Project Management and Monitoring

ob get along is the regular observation and recording of activities fetching place in a escort or programme. It is a summons of r come out of the closetinely gathering teaching on all aspects of the forecast. To oversee is to founder on how bug out activities be upgradeing. It is observation clayatic and purposeful observation. monitor lizard also involves giving feedback about the gird of the jut out to the donors, implementers and beneficiaries of the jutting. Reporting enables the self- seeed entropy to be employd in making decisions for improving parturiency performance. observe is the governing bodyatic stash awayion and analysis of randomness as a project progresses. It is aimed at improving the efficiency and posture of a project or transcription. It is familyd on targets set and activities planned during the planning phases of locomote. It helps to keep the elaborate on way, and bottomland let man seasonment recognise when things argon spill age wrong. If done properly, it is an valuable tool for good management, and it renders a wasting diseaseful melodic theme for military rating.It enables you to determine whether the resources you lead available argon sufficient and be macrocosm well employ, whether the talent you acquit is sufficient and appropriate, and whether you ar doing what you planned to do Purpose of observe Monitoring is very important in project planning and implementation. It is like watching where you argon going while riding a bicycle you can adjust as you go on and ensure that you are on the right track. Monitoring wins entropy that go out be useful in Analyzing the situation in the community and its project Determining whether the inputs in the project are well utilized Identifying tasks liner the community or project and finding solutions Ensuring all activities are carried out properly by the right the great unwashed and in time utilise lessons from one project experience on to another and Determining whether the look the project was planned is the most appropriate demeanor of solving the problem at hand. Planning, Monitoring and Controlling Cycle pic Importance of Monitoring Monitoring is important because it provides the only consolidated source of information showcasing project progress it allows actors to settle from each others experiences, building on expertness and seeledge it often generates (written) reports that contri just nowe to transparency and accountability, and allows for lessons to be shared lots easily it reveals mistakes and offers paths for key outing and improvements it provides a basis for questioning and testing assumptions it provides a marrow for agencies seeking to learn from their experiences and to incorporate them into policy and practice it provides a route to assess the crucial link between implementers and beneficiaries on the fundament and decision-makers it adds to the retention and increase of institu tional memory it provides a to a greater extent juicy basis for raising funds and influencing policy. WHY DO MONITORING? Monitoring enable you to check the bottom line (see Glossary of Terms) of stand upment do Not are we making a profit? but are we making a distinction? Through monitor and rating, you can _ reappraisal progress _ Identify problems in planning and/or implementation _ pay back adjustments so that you are more likely to make a difference.In m any(prenominal) transcriptions, observe and military rank is some(prenominal)thing that that is seen as a donor indispensability rather than a management tool. Donors are certainly entitled to have sex whether their money is being properly spent, and whether it is being well spent. But the special (most important) use of monitoring and evaluation should be for the face or project itself to see how it is doing against objectives, whether it is having an impingement, whether it is acidifying efficiently, and to learn how to do it better. Plans are essential but they are not set in concrete (totally fixed). If they are not establishing, or if the circumstances change, thence plans deprivation to change too.Monitoring and evaluation are both tools which help a project or organisation know when plans are not working, and when circumstances have changed. They give management the information it postulates to make decisions about the project or organisation, about changes that are necessary in strategy or plans. Through this, the constants remain the pillars of the strategic framework the problem analysis, the vision, and the throwaway outs of the project or organisation. Everything else is negotiable. (See also the toolkit on strategic planning) Getting something wrong is not a crime. Failing to learn from past mistakes because you are not monitoring and evaluating, is.The effect of monitoring and evaluation can be seen in the following cycle. Note that you volition monitor and adjust sev eral times before you are ready to evaluate and replan. Monitoring involves _ Establishing indicators (See Glossary of Terms) of efficiency, effectiveness and stir _ Setting up systems to collect information relating to these indicators _ Collecting and recording the information _ Analysing the information _ Using the information to inform day-to-day management. Monitoring is an internal function in any project or organisation. WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? What we pauperization to know is conjugate to what we think is important. In development work, what we think is important is linked to our values.Most work in civil society organisations is underpinned by a value framework. It is this framework that determines the standards of acceptability in the work we do. The central values on which most development work is built are _ Serving the separate _ Empowering the disadvantaged _ Changing society, not just helping individuals _ Sustainability _ Efficient use of resources. So, the fi rst thing we need to know is Is what we are doing and how we are doing it face-off the requirements of these values? In order to set this question, our monitoring and evaluation system must give us information about _ Who is benefiting from what we do? How much are they benefiting? atomic number 18 beneficiaries passive recipients or does the mould enable them to have some control over their lives?