7 monitoring and 10 evaluation types to boost

your M&E strategy

May 28, 2019

Did you know that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are classified into different types based on
the purpose, focus, timing and audience of the assessment? In this article, we have attempted to
explore the variety that is commonly used in the development and humanitarian sector to help
you plan and execute your M&E more strategically.

Great news is, the variations of monitoring and evaluation are not mutually exclusive, which
means that they can be used in different combinations to leverage the full potential of your
project.

Before we jump into the types, let’s quickly explore how monitoring differs from evaluation.
7 types of monitoring to get you started
1. Process monitoring

This is often referred to as ‘activity monitoring.’ Process monitoring is implemented

during the initial stages of a project as its sole purpose is to track the use of inputs and
resources, along with examining how activities and outputs are delivered. It is often
conducted in conjunction with compliance monitoring and feeds into the evaluation of
impact.

2. Compliance monitoring

Just as the name suggests, the purpose of compliance monitoring is to ensure compliance
with donor regulations, grant, contract requirements, local governmental regulations and
laws, ethical standards, and most importantly compliance with the expected results of the
project. The need for compliance monitoring could arise at any stage of the project life
cycle.

3. Context monitoring

Context monitoring is often called ‘situation monitoring.’ It tracks the overall setting in
which the project operates. Context monitoring helps us identify and measure risks,
assumptions, or any unexpected situations that may arise within the institutional,
political, financial, and policy context at any point during the project cycle. These
assumptions and risks are external factors and are not within the control of the project,
however, context monitoring helps us identify these on time to influence the success or
failure of a project.

4. Beneficiary monitoring

This type of monitoring is sometimes referred to as ‘Beneficiary Contact Monitoring

(BCM)’ and the need for this may arise at any stage of the project cycle. Its primary
purpose is to track the overall perceptions of direct and indirect beneficiaries in relation
to a project. It includes beneficiary satisfaction or complaints with the project and its
components, including their participation, treatment, access to resources, whether these
are equitable, and their overall experience of change. Beneficiary monitoring also tracks
stakeholder complaints and feedback mechanism.

5. Financial monitoring

The main purpose of financial monitoring is to measure financial efficiency within a

project. It tracks the real expenditure involved in a project in comparison to the allocated
budget and helps the project team to form strategies to maximize outputs with minimal
inputs. This is often conducted in combination with ‘process’ and ‘compliance’
monitoring and is crucial for accountability and reporting purposes.
 6. Organisational monitoring

As the name suggests, organisational monitoring tracks institutional development,

communication, collaboration, sustainability and capacity building within an organisation
and with its partners and stakeholders in relation to project implementation.

7. Results monitoring

This is where monitoring entwines with evaluation. It gathers data to demonstrate

a project’s overall effects and impacts on the target population. It helps the project team
to determine if the project is on the right track towards its intended results and whether
there may be any unintended impacts.

10 types of evaluation to put you on the right track

1. Formative evaluation
 This is generally conducted before the project implementation phase. But depending on
the nature of the project, it may also continue through the implementation stage. Its main
purpose is to generate baseline data to investigate the need for the project, raise
awareness of the initial project status, identify areas of concern and provide
recommendations for project implementation and compliance.

2. Process evaluation

It is conducted as soon as the project implementation stage begins. It assesses whether the
project activities have been executed as intended and resulted in certain outputs. Process
evaluation is useful in identifying the shortcomings of a project while the project is still
ongoing to make the necessary improvements. This also helps to assess the long-term
sustainability of the project.

3. Outcome evaluation

This type of evaluation is conducted once the project activities have been implemented. It
measures the immediate effects or outcomes of the activities in the target population and
helps to make improvements to increase the effectiveness of the project.

4. Summative evaluation

This occurs immediately after project conclusion to assess project efficacy and the instant
changes manifested by its interventions. Summative evaluation compares the actual
outcome data with baseline data to determine whether the project was successful in
producing the intended outcomes or bringing about the intended benefits to the target
population. It provides evidence of project success or failure to the stakeholders and
donors to help them determine whether it makes sense to invest more time and money for
project extension.

