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Very good

MEH. The first step to set up a M&E plan is to review the logical framework of the project by clarifying and updating the project activities the expected results interms of target and specific objectives.

Monitoring and Evaluation processes are the most important part from a Project Cycle Management as it allow us to analyse and measure to which extent our project is successful or have had an impact.

M&E is important because it helps a person to identify whether the project are likely to be attained

its hard to ignore the importance of M&E in development work. There is a constant need to learn from experiences and identify best practices. Not to mention limited resources; there is a need to learn how to use resources efficiently and effectively.

M&E is important because it provides consolidated sources of information showcasing project progress which is very important for the success of a project, generates reports with transparency and accountability which can be shared with donors and other stakeholders, identifies mistakes and suggests the pathways for improvement and learning, also form a means to create a link between implementer and beneficiaries on the ground and decision-makers.

M&E is important for the overall improvement of the program. M&E helps in reporting and accountability. It's also vital for provision of data to stakeholders

M&E is important for the overall improvement of the program. M&E helps in reporting and accountability. It's also vital for provision of data to stakeholders.

M&E plan helps you with a good project plan and a proper way of tracking your project

Very good start, fantastic explanation!

They could measure how many loans, what age were the girls, how long they took to pay, if they pay, interest rates, etc.

Monitoring and Evaluation is part of project management. Having a good M&E system contribute obviously to the achievement of project goals. Each stage of project cycle is intimately linked to a M&E task. While monitoring enable to track to progress of project, evaluation help to answer whether project goals have been met and what can be do differently for next time (lessons learned).

M&E can help us to measure the progression of project's activities and achieve the project's obective. In addition, it can help us to operating the activities drives smoothly and efficiently

Monitoring and evaluation together provide the necessary data to guide strategic planning, to design and implement programmes and projects, and to allocate, and re-allocate resources in better ways. It increases efficiency and effectiveness.

M&E can help us to measure the progression of project's activities and acheives the gaol of project's objective. In addition, it can support the activities drive smoothly and efficiently.

To track the progress of the project and to make formal decisions on how effective the project will be and how efficient the use of resources will be, there must be an exercise of monitoring. on the hand to know how activities achieved the project objectives and to link the interventions to the changes of the outcomes, there must be an exercise of Evaluation. combining the two exercise it means there must be Monitoring and Evaluation which can not be done without its plan. so the M&E plan is of paramount importance to register proper tracking of the project's progress.

the importance of M&E makes me understand manage project content to measure the processess

At the beginning it is paramount to see which previous information about the tageted beneficiaries are avaible, so that we can draw the picture of their situation according to the field of the project (in this case the financial skills of women in Kenya). After that, it would be possible to try to understand in which way the action (giving loans) could have an impact on their situatuation (how an imput, as a loan, can create an improvement on women's life), and later on select which indicators can give us the proper information about the impact of the project.

The two clear fictional examples of the GOOD and MEH projects on M&E are very clear and depict the real problems that projects are facing on the ground. At the onset, they are mind openers on what I am about to learn. Thanks

Having an M&E plan really helps in putting main issues into perspective. You also have something to fall back on when a project is not going well to see areas that need to be worked on to bring out the desired results.

Monitoring and evaluation provide's informations on what an intervention is doing, how well it is performing and whether it is achieving its aims and objectives guidance on future intervention activities. its An important part of accountability to funding agencies and stakeholders.

Monitoring and evaluation provide's informations on what an intervention is doing, how well it is performing and whether it is achieving its aims and objectives guidance on future intervention activities. its An important part of accountability to funding agencies and stakeholders.

Monitoring and evaluation provide's informations on what an intervention is doing, how well it is performing and whether it is achieving its aims and objectives guidance on future intervention activities. its An important part of accountability to funding agencies and stakeholders.

This is indeed a good topic

Monitoring simply means tracking the progression and activities of an ongoing project.

Evaluation means checking the positive impact, strategically learning and improving an ongoing projects, to ensure it's sustainability.

Hello,

I think M&E is extremely important because it does not only give ways of measurement about the project's activities and results, it also helps to understand the project's functions or project's organization by providing a general view of the project's intervention.

Regards,

José Luis

The GOOD initiative, stands to not only benefit the donors but also the government and local population, through the data collected, before (baseline survey) and after (evaluation), changes in outcome in the lives of girls as well as their perception in terms of money and economic decision making will most likely be noticed. This in turn can help the girls take loans and develop.
A good M&E plan, is as good as the team in the planning, the individuals in the MEH project could not come to a decision and thus the entire process faulters.

