of methods are: document reviews, questionnaires, surveys, and interviews.
6. Analyze and synthesize the information you obtain. Review the information obtained to see if there are patterns or trends that emerge from the process.
7. Interpret these findings, provide feedback, and make recommendations. The process of analyzing data and understanding findings should provide you with recommendations about how to strengthen your work, as well as any mid-term adjustments you may need to make.
8. Communicate your findings and insights to stakeholders and decide how to use the results to strengthen your organization’s efforts.
Monitoring and evaluation not only help organizations reflect and understand past performance, but serve as a guide for constructive changes during the period of implementation.