Monitoring and Evaluation is an intrinsic part of the program cycle (see Figure 1). In order to improve the work that we do, we need to look to see whether our intervention is achieving its intended results, and if not, we need to modify our actions. Monitoring and evaluation helps us to keep track of whether we are on track, and provides information to help us steer the intervention towards a desired direction.

However, monitoring and evaluation also has a role outside the program cycle, and that concerns communicating the results to others. Most initiatives gain funding from external sources, and a requirement of this funding is to report the results. Sometimes we also wish to communicate the results of our initiative with other stakeholders such as the people we are trying to target for change.

Who is it for?

Monitoring and evaluation plans are created for organisations and/or program teams to manage their information and reporting requirements and, more importantly plan for how they will use the information to improve the work they do. It is like a battle plan!

Definitions for monitoring and evaluation and learning

At Clear Horizon we consider learning to be an integral part of monitoring and evaluation. We emphasise that learning is critical. Monitoring and evaluation processes must help us improve and adaptively manage our work.

The distinctions between monitoring and evaluation are blurred, and the terms have been defined in various ways. We use monitoring to describe an ongoing process of collecting routine data and it is primarily for project management purposes. Monitoring is primarily focused on activities and outputs, although at Clear Horizon we also advocate for monitoring intermediate outcomes.

We use evaluation to describe a less-frequent process of collecting information that tends to focus more on the impact of our efforts. Evaluation has been defined as the ‘systematic investigation of the merit or worth’ (Scriven 1991 ). Evaluation tends to be more analytical than monitoring, and involves making judgments about how ‘good’ an intervention has been in terms of specific criteria or values. We tend to refer to ‘evaluation studies’ that are conducted as a discrete study either internally or externally at a strategic point in time.

What we offer at Clear Horizon

Clear Horizon holds a unique position as specialists in Monitoring and Evaluation - we live, eat and breathe it!. Receiving the 2006 National Evaluation Development Award, Dr Jessica Dart is a recognized leader in evaluation with a PhD in the topic. All our staff are enthusiastic, passionate, professionals delivering monitoring, evaluation, and planning with a strong focus on participatory approaches and facilitation. Collectively, Clear Horizon has over 25 years experience in evaluation. All our staff hold relevant professional qualifications in the fields in which we work, as well as studying for post graduate qualifications in evaluation. We pride ourselves in producing in-depth and analytical evaluation reports based on the latest theories in international program evaluation literature as well as in producing user-friendly M&E frameworks that meet client needs. To this end we offer a range of services associated with ‘Monitoring and Evaluation. See ‘our work section‘ for examples of our work, or browse other pages in this section to find out more.

As a common thread across all our work is our desire to build the capacity of our clients to do their own effective monitoring and evaluation, in addition to preferring participatory approaches that build capacity we also offer mentoring and training in evaluation.

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1. Scriven, M. (1991), Evaluation Thesaurus, Sage, Newbury Park, US.