It demonstrates how project/ programme efforts have had a measurable impact on expected outcomes and have been implemented effectively

What are the basic importance of M&E in our daily lives

What are the basic importance of M&E in our daily lives

I am in the early phase of planning a project and as I ask "how will we know we have succeeded?" I begin to see the importance of having an M&E plan right from the start.

Monitoring and evaluation helps with identifying the most valuable and efficient use of resources. ... Monitoring and evaluation together provide the necessary data to guide strategic planning, to design and implement programmes and projects, and to allocate, and re-allocate resources in better ways

`It is a good tool when it comes to Planning and actualization

it has added great confident in my profesional approach in project management

M&E will help details you and your activities before your Donors

The importance of Monitoring and Evaluation M & E:
Monitoring;

• To monitor a progress of any project there is a serious need to collect data that shall be used to analyze its progress and whether the project operations addresses the key objectives or not.
• it also will help understand which areas needs interventions.
  Evaluation;
• at the end of given periods specified in the project plans the same data collected through monitoring shall be helpful for the determinant of future actions this includes budgetary allocations or funding after evaluation.
• it also helps understand the management or operatives abilities in handling the project activities or whether there is need for training plans to bridge the skill or competency gaps for proper performance achievements.

In progression of what I have learnt in module 1

● project activities includes:
1.Inputs which are the things but in a project.
2.Outputs are the things that you know your project will make
3.Outcomes are a bridge between activities and impact.

4. Impact are the positive change made to create a difference in alignment with the plan or initiation of the project.

Looking for risks and assumptions before and during project design phase is a powerful way to escape your biases.

At the programme level, the purpose of M&E is to track implementation and outputs systematically and measure the effectiveness of programmes.

MEH have to do more than collecting information of number of girls getting loans. They have to come with the plans on collecting information about how many businesses are getting loans?how many are putting the loans to proper use? How does the loan improve their businesses. What other ways their should improve their loan giving process for proper M&E?

M&E is very important for project analysis

Creating a data collection tool should largely depend on the resources that you have. This is because the best tools are usually time consuming and expensive. Therefore,if an organization has the resources,they should consider the best tools however expensive they are.

I am excited about this plan

Monitoring and evaluation plan is a key instrument that encourage and motivate project managers and team thick clearly on what they intent to doing in the way M&E way before executing the project.

M&E is important so that you can track the success (and failures) of your project. This contributes to lessons learnt for subsequent projects and if a project is really successful it can be part of best international practices

Indeed an M and E plan helps guide a an organisation to direct efforts, resources towards achieving a specific goal.

Microfinance for Expanding Horizons (MEH)

Goals:
1- Girls borrow small amounts of money (microloans) to start business.

Measurements:
1- The value and number of loans and savings accounts;
2- Types of financial services offered;
3- Percentage of target population served;
4- Annual growth rate of assets;

Collect information:
1- Monthly report for monitors to monitor the evolution of the programme.
2- Yearly report for funders to say exactly how successful the project is.

Monitoring & Evaluation is an integral part of any successful project. A well organized and timely developed M&E plan helps the project workers to measure their ongoing progress on regular basis in terms of the designed activities as well as to assess how the project activities are reaching the pre-set objectives. Project officials can suffer in projecting their achievements over time as well as in linking the outcomes with the project efficacy due to lack of M&E.

M&E is exactly what will show you how you are progressing and if there is any problem you will notice before it get out of hand. I realised that it is so important for every organisation small or big to have M&E officer.

Nice job

Monitoring is very important

The main work of the M&E team is to collect, process, evaluate data. The M&E team should evaluate the progress of the project. To check the progress of the project data is most important, bases on the data the the progress of the project would be known. so, the data is very important for the M&E team.

I think the importance of M&E lies in the fact that we can measure progress and track performance over time of any given project or activity which in turn can help us to be more efficient moving forward or improve the project during or after implementation.

It helps to know how well the project is performing during implementation and make adjustments where necessary. M&E helps to understand whether the project inputs are are producing the desired project objectives and goals. It also helps to understand the extent to which project beneficiaries and stakeholders are satisfied by the project. M&E also helps to know to what extent the project was successfully implemented. It also helps to demonstrate to donors how their resources where used. Lessons learnt and best practices can be also be used for decision making, replicate in future similar projects and to source for more funding.

