Chapter one

Introduction to Developing
Monitoring and Evaluation
Frameworks
 Chapter outline
• What Is a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework?
• Why M&E is important?
• What Functions Does a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Serve?
• What Gap Does This Text Intend to Fill?
• Key Features of the Approach Program-Level Focus What Are the
Differences Between Monitoring and Evaluation?
• What Are the Complementarities Between Monitoring and Evaluation?
• What Is Included in a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework?
 Learning Outcomes
• Explain to others the key concepts
relating to organizational structures
and organizational alignment for
M&E (in other words, explain where
M&E “fi ts” within an organizational
structure and its alignment with
other key functions of the
organization)
• There are constant and growing pressures on governments and organizations around
the world to be more responsive to demands from internal and external stakeholders
for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development
effectiveness and delivery of tangible results.
• Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations and donors are all
among stakeholders interested in better performance.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is a powerful public management tool that can be
used to improve the way governments and organizations achieve results.
 What Is a Monitoring and
Evaluation Framework?
• A Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is both a planning
process and a written product designed to provide guidance to the
conduct of monitoring and evaluation functions over the life span
of a program or other initiative.
• The use of Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks is becoming
increasingly important due to the following reasons:
– to establish program- and initiative-level progress and results;
– to subsequently inform management and decision-making
processes;
– to support accountability; and
– to guide organizational learning for program improvement.
• Monitoring and evaluation functions are integral to the effective
operation of programs and initiatives and increase the overall
value derived from them.
 DEFINITIONS (OECD)
Monitoring Evaluation
Monitoring is an integral part of day-to-day Evaluation is a decision-making tool to be
operational management to assess progress incorporated into the planning cycle and the
against objectives. performance management of government.

• It involves the tracking of inputs, processes, • Its aim is to help to improve these
activities, outputs and outcomes against interventions.
indicators, and the modification of these • The main objective of evaluation is to
processes and activities as and when supply information on lessons learnt
necessary. from work already done to influence
• The aim of monitoring should be to support future planning.
effective management through reports on • Evaluation is a systematic process with
actual performance against what was key indicators or criteria against which to
planned or expected. evaluate the work done.
• Monitoring tools are essentially used for the • Inputs, activities, outputs outcomes and
early identification of problems and the impacts are components of the
solving of these problems as and when they evaluation process.
occur. • • Ways to evaluate inputs, activities,
• Monitoring is based on information outputs outcomes and impacts are
collected before and during the operations. essential components of M&E.
• Information required for monitoring may be
entered into and analysed from a project
management system (PMS) or a
management information system (MIS) or
any other similar tool.
 DEFINITIONS
Research Intervention
• Research is the systematic • An intervention is defined as a
process of collecting data using programme, project or service,
methods such as surveys, implemented at all levels of
focus groups, in-depth government, which aims to
interviews, case studies and benefit specific target groups or
analyzing the data in order to the population as a whole.
increase our understanding of • Immunization services offered
the phenomenon about which by the health authorities, a
we are concerned or interested. project to build a school in a
• Basic research is concerned location where there are none,
with studying the relationship or a programme to eliminate
between variables, while corruption in the civil service,
applied research usually are examples of interventions.
attempts to apply the methods
and findings of basic research
to a given situation.
 Monitoring & Evaluation
• A Monitoring and Evaluation Framework represents an overarching plan for
undertaking monitoring and evaluation functions for the life of a program and
includes a step-by-step guide to its operationalization and application over time.

• Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks are ideally developed concurrently with, and
inform, a program plan or design.

• The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework defines the parameters of routine

monitoring and periodic evaluation that will take place over the life of a program or
initiative.

• Typically, these parameters include a focus on evaluation domains, particularly those

of appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

• In some contexts, additional or alternative domains may be used as the focus for
investigations through monitoring and evaluation, such as gender and other
crosscutting issues.

• The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework shows how data are collected, aggregated,
and analyzed on a regular basis in order to answer the agreed evaluation questions.
 Why Invest?
• The need for Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks is highlighted in
the contemporary policy context where the “achievement of results”
has become a heightened and primary rationale for program funding
and operation.
• Management strategies such as Results-Based Management (RBM)
have strongly influenced the approach adopted by many organizations
and placed strong expectations on planning and monitoring and
evaluation functions.
• Investing in developing Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks is an
essential step in ensuring that a program is monitored and evaluated
over its life span and that informed decisions can be made in order to
steer implementation and guide decision making about a program’s
future.
• In turn, effective programs have a better chance of delivering
outcomes that will potentially improve the circumstances for which the
program was developed.
• These could be located across a range of areas including social,
economic, health, psychological, educational, environmental, and
cultural areas.
 M&E is very important
• There are constant and growing pressures on governments and organizations around
the world to be more responsive to demands from internal and external stakeholders
for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development
effectiveness and delivery of tangible results.
• Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations and donors are all
among stakeholders interested in better performance.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is a powerful public management tool that can be
used to improve the way governments and organizations achieve results.
WHY IS MONITORING AND EVALUATION IMPORTANT?

• If you do not measure results, you cannot tell

success from failure
• If you can not see success, you cannot reward it
• If you cannot reward success, you are probably
rewarding failure
• If you cannot see success, you cannot learn from
it
• If you cannot recognize failure, you cannot
correct it
• If you can demonstrate results, you can win
public support
 And why do we need to do it?
▪ Whether we are Doing the Right Things
– Relevance/rationale/justification
– Client satisfaction

▪ Whether we are Doing it Right

– Effectiveness/coherence
– Efficiency: optimizing resources
– Sustainability
– Impact
▪ Whether there are Better Ways of Doing it
– Alternatives
– Good practices
– Lessons learned
– Improved positioning to influence next development
planning framework
 WHY IS M&E IMPORTANT?
• Tracking resources
• Feedback on progress
• Improving project effectiveness
• Informing decisions
• Promoting accountability
• Demonstrating impact
• Identifying lessons learned
 The Power of Measuring Results

• If you do not measure results, you cannot tell

success from failure.
• If you cannot see success, you cannot reward it.
• If you cannot reward success, you are probably
rewarding failure.
• If you cannot see success, you cannot learn from
it.
• If you cannot recognize failure, you cannot
correct it.
• If you can demonstrate results, you can win
public support.
 PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Phase 4: Project Evaluation Phase 1: Project Design

-Collect and analyze data -Identify problem
-Produce reports -Develop logframe
-Identify lessons learned -Develop M&E plan

M&E Life
Cycle

Phase 2: Project Start-up

Phase 3: Project Management
-Conduct baseline
-Analyze data and produce reports
-Establish targets
-Manage activities
-Establish M&E systems
 Applying M&E practices
• Monitoring and evaluation have a complementary relationship.

• Monitoring gives information on the status of a policy, program, or project at any

given time relative to respective targets and outcomes.

• Evaluation gives evidence of why targets and outcomes have (or have not) been
achieved.

• Monitoring and evaluation can be used for a wide range of purposes, including
tracking expenditure, revenues, staffing levels, and goods and services produced.

• M&E is a key element of development assistance, to understand and track mutual

contributions to a partnership
 Purpose of M&E
• Monitoring and evaluation is an essential tool of management,
extending to almost every aspect of public sector activity,
including development.

• It provides a basis for accountability to stakeholders.

• M&E supports well-informed management through

evidence-based decision making.

• All donors, bilateral and multilateral, conduct a large array of

performance assessments at all stages of project or program
cycles as part of their ongoing commitment to M&E.

• Donors also tend to align M&E to higher level, global

commitments.
 Who needs, uses M&E Information?
• Managers

• To Improve program
implementation… • Donors
• Governments
• To Inform and • Technocrats
improve future
programs
• Donors
• Governments
• Communities
• Inform stakeholders • Beneficiaries
 Who conducts M&E….?