5. Impact evaluation

Impact evaluation assesses the long term impact or behavioral changes as a result of a
project and its interventions on the target community or population. It assesses the degree
to which the project meets the ultimate goal, rather than focusing on its management and
delivery. These typically occur after project completion or during the final stage of the
project cycle. However, in some longer projects, this can be conducted in certain intervals
during the project implementation phase, or whenever there is a need for impact
measurement.

6. Real-time evaluation

Real-time evaluation is undertaken during the project implementation phase. It is often

conducted during emergency scenarios, where immediate feedback for modifications is
required to improve ongoing implementation. The emphasis is on immediate lesson
learning over impact evaluation or accountability.
 7. Participatory evaluation

This type of evaluation is conducted collaboratively with the beneficiaries, key

stakeholders and partners to improve the project implementation. Participatory evaluation
can be empowering for everyone involved as it builds capacity, consensus, ownership,
credibility and joint support.

8. Thematic evaluation

Such type of evaluation focuses on one theme across a number of projects, programs or
the whole organisation. The theme could be anything, ranging from gender, migration,
environment etc.

9. Cluster or sector evaluation

Just as the name suggests, this evaluation is implemented by larger development and
humanitarian sectors, including a group of different organisations, programs or projects
that are working on similar thematic areas. It assesses a set of interconnected activities
across different projects and entities. As a result, it strengthens partnerships within these
key sectors, while improving their coordination, accountability, predictability, and
response capacity.

10. Meta-evaluation

This is used to assess the evaluation process itself. Meta-evaluations could be useful to
make a selection of future evaluation types, check compliance with evaluation policy and
good practices, assess how well evaluations are utilized for organizational learning and
change, etc.

Quick note: Monitoring is conducted by an internal staff member, whereas, evaluations,

depending on its type, could be conducted by internal team members or external
consultants/experts. Internal evaluation could help build staff capacity and ownership but they
may be subjective at times. On the other hand, external evaluation brings in a degree of
objectivity and technical expertise and tends to be more transparent and accountable.

The content in this article is based on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent’s  Project/Program Monitoring and Evaluation Guide. 

Before we sign off, just a quick reminder that this list is not all-inclusive and there are many
more types of monitoring and evaluation practiced in the development and humanitarian
sectors. If you know of any additional types that you would like to see on this list then do reach
out to us and we’d be happy to add them here. 
What is Monitoring & Evaluation?
Monitoring and evaluation is a combination of data collection and analysis (monitoring) and
assessing to what extent a program or intervention has, or has not, met its objectives
(evaluation). 

Monitoring and Evaluation

Definition of Monitoring
 

Monitoring is periodic and continuous, conducted after program initiation and during the
duration of that program or intervention. The data 
acquired is primarily input- and output-focused and is generally used as an ongoing strategy
to determine efficiency of implementation.

For example, an NGO delivering training for school teachers might track monthly the number of
sites visited, trainings delivered, the number of teachers trained, etc.

Key questions to consider for monitoring strategy include:

 What key metrics can give us an idea of the state of implementation?

 Do we have lean data collection and analysis processes?
 How efficiently are we implementing our program(s)?
 Based on the data acquired, do we need to make any changes to our program(s)?

A monitoring plan usually focuses on the processes occurring during the implementation of a
program. These can include tracking the following during defined periods of time:

 When programs were implemented

 The location or region in which programs were delivered
 Which departments or teams delivered activities
 How often certain activities occurred
 Number of people reached through a programs’ activities
 Number of products delivered (or number of hours of a service)
 Costs of program implementation

Read More: How to do effect storytelling from Impact Learnings?

What is evaluation?

A program evaluation focuses on the performance of the intervention and is principally used to
determine whether beneficiaries really have benefited due to those activities.