Looking for risks and assumptions before and during project design phase is a powerful way to escape your biases.
In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occuring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the goal or activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the completion of the goal or activity.
An assumption is any project factor that is considered to be true, real or certain without empirical proof or demonstration.

The importance of Monitoring and Evaluation is that it gives the project implimentor the results of the project either the project is effective or not and if there is need to change the project that is if it did not reach its goals , and either to end the project if it has accomplished its goals , and to be able to come up with others methods or strategies to improve the project so as to be able to reach the targets or goals of project

I believe this topic will help me much since my project is at outset where good M&E plan paramount to measure the success and failure of the project which will be implemented for the coming 36 months.

I have not understood the importance of M&E very well

The importance of M&E
M&E is important because it enables pertinent information about the project to be collected regularly to measure progress of project activities, this will aid in tracking performance of the project over time, and it will help decision makers to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of the project and efficient use of resources. With M&E we are able to determine how well the project activities have achieved the project's objective & how much change in the out come is directly linked to the project's interventions.

The importance of M&E
M&E is important because it enables pertinent information about the project to be collected regularly to measure progress of project activities, this will aid in tracking performance of the project over time, and it will help decision makers to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of the project and efficient use of resources. With M&E we are able to determine how well the project activities have achieved the project's objective & how much change in the out come is directly linked to the project's interventions.

M&E is very important in project implementation as it helps to measure the progress of
activities in the project. It also tracks the performance of the project overtime.

The Importance of M&E

• provides data showcasing project progress
• allows actors learn from each other's experiences, building expertise and knowledge
• Reports contribute to transparency and accountability
• reveals mistakes and failures and provides path for learning
• provides basis for questioning and testing assumptions
• assesses the link between implementors, beneficiaries and decision makers
• it provides a more robust basis for raising funds and influencing policy

m& E is important for any organization as it helps in decision making, and identifying whether the goals of a project have been met

m& E is important for any organization as it helps in decision making, and identifying whether the goals of a project have been met

helps an organization to know the progress of a project
is crucial in measuring change to determine the impact of a particular project

The importance of M & E cannot be over emphasized as it enables collection of data. The collected data can be reviewed and used for reporting, tracking of project objectives actualisation and decision making.

M&E has major rule in the project implementation cycle, that we could asses our goals, activities

M&E has major rule in the project implementation cycle, that we could asses our goals, activities

• For transparency and accountability

• Early detection of issues that might lead to project failure

• Ensures proper resource allocation

• Fosters informed decision making

• Helps transfer knowledge from one project to another

• Encourages innovation

M&E It helps determine exactly when a programme is on track and when changes may be needed. Monitoring and evaluation forms the basis for modification of interventions and assessing the quality of activities being conducted.

Monitoring and evaluation can be used to demonstrate that programme efforts have had a measurable impact on expected outcomes and have been implemented effectively. It is essential in helping managers, planners, implementers, policy makers and donors acquire the information and understanding they need to make informed decisions about programme operations.

Monitoring and evaluation helps with identifying the most valuable and efficient use of resources. It is critical for developing objective conclusions regarding the extent to which programmes can be judged a “success”. Monitoring and evaluation together provide the necessary data to guide strategic planning, to design and implement programmes and projects, and to allocate, and re-allocate resources in better ways.

Absolutely that is right dear

For the organization ...
The need for M&E is not just about funding. This is an essential component for a good design and a good implementation of the project. It is a process through which an organization should be able to determine how its activities contribute to the desired results. M&E helps organizations better understand and articulate their work. It also helps promote the values ​​of a project and identify areas for improvement.

Thus, M&E contributes to organizational development and should inform the future of a program or project.

For beneficiaries ...
Let’s not forget the main reason for the existence of organizations: the beneficiaries. What better role can M&E play than enhancing the beneficial experience of a program participant? As M&E seeks to improve practice, this should automatically lead to a better organization which in turn should better meet the needs of beneficiaries.

The field of monitoring and evaluation is often discussed, but it seems to be an elusive subject. The idea is simple and a lot of knowledge exists on the subject, however putting it into practice remains difficult for many people.

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This is quite an eye opener for me.Great

M&E is important because it help guides the project we are in. It gives us a clear idea of what data we must collect and measures. It's a great help to do a final report with valuable information.

