Project Monitoring and Evaluation

Set By: Lemma Belay (B.A, MBA, Ph.D )

 Course Content

1. Introduction
1.1 Main Concepts
1.2 Project Cycle Management
1.3 Why measuring results
1.4 Result Based Management
2. Theory of Change
3. Types of Monitoring
3.1 Activity Monitoring
3.2 Situation Monitoring
3.3 Result Monitoring
4. Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
5. Setting Objectives and Developing Indicators
6. Data Collection/Capture/Data Quality Checks
6.1 Identify types of data collection tools
6.2 Identify type of tools at each M &E level
6.3 Define data capture
6.4 Identify key steps in data capture
6.5 Define data quality
6.6 Quantitative methods
6.7 Qualitative methods
7. Data Analysis/Interpretation & Reporting
8. Earned Value Analysis
9. Impact Evaluation Methods
10. What is reporting and why it is important
10.1 Elements of a good report
10.2 Specific types of communication tools
10.3 Formats for quarterly, mid-term internal evaluations and
participatory
10.4 End of project/final evaluation reports
 1. Introduction
• A project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system
covers all the work carried out during or after a
project to define, select, collect, analyses and use
information.
• It is where everything comes together, from the
initial selection of objectives and indicators through
to the final evaluation of a project.
 1.1 Main Concepts

Monitoring is the systematic and routine collection of

information for four main purposes:
• To learn from experiences to improve practices and
activities in the future;
• To have internal and external accountability of the
resources used and the results obtained;
• To take informed decisions on the future of the
initiative;
• To promote empowerment of beneficiaries of the
initiative.
• Evaluation is assessing, as systematically and
objectively as possible, a completed project or
programme (or a phase of an ongoing project or
programme that has been completed).

• Evaluations appraise data and information that inform

strategic decisions, thus improving the project or
programme in the future.
Evaluations should help to draw conclusions about five
main aspects of the intervention:
• Relevance
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Impact
• Sustainability
 Monitoring vs. Evaluation

Periodic: important milestones

(mid-term or end of project)
Continuous: day-to-day,
routine, on going activities Comprehensive investigation,
intensive review of program
Documents progress using achievements and other
selected indicators determinants of results
Monitoring
Focuses on inputs, activities
Evaluation
Focuses on outcomes and
impacts
and outputs
Provides managers with
Provides warning signs to strategy and policy options if
managers corrective action is needed

Self-assessment
External analysis
.
Monitoring Evaluation:
• Clarifies program objectives Analyzes why intended results were or were
not achieved
• Links activities and their resources to objectives
• Assesses specific causal contributions of activities to results
• Translates objectives into performance indicators and set targets
• Examines implementation process
• Routinely collects data on these indicators, compares actual results with
targets
• Explores unintended results
• Reports progress to managers and alerts them to problems
• Provides lessons, highlights significant accomplishment or program
potential, and offers recommendations for improvement
1.2 Project Cycle Management

Project Life Cycle ADDIE Model

• Analysis Pre-production
• Design Production
• Development Production
• Implementation Post-production
• Evaluation Post-production
Project cycle stages
Project cycle
• A cycle is a sequence of events which a project
follows.
• These stages (events) or phases can be divided into
several equally varied ways, depending on the
executing agencies or parties involved
• Project conception
• Project Identification
• Project Preparation
• Project Appraisal
• Project Selection
• Negotiation and Financing
• Project Planning
• Project Implementation
• Project Monitoring Evaluation
 Project conception

• At this stage an idea regarding a required

intervention in a specific area is conceived

• The idea is usually formed through discussion with

specialists and local leaders from the community as
a need based issue and this is crystalized in to a
proposal
 Project conception Statement of Problem

• A statement of the problem, not the solution.

• Normally contains errors, ambiguities,

misunderstandings

• Need a written definition of requirements and

deadlines

• Should be clear, complete

• It is usually rigorous to eliminate misunderstandings,

contradictions, oversight of technical difficulties
 Project Conception

• Projects are conceived through

• Need- to make available to all people in an area
minimum amount of certain basic material
requirements a need, assessment survey will
establish the agency for intervention.

• Market demand- This can be domestic or overseas

Resource availability, this includes opportunities to
make profitable use of the available resources.

• Basis of technology improvement

 Project Conception

• Natural calamity These are mainly against the adverse

effects of natural events such as floods and drought.

• Political Considerations

• Usually Identified By Technical Specialists, Sometimes

Politicians

• Sometimes Identified From Other Proposals To Extend

On-going Programs

• Suggestions Often Arise Due To Present Or Anticipated

Lack Of Supply Of Some Product
 Project Identification

• Potential projects arising from ideas which were

formed or crystalized in the first stage are
determined

• The information in the proposal from project

conception may be submitted by an individual or

• Community representative to an agency capable of

identifying an institution to provide the necessary
support to realize the expectation
 Project Identification
• The type of information provided at this stage is
usually general and descriptive in nature.

• The information is basically provided to justify

an intervention through a felt need in the
community.

• Usually some objective judgment is applied to

assess the proposal or a set of proposals to
establish if the proposal can proceed to the next
stage of the cycle.

• In many ways, stages one and two are so

interlinked but some people call them
identification phase.
 Project Preparation
• This stage involves a more thorough exercise of
collecting data and information on the proposed
project.

• The exercise is performed by personnel with

technical skills in consultation with the target
and beneficiary community.

• Project preparation contains design of a set of

proposals that are feasible technically,
financially and economically, and which are also
socially acceptable
 Project Preparation

• Decisions are made on scope of the project,

location, site and size amongst others.

