Monitoring and Evaluation in Development

The importance of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in the management of projects and programs has been widely recognised within the development sector. Effective M&E acts as an anchor to keep the program moving in the right direction towards the goals and targets set at the planning stage. Historically, M&E was seen exclusively as a tool to make development organisations accountable to donors and conducted by foreign consultants who were largely unfamiliar with the context where development interventions took place. This approach has hampered development agencies’ efforts to obtain the right kind of information for effective M&E and project management.