The second project is Microfinance for Expanding Horizons (MEH), a project that will let girls borrow small amounts of money (microloans). MEH knows that their donor will want to see some data, but they do not know how to get it. In fact, they are not totally sure what they should be measuring. Some people on the team think that they should measure how many loans they give out. Other team members think that they should measure how many businesses they help to get started. Either way, they know they will need an M&E plan fast!

Clearly, GOOD is off to a great start. But there is still hope for MEH! They still have time to create an M&E plan. Throughout this course, we will help MEH prepare their plan. By helping MEH prepare their M&E plan, you’ll learn how to create a plan for your own project.

Based on these two projects GOOD and MEH, the importance of M&E plan is to help us to follow regularly the implementation of project to minimize the risks hinder to achieve the goal. And to measure to which extent we achieve the goal and what are the impacts.

To help Project MEH I strongly recommend taking the CSE-UCLA Evaluation Model type of evaluation model

a. The first stage of evaluation begins with a Needs Assessment, where evaluation
identify whether there is a difference between program status or conditions
reality (what is) with what is expected (what should be). What's the problem
faced? What are the gaps in the institution?

b. The second stage of planning and development (program planning and development)
development), see if the planned program is suitable for
meet a need or achieve a goal? Decision to be taken
is the selection of strategies to achieve program objectives.

c. The third stage of implementation, evaluation focused on program implementation.
The evaluation will answer the questions:

1. Did the program go according to plan?
2. How is the economic development there?
3. What are the impressions and attitudes of local Kenyan people?
4. What is the process of local Kenyans in improving their economy?
5. Types of recommendations include: What needs to be changed, improved,
   be addressed so that at the final stage of the program to achieve success?

d. The fourth stage of results, evaluation is carried out on the results achieved. so far
has the program been able to achieve the planned objectives? What is the result
achieved as a result of the given treatment?

e. The fifth stage of impact, evaluation is focused on assessing the
program benefits. The question revolves around how existence
program? How will the program benefit individuals and institutions? Type
recommendations at this stage are programs need to be developed,
extended, modified, reduced or even discontinued.

Monitoring and Evaluation is important as it helps an organization to gauge its performance. An organization gets to know whether they are working towards the goal and whether they are making good progress to achieving their targets

MEH PROJECT

Data collection needs for followings

• how many girls borrowed money

• what is the highest amount of the money borrowed

• what is the least money borrowed

• what type of business they started

• how many small business started

ITS CLEAR THAT THE M&E IS USEFUL FOR ANY PROJECT.

Very helping

To help plan and evaluate progress of an organisation

I am beginning to have better insight of M&E and its importance in a project as well. However, planning an M&E for some project like MEH can be a bit challenging. But however, I really appreciate this practical-based approach which I believe will help have a good command of M&E in the run.

This is definitely a good scheme that could get them on the track to success.

M&E helps to measure your project scope and deliverables. Set realistic indicators and targets to better measure your progress towards the objectives and overall goal of the project. For collecting data and transmitting and analyzing them into useful information for decision makers, the M&E responsible must create tools and/or M&E templates to track and archive data. Archiving useful data can help track and follow up interventions, provide useful reports, and cross-check different data and information and compile useful information for decision makers to incorporate in the projects and programs implementation and interventions.

The M&E plan gives very good direction for the project implement's, indicators are clearly defined, targets set through out the project implementation period, data collection points defined and the frequency well established. All the activities implemented contributes to all the areas to be measured as well as to the overall project result and objective areas. Its therefore important to create an M&E plan as soon as possible.

M and E helps organisation to set goals for their projects, help them identify potential risks and solutions to the risks. M and E helps in the smooth running of projects since it has clear set plans for projects

M and E helps organisation to set goals for their projects, help them identify potential risks and solutions to the risks. M and E helps in the smooth running of projects since it has clear set plans for projects

GOOD knows their plan and exactly how to achieve it strategically which gave them ability to have accurate data standard when monitoring and evaluating. MEH should redefine their objectives since they have plan. Having clear objectives will let them what exacly they should do.

