Written by Sonia Herrero, InProgress, Berlin, April 2012. 43 pages Available as pdf
“The aim of this manual is to help those working in the non-profit sector — non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations (CSOs) — and the donors which fund them, to observe more accurately what they are achieving through their efforts and to ensure that they make a positive difference in the lives of the people they want to help. Our interest in writing this guide has grown out of the desire to help bring some conceptual clarity to
the concepts of monitoring and to determine ways in which they can be harnessed and used more effectively by non-profit practitioners.
The goal is to help organisations build monitoring and evaluation into all your project management efforts. We want to demystify the monitoring process and make it as simple and accessible as possible. We have made a conscious choice to avoid technical language, and instead use images and analogies that are easier to grasp. There is a glossary at the end of the manual which contains the definitions of any terms you may be unfamiliar with. This manual is organised into two parts. The first section covers the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of monitoring and evaluation; the second addresses how to do it.”
These materials may be freely used and copied by non-profit organisations for capacity building purposes, provided that inProgress and authorship are acknowledged. They may not be reproduced for commercial gain.
Contents
Introduction
I. KEY ASPECTS OF MONITORING
1. What is Monitoring?
2. Why Do We Monitor and For Whom?
3. Who is Involved?
4. How Does it Work?
5. When Do We Monitor?
5. What Do We Monitor?
5.1 Monitoring What We DoII. HOW DO WE MONITOR?
1. Steps for Setting Up a Monitoring S 2. How to Monitor the Process and the Outputs
3. How to Monitor the Achievemen 3.1 Define Results/Outcomes
3.2 Define Indicators for Results
4. Prepare a Detailed Monitoring Plan
5. Identify Sources of Information
6. Data Collection
6.1 Tools for Data Compilation
7. Reflection and Analysis
7.1 Documenting and Sharing
8. Learning and Reviewing
8.1 Learning
8.2 Reviewing
9. Evaluation
Conclusion
Glossary
References
