INDICATORS FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATION

An indicator is a quantitative or qualitative measure of programme performance that

is used to demonstrate change and which details the extent to which programme
results are being or have been achieved. In order for indicators to be useful for
monitoring and evaluating programme results, it is important to identify indicators
that are direct, objective, practical and adequate and to regularly update them.
Indicators are signposts of change along the path to development. They describe the
way to track intended results and are critical for monitoring and evaluation.

Performance indicators are measures that show how well a project or programme is
achieving its set objectives. Good performance indicators are critical part of the
results framework and indicators can help to:

i. Inform decision making for ongoing programme or project management

ii. Measure progress between activities
iii. Clarify consistency between activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts
iv. Ensure legitimacy and accountability to all stakeholders
v. Assess project and staff performance

Indicators must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART)

Types of indicators

Input indicators: measures what goes into a service. On their own , input measures are not
really indicators of ‘performance.’

Process indicator: measures the degree to which activities are being implemented

Output indicators: measures what happens within the service, the way it does things to produce
a particular result. Output indicators measure the progress against specified outputs.

Outcome indicators: measure what happens as a result of the service. They measure how well
the overall aim of the service is being achieved, how effective it is at achieving its stated
purpose. Outcome indicators are useful in the verification whether the intended positive change
in the development situation has actually been achieved. Example: reduction of malaria
prevalence in county A by 20 per cent by 2015.

Impact indicators: measure changes in the target area after programme intervention. Impact
indicators describe the changes in people’s lives and development conditions in the target area.
Example: Reduction in poverty; Economic growth; and improved education performance.

Performance indicators: measures of project impacts, outcomes, outputs and inputs that are
monitored during project implementation to assess progress toward project objectives. They are
later used to evaluate project success. Example: County members of county assembly trained on
governance.

Indicators
If you want to track intended changes resulting from your programmes or projects you will
need to identify indicators. These are specific and concrete pieces of information that enable
you to track the changes you are trying to achieve.

If, for example, if you have chosen to assess your effectiveness (i.e. the extent to which you are
achieving your objectives) or impacts you will need to identify and track relevant ‘outcome’ and
‘impact indicators’. An example of an outcome indicator might be changes in residents’ energy
related behaviours e.g. the number of residents cycling, using the train or car club. An example
of an impact indicator might be changes to residents’ fuel bills, household energy use and carbon
emissions (see table 3 below).

You need to make sure that indicators are relevant, specific (and where possible measurable),

and are timetabled to be gathered at key points in a project or programme 7. Also importantly,
indicators need to be accompanied by open ended questions (see below). Taken together this
information should provide credible evidence of changes associated with your activities

You may find it is not desirable or possible to monitor all your desired outcomes and impact
Photo: SEAD/Trapese

indicators on a continual basis. Small projects or programmes may only have a limited influence
over some outcomes or impacts compared to other factors; the outcomes or impacts might only
occur in the longer term; and/ or it can be difficult and expensive to try and assess them on your
own. If you can afford to, you may want to conduct external evaluations or work with academics
to conduct periodic in-depth
evaluations. However, the ease or difficulty of tracking outcome or impact indicators will vary.
You may be able to use modelled data or conversion factors to estimate impacts from outcomes
e.g. to estimate the health benefits generated from loft insulation, or the carbon savings from
eating less meat.

Tracking activities and outputs can give a useful indication of your

capacity and reach and can also be used as valuable information for evaluations (see Annex 2
and 3 below). You might also use be able to use conversion factors or modelled data to estimate
outcomes from some of your outputs. For example, you can work out the amount of carbon
emissions
saved from the numbers of trees planted or the health benefits from warmer homes. However,
tracking outputs on their own does not tell you what difference you are making in relation to the
achievement of your objectives (outcomes) or to people’s lives (impacts).

Open questions
It is also important to try to capture unintended changes, to understand the reasons for change,
and to interpret the changes. To do this you will also need to ask open ended questions
including questions which explore why and how changes have happened and what they mean to
people (also see Section 9 and Annex 5 below). This may yield both quantitative and qualitative
data.

Ideally you should collect information about the situation before the project started (baseline
data) so you can see what difference the project has made (see “Section 4: Overview and
resources”on page 37). If it is not possible to collect baseline data before your project starts you
can sometimes collect it retrospectively e.g. by asking people to compare the situation before and
after but the data is likely to be more prone to error.