To monitor the ongoing performance progress and track every activity and interventions in the target hubs/field, the GOOD M&E team in collaboration with its management must first provide an M&E Plan, set the targets for each field and the number of saving accounts that will be opened for the girls as well as the Microfinance loans and businesses that will be opened for the targeted beneficiaries. Also, to evaluation the impact of the two projects, a baseline study should be conducted to set the milestones and measure the performance progress. Also, M&E tools should be created and provided to track and record data and information to know how many saving accounts were created for the girls in each field, including profiles for each girl to record their data and progress overtime and regularly communicate with them to know the outcome and impact of the project that how these saving accounts help them change their life and its effectiveness in their real life. In addition, prepare tools to track that how many beneficiaries received loans, how many were the costs and how it was effective and efficient in keeping their business running and to know their revenue and income and how it was positively impacted on their business. Moreover, each field must ask them to provide progress reports in each milestone to know they are in the right path as set and targeted in the M&E plan. At the end of the projects an end line assessment should be conducted to compare the changes made and know the progress and to think and plan for the sustainability of the projects. I recommend that a lessons learned report should also be provided to record the successes and failure and provide the findings and the challenges. Also, recommendations should be provided for each findings to implement in the future projects and programs. In my opinion it would be beneficial to conduct focus group discussions with the groups who have had progress in their work and businesses as well as interview with the ones that had initiatives in their businesses.

am Edwin Mwiti from kenya i think M and E can help the manager and stakeholders understand whether the project is progressing well and if it has achieved its scope.

I already see the significance of M&E. We usually overlook the importance of understanding what we are intending to achieve and how to achieve it which makes it difficult or rather imposible to reach our intended goals.

M&E is very critical to ensure that we accurately capture the objective of our project and what we aim to achieve, as well as how best to track performance throughout the project lifecycle – even beyond implementation. It helps to identify the data to track, how it will be tracked, how it will be used , who will collect them and areas/activities for improvement on the project and improve plans for subsequent projects, ultimately improving project outcomes and impact.

The M&E plan is such an important tool in organizations. The most of the success in organizations comes out of the M&E plan; I have just reported in some of my answers how it was troublesome to start a project without this knowledge.

I really liked the way the course started with. I've always been fascinated by interactive learning and this course will provide an opportunity to do so.

Let's see how we can help MEH in their formulating their M&E Plan.

This section provides a brief introduction to what M&E is, together with a selection of recommended reading and further links to help you get started.
Monitoring is the systematic and routine collection of information from projects and programmes for four main purposes:
• To learn from experiences to improve practices and activities in the future;
• To have internal and external accountability of the resources used and the results obtained;
• To take informed decisions on the future of the initiative;
• To promote empowerment of beneficiaries of the initiative.
Monitoring is a periodically recurring task already beginning in the planning stage of a project or programme. Monitoring allows results, processes and experiences to be documented and used as a basis to steer decision-making and learning processes. Monitoring is checking progress against plans. The data acquired through monitoring is used for evaluation.
Evaluation is assessing, as systematically and objectively as possible, a completed project or programme (or a phase of an ongoing project or programme that has been completed). Evaluations appraise data and information that inform strategic decisions, thus improving the project or programme in the future.

Evaluations should help to draw conclusions about five main aspects of the intervention:
• relevance
• effectiveness
• efficiency
• impact
• sustainability
Information gathered in relation to these aspects during the monitoring process provides the basis for the evaluative analysis.

Monitoring & Evaluation
M&E is an embedded concept and constitutive part of every project or programme design (“must be”). M&E is not an imposed control instrument by the donor or an optional accessory (“nice to have”) of any project or programme. M&E is ideally understood as dialogue on development and its progress between all stakeholders.

In general, monitoring is integral to evaluation. During an evaluation, information from previous monitoring processes is used to understand the ways in which the project or programme developed and stimulated change. Monitoring focuses on the measurement of the following aspects of an intervention:
• On quantity and quality of the implemented activities (outputs: What do we do? How do we manage our activities?)
• On processes inherent to a project or programme (outcomes: What were the effects /changes that occurred as a result of your intervention?)
• On processes external to an intervention (impact: Which broader, long-term effects were triggered by the implemented activities in combination with other environmental factors?)
The evaluation process is an analysis or interpretation of the collected data which delves deeper into the relationships between the results of the project/programme, the effects produced by the project/programme and the overall impact of the project/programme.

Microfinance for Expanding Horizon (MEH) project must first identify the location where the project will be undertaken, there after determine the number of girls who will be the beneficiaries. The other thing that needs to be considered here is the type businesses to be funded (eg poultry, fish farming, grocery, goat farming) and the amount each girl can qualify to get. For example if MEH wants to fund poultry farming then these girls must undergo a training about poultry farming and the purpose of the loan. The period on which the project will be undertaken must be stipulated. When this is done it will be easy to monitor the girls as they invest in the right business.