Life can be very busy in the midst of the action, or implementation, stage of the project cycle. The list of things to do can be endless, and set-backs are frequent. Equipment breaks down, trucks get stuck, the rains come early (or late), phone service dies, meetings start several hours later than planned — any number of things can happen that make it difficult to keep up with what we hoped to do.
If we haven’t got a clear, shared plan to monitor and evaluate how well a project is contributing to positive change, then monitoring simply won’t happen. And monitoring projects is important so that we can make adjustments in your plan to achieve your hoped-for changes.
Before I summarize some of the essentials in creating a plan for project monitoring and evaluation, I’ll share two of my favourite M & E guides: IFAD’s A Guide for Project M & E and DFID’s Tools for Development.
Developing a Project M & E Plan
1. Choose some indicators
Often we cannot directly measure our planned results: for example, “health” cannot be directly measured. Instead, we might use indicators like life expectancy or infant mortality rates to help us judge the overall health of any group of people.
Indicators should simple and easy to use with the resources that we have at hand. It’s nice to have about two indicators for each outcome result.
2. Clarify where or how you will collect indicator information
For each indicator that you have developed, ask how you will collect that information. Will you need a survey? Can you review data or reports from another agency? Will you conduct interviews? Will someone make observations?
This is a good check to see how easy your chosen indicators will be to measure. If you really can’t imagine conducting a survey with the resources that you have at hand, then you may need to re-think your indicator or how you plan to use it.
3. Choose a monitoring frequency for each indicator
Decide how often each indicator should be measured. Some indicators are measured once or twice throughout a project cycle — for example, the quantity of seeds and tools distributed is measured when the distribution takes place. Others might be measured on a weekly basis – for example, the number of men and women participating in weekly community health discussions.
4. Determine who will monitor each indicator
Identify specific people to monitor each indicators. You may wish to use names or role titles — whatever works for your project team. Indicators that are not delegated to anyone to monitor are often overlooked.
5. Organize
You may wish to organize your this plan into a chart for easy reference. CIDA offers an example of such a chart, called the Performance Measurement Framework.
Having a monitoring plan in will help your project team to monitor and evaluate consistently — and that will only improve your project’s overall success.
Filed under: project management
