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I totally agree with you

GOOD project has a solid plan for monitoring their progress and how measure hoe successful the project is becoming as it is running because they have set indicators that they want to focus on when measuring both the progress and success of the project therefore MEH should also identify indicators which will be focused on in terms of measuring success and progress.An example can identifying how many businesses became a success from the MEH funding project and businesses that did not (identify reasons for failure so as to bring a solution to that challenge), and the impacts they had on the applicants (financial and social wise).

An M&E plan is very important because it helps to track performance and measure the progress of the project, without it its like not having direction at all.

monitoring and evaluation is important as it helps in making informed decision on a project ,serves money and resources, reduces the risk and increases the chance of achieving your project goes.

I like the comparison of both scenarios of the projects ( GOOD and MEH),...… the best I have seen

M & E is important as it seeks to plan and find ways to measure a project which is ongoing and how the data to measure indicators used will be collected. If there are changes or challenges made during the course of the project then the adaptations must be recorded and made.

M & E help you or an organization the know the objectives, aims primary important and successful hope for achieving the goals of a given project. i.e knowing the insight before starting the race so that you will have a successful ending

Monitoring and evaluation are essential to any project or program. Through this process, organizations collect and analyze data, and determine if a project/program has fulfilled its goals. Monitoring begins right away and extends through the duration of the project. Evaluation comes after and assesses how well the program performed. Every organization should have an M&E system in place
M&E results in better transparency and accountability
Because organizations track, analyze, and report on a project during the monitoring phase, there’s more transparency. Information is freely circulated and available to stakeholders, which gives them more input on the project. A good monitoring system ensures no one is left in the dark. This transparency leads to better accountability. With information so available, organizations need to keep everything above board. It’s also much harder to deceive stakeholders.

M&E helps organizations catch problems early
Projects never go perfectly according to plan, but a well-designed M&E helps the project stay on track and perform well. M&E plans help define a project’s scope, establish interventions when things go wrong, and give everyone an idea of how those interventions affect the rest of the project. This way, when problems inevitably arise, a quick and effective solution can be implemented.

M&E helps ensure resources are used efficiently
Every project needs resources. How much cash is on hand determines things like how many people work on a project, the project’s scope, and what solutions are available if things get off course. The information collected through monitoring reveals gaps or issues, which require resources to address. Without M&E, it wouldn’t be clear what areas need to be a priority. Resources could easily be wasted in one area that isn’t the source of the issue. Monitoring and evaluation helps prevent that waste.

M&E helps organizations learn from their mistakes
Mistakes and failures are part of every organization. M&E provides a detailed blueprint of everything that went right and everything that went wrong during a project. Thorough M&E documents allow organizations to pinpoint specific failures, as opposed to just guessing what caused problems. Often, organizations can learn more from their mistakes than from their successes.

M&E improves decision-making
Data should drive decisions. M&E processes provide the essential information needed to see the big picture. After a project wraps up, an organization with good M&E can identify mistakes, successes, and things that can be adapted and replicated for future projects. Decision-making is then influenced by what was learned through past monitoring and evaluation.

M & E is important to help an organization track a project's progress, measure a projects outputs and outcomes.
It also helps to measure the changes that can be directly linked to the project's activities. M &E helps to identify best practices for future project.

What is more interesting to me is that the M&E makes the practionner a better decision maker

Being informed on the right direction and path towards achieving goals is Paramount.

M&E is the backbone and life wire that ensures the rolling out of project activities for desired outcomes and impacts.

The importance of M& E are to know how to know your project, choose indicators, decide how you will measure indicators, create tools, define responsibilities and decide how data can be analyzed and used

The importance of M& E are to know how to know your project, choose indicators, decide how you will measure indicators, create tools, define responsibilities and decide how data can be analyzed and used

Quite interesting to know on how to have initial plans in project set up

1. its good to measure your project activity
2. its also determine how well have you achieve your project objectives
3. it also help to track performance overtime and to make informed decisions about effectiveness of projects and the efficient use of resources

I think one of the important points is to early discover any deviations and to take corrective actions, although such mistakes should be avoided by proper planning of the project but it could happen.

