Don’t Forget: A Tip for your Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks!
Ann-Murray Brown ????????
Facilitator | Founder, Monitoring & Evaluation Academy | Gender & Inclusion Advocate | Follow me for quality content
The image below is probably the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) template that you are used to seeing and using. Interestingly, based on the feedback from a number of my clients, I realised that just having the columns ‘Baseline’ and ‘Target’ are not sufficient. Though everyone understood what a baseline is (versus a target), there is still some confusion when it comes to interpreting the figures.
For example, say the baseline for the number of schools in a community in 2018 is 20 and the target is for there to be 25 schools in the community by at the end of 2019. I realised that in meetings, some persons would look at the M&E Framework and believed that funds from the project will be used to construct 25 schools in total. Alarm bells would then go off. Why are so many additional schools being built when there are not enough trained teachers and equipment to place in them?
Then I would have to explain that actually, only 5 additional schools would be built over the course of the project (to bring the total number of schools in the community in 2019 to 25, as 20 schools already existed before the project started).
Then I started to wonder ‘what if I was not physically in the same room to clarify that only 5 schools would be built?’
This is when I remembered a handy tip. I could simply insert a column that says ‘Commitment’, which the target minus the baseline. So Target-Baseline (25 – 20) is 5. This makes it clear that the commitment of the project is just 5 school schools and not 25.
Hopefully this tip will also help you ward off some skeptical looks when you present your M&E Frameworks! Do you encounter the same (or similar) issues with the M&E Framework? If yes, do let me know about it in the 'Comments' section below.
If you appreciated this article and want to read similar content in the future, let me know by hitting the “Like” and "Follow" Buttons. Feel free to also share on LinkedIn and social media. Thanks.
About The Author:
Ann-Murray Brown is a consultant who provides Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) services. Learn more about her and the company at www.annmurraybrown.com .
Ann will be conducting a workshop at the American Evaluation Association (AEA) on 31 October 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. Learn more and register early while spots are still available. Learn more by clicking here.
International Development Consultant
2 年Great tip! This was the topic in my PCM lecture I was giving today and I forwarded this tip to the students. Thanks!
RESPONSABLE MEAL ET QUALITE at Caritas International.be
6 年The discussion proves the importance of indicator definitions as called for in USAID RBM manuals. The discussion boils down to the difference between a level indicator (Bart) and a cumulative indicator IAnn-Murray). Both can be valid. Conclusion: not more columns but using indicator definitions explained in indicator reference sheets.
Deputy Country Director at USAID Lesotho
6 年In most of our programs we just indicate if a target is cumulative or not, which also deals with the problem of rolling over achievements for multi-year projects. So 'Type of target= Cumulative/ annual'.
MEARL Specialist
6 年Very insightful, easy to reach non M&E professionals, thank you.
Functional Analyst D365 CE at Infront 365
6 年Another one that's important to clarify: is the target the figure to reach by the end of the project/programme, or is it the target for a particular year?