_ argon there lessons in what we are doing that have a broader opposition than just what is happening on our project? _ Can what we are doing be sustained in some way for the long-term, or give the impact of our work cease when we leave? _ Are we getting optimum outputs for the least possible amount of inputs? MONITORING When you aspiration a monitoring system, you are taking a formative placement point and establishing a system that will provide useful information on an ongoing basis so that you can improve what you do and how you do it. On the next page, you will find a suggested member for aim a monitoring system.For a pillow slip study of how an organisation went about designing a monitoring system, go to the section with pillowcases, and the example given of designing a monitoring system. Monitoring DESIGNING A MONITORING SYSTEM Below is a step-by-step process you could use in order to design a monitoring system for your organisation or project. For a case study of how an organisation went about designing a monitoring system, go to examples. bill 1 At a workshop with appropriate staff and/or volunteers, and run by you or a consultant_ Introduce the concepts of efficiency, effectiveness and impact (see Glossary of Terms). _ develop that a monitoring system needs to cover all three. sire a list of indicators for each of the three aspects. _ Clarify what variables (see Glossary of Terms) need to be linked. So, for example, do you want to be able to link the age of a teacher with his/her qualifications in order to answer the question Are older teacher s more or less likely to have high qualifications? _ Clarify what information the project or organisation is already collecting. Step 2 Turn the input from the workshop into a brief for the questions your monitoring system must be able to answer. Depending on how complex your requirements are, and what your capacity is, you may decide to go for a computerised data base or a manual one.If you want to be able to link legion(predicate) variables across many cases (e. g. participants, schools, parent involvement, resources, urban/rural etc), you may need to go the computer route. If you have a few variables, you can plausibly do it manually. The important thing is to begin by knowing what variables you are interested in and to keep data on these variables. Linking and analysis can take place later. (These concepts are complicated. It will help you to read the case study in the examples section of the toolkit. ) From the workshop you will know what you want to monitor. You will have the indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and impact that have been prioritised.You will then choose the variables that will help you answer the questions you think are important. So, for example, you index have an indicator of impact which is that safer sex options are chosen as an indicator that puppyish slew are now making certain and mature lifestyle choices. The variables that might affect the indicator include _ bestride _ Gender _ Religion _ Urban/rural _ Economic category _ Family environment _ Length of exposure to your projects initiative _ Number of workshops touched. By keeping the right information you will be able to answer questions such as _ Does age make a difference to the way our message is received? _ Does economic category i. e. o young populate in richer areas respond better or worse to the message or does it make no difference?_ Does the number of workshops attended make a difference to the impact? Answers to these kinds of questions enable a project or organisation to make decisions about what they do and how they do it, to make informed changes to programmes, and to measure their impact and effectiveness. Answers to questions such as _ Do more people attend sessions that are organised well in advance? _ Do more schools participate when there is no charge? _ Do more young people attend when sessions are over weekends or in the evenings? _ Does it salute less to run a workshop in the community, or to pick out people to our training centre to run the workshop? nable the project or organisation to measure and improve their efficiency.Step 3 Decide how you will collect the information you need (see collecting information) and where it will be kept (on computer, in manual files). Step 4 Decide how often you will contemplate the information this means putting it together and trying to answer the questions you think are important. Step 5 Collect, psychoanalyse, report. PURPOSE OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION What development inter cessions make a difference? Is the project having the intended results? What can be done unalikely to better meet goals and objectives? These are the questions that monitoring and evaluation allow organizations to answer.Monitoring and evaluation are important management tools to track your progress and facilitate decision making. While some funders require some sheath of evaluative process, the greatest beneficiaries of an evaluation can be the community of people with whom your organization works. By closely examining your work, your organization can design programs and activities that are effective, efficient, and yield powerful results for the community. Definitions are as follows Monitoring can be defined as a continuing function that aims primarily to provide the management and main stakeholders of an ongoing intervention with early indications of progress, or neglect thereof, in the achievement of results.An ongoing intervention might be a project, program or other kind of support to an outcome. Monitoring helps organizations track achievements by a regular order of information to assist apropos decision making, ensure accountability, and provide the basis for evaluation and learning. STRATEGIC QUESTIONS In conducting monitoring and evaluation efforts, the specific areas to consider will depend on the actual intervention, and its stated outcomes. Areas and examples of questions include Relevance Do the objectives and goals match the problems or needs that are being addressed? Efficiency Is the project delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner? Effectiveness To what extent does the intervention achieve its objectives? What are the supportive factors and obstacles encountered during the implementation? Impact What happened as a result of the project? This may include intended and unintended imperious and negative effects. Sustainability Are there lasting benefits after the intervention is realised? COMMON TERMS Monitoring and evaluation ta ke place at different levels. The following box defines the common terms with examples. INPUTS The financial, human, and material resources used for the development intervention. Technical Expertise Equipment Funds ACTIVITIES Actions taken or work performed.Training workshops conducted OUTPUTS The products, capital goods, and work that result from a development intervention. Number of people trained Number of workshops conducted OUTCOMES The likely or achieved short-term and medium-term effects or changes of an interventions outputs. Increased skills New employment opportunities IMPACTS The long-term consequences of the program, may be positive and negative effects. Improved standard of living stepwise Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation Steps for designing a monitoring and evaluation system depend on what you are trying to monitor and evaluate. The following is an outline of some general steps you may ake in thinking through at the time of planning your activities1. Identify w ho will be involved in the design, implementation, and reporting. Engaging stakeholders helps ensure their perspectives are still and feedback is incorporated. 