Basic concepts of monitoring and evaluation

Basic Concepts of Monitoring and Evaluation

The Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation

1. Monitoring and Evaluation are fundamental activities at all levels. That is at
   

• Local
• Regional
• National
• International levels

2. Provides information on program implementation and achievement of expected results
   
3. Improves program management by informing the decision-making process
   
4. Allows for accounting to stakeholders including donors and users of a program
   
5. Provides Information for planning future resource needs
   
6. Provides useful information for elaborating policies
   
7. Improves effectiveness of advocacy

And multiple purposes may be served through one evaluation activity and these purposes are not completely exclusive to each other.

1. Program Improvement

Program improvement constitutes the main purpose of evaluation as a practice and a profession. Evaluations conducted for this purpose are called Formative Evaluations. Their purpose is to help form/shape programs. Such evaluations usually need more involvement of stakeholders and focus on timely provision of required information

2. Accountability

Evaluations are sometimes conducted to provide summary judgments about a program. It includes accountability in three major areas. These are goal accountability, process accountability and outcome accountability. Such information from evaluation activities is usually used by higher level decision makers to make major decisions on program components. Evaluations serving this purpose are called Summative Evaluation

3. Knowledge Generation

Evaluations sometimes may be designed just to contribute knowledge. Such evaluations usually may not have specifically identified users of evaluation findings. Like other research activities, findings may be shared with interested ones through publication or other channels