Consultation!? Monitoring & Evaluation provides plenty of discussions! Lately, the critical importance of documenting and communicating the results achieved through development cooperation initiatives is being stressed again and again.

Monitoring and evaluation is center stage in identifying and documenting the changes brought about and in identifying how enhanced impact can be achieved in the future.

There is broad consensus on the imperative and need of “proving and improving”, and better monitoring and evaluation practices are high on the agenda of both NGO's and their sponsors. Monitoring and evaluation establish knowledge about success and failures - and knowledge is power. And thus monitoring and evaluation unfold in broader development dynamics and relationships, where the question of what is counted and measured is as important as setting the development objective itself. Solid Statistics! makes it extremely easy and affordable!
So;

What is Monitoring?

* Monitoring is the routine process of data collection and measurement of progress toward program objectives.

* Monitoring involves counting what we are doing.

* Monitoring involves routinely looking at the quality of our services.

What is Evaluation?

* Evaluation is the use of social research methods to systematically investigate a program’s effectiveness.

* Evaluation requires study design.

* Evaluation sometimes requires a control or comparison group.

Evaluation

* Evaluation involves special studies.

Why M & E?

We rely on them for routine monitoring and data collection. In addition, programs have the added responsibility of not only monitoring their programs, but also of thinking about what needs to be evaluated and when it needs to be evaluated.

Monitoring

Monitoring addresses the following questions:

1. To what extent are planned activities actually realized? Are we making progress toward achieving our objectives?

2. What services are provided, to whom, when, how often, for how long, and in what context?

3. How well are the services provided?

4. What is the quality of the services provided?

5. What is the cost per unit service?

Evaluation

Evaluation is the use of social research methods to systematically investigate a program’s effectiveness.
Evaluation is used for the following:

1. To assess the changes in the target group (e.g., changes in risk behavior).

2. To assess the extent to which objectives have been met. It is the process of determining the effectiveness of a program or a project.

3. To track the outcomes and impacts of programs or projects at the larger population level, as opposed to the program or project level:

We distinguish three levels of evaluation:

* Process evaluation

* Outcome evaluation

* Impact evaluation involves measurements over time.