Monitoring and Evaluation

Plans for monitoring and evaluation should be included at the beginning of any health intervention related projects.

Monitoring and evaluation go hand in hand.
Monitoring is the regular collection of information about all the project activities showing whether the all is according to plan. It helps the project manager to identify challenges and solve them to ensure success of the project.
Evaluation on the other hand, inquires whether a project is achieving what it set out to do, and whether it is making the impact as projected. It keeps track of key outcomes and impacts related to the different project components, assessing whether the objectives, aims and goals are being achieved.

 Monitoring & evaluation:

  • provides information on what an intervention is doing, how well it is performing and whether it is achieving its aims and objectives;

  • provides guidance on future intervention activities;

  • is an important part of accountability to funding agencies and stakeholders.

 Monitoring
Monitoring is an ongoing activity and it keeps track of project inputs and outputs such as:

  • activities;

  • reporting and documentation;

  • finances and budgets;

  • supplies and equipment.

Evaluation
Evaluations take place at specific times during project implementation period. Whereas the specific time intervals may vary, it is common to start with baseline research at the start of the project in order to obtain information with which subsequent changes can be compared. Further evaluations are usually made at intervals with most projects having midi-term evaluation and end of project evaluation.

Evaluation asks whether a project is achieving what it set out to do, and whether it is making a difference:

  • If this is happening the evaluation seeks to understand how and why the intervention has worked so well.

  • If the project is unsuccessful, questions are raised as to what could have been done better or differently.