It generally looks at outcomes, assessing whether a change occurred between the outset and
termination of an intervention (or at least between two specific time periods). Ideally, that
change should be able to be attributed to the activities undertaken.

Key questions that an evaluation considers:

 Did our activities make a measurable difference in our target beneficiary group(s)?
 How much can the changes observed be attributed to our activities?
 What contributed to our success (or failure)?
 Can we scale observed changes? Or replicate in other contexts?
 Did we achieve impacts in a cost-effective way?
 Have any unexpected results occurred?

At the outset of a program it is important to acquire baseline data, which will be used to compare
progress at every evaluation interval and at the end of the program period. When thinking about
how to measure for outcomes (changes that have occurred), consider the following key elements:
  Understand how your inputs, outputs, activities, etc. generate change (see Theory of Change)
 Design your evaluation plan (i.e. research plan) before launching a program or intervention
 Use outcomes that are relevant for your beneficiaries
 Use data collection methods that fit the needs of beneficiaries and the skills of your employees
 Incentivize beneficiaries to provide you with data at key intervals
 Ensure you have adequate data management and analysis tools (and people who know how to
use them)

Download Now: Actionable Impact Management Guides

Monitoring and Evaluation Course

Is your monitoring and evaluation system working for you? 

Traditional monitoring and evaluation system is rigid and limited in value. Learn from experts in
this field how monitoring and evaluation is changing step by step, key trends and best way to get
ready for impact revolution.

1. Theory of Change and Logic Framework

2. Impact Strategy
3. Impact Metrics
4. Monitoring and Evaluation: Challenges
5. Monitoring and Evaluation: Data Design
6. Monitoring and Evaluation: Visualization
 
Preview course here
 

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MERL)

Continuous Learning and Improvement
Monitoring, evaluation, and learning is simply taking the information and insights acquired in
the first two steps (M&E) and using it to inform key strategic decisions. These informed
decisions could be at a management level, a program design level, or anywhere in between.

The point is to put to use those data and the results obtained from analyses in order to breed
accountability into an organization's activities and also into the M&E process itself.
Learning can take place during Monitoring, Evaluation, or both. It recognizes that programs need
to be able to respond to the dynamic nature of impact-seeking activities. By applying data-driven
insights at various intervals an organization can better achieve the outcomes it seeks for its
beneficiaries.

Watch and Learn

Legacy M & E systems focus on rigid logframe based activity and output reporting.  However,
modern system should focus on realtime data collection and impact learning. Learn how...

The Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation

Benefits of Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and Evaluation implementation, when done effectively, reaps benefits for
stakeholders up and down the spectrum of activities carried about by an organization. In general,
it provides guidance for strategic decision-making both during and after program execution.

Benefits for different stakeholders include:

Beneficiaries

Follow-up processes (data collection) can be a sign to them that the organization actually cares
about results, and making outcomes better

Data can be used to improve efficiency of implementation as well as implementation design (to
improve outcomes for beneficiaries)

Employees

M&E can generate more buy-in and trust in the organization's commitment to mission if there is
a clear effort to not only assess progress, but use that assessment to get better at delivering
impact

For employees in contact with beneficiaries (e.g. "on the ground") conducting evaluation
assessment can also generate more trust between those employees and the beneficiary
community.
New, often unforeseen, insights can emerge, helping employees discover new, more effective
ways to deliver programs and create impact

Executive management

Determining changes to strategic direction becomes much more data-driven with the ongoing
data and analyses from M&E processes. Adaption ideally becomes more agile.

With relevant and comprehensive data (both process-related and impact-related) executives can
build much more persuasive arguments.

Funders

Money for impact flows to where the data is and good M&E implementation can open up that
flow because it breeds impact credibility and of course a more transparent understanding of how
much impact can be generated per investment dollar.

Read More: The Catch 22 of Social Impact Measurement 

Watch and Learn

Effective monitoring and evaluation should focus on real-time data collection, effective
reporting, and continuous learning. See how...

