Linking monitoring and evaluation to impact evaluation

The purpose of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other development actors is to help people improve their lives, communities, societies and environments. NGOs are typically interested in contributing to social change such as increased justice or economic and social security while recognizing that these represent long-term outcomes that go beyond the achievement of short-term results.

As Guidance Note 1 indicates, that is what impact and impact evaluation are all about: systematically and empirically identifying the effects resulting from an intervention, be they intended or unintended, direct or indirect. Impacts are usually understood to occur later than and as a result of intermediate outcomes. There is an increasing realization that good intentions are not enough.

Impact evaluation goes beyond considering what agencies are doing to what happens as a result of
these activities, and the extent to which these interventions are indeed making a difference in the lives
of people and the conditions in which they live. Most NGOs engage in a variety of monitoring and
evaluation (M&E) activities. The extent of these activities can vary considerably. In many cases, what
goes under the rubric of M&E consists mainly of monitoring and reporting, although organizations
are increasingly also engaged in a variety of evaluation activities, examining various aspects of their
performance. Yet there is significantly less attention to the evaluation of impact.

This guidance note will illustrate the relationship between routine M&E and impact evaluation in
particular, it will indicate how both monitoring and evaluation activities can support meaningful and
valid impact evaluation, and even make it possible. Impact evaluations are typically external, carried
out in whole or in part by an independent expert from outside an agency.
Nevertheless, M&E has a critical role to play, such as:
• Identifying when and under what circumstances it would be possible and appropriate
to undertake an impact evaluation.
• Contributing essential data to conduct an impact evaluation, such as baseline data of various forms and information about the nature of the intervention.
• Contributing necessary information to interpret and apply findings from impact evaluation. This includes information about context, and data like the quality of implementation, needed to understand why given changes have or have not come about and what we can do to make our efforts even more effective in the
future.

source:

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