• The details of a feasibility study depend on the

complexity of the project and on how much is
already known about the proposal.

•A succession of increasingly detailed feasibility

studies are sometimes called for in corporate
projects.

• The feasibility studies provide opportunity to

shape the project to fit its fiscal and social
environment and exclude relatively poor
alternative ways of achieving the project goals.
 Project Appraisal
• This involves a further analysis of a proposed
project

• At this stage, a critical review of the proposal

is undertaken

•A systematic and comprehensive review is

undertaken by an independent team in consultation
with project stakeholders.

• This provides an opportunity to re-examine every

step of a project plan, and to examine if the
proposal is justified before funding
 Project Appraisal

• This is based on project plan, but may involve

new information if the appraisal team feels that
some of the data used in preparation or some
assumptions are faulty.

• The implication of the projects in the society

and the environment is also thoroughly evaluated
and recommendations are made.

• Similarly technology, design, financial measures,

commercial agents, incentives, economic
parameters are variedly scrutinized.
 Project Selection

• This is achieved on the basis of stakeholders and

the available resources.

• Projects are usually selected based in part on

numerical indicators of value of costs and
returns (Return on Investment (ROI), Net
Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return
(IRR), etc.)
 Negotiation and Financing

• Once the project to be implemented is agreed on, for

donor funded projects, discussions are held on funding
and associated aspects of funding such as conditions
for grants, repayment period and interest rates on loans.

• Flow of funds from the stakeholders and if there is co-

financing or not

• This culminates in an agreement document for the

project which binds the parties involved during the
implementation of the project
 Project Planning
• This is a stage before actual the implementation begin or before the start of
a new phase of implementation of the project.

• The exercise is conducted at the level of the project and involves the
implementers, beneficiaries and the funding agencies i.e all the stakeholders
to the project.

• Project planning involves enabling the project management team to address

the important implementation issues including the realigning of project
objectives, scope, financial arrangement and implementation schedule given
the overall project structure and the resource and working environment.

• The likelihood of further changes occurring either in design or fiscal and

policy environment that may affect the project are also discussed.
 Project Implementation
• The implementation phase has three (3) phases
• Investment period
• Development period
• Full development period
• process whereby project inputs are converted to project
outputs.
• It may be looked at as
Putting in action the activities of the project.
Putting into practice what was proposed in the
project document (i.e. transforming the project
proposal into the actual project.)
Management of the project or executing the project
intentions.
 Project Monitoring Evaluation

• Under the traditional project cycle employed by the World

Bank, each step in the project cycle includes a monitoring and
evaluation - related tasks.

• Diagram1 provides Key M&E activities in the project/program

cycle.
DIAGRAM 1: Key M & E activities in the project cycle

38
 WHY to Monitor and Evaluate?

• In general, the purpose of monitoring & evaluation

can be:
• To assess project results: to find out if and how
objectives are being met and are resulting in desired
changes.

• To improve project management and process

planning: To better adapt to contextual and risk
factors such as social and power dynamics that affect
the research process.
• To promote learning: to identify lessons of general
applicability, to learn how different approaches to
participation affect outcomes, impact, and reach, to
learn what works and what does not.

• To understand different stakeholders'

perspectives

• To ensure accountability: to assess whether the

project is effectively, appropriately, and efficiently
executed to be
 What to Monitor and Evaluate?

• Outputs describe the concrete and tangible products of the

research as well as the occurrence of the research activities
themselves

• Processes describe the methods and approaches used for the

project.
• Outcomes describe the changes that occur within the
community or with the project managers that can be
attributed, at least in part, to the project process and outputs.
• Impact describes overall changes that occur in the
community to which the project is one of many contributing
factors. One such impact often expected from project is
positive transformation of the community /target group.
 1.3 Why measuring results
Reasons to Do Results-Based ME
• Provides crucial information about project
performance

• Provides a view over time on the status of a project,

program, or policy

• Promotes credibility and public confidence by

reporting on the results of programs

• Helps formulate and justify budget requests

• Identifies potentially promising programs or practices

Reasons to Do Results-Based ME
• Focuses attention on achieving outcomes important to
the organization and its stakeholders

• Provides timely, frequent information to staff

• Helps establish key goals and objectives

• Permits managers to identify and take action to

correct weaknesses

• Supports a development agenda that is shifting

towards greater accountability for aid lending
 1.4 Result Based Management
• Results-based management (RBM) is defined as orienting
all action and use of resources towards achieving clearly
defined and demonstrable results.

• RBM increases transparency and accountability, allowing

interventions to complement each other and avoid overlap
and waste.

• RBM is focused on chain results: output, outcomes, and

impact.

• RBM objectively measure how well results are being

achieved and report on measures taken to improve them.
• It enable senior management and Project Management team to
judge if work is going in the right direction, whether progress
and success can be claimed, and how future efforts might be
improved on the basis of ground realities and data.

• Three interconnected processes, namely good planning,

monitoring and evaluation (M&E), can greatly enhance the
effectiveness of investment projects and plans.

• Good planning helps to focus resource allocation and

subsequent implementation on the results that matter.

• Effective M&E (see M&E) helps to assess progress towards the

achievement of results and to learn from the past to ensure that
future initiatives better contribute to development impacts.
 Traditional v.s. RBM&E
Traditional M&E
focuses on the
monitoring and
evaluation of inputs,
activities, and
outputs –
programmme
implementation.
RBM&E, however,
combines the
traditional
approach of
monitoring
implementation
with the
assessment of
results.
 RBM life cycle approach
Putting planning, monitoring and evaluation together…
Thank you