Creating a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Putting quantitative (or qualitative) tools to work means defining the right indicators to measure.
An indicator is a metric used to measure some aspect of a program. In the planning stages, the
indicators that will be used throughout the monitoring and evaluation processes should be
defined. This enables organizations to truly measure the extent to which what they think or want
to happen actually happens.

Indicators can be both quantitative and qualitative, depending on what needs to measured and in
what ways.
 

Quantitative M&E Indicators

Primarily output-focused, they help organizations determine if activities are taking place, when,
and to what extent.

By definition, numbers are used to communicate quantitative measures (percentages, ratios, $

sums, etc.)

Qualitative M&E Indicators

Involve subjective terms 

Often outcome-focused, they can help organizations determine if a change has occurred by

gathering perceptions from beneficiaries. 

Data accuracy can often be difficult to assess given the subjective nature of the collecting judgements
about change (see example below)

 Examples of M&E indicators

Using the example of a social enterprise that employs a 1-for-1 model (you buy a pair of shoes,
we donate a pair of shoes to a person in need) we can examine some potential indicators for their
donation program over a period of one year.

Quantitative

 Number of shoes donated

 Number of lives affected
 Amount of money saved in beneficiary group (not having to buy shoes)

Qualitative

 Perception of change in quality of life after receiving shoes (survey beneficiaries)

 Types of opportunities generated by reception of shoes (defined by beneficiaries)
Using a Combination of Indicators to Determine Attribution

As we can see, a pure count of shoes donated doesn't tell us what impact has been generated. It
only implies. By also collecting qualitative, outcomes-focused data the organization gets a better
idea of the impacts of those shoes for people who before did not have them. They could also
measure income level before and after the shoes (for adults), or measure number of school days
attended (for children).

The best indicators help organizations also make clear a clear attribution between the
intervention (shoes given) and the impact(s) generated. In this example, there are many other
variables that could contribute to an increase in income level or school days attended. Gathering
qualitative data, specifically asking to what extent the shoes had to do with any observed changes
in those areas would help to increase the level of attribution the organization might report.

Read More: Foundations of Social Impact Assessment 

Watch and Learn

Christ Gaines, Lead Trainer explains Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, Strategy, Data Collection
& Aggregation

Types of evaluation
List of Evaluation Methods and Evaluation Design

Evaluation Models Depend on Organizational Context

Determining an evaluation method requires first defining the unique objectives of the

organization or specific program. In general, those objectives are determined by asking: What is
the impact being sought? What is the purpose of the evaluation?

In addition to those objectives, other variables include, the context of the target beneficiary group
and the organizational resources available (money, skills, tools, etc.). Of course, focus should be
given to achieving the overarching objectives.

The following, while not an exhaustive list, are some examples of the main evaluation
approaches which accomplish unique organizational objectives. 
Formative Evaluation

Definition of Formative Evaluation

A formative evaluation will most often be conducted before a program begins to examine both
feasibility and determine its relevance to the strategic objectives of the overall organization. This
can also occur during program implementation, especially if there is a need to modify the
program, at which point the formative evaluation can be used to assess feasibility of a new
design.

Part of the importance of a formative evaluation can improve a program’s probability of success
because it encourages practitioners to confirm viability and detect potential problem areas at the
outset, while also promoting accountability during implementation.

Watch and Learn

Manage the Theory of Change Throughout Lifecycle

Start your impact strategy with a theory of change based approach.  The theory of change is a
foundation that should be used throughout the monitoring and evaluation lifecycle.

Process Evaluation

Definition of Process Evaluation

A process evaluation is carried out during the implementation phase of a program. As the name
suggests, it focuses on processes being carried out -- inputs, activities, outputs, etc. It identifies
any issues with the efficiency of implementation.

For example, it can establish whether targets were not met because of lack of human resources
(skills) or appropriate tools, or unforeseen contextual obstacles (e.g. beneficiaries lacked time to
engage with program) which ultimately affected program outcomes.