M & e is important to measuring project progress and impact.

From the small introduction above, it is evident that M&E is an integral part of organizational success, many organizations tend to sideline M&E hoping that they will use what ever data they come across to measure progress and they tend to fail at archiving their goal. in my view M&E should not only be incorporated during the planning phase but also select qualified personnel to handle M&E. clear roles should be set and targets should be known to all team members this way all projects will be like the GOODs project stated above

I have always been convinced of the importance of M&E in the success of the project, that is why, I decided to do this course. After the course, I have understood that the work of M&E has to begin at the planning stage of the project. And that it is a continuous process. I am convinced that a very well carried out M&E produces lessons for future projects.

@smbsolomon said in Module 1 Discussion: The Importance of M&E:

Monitoring and evaluation enable us to:
1)To know how well the project is doing in terms of achieving the set objectives

2. To measure the progress of the project through evaluating feedback from clients or beneficiaries
   3 ) To catch a problem and make necessary changes
3. To confidently compile an annual report for your funders and partners regarding the success of the project
4. To plan on manner and method of data collection
   6)To improve on the project

In addition to the above, I would say the greatest importance of M&E lies in self-learning out of the reports for the organisation itself.

• it ensures more transparency and traceability.
• Enables the organisation to identify problems earlier and come up with informed decisions.
• it ensures that resources such as money, labour and time are used efficiently.
• it improves decision making
• it spurs innovations
  -- the organisation tends to become more organised.
• it ensures a better understanding of the project as it encourages knowledge and insight sharing from a wide range of participants.
• it helps the organisation to avoid mistakes

• it ensures more transparency and traceability.
• Enables the organisation to identify problems earlier and come up with informed decisions.
• it ensures that resources such as money, labour and time are used efficiently.
• it improves decision making
• it spurs innovations
  -- the organisation tends to become more organised.
• it ensures a better understanding of the project as it encourages knowledge and insight sharing from a wide range of participants.
• it helps the organisation to avoid mistakes

Yes, GOOD seems to have a "good" start. They know what they want and how to get it; whilst MEH has a brilliant idea but what is the goal? And how will they measure the outcomes? So planning is required.

This is interesting.

I am still confused as to when exactly monitoring and evaluation should begin!As stated earlier, I did think that this should commence after a project has been designed, project implementation started. I also thought that before implementation, an appropriate M& E plan ought to be in place. Am I wrong?

• list item
  M&E results in better transparency and accountability.
  M&E helps organizations catch problems early.
  M&E helps ensure resources are used efficiently.
  M&E helps organizations learn from their mistakes.
  M&E improves decision-making.
  M&E helps organizations stay organized.
  M&E helps organizations replicate the best projects/programs.

M & E is crusial area for the success of a project. It measures the progress of the project while giving a clearcut imagine to the project staff.

Actually MEH is lacking M&E plans for their successful project targets, they need to be taken through their M&E plans so as to achieve goals. before that they should no importance of M&E which is M&E results in better transparency and accountability, helps organizations catch problems early, helps ensure resources are used efficiently, helps organizations learn from their mistakes, improves decision-making, helps organizations stay organized, helps organizations replicate the best projects/programs, encourages diversity of thought and opinions

M&E results in better transparency and accountability, helps organizations catch problems early, helps ensure resources are used efficiently, helps organizations learn from their mistakes, improves decision-making, helps organizations stay organized, helps organizations replicate the best projects/programs, encourages diversity of thought and opinions

M&E results in better transparency and accountability, helps organizations catch problems early, helps ensure resources are used efficiently, helps organizations learn from their mistakes, improves decision-making, helps organizations stay organized, helps organizations replicate the best projects/programs, encourages diversity of thought and opinions

M&E encourages innovation as well for any organization to succeed

Every organization benefits from M&E

M&E results in better transparency and accountability, helps organizations catch problems early, helps ensure resources are used efficiently, helps organizations learn from their mistakes, improves decision-making, helps organizations stay organized, helps organizations replicate the best projects/programs, encourages diversity of thought and opinions

M&E helps he organization stay organized.

M&E improves on the decision making of the organization

I am loving this course already

M&E is a very important function in project management structure and organization which is responsible to mesure and evaluation project progress, performance, lesson learned and level of implication of stakeholder for a better sustanability of final products and results

Imagine two fictional projects. Both projects belong to the same organization: a civil society organization in Kenya that is dedicated to improving the lives of local girls.
The first project is Girls Organizing for Ongoing Development (GOOD), a project that will help local girls to open savings accounts. GOOD’s project manager took this course last month, and she has already created a fantastic M&E plan.

Her team knows precisely what its goals are: they want to open 1200 new savings accounts for girls in 34 Kenyan villages in the next six months. And they will know how well they are doing, too, because they have already decided how they will measure progress: every field office will have one person recording how many girls open savings accounts. In addition, they have plans to collect information on how the savings accounts change their beneficiaries lives, what beneficiaries think about the project, and how the project can be improved. In a year, when it’s time to write the annual report for their funders and partners, they will be ready to say exactly how successful their project was. And if anything starts to go wrong, they will be able to catch the problem right away and make any necessary changes.
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.

A better start

M&E has proven to be of essence to various disciplines.

• M&E is a key function for service delivery improvement.
• M&E shows whether a service/program is accomplishing its goals.
• It identifies program weaknesses and strengths, areas that need revision, and areas that meet or exceed expectations.
  To do this, you need to analyse the program’s domain.

Importance of M&E.docx

How do you select metrics to measure the impact of your projects holistically to ensure you have eliminated all biases ?

Looking forward to learning more.

I'm looking forward to finding out how to most effectively help groups like MEH.

Unrealistic targets is a major reason why project implementation fails. Setting unrealistic targets connotes a lack of excellent M&E skills. It iis expected that, proper background research and analysis of all indicators relating to a project in view is done to guide the project manager and his team in setting ambitious, but yet realistic targets. Project targets must never be the product of guesswork or dreamland persuasion. Of course, it is good to dream of making something realisable in real life: man has being able to travel to the moon and to planet Mars. Commercial space travel is now a dream come true, courtesy of Mr Jeff Bezos, and Sir Richard Branson. Same applies to the invention of the flying car, which has successfully completed flight tests of 40 minutes between two airports in Europe. We also have amphibious cars in existence today. However, years of research, monitoring and evaluation went into these projects' design; set up; implementation; and completion/ commissioning phases. Many skilled project managers and M & E experts constituted part of the team that brought these products into existence. Indeed, targets were set; but they were realistic targets, which could possibly had being reviewed in the face of new challenges that might had arisen in the course of projects implementation.

Before the project kick off the project team with the M&E people needs to come together and develop M&E Indicator matrix

a well-functioning monitoring and evaluation system is an essential component of good project management and accountability

I illustrated examples are easy to understand and I can't wait to learn how to create a plan for my own project.

M&E is usefull in:
Reporting to Beneficiaries /Government, Performance Management, Learning for better implementation and Accountability to Funders

The examples illustrated above are so easy to understand. I am excited to learn how to create a plan for my own project because I am the perfect example of MEH!

• helps in reporting to beneficiaries

• Helps in performance management

• Facilitates in learning for better implementation

• Provides accountability to the funder

In order for any project to succeed there should exist an M&E plan to ensure that the project goals are being achieved.

M&E helps to measure the successes of a project

I have never created a monitoring and evaluation plan for a project before, yet I am thankful for this course that would help bring light to what monitoring and evaluation is as well as understanding and knowonk how to make a project Monitoring and Evaluation plan

From the two project examples given above, it's important to have the knowledge of M&E for you to successfully keep tracks of results either positive or negative which will help you made a good decisions.

M&E is very important in projects because it helps stakeholders stay in focus with respect to the objectives of the project .At the same time ,they can accurately follow the progress of the project ,make possible changes and increase the chances of successful and satisfactory completion of project

• M&E looks like time keeper.

• like budget obseravor.

• it is important in our life

M&D is happening every in our daily live even in our houses

The importance of M&E is located at its accuracy

The importance of M&E is located at its accuracy

Every thing is M&E in society

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) helps with the routine collection of data to track project performance over a period of time that helps to make informed decisions about effectiveness of project interventions. M&E also guides whether planned activities have achieved the set objectives of the project and how much change in terms of outcomes can be linked to project interventions. Overall, all this helps us to know whether the project has achieved its intended purpose or not.

M&E is the map to how project or activities will implement to achieve project outcome or goal. The monitoring will show how progress of the activities is going and track to make sure the activities implement as per the planed. Then feedback the implementer if there is comments or points during implementing to avoid and adjusted the deviation through carried out of project. In others hand, the evaluation assiss in knowledge how the outcome is achieved and measured the changes during implementation that enhance to reach to the achievement the project objective, as well catch up the best exercise during implementation with looking for for the lesson learned for the project to feedback for further interventions

Am interested to find out how MEH makes through into forming a plan. The project is really interesting and am set to learn more from it.

It help to track the ongoing project by collecting relevance data for the project.
Developing systematic way of collecting data for the project

monitoring and Evaluation is very important to every organization who intend to increase its growth through effectiveness and efficiency. it can add value for the development of individuals and organizations. effective, transparent and (if possible) comparable M&E must therefore take place to further determine the inherent benefits, risk and limitations of organization activity.

Monitoring and Evaluation is important because:

• it provides the only consolidated source of information showcasing project progress

• it allow actors to learn from each other's experiences, building on expertise and knowledge

• it often generate reports that contribute to transparency and accountability, and allow for lessons to be shared more easily

• it reveals mistakes and offer paths for learning and improvement.

• it provides a basis for questioning and testing assumptions

• it provides a more robust basis for raising funds and influencing policy.

M&E support the project team to identify the problems immediately and manage it before having negative impact on the project. it also help to track the progress of the project implementation. On the other hand, M&E measure the achievement level of the project objectives.

As a discussion point, I want to ask the team: As an M&E, how do we make sure the program team to understand the importance of M&E for the success of the project they are implementing? In the field of work, we observe that program team always see the M&E a tool for investigation or looking for errors.

1. Microfinance for Expanding Horizons must know the number of girls that has account with them.
2. choose the age range that will be needing the loan.

Its a great start I think as we start planning about M&E for MFH, by doing so, we can plan for our project as well.

The importance of monitoring and evaluation in projects is that projects are in inevitable for changes and when you have not done or come up with a monitoring and evaluation plan it made be hard if the changes come up in the progress of the project.
Regards,
Lawrence Kikwameti

The team should know how many girls they are targeting .
How much are they going to lend girls ,and also what business are the girls into or their plan to do with the microloans once given.And measure the approximate of the life span of the business of the girls.

L'importance entre le suivi et l'évaluation
le suivi nous permet suivre et de comprendre l'évolution, le progrès, l'avancement du projet et des activités mais aussi de nous faire comprendre si nous sommes entrain de d'avancer vers les objectifs que nous devons atteindre.
l'évaluation quand ta lui, nous permet non seulement de suivre l'avancement du projet mais aussi d'évaluer si le projet profite bien aux bénéficiaires, la redevabilité envers le bailleur, les bénéficiaires, etc...

Great one....The first project is Girls Organizing for Ongoing Development (GOOD)...i dont have an insight on the M and E duties

From the aforementioned discussion on "The Importance of M&E". M&E is very important to a project, especially from the implementation stage. Therefore, all projects must create a M&E plan. I am willing to learn by doing. Let us help MEH prepare their plan.

Grant, W

Hello! My name is Douglas Ondieki, a project officer for an OVC project in Kenya

The M&E is important to :

• measure the progress of one project
• to monitoring the progress
• to see if the implementation of the activities is on track with the objectives of the project
• to evaluate the outcome of the project

Project monitoring and evaluation are of paramount importance to the success of any project, whether it is long or short term. Thanks to the data collected regularly during the monitoring, we can have a clear picture of the evolution of the project, which will allow us to know what decisions to take and with the help of the evaluation we can determine the success of the project from the scale set in the project.
So the combination of these two forms the skeleton of the project.

From the two project examples given above, it's important to have the knowledge of M&E for you to successfully keep tracks of results either positive or negative which will help you made a good decisions.

1. For easily setting of targets
2. To measure whether or not those targets are effectively achieved
3. For documentation of evidence
4. To track implementation and outputs systematically, and measure the effectiveness of programmes.

Je pense que dans le cas du projet MEH, on devrait se reférer au CMR qui donnes une certaine nombre d'informations sur les résultats et des indicateurs qui permettront de définir l'information exacte à collecter.

Oui, mais le plus souvent, on a l'impression que les gestionnaires du projet et programme ne se rendent pas compte des ces aspects dans la réusite de l'implémentation du projet/programme

M&E is very important to anyone trying to assess the successes and failures of his/her project. It gives edges to proper planning and distribution of job to the team members. M&E is good for accuracy while writing proposal to avoid to many questions when called upon.
It permits a detailed report and self explanatory evaluation.

Monitoring and Evaluation is important due to the following reasons:

1. It helps to generate both quantitative and qualitative evidence about how much has been or has not been achieved.
2. It helps to examine the trend.
3. It helps in highlighting problems.
4. It shows early warning signs.
5. Corrective actions can be taken in time.

M&E helps to generate evidence of how much has been or has not been achieved and highlights problems showing early warning signs so that corrective actions can be taken timely and determine achievements of the results.

Important of M&E: M&E is very important because it helps the organization to measure the progress of the project and to know if the project has meet its intended target.

Monitoring and evaluation are critical factors in the accurate and efficient use of project resources.
Indeed, they make it possible to collect the data which makes it possible to plan strategies allowing to conceive and carry out the projects.
This collected data will then be used to appropriately distribute the resources of a project.

The importance of M&E:

1. setting goals and orienting goals to team members for clear understanding of purpose of project.
2. Monitoring progress of projects through collection of data
3. Evaluation of impact of project by measuring change.
4. Assessment and development of new ways of improving a project through feedback.
5. Helps in early identification and remedy of arising problems.

M&E is very important to complete your project successfully and for the better result, it help you not only to understand the project but even help project to work more efficiently with your team.

I love the creative use of phrases "Good" and "Meh"!

I think I am off to a very important course that will help me to effectively carry out M&E in future. I will also consider the process of pursuing this course for my M&E plan. Thank you FHI 360, thank you Philanthropy university.

With the introduction part, I already love the course. I believe M&E applies to all areas in organization day-to-day activities.

M&E helps managers to make informed decisions backed by data collected from surveys.

I agree with you, M&E, is so operational in all components or functions of an organisation

when I looked at the content of this course, I knew I was in the right Track to acquiring knowledge in operations management

• Monitoring and Evaluation has equal importance because if let us take an example of organization that has no M&E plan they will not be able to achieve their target in a proper or may face some difficulties.

• If a manager is not monitoring his or her employees he or she would be facing difficulties in measuring the performance.

• monitoring and evaluation are very important part of all process without it it is difficult to make important decisions.

THE IMPORTANCE OF M&E.
In order for us to understand the importance of M&E we must first appreciate the meaning of the term M&E.
Monitoring and evaluation are the two reasons for collecting and analysing the data of a project.
Monitoring is collecting data and using the information to adjust the project, while evaluation is comparing the result of the project with the project plans; and judging the success of the project. Monitoring may take place weekly, monthly, and quarterly. However, evaluation is known to be carry-out half-yearly or yearly.

Therefore, M&E keeps all stakeholders and or partners abreast of the progress of the project. It also helps to make a more informed decision and garnered deeper understanding base on lessons learned. It also foster more meaningful communications and help us to recognise and celebrate success.**

The importance of M&E can not be overemphasised. Planning is very important to the development of any project. it would go a long way to determine is a project is going to fail or succeed.
However, I believe that a lot need to be done to ensure that the planning designs are as simple as possible.