Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

• physical and financial progress 
• ongoing priorities and allocation of resources
• equitable distribution of benefits among affected groups 
• acceptance and usefulness of project among affected groups
• implementation problems and constraints

• Separate data by gender, age and vulnerable groups to support impartiality.
• Keep recording systems simple and only collect the information you need.
• Draw on existing information sources and use shared collection processes.
• Include affected groups in monitoring:

- engage them in defining objectives and indicators and information collection
- communicate results back to them

• It is important that findings are acted upon and corrective actions taken.

• determining impacts throughout the duration of the project (improvements/ changes) for the target population e.g. quality of life 
• fulfiling compliance and accountability obligations e.g. to affected population, supporters, donors, senior management, other agencies 
• generating real-time feedback from the affected population on the quality of response and organisational performance

• Plan for the evaluation purpose and scope:

- What is the intended use and who are intended users of the evaluation?
- How much time and funding is available?
- What methodologies will be used?

• Relate to the project or programme design and consider relevance, connectedness, coherence, coverage, efficiency, effectiveness and impact (OECD-DAC criteria) to the identified problems and needs.
• Consider how and by whom the evaluation is to be conducted.

- What researcher / team qualities are required e.g. local network, language, acceptance by all?
- Could a joint evaluation be undertaken with others?
- Who should be involved and how e.g. women, children, marginalised groups?
- How and to whom will results be communicated?

• Schedule evaluation to accommodate demands/constraints facing affected groups e.g. livelihoods, security restrictions.

Conducted some time after project/programme completion impact assessment measures:

• lasting changes in people’s lives, including unintended and negative impacts.

• Relate to pre-disaster baseline information
• Ask ‘What difference are we making?’
• Define expected outcomes for partners and the affected population in the project design and incorporate in the evaluation
• Assess the relative impact of different approaches NOT the overall impact of your organisation’s work.