Monitoring and Evaluation forms an integral part of programme management, reporting and mechanism of accountability in organisations. It is good practice to build M&E into the programme design from the onset. As an organisation;
• What is the most appropriate tool you could use to gather data to measure success?
• How will you track on the progress and for what purpose?
• How will the data be presented/communicated and for what purpose?
M&E is the process by which data are collected and analysed in order to provide information to your stakeholders for use in program planning and project management. Traditional approaches of M&E measure outcomes and require them to be known (or hypothesised) at the start and baseline measures to be in place. However, many initiatives and projects may have outcomes that are not known at the start, or that are very hard to define. Theory of change enables a portfolio of data to be collected that might represent a more complex outcome.
Theory of change is an ongoing process of reflection to explore change and how it happens. By using a theory of change approach, we can articulate how we expect outcomes to be achieved. We do this by exploring the real-world setting in which the project is being implemented.
