A lot of what we do in M&E is related to measuring. Many think of measuring as something precise. But in M&E, what we need to be is roughly right.
"It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong." — John Maynard Keynes
Measurements are not always exact — but can be more or less precise. Even an imprecise measurement will reduce our uncertainty to some degree. And depending on what we need, such an imprecise measure may be good enough.
If you want new shoes, it is sufficient to know your shoe size — you don't need to precisely measure your feet.
In M&E, measuring is a set of observations that reduce uncertainty where the result is expressed as a number. We aim for information that is sufficiently accurate to tell us what is going on — and how it changes over time.
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