If there don’t seem to be process-related issues, the evaluation can help illuminate issues with the
change model itself, encouraging a needed rethinking of how to affect change for the target
group.

The use of periodic assessments during implementation is one of the most important process
evaluation components. This allows organizations to re-design if needed during execution to
increase reach, re-allocate resources, etc.
Outcome Evaluation

Definition of Outcome Evaluation

An outcome evaluation aims to determine whether overall program objectives have been met. In
that process, practitioners also identify what might have spurred or limited those changes.
Finally, it helps shed light on unexpected changes in the target beneficiary population at the end
of the intervention or at the point of evaluation.

Given that scope, an outcome evaluation generally looks at a program’s results over longer
period of time (although this also depends on how quickly or slowly the change is expected to
occur).

It can also help pinpoint which areas of a program were more or less effective than others. Most
importantly, with an outcome evaluation an organization determines whether there was a change
in the lives of beneficiaries.

For this reason, it can be important to use qualitative measures and participatory methods to
extract from beneficiaries their perception of any observed changes.

Watch and Learn

Chris Gaines, SoPact's Lead Trainer explains how to design effective outcome measurement and
tracking systems

Impact Evaluation

Definition of Impact Evaluation

An impact evaluation gets to the heart of a program’s true effectiveness by determining

attribution, or to what extent the changes observed (outcomes) can be causally connected to the
activities carried out during the program period.

Timing is an important element of any impact evaluation. Conducted too early, the intervention
has not had time to create observable change. Conducted too late, it could reduce the usefulness
of insights for informing decision-making.

Ultimately, an impact evaluation guides organizations to not only understand how impacts were
generated by activities but also (based on the insights) understand what tweaks could be made to
maximize effectiveness of an intervention in generating the desired outcomes.

Monitoring and Evaluation Resources

Impact Cloud® for Monitoring and Evaluation
Sopact works with clients around the world, large and small, providing hands-on guidance and
the software tools necessary to make M&E implementation efficient and effective, no matter
organizational skill level. 

Here are just a few of the resources you can check out now:

 Evaluating the Impact of Social Innovation Programs

 Rethinking M&E Software for Impact Management
 M&E Cloud-Based Tools for End-to-End Management Across Teams

External Monitoring & Evaluation Resources

Monitoring and evaluation theories, tools, methodologies and more have been well-dissected by
practitioners across the globe. Here is a sampling of some of the best resources to get you started:

 An overview from the World Health Organization

 A step-by-step guide to M&E from the Higher Education Innovation Fund at the University of
Oxford
 Definition and summary of M&E from the World Bank Group
 Udemy courses on M&E
 Handbook on M&E for Development from the United Nations Development Programme
 Monitoring and Evaluation Case Studies
 Monitoring Toolkit from USAID
 Seven Deadly Sins of Impact Evaluation (SSIR article)
 Why is M&E Important for NGOs? (article)
 Measure Evaluation (website)
 Monitoring and Evaluation explained (Video)
 Difference between Monitoring and Evaluation (Video)
 Basic M&E Concepts (Video)

Monitoring Resources
Ongoing assessment of key indicators or targets to manage and improve performance

 Blue Avocado, Dashboards

http://bluea.wpengine.com/wpcontent/uploads/attachments/nonprofit_dashboard_article_fro
m_blue _avocado.pdf
 Bridgespan Group https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/blog/measuring-to-improve
  Innovations for Poverty Action
https://www.poverty-action.org/publication/goldilocks-toolkitmonitoring-learning-and-
accountability
https://www.poverty-action.org/publication/resources-monitoring
 International NGO Training and Research Center (INTRAC)
https://www.intrac.org/wpcms/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/Monitoring-and-Evaluation-
SeriesBaselines-10.pdf
 McKinsey & Company– Social Impact Assessment
http://mckinseyonsociety.com/social-impact-assessment/
 Poverty Probability Index (PPI)
https://www.povertyindex.org/about-ppi
 Society for Nonprofits– Balanced Scorecard
https://www.snpo.org/publications/sendpdf.php?id=1645
 Health Compass
http://www.thehealthcompass.org/how-to-guides/how-developmonitoring-and-evaluation-plan

