The following success factors are worth considering when defining the site’s approach to monitoring and evaluation:
- Monitoring and evaluation should be planned for, budgeted and scheduled from the beginning.
- Monitoring and evaluation can be an opportunity for meaningful stakeholder engagement to help jointly decide what to measure and how to report, and to build trust including on corrective actions when issues are identified (more details on this provided in Section 1.5 on Participatory Monitoring). Use the Community Engagement Forum or equivalent as a mechanism for sharing monitoring results and seeking feedback on how performance could be improved.
- Baseline data for indicators should be collected to define meaningful project targets and understand the impact of the project or intervention.
- Acknowledge assumptions made in relation to the issue the project or intervention is aiming to alleviate and the anticipated results from inputs and activities.
- Recognise where other factors are influencing the issue we are seeking to address and be aware of the difference between correlation and causation.
- Monitoring and evaluation are most useful when they help inform analysis and improvement; i.e. the ‘Act’ element of the Plan Do Check Act framework.
Templates with worked examples are provided in the following sections:
- Section 2 – Review Planning: Example of monitoring and evaluation framework for long term social performance objectives. This table can also be used as the monitoring and evaluation framework for stakeholder engagement (Section 3A) and for the specific risk management and prevention plans under Section 4.
- Section 3C – Social and Human Rights Impact and Risk Analysis: Example of monitoring and evaluation framework for potential impact/risk controls.
- Section 4A – Socio-Economic Development: Example of monitoring and evaluation framework for Projects (which often serve as potential impact/risk controls).