Don't be fooled. Monitoring and Evaluation are clearly separate activities — carried out by different people and differing in how often they are done.
What is monitoring?
Monitoring is like the dashboard of your car: it tells you how fast you go, how much petrol you have left.
Monitoring is the regular and systematic collection, analysis and reporting of information about programmes, policies or services. It is conducted internally by staff that works inside an organisation, and is a continuous process.
What is evaluation?
Evaluations are like the occasional check-up of your car. They are a systematic and impartial assessment of expected and achieved results.
Evaluations are conducted externally by specialists with no link to the programme. They are a one-off activity, typically carried out during or at the end of an intervention. Key evaluation questions:
- Is it relevant?
- Is it effective?
- Is it efficient?
- Does it have impact?
- Is it sustainable?
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