At a time when development funding is under threat, it’s imperative that any money available be invested into effective interventions rather than wasted on those less effective. Robust monitoring and evaluation — or M&E — systems are key to ensuring that, say experts.
“M&E is the sector that can push for changes because you have the evidence of what’s working and what’s not working,” said Nathalia Quintiliano, a researcher and M&E consultant who has worked with the United Nations Office for Project Services, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
M&E, as defined by impact measurement social enterprise Sopact, “is a combination of data collection and analysis (monitoring) and assessing to what extent a program or intervention has, or has not, met its objectives (evaluation).”