Development professionals work to make positive change happen through their programs and initiatives. However, it is very hard for them to measure their projects’ impact and evaluate how efficient they are. The best development projects are identified by their impact and their efficiency, and the best way to measure these is through a good project monitoring and evaluation system.
In the past, information about a project’s impact would be collected through a laborious exercise involving surveyors and reams of paper. Using pen and paper surveys for project monitoring and evaluation led to inaccuracy and came at a high premium in terms of money, time, and effort. Thankfully, with developments in technology, this process has become digital. This has led to increased efficiency and lowered the costs of having a good project monitoring and evaluation framework.
Now, development programs and projects are expected to have a robust M&E system in place. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, for example, have a rigorous multi-level project monitoring and evaluation system. The organization, further, pointed out that the international community could not afford a lag in measuring progress in development.
M&E is, at its simplest, a process to measure the performance and results of a project.
Ignoring the need for a robust project monitoring and evaluation system is detrimental to your program and its prospects for funding. A good M&E system promotes effective policy changes and the accountability of stakeholders.
Designing a good project monitoring and evaluation plan, while essential and vital, can be complicated. Thankfully, there are several resources to help you with that. We have gone through a lot of guides and these are the best project monitoring and evaluation guides that we could find, written by some of the most reputed organizations in the development space. Whether you’re curious about the basics (like what monitoring and evaluation is), attempting to determine the importance of project monitoring and evaluation in general, or working to identify relevant indicators, these guides are a fantastic starting point.
1. UNDP — “Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results”, 2009
While primarily designed for UNDP staff, the handbook acts as a reference guide that integrates planning, monitoring, and evaluation for effective program design. With modules on conceptualizing and creating a project monitoring and evaluation plan, monitoring for results, and measuring impact, it provides prescriptive content on what needs to be done, by whom, and by when. Report formats and templates complete what is an excellent companion across the full cycle of the development program.
Pros:
- Extremely comprehensive
- Excellent reference guide
Cons:
- Designed more as a reference point than a ‘how to’ resource
- Lacks references to recent trends like mobile data collection.
Link to the guide:
“Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results” by UNDP
2. World Bank — “Monitoring & Evaluation: Some Tools, Methods, & Approaches”, 2004
This handbook is a handy companion guide to project monitoring and evaluation, starting from answering basic questions before going on to discuss some basic approaches and evaluation methods. Best looked at as a quick overview of the project monitoring and evaluation field, it is written in a question and answer style that makes it more accessible. By comparing different methods and approaches, it is a convenient starting point in understanding the subject.
Pros:
- Comparisons of methods includes estimates on costs, skills, and time required
- Convenient section-by-section resources for further reading
Cons:
- Meant more as an introduction to M&E than a complete companion
- Suitable only for newcomers to M&E
Link to the guide:
“Monitoring & Evaluation: Some Tools, Methods, & Approaches” by World Bank
3. School of Geography & Environment, Oxford University — “Step by Step Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation”, 2014
If your project concerns energy, sustainable development, or the environment, this step-by-step guide is the resource for you. The methodical and accessible approach it adopts is useful for both experts and amateurs, and it provides forms and templates that help you structure a comprehensive project monitoring and evaluation framework. This is an ideal checklist for the expert and a how-to guide for people new to project monitoring and evaluation. As a bonus, it uses examples and illustrations for increased clarity.
Pros:
- Step-by-step approach makes it easier to understand and implement complex project monitoring and evaluation systems
- Convenient overview of other resources makes finding supporting literature easy
Cons:
- Focused mostly on energy and the environment — other studies and projects might miss some methods
- Leans more on specific examples than complete explanations
Link to the guide:
“Step by Step Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation” by Oxford University
4. IFRC — “Project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) guide”, 2011
As a reference guide for International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) personnel, it is ideal for those responsible for project monitoring but also useful for volunteers, donors, and partners involved in a development program. The guide is divided into 3 sections — the first focuses on the conceptual framework for M&E; the second focuses on six key steps for M&E; and further, the appendix provides additional tools, resources, and projects for M&E. With a comprehensive breakdown of the important approaches as well as a checklist approach to the setting up of a monitoring and evaluation framework, this guide works for almost everyone.
Pros:
- Comprehensive and methodical in its approach, it gives you the information you need at the point that you need it.
- Annexed resources and updated content make for exceptional supporting reading.
