LONDON — While monitoring and evaluation is now seen as essential to good development — especially as the sector falls under increasing scrutiny and pressure to demonstrate impact and value for money — the nature of aid work often makes it difficult to carry out high-quality measurement.
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Issues such as how to measure abstract concepts like accountability; working in fragile states where politics can get in the way; and navigating big multipartner projects which include multiple actors measuring different things in different ways, can make evaluation a tricky and time-consuming endeavor.
With this in mind, the Overseas Development Institute, a London-based think tank, recently convened a panel of evaluation experts to share their thoughts on the question of “how to measure the hard to measure.”
Devex highlights five key tips from the event.
About the author
Sophie Edwards
Sophie Edwards is a reporter for Devex based in London covering global development news including global education, water and sanitation, innovative financing, the environment along with other topics. She has previously worked for NGOs, the World Bank and spent a number of years as a journalist for a regional newspaper in the U.K. She has an MA from the Institute of Development Studies and a BA from Cambridge University.