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Jump To Section:

1. What is Monitoring & Evaluation?

2. Monitoring and Evaluation

3. What is evaluation?

4. Monitoring and Evaluation Course

5. Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MERL)

6. The Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation

7. Creating a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

8. Types of evaluation

9. List of Evaluation Methods and Evaluation Design

10. Formative Evaluation

11. Process Evaluation

12. Outcome Evaluation

13. Impact Evaluation

14. Monitoring and Evaluation Resources

15. Monitoring Resources

Monitoring and evaluation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is used to assess the performance of projects, institutions
and programmes set up by governments, international organisations and NGOs. Its goal is to
improve current and future management of outputs, outcomes and impact. Monitoring is a
continuous assessment of programmes based on early detailed information on the progress or
delay of the ongoing assessed activities.[1] An evaluation is an examination concerning the
relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of activities in the light of specified objectives. [2]

Monitoring and evaluation processes can be managed by the donors financing the assessed
activities, by an independent branch of the implementing organization, by the project managers
or implementing team themselves and/or by a private company. The credibility and objectivity of
monitoring and evaluation reports depend very much on the independence of the evaluators.
Their expertise and independence is of major importance for the process to be successful.

Many international organizations such as the United Nations, USAID, the World Bank group and
the Organization of American States have been utilizing this process for many years. The process
is also growing in popularity in the developing countries where the governments have created
their own national M&E systems to assess the development projects, the resource management
and the government activities or administration. The developed countries are using this process
to assess their own development and cooperation agencies.

Contents
 1 Evaluation
 2 Monitor
 3 Differences between monitoring and evaluation
 4 Importance
 5 Performance measurement
 6 In the United Nations
 7 See also
 8 References

Evaluation
The M&E is separated into two distinguished categories: evaluation and monitoring. An
evaluation is a systematic and objective examination concerning the relevance, effectiveness,
efficiency and impact of activities in the light of specified objectives.[2] The idea in evaluating
projects is to isolate errors in order to avoid repeating them and to underline and promote the
successful mechanisms for current and future projects.

An important goal of evaluation is to provide recommendations and lessons to the project

managers and implementation teams that have worked on the projects and for the ones that will
implement and work on similar projects.

Evaluations are also indirectly a means to report to the donor about the activities implemented. It
is a means to verify that the donated funds are being well managed and transparently spent. The
evaluators are supposed to check and analyse the budget lines and to report the findings in their
work.[3] Monitoring and Evaluation is also useful in the Facilities [Hospitals], it enables the
donors such as WHO,UNICEF to know whether the funds provided are well utilised in
purchasing drugs and also equipments in the Hospitals.

Monitor
Monitoring is a continuous assessment that aims at providing all stakeholders with early detailed
information on the progress or delay of the ongoing assessed activities.[1] It is an oversight of the
activity's implementation stage. Its purpose is to determine if the outputs, deliveries and
schedules planned have been reached so that action can be taken to correct the deficiencies as
quickly as possible.

Good planning, combined with effective monitoring and evaluation, can play a major role in
enhancing the effectiveness of development programs and projects. Good planning helps focus
on the results that matter, while monitoring and evaluation help us learn from past successes and
challenges and inform decision making so that current and future initiatives are better able to
improve people's lives and expand their choices.[4]

