Important aspects of monitoring and evaluation: definition, difference, tools

Monitoring and evaluation are very important processes in everyday life. What is the difference between these two terms? What is an M&E system? What tools can help you achieve success and build an effective future?

Everything starts with M&E. This process can be used in your work, business, at home, and anywhere basically. You are advised to keep monitoring and evaluation on your mind if you hope to be successful and get wonderful results (in any area of your life).

What is monitoring and evaluation

This term is often used as M&E abbreviation where ‘M’ stands for ‘monitoring’ and ‘E’ stands for ‘evaluation.’ Monitoring is used to track how everything is performed. It follows the activities and checks if everything is implemented according to the original plan.

Evaluation, on the other hand, is used to track the results of the activities. It can be used upon project completion or at different implementation stages to understand how everything is going.

Both monitoring and evaluation are used to track the overall performance, improve it, and get better results in the end. M&E process is important for project management. It can be used individually or in groups, at home and at work to better manage all the project activities, efficiency, results, and overall effect.

Differences between monitoring and evaluation

The understanding of what M&E system is can simplify your life and help you achieve your goals quicker. While monitoring and evaluation are two parts of the same system, there are differences between these two methods.

Monitoring is systematically used to collect data while evaluation is used to analyze information.

There are 3 goals you should reach during the monitoring process:

• get valuable experiences to perform better in the future;
• make up-to-date decisions based on previous experience;
• encourage the authority of beneficiaries of the project.

Monitoring is often documented to understand the planning process better and checking that all the activities go according to the plan. This process provides useful information that is required for further evaluation.

There are 5 main features of evaluation:

• relevance
• effectiveness
• productivity
• influence
• durability

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Evaluation is the process of analyzing the data gathered during monitoring processes and arrive at important conclusions. Based on the systematic evaluation of ongoing and completed projects, it is easier to make further decisions, add improvements and perform successful tasks in the future.

Best monitoring and evaluation tools

There are no universal M&E tools because the approaches and methods can change depending on the project. Here are some of the most common tools that are used for monitoring and evaluation:

Key performance indicator

This is mostly done in the project development stage. You can set your goals and strategies, measure the progress, analyze objectives, and add adjustments if necessary to make sure the project achieves the goals.

LFA tool

LFA or the logical framework is an analytic tool that helps with project management. It can analyze the what-to-do and how-to-do data and build result chains as well as show possible risks.

Formal questionnaires

Surveys are another M&E tool that is perfect for some projects. It’s a standardized questionnaire that helps to gather information from a large group of people who are your target group. It’s a great tool for understanding the circumstances, conditions, and changes over a period of time.

Cost analysis

There are also tools that can analyze how cost-effective and beneficial the project is and understand if the costs are justified by the outcome or not.

RA tool

RA method or rapid appraisal tool is a cost-saving method of data collecting. It includes working with focus groups, interviews, and observation of people in real situations.

Other tools include evaluation based on theory, participatory tools, and others.

Now you know that M&E is designed to enhance the overall performance of any project and achieve better results in business and life. Its main goal is to improve the outcome of the project and better manage its final impact.

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Source: Naija.ng