2010.05 Monitoring and Evaluation 1: Development Projects

Monitoring your project’s progress and activities is a sometimes neglected, but vital process. It is natural that your attention will be strongly focused on the vision and aim of your activities, and also on obtaining continued financial and physical support. Monitoring and evaluating how things are progressing can help to enhance project activities and aims. It is an integral and key activity for the following reasons:

1. To facilitate learning and discussion between project stakeholders
2. To guide adjustment and adaptation to enhance benefits and impacts
3. To identify successes to strengthen project rationale and mission
4. To identify obstacles to progress
5. To promote achievements to raise the profile of your activities (and possibly attract further funding)
6. To ensure accountability and quality assurance to your beneficiaries and your funders

Monitoring and evaluation are activities which can significantly improve project management and development.

In the above list, 1-4 above are processes which tend to be more inwardly focused and can feed into your project management, while 5 and 6 have a more outward-looking orientation.

There are a large range of monitoring and evaluation tools available that are commonly used in development projects and programmes. These may be quantitative or qualitative, or a combination of both. Participation of various stakeholders can also be important.

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