Differences between monitoring and evaluation

In monitoring, the feedback and recommendation is inevitable to the project manager but in
evaluation, this is not the case. The common ground for monitoring and evaluation is that they
are both management tools. For monitoring, data and information collection for tracking progress
according to the terms of reference is gathered periodically which is not the case in evaluations
for which the data and information collection is happening during or in view of the evaluation.
The monitoring is a short term assessment and does not take into consideration the outcomes and
impact unlike the evaluation process which also assesses the outcomes and sometime longer term
impact. This impact assessment occurs sometimes after the end of a project, even though it is
rare because of its cost and of the difficulty to determine whether the project is responsible for
the observed results.[2] Evaluation is a systematic and objective examination which is conducted
on monthly and/or yearly basis, unlike Monitoring, which is a continuous assessment, providing
stakeholders with early information. Monitoring checks on all the activities on the last
[implementation stage] unlike Evaluation which entails information on whether the donated
funds are well managed and that they are transparently spent.
Importance
Although evaluations are often retrospective, their purpose is essentially forward looking.
Evaluation applies the lessons and recommendations to decisions about current and future
programmes. Evaluations can also be used to promote new projects, get support from
governments, raise funds from public or private institutions and inform the general public on the
different activities.[2]

It is also very important as monitoring team give the recommendation to the school visited (e.g.
K.H.S and G.S.G).

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in February 2005 and the follow-up meeting in Accra
underlined the importance of the evaluation process and of the ownership of its conduct by the
projects' hosting countries. Many developing countries now have M&E systems and the tendency
is growing.[5]

Performance measurement
The credibility of findings and assessments depends to a large extent on the manner in which
monitoring and evaluation is conducted. To assess performance, it is necessary to select, before
the implementation of the project, indicators which will permit to rate the targeted outputs and
outcomes. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), an outcome
indicator has two components: the baseline which is the situation before the programme or
project begins, and the target which is the expected situation at the end of the project. An output
indicator that does not have any baseline as the purpose of the output is to introduce something
that does not exist yet.[6]

In the United Nations

The most important agencies of the United Nations have a monitoring and evaluation unit. All
these agencies are supposed to follow the common standards of the United Nations Evaluation
Group (UNEG). These norms concern the Institutional framework and management of the
evaluation function, the competencies and ethics, and the way to conduct evaluations and present
reports (design, process, team selection, implementation, reporting and follow up). This group
also provides guidelines and relevant documentation to all evaluation organs being part of the
United Nations or not.[7]

Most agencies implementing projects and programmes, even if following the common UNEG
standards, have their own handbook and guidelines on how to conduct M&E. Indeed, the UN
agencies have different specialisations and have different needs and ways of approaching M&E.
The M&E branches of every UN agency are monitored and rated by the Joint Inspection Unit of
the United Nations.[8]
What is monitoring and evaluation?
Monitoring is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing and using information to track a
programme’s progress toward reaching its objectives and to guide management decisions.
Monitoring usually focuses on processes, such as when and where activities occur, who delivers
them and how many people or entities they reach.

Monitoring is conducted after a programme has begun and continues throughout the programme
implementation period. Monitoring is sometimes referred to as process, performance or
formative evaluation. (Adapted from Gage and Dunn 2009, Frankel and Gage 2007, and PATH
Monitoring and Evaluation Initiative)

 
Evaluation is the systematic assessment of an activity, project, programme, strategy, policy,
topic, theme, sector, operational area or institution’s performance. Evaluation focuses on
expected and achieved accomplishments, examining the results chain (inputs, activities, outputs,
outcomes and impacts), processes, contextual factors and causality, in order to understand
achievements or the lack of achievements. Evaluation aims at determining the relevance, impact,
effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of interventions and the contributions of the
intervention to the results achieved.

(Adapted from Gage and Dunn 2009, Frankel and Gage 2007)

An evaluation should provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. 
The findings, recommendations and lessons of an evaluation should be used to inform the future
decision-making processes regarding the programme.

Monitoring and evaluation of initiatives on violence against women and girls take place on a
number of different levels, depending on the goals and objectives of the programme and the
scope of activities and strategies being designed or implemented.

For example, monitoring and evaluation would look different for:

a school-based prevention programme

a training programme on the systematic use of screening protocols throughout the health sector

the implementation of domestic violence legislation

an awareness-raising campaign aimed at engaging men

the institutionalization of a coordinated community response