2. Clarify scope, purpose, intended use, audience, and budget for evaluation. 3. Develop the questions to answer what you want to learn as a result of your work. 4. Select indicators. Indicators are meant to provide a clear means of measuring achievement, to help assess the performance, or to hypothesize changes. They can be either quantitative and/or qualitative. A process indicator is information that focuses on how a program is implemented. 5.Determine the data appeal methods. Examples of methods are document reviews, questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. 6. Analyze and synthesize the information you obtain. Review the information obtained to see if there are patterns or trends that emerge from the process. 7. Interpret these findings, provide feedback, and make recommendations. The process of analyzing data and unde rstanding findings should provide you with recommendations about how to beef up your work, as well as any mid-term adjustments you may need to make. 8. march on your findings and insights to stakeholders and decide how to use the results to strengthen your organizations efforts.Monitoring and evaluation not only help organizations reflect and understand past performance, but serve as a guide for constructive changes during the period of implementation. Why have a detailed toolkit on monitoring and evaluation? If you dont care about how well you are doing or about what impact you are having, why bother to do it at all? Monitoring and evaluation enable you to assess the quality and impact of your work, against your action plans and your strategic plan. In order for monitoring and evaluation to be really valuable, you do need to have planned well. Planning is dealt with in detail in other toolkits on this website. Who should use this toolkit?This toolkit should be useful to anyone wo rking in an organisation or project who is touch on about the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of the work of the project or organisation. When will this toolkit be useful? This toolkit will be useful when _ You are setting up systems for data collection during the planning phases of a project or organisation _ You want to analyse data composed through the monitoring process _ You are concerned about how efficiently and how effectively you are working _ You reach a stage in your project, or in the life of your organisation, when you think it would be useful to evaluate what impact the work is having _ Donors ask for an external evaluation of your organisation and or work. DESIGNING A MONITORING SYSTEM berth STUDYWhat follows is a description of a process that a South African organisation called Puppets against AIDS went through in order to develop a monitoring system which would feed into monitoring and evaluation processes. The main work of the organisation is presenting wo rkshopped plays and/or puppet shows related to lifeskill issues, especially those lifeskills to do with sexuality, at schools, across the country. The organisation works with a range of age groups, with different products (scripts) being appropriate at different levels. Puppets against AIDS wanted to develop a monitoring and evaluation system that provided useful information on the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of its operations. To this end, it wanted to develop a data base thatProvided all the basic information the organisation indispensable about clients and operate given _ Produced reports that enabled the organisation to inform itself and other stakeholders, including donors, partners and even schools, about the impact of the work, and what affected the impact of the work. The organisation made a decision to go for a computerised monitoring system. overmuch of the day-to-day information demand by the organisation was already on a computerised data base (e. g. schools , regions, services provided and so on), but the monitoring system would require a literal upgrading and the development of data base software specific to the organisations needs.The organisation also made the decision to develop a system initially for a pilot project, but with the intention of extending it to all the work over time. This pilot project would work with about 60 schools, employ different scripts each year, over a period of three years. In order to raise the money needed for this process, Puppets against AIDS needed some kind of a brief for what was required so that it could be costed. At an initial workshop with staff, facilitated by consultants, the staff generated a list of indicators for efficiency, effectiveness and impact, in relation to their work. These were the things staff wanted to know from the system about what they did, how they did it, and what difference it made. The terms were defined as followsEfficiency Here what needed to be assessed was how quick ly, how correctly, how cost effectively and with what use of resources the services of the organisation were offered. Much of this information was already collected and was contained in reports which reflected planning against achievement. It needed to be made computer friendly. Effectiveness Here what needed to be assessed was getting results in terms of the strategy and shorter-term impact. For example, were the puppet shows an effective means of communicating messages about sexuality? Again, this information was already being collected and just needed to be adapted to fit the computerised system.Impact Here what needed to be assessed was whether the strategy worked in that it had an impact on changing deportment in individuals (in this case the students) and that that change in behaviour impacted positively on Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring and Evaluation by Janet Shapiro (email emailprotected co. za that happens when a donor insists on it, in fact, monitoring and evaluat ion are invaluable internal management tools. If you dont assess how well you are doing against targets and indicators, you may go on using resources to no useful end, without changing the situation you have identified as a problem at all. Monitoring and evaluation enable you to make that assessment.