Program implementer
Stakeholders
Beneficiary

Remember ..
M&E Technical skills

Participatory process
 What Functions Does a Monitoring
and Evaluation Framework Serve?
• Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks have evolved to make
assessments that extend beyond tracking implementation, and a
traditional concern with activities and outputs, to focus on
outcomes.
• In summary, Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks can address
a range of different purposes, including the following:
– Results.
– Management.
– Accountability.
– Learning.
– Program Improvement.
– Decision Making
 Complementary Roles of
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring Evaluation
✔ Clarifies program objectives ✔ Analyzes why intended results
✔ Links activities and their were or were not achieved
resources to objectives ✔ Assesses specific causal
✔ Translates objectives into contributions of activities to
performance indicators and results
sets targets and baseline ✔ Examines implementation
✔ Routinely collects data on these process
indicators, compares actual ✔ Explores unintended results
results with targets ✔ Provides lessons, highlights
✔ Reports progress to managers significant accomplishment or
and alerts them to problems program potential, and offers
recommendations for
improvement
 Key Features of M&E Approach:

• It is simple, easy to comprehend, and follow.

• It provides practitioners with a method they can apply to a range
of different program contexts and to programs of different size
and structure.
• Its utility lies in its structured, systematic approach, progressing
from identifying desired results through to generating evaluation
questions and using these questions to guide linked monitoring
and evaluation processes.
• It meets the range of different end purposes (management,
accountability, learning, program improvement, decision making).
• It achieves a balance between monitoring and evaluation
functions by showing how the two processes are interrelated in
practice, not just in theory.
 Key Features of Traditional
Implementation-Focused and Results-Based
M&E Systems
Elements of Results Monitoring (used for a
Elements of Implementation Monitoring
(traditionally used for projects range of interventions and strategies

• Description of the problem or • Baseline data to describe the

situation before the intervention problem or situation before the
• Benchmarks for activities and intervention Indicators for
immediate outputs outcomes
• Data collection on inputs, activities, • Data collection on outputs and how
and immediate outputs and whether they contribute toward
• Systematic reporting on provision of achievement of outcomes
inputs • More focus on perceptions of
• Systematic reporting on production change among stakeholders
of outputs • Systemic reporting with more
• Directly linked to a discrete qualitative and quantitative
intervention (or series of information on the progress toward
interventions) outcomes
• Designed to provide information on • Done in conjunction with strategic
administrative, implementation, and partners
management issues as opposed to • Captures information on success or
broader development effectiveness failure of partnership strategy in
issues achieving desired outcomes
 Program-Level Focus
• Cascading Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks may be vertically integrated
across levels, as well as horizontally integrated across related projects or
programs.
What Are the Complementarities Between
Monitoring and Evaluation?
Performance Management
 What Is Included in a Monitoring and
Evaluation Framework?

• . Introduction to the Framework

• Program Theory and Program Logic
• Evaluation Questions
• The Monitoring Plan
• The Evaluation Plan
• Data Collection, Management, and Analysis
• Reporting and Communication Strategy
• . Implementation
• Data Collection and Reporting Formats
 Stages in Development of a Monitoring and
Evaluation Framework

• Step 1: Identify Program Goals and Objectives. ...

• Step 2: Define Indicators. ...
• Step 3: Define Data Collection Methods and
TImeline. ...
• Step 4: Identify M&E Roles and Responsibilities. ...
• Step 5: Create an Analysis Plan and Reporting
Templates. ...
• Step 6: Plan for Dissemination and Donor Reporting.
 Learning Activity

Assume that there is currently no M&E Technical

Working Group in your country. Your group’s task
is to develop a Terms of Reference for a national
M&E Technical Working Group for a new national
government-wide M&E system. Follow the
instructions in this chapter on how to develop a
TOR as a basis for your work group.