Understanding Monitoring & Evaluation

Core terms

Monitoring

The routine, continuous tracking of a project while it runs, to check that activities are happening as planned, on time, and reaching the intended people. Real-time. Helps you catch problems early.

Evaluation

The periodic, deeper assessment of whether a project worked and was worth it. Done at set points such as a baseline, midline and endline. Judges results, not just delivery.

M&E

The two working together. Monitoring watches the project as it happens; evaluation judges what it achieved. Both feed reporting and improvement.

MEAL

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning. The fuller frame now common in the sector. Accountability is showing, with evidence, that resources were used as promised, both upward to the donor and downward to the community. Learning is using the findings to make the next project better.

Project cycle

The path a project travels, from design through implementation to closure and the design of the next project. M&E belongs to every stage of this cycle, not only the end.

Baseline

A measurement taken at the start of a project, before any activity, recording the situation so later change can be judged against it. Sometimes you collect this yourself through a survey; sometimes you draw it from existing sources such as the Ghana Statistical Service or the district assembly.

Midline

A measurement taken partway through a project to check progress and allow course correction.

Endline

A measurement taken at the close of a project to judge what changed by the end.

Indicator

The specific, measurable sign you track to know whether something is happening or has changed, such as the number of farmers trained or the percentage reporting higher yields. Indicators are covered in depth in Module 3.

The difference at a glance