Result-Based Monitoring and Evaluation
Result-Based Monitoring and Evaluation
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Abstract
Results-based management is a management strategy by which all actors on the ground,
contributing directly or indirectly to achieving a set of development results, ensure that their
processes, products and services contribute to the achievement of desired results, outputs,
outcomes and goals). Result based management rests on clearly defined accountability for results
and requires monitoring and self-assessment of progress towards results, including reporting on
performance.
Martin Otundo is a PhD Student in PPM at JKUAT Mombasa Kenya:
Available at [email protected] or whatsapp +254721246744
BACKGROUND
In the 1990s, international development entered a reform and reformulation
phase. World leaders as well as the United Nations and other multilateral
institutions recognized that bold steps should be made in terms of efficient use of
the development aid funds.
In 2005 in Paris, all the efforts jointly made by countries and agencies targeting
development results and new ways of improving aid were discussed in terms of
harmonization, alignment, and results.
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• According to the Declaration of Paris, “result based management means
managing and implementing aid; focussing on expected results and using
available data to improve decision making process.”
Results-Based Monitoring
Results-based monitoring is a continuous process of collecting and analyzing
information to compare how well a project, program, or policy is being
implemented against expected results.
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Key monitoring tools or mechanisms
Self assessments
Field visits
Reports
Review
Feedback from partners or beneficiaries on progress
Results-Based Evaluation
Results-based evaluation is an assessment of a planned, ongoing, or
Completed intervention to determine its relevance, efficiency, effectiveness,
impact, and sustainability.
Evaluation focuses on expected and achieved accomplishments, examining the
results chain, processes, and casualties in order to understand achievements or lack
thereof.
Evaluation aims at determining the relevance/appropriateness, effectiveness,
efficiency, impact and sustainability of the interventions and contributions of the
organizations.
Evaluation is to be decided during the initial planning process.
It requires planning and may need the involvement of external evaluators.
It is based on the set of indicators set during the initial planning process.
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Evaluation—When to Use?
• Any time there is an unexpected result that requires further investigation
• When resource or budget allocations are being made across projects, programs, or
policies
• When a decision is being made whether or not to expand a pilot project
• When there is a long period with no improvement and the reasons for this are not
clear
• When similar programs or policies are reporting divergent outcomes
Step 8: Reporting Findings
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• Incentives
Result based management life cycle approach
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These features should be embodied in results-based management from
beginning to end.
Accountability
Along with results-based management, the issue of accountability has assumed
increasing importance over the last decade. The language of accountability and
results are often used interchangeably to the confusion of users. It is therefore
helpful to try and unpack the applied meaning of accountability at different levels
of engagement, as follows:
Governments serve as the primary owner and executing agents of programmes of
Cooperation and are accountable to their people, through their parliaments, for
delivering on national development objectives (sometimes referred to as national
goals, national outcomes, etc.).Results that occur at this level should be primarily
attributable to the Government, although circumstances may vary.
An actor that has an implementation role is accountable to the executing agency for
the delivery of goods and services. Typically, implementing agents are primarily
accountable for the achievement of outputs. Likewise, the achievement of outputs
can be primarily attributed to an implementing partner. Finally, providers of inputs,
such as vendors and contractors, are accountable to implementing agents for the
satisfactory delivery of specified items. At each level, there is an expectation that
an accountable party has the capacity to undertake its responsibilities to make its
contributions to results. If this capacity is not in place, then either capacity needs to
be developed or, where applicable, alternative arrangements sought.
National Ownership
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This requires leadership and engagement of all relevant stakeholders, in all stages
of the process. National ownership does not mean control over resources or a
commitment to donor interests, to which the donor attaches support to achieve
results in specific areas. The donor attaches the highest importance to national
ownership (included but not limited to government ownership) and therefore the
results at higher level, e.g., at the impact and outcome levels, are predominantly
owned by national actors.
Inclusiveness
What is result?
A result is a describable or measurable change in state that is derived from a cause
and-effect relationship. There are three types of such changes (intended or
unintended, positive and/or negative) which can be set in motion by a development
intervention that generates outputs, outcomes and impact. While it is expected that
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result based management will lead to positive outcomes, since efforts most often
try to improve the socio-economic conditions of poor people, this is not always the
case. Change can sometimes lead to unintended consequences or negative impact.
Thus, it is important to manage for results that can truly have a real and meaningful
improvement on people’s lives.
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In any program/project, indicators depend on outcomes/objectives. While results
tell us what the programme plans to achieve, indicators tell us how to measure and
ascertain if those results/outcomes are realized or not.
REFERENCES
Key to M&E
Quantitative or qualitative fand
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