Monitoring And Evaluation Research

Introduction

Governments, national and international organizations undertake developmental projects or social interventions, and need to conduct research to assess the outcomes of such projects and programmes. This strategy is called Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) research. Monitoring and evaluation are important management tools to track project progress and facilitate decision making that may be geared towards re-strategizing or scale-up. Most funders require evaluation report on the projects they fund, but the greatest beneficiary of an evaluation is the community of people among whom the organization works. The principle underlying monitoring and evaluation is the attainment of return on investment to the extent that development projects are guided to ensure value for money and efforts. By closely examining the goals of a project, an organization can design programmes and activities that are effective, efficient, and able to yield powerful results for the community. Monitoring and Evaluation research is not a method of data collection or analysis as often understood by some individuals. Conceptualizing M&E only on the basis of data gathering and analysis limits the scope of an enterprise that employs a holistic approach in examining the entire gamut of project life-cycle. Research methods such as observations, experiments, surveys, indepth interviews, focus group discussion, and other methods of data collection can be used in evaluation research, just as they are used in basic research. However, results generated through these methods and others can only make meaning when the three cardinal elements of monitoring and evaluation namely; time, quality and quantity are fused in an attempt at understanding the whole essence of M&E practice.