5.2.1 Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

Background information about Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

What is Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Monitoring: keeping track of what you are doing while you’re doing it. This allows you to adapt an activity and learn as you go, and to keep stakeholders informed. Monitoring is typically referred to as ‘day to day’ work.

• Evaluation: measuring the effect of the project on the target group/system i.e. did you achieve what you set out to achieve? This typically happens at the end of the project, and sometimes at a mid-term point of the project.

• Learning: M&E data needs to be used for reflection and adaptation. It is important that the information from M&E is utilised and that we don’t just collect information for the sake of it

Why do monitoring and evaluation?

It can help with:

• Approach: Some tools can support thinking about your design and what will work best in your context

• Accountability: reporting within Catalpa, to our donor and others stakeholders

• Measuring progress and change: are we on the right track?

• Decision making / learning / adapting: if things are going better than expected, can we scale up to maximise impact? Are more funds needed? If things aren’t going as planned, what needs to change?

For M&E to be useful, the information needs to be applied through reflection, learning and adaptation - it should not sit on the shelf, it needs to be used

When do you do M&E?

Start when you are planning a project, and continue all the way through to the end of the project.

What is an M&E Framework? For an introduction to common Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks, you can have a look at these resources:

July 2024 Tutorial Tuesday hosted by Kate Michelly and Sharon Edington

More information / further learning

See resources about Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning here