Innovation into Action - Step-by-Step Guide - 5.Monitoring and Evaluation

Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

Stage Four

Stage Five

Stage Five - Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluating how your project performs is very important for a number of reasons:

You need to look at how you're doing every so often to make sure you are still on the right track
You have to have a good idea of where you are with the project finances - spending too little might mean you not doing everything you could be - too much and you could run out of funds before the end
You need to show the people you are accountable to - members, unders, regulators, partners that you are achieving what you set out to do
You may want to apply for funding in the future - one of the first questions you'll be asked will be about previous grants you've received so you'll need evidence that you delivered results with previous projects
Others will be interested in learning from your project - both good and not so good lessons
It will help you identify any problems earlier so that they can be resolved

The most important thing is to build in a proper monitoring and reporting system from the start. This needn't be very sophisticated or elaborate. It could be computerised or manual so long as it will help you monitor the project and keep it on track. If using computers then again you do not necessarily need specific software. A general spreadsheet e.g. Excel or similar can be as good.

Evaluating the project is different from monitoring. The main purpose of monitoring is to ensure that the project is on track and any problems are identified early and resolved.

Evaluation is done towards the end of the project to ascertain if it was successful and completed on time. What lessons can be learnt i.e. what worked well and what didn't work so well. This is most useful for people who may wish to replicate the project. Sometimes it is better to have a third party carry out the evaluation as they may not have been too involved in the project so will have an objective view. You need to plan this at the beginning so that appropriate resources can be allocated for this task.

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