Monitoring is the systematic and routine collection of information from projects and programmes for four main purposes:
- To learn from experiences to improve practices and activities in the future;
- To have internal and external accountability of the resources used and the results obtained;
- To take informed decisions on the future of the initiative;
- To promote empowerment of beneficiaries of the initiative.
Monitoring is a periodically recurring task already beginning in the planning stage of a project or programme. Monitoring allows results, processes and experiences to be documented and used as a basis to steer decision-making and learning processes. Monitoring is checking progress against plans. The data acquired through monitoring is used for evaluation.
Evaluation is assessing, as systematically and objectively as possible, a completed project or programme (or a phase of an ongoing project or programme that has been completed). Evaluations appraise data and information that inform strategic decisions, thus improving the project or programme in the future.
Evaluations should help to draw conclusions about five main aspects of the intervention:
- relevance
- effectiveness
- efficiency
- impact
- sustainability