Monitoring, Evaluation and Research

The book ‘Monitoring, evaluation and research: Tools for supporting effective managerial decisions and policy development’ is based on the author’s experience as a monitoring and evaluation expert for over three decades and addresses major issues which are not uniformly understood by monitoring and evaluation practitioners. The author points out what is not clearly understood, how the issues are misunderstood and provides what are believed to be accurate ways of understanding such issues and concepts. Although development interventions focus on results, the author argues that processes are equally important, thus, fully explains both the monitoring and evaluation domains in terms of their content, potential problems and actions required to avoid such challenges.

The book uses the logic model to planning, implementation and evaluation as the guiding framework and unpacks each of the blocks, that is, inputs, processes and activities, outputs, outcomes and impact. The importance of understanding the use of logic in the logic model in assisting selection of relevant project activities, is emphasised. In this regard, research conducted to support monitoring and evaluation can be used to empirically validate the logic in the logic model or theory of change. To aid the reader’s understanding, examples of indicators along the logic model continuum are provided. Good monitoring and evaluation practices are demonstrated by giving examples of a work plan and Indicator Dictionary, aspects that are rarely presented in evaluation texts. Sometimes donors require estimates of physical performance of projects at regular periods. To this end, an excel model for estimating the physical performance of projects is presented.

This book is a must-read for both undergraduate and graduate students taking introductory courses in monitoring, evaluation and research, as well as being an important reference for monitoring and evaluation practitioners.