Cons:
- While the information applies across the board, the emphasis is on issues of health
- Lacks an in-depth discussion of data collection methods
Link to the guide:
“Project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) guide” by IFRC
5. Grosvenor Management Consulting — “DIY M&E: A step-by-step guide to building a monitoring and evaluation framework”
This guide comes with a simple editable M&E framework template, and is a simple handbook to setting up an monitoring and evaluation framework conveniently. It uses a simple example to build on the various steps and milestones for setting up an M&E system, and contains simple tables that compare different approaches, giving pertinent information in an easily understandable fashion. Further, it links to resources on understanding other aspects of a program, including how to communicate project monitoring and evaluation results.
Pros:
- Simple, convenient, and accessible — this is the best guide for newcomers to the field
- Effective use of an example framework to help the reader to create their own
Cons:
- Not useful for large projects or programs
- Requires email sign-up for access
Link to the guide:
“DIY M&E: A step-by-step guide to building a monitoring and evaluation framework” by Grosvenor Management Consulting
These guides give you all the information you need to figure out how to design a good project monitoring and evaluation framework. These guides cover understanding the right approach and method for your project, identifying the right kind of data to monitor, and deriving the right conclusions. We hope that these resources will be useful to you and lead to better project monitoring and evaluation of your program.
60 Comments
I like to get such kinds of materials.
Another good reference guide for M&E comes from the World Bank – Ten Steps to a RBME System.
Pros: Provides a steps by step model to build a system, that not necessarily means the use of computer system.
Cons: While it’s focused more on public sector management, the process can be applied in the NGO sector.
Rodolfo
Thank you. Very useful!
Useful readings
very good documents for reference
Thank you, This are great materials
Very important information, some one helps me guide me on how to download this good information .Godfrey Ocittiugi email: [email protected]
Compliments for this insightful information.
Am using the UNDP manual in my PPM class. I found out that the manual is helpful!
Tell me more about PPM class
Very useful…Thanks!
interesting and informative readings. please provide more along this line/topic.
Hi, anything on Impact Investment Monitoring and Evaluation?
Thanks
You can check out Rockefeller’s “Assessing impact investing
Five doorways for evaluators”
Thank you! Very helpful and informative!
Our office, the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) produced a manual in 2014. It’s mainly geared toward programme evaluation (aka institutional evaluation), but speaks to many of the practical and methodological challenges of undertaking evaluation in (and of) international organisations and the contexts in which they operate. It also has many useful links. We aim to update it in a year or so. Here’s the URL: https://oios.un.org/page?slug=aboutied
It is a very good reference material.
I do like all m&E professionals to make use of it
Excellent! Thanks!
The EU/EC? They also have something cool to offer ….
Let me know if you need some URL’s.
Thank you! Very helpful
Very useful guide.its helpful to my current project.
thanks very helpful resources.
Thank you for the golden pages of manual related to M & E. Hope for the more resources like these in near future
Very helpful! Thank you
I like to get such kinds of materials.
This is a good compilation. Too many references will lead folks into the weeds.
so useful!
They are great materials.
Regards
Very useful.
In addition to these great resources, I would put in a plug for the M&E Guide created for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/138430.pdf).
Very useful. thanks
its comprehensive manual and helpful for the field of M&E .I need a copy of this manual
Thanks Good resource for M&E professional. Excellent knowledge base.
Vipul,
At IFAD we’ve used these and other guidelines to develop this training toolbox.
https://metraining-asia.ifad.org/
It is viewable on handheld devices and you can pick/skip lessons on demand.
In my view it’s the number 1 (and well consolidated) guideline!
;P
I think CRS SMILER M&E guide is very useful too
Very good and valuable
Thanks
Thank you so much. Useful documents.
Highly valuable documents for reference
Valuable documents for reference.
Another Pro to the IFRC guide is that it comes in 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Arabic.)
Verry interesting documents!
congratulation for the team!
Cirimwengoma Paty.
Comprehensive and useful guides! Thanks for sharing these valuable resources!
Thank you so much.
Very informative and useful.
Really a wonderful resources shared
This is very useful
Thank you, This are great materials
Useful information. Thank you!
Great we need more similar material to understand M&E in real scene.
Thank you so much for useful information!
Thanks for this. Very helpful.
Great resources for program evaluators and students
A very good reference compendium for students and experts in the M&E field.
This is a great formative pack. Thanks
This is fantastic, thank you so much for such Information. It valuable to my work.
Great one for impact evaluation
http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/sief-trust-fund/publication/impact-evaluation-in-practice
DIME wiki – https://dimewiki.worldbank.org/wiki/Main_Page
The Goldilocks Challenge: Right-Fit Evidence for the Social Sector- Mary Kay Gugerty and Dean Karlan
Very good material for practitioners of M&E.Keep it up
These resources are very useful, thanks
Very usefull. I am new on M&E and certainly it will help. Like it
Very useful. it will surely improve my M&E knowledge and skill