Thematic Areas

Reflection-Action Cycle

R-A cycle 4 - Participatory monitoring & evaluation

R-A cycle 4 - Participatory monitoring & evaluation

Ongoing monitoring and evaluation are essential in order to ensure that organisations are able to:

  • learn from experience
  • adapt plans to respond to events
  • improve the effectiveness of future work
  • be accountable to communities and other stakeholders
  • report to funders and partners
  • share learning with other organisations
  • ensure that resources are used effectively

Almost any participatory tool can be adapted for use in monitoring and evaluation, provided that the same tool is used systematically at regular times during the life of the project (beginning, middle and end at the least). If you are starting at the mid-term and don’t have all the relevant baseline information you can ask participants to create a mapcalendar / tree, etc. to show what the situation looked like before the project started. This won’t be as accurate as one created at the time but will give you an idea of the changes that the participants feel have come about since the beginning of a programme or project.

References

Resources

Here you can find the different resources related to the current category.

Tools in this toolbox

3Ps power circles

To deepen analysis about how power relationships work at 3 different levels related to how we interact with the world: :personal …

Access and control matrix

To analyse who has the power to access and control different resources and who is denied this.The Access and Control Matrix encou…

Body map

To explore issues around health and sexuality, women’s rights and violence against women.Steps in the processDraw the outline of …

Body map - power within and power to

To facilitate critical analysis about shifts in ‘power within and power to’ with a focus on sensitive subjects such as sexual aut…

Bridge

To develop or evaluate an action plan.The image of a bridge over a river (or road) is used to show the steps taken from the past …

Chapatti diagram

To explore relationships between things – particularly the relative importance, influence or power of people, organisations or gr…

Chapatti diagram - spaces of power

To explore power relationships between organisations and people, focusing on spaces of power (closed, invited, created).The chapa…

Community meetings - monitoring

To enable community members and other stakeholders to meet regularly to monitor progress towards agreed goals and are able to ide…

Community power map

To map spaces of power in a clear, visual way and presenting local information, problems and opportunities. A community map can b…

Community scorecard

To help groups assess services, facilities programmes or projects run by government, NGOs or other organisations, by grading them…

Daily activity chart

To help participants to analyse how their time is used each day.The processDraw a daily timetable from sunrise to sunset.Ask part…

Forcefield analysis

To identify helpers and spoilers – people, organisations or events that might help or hinder your work. For a similar tool, adapt…

Ideal future map

To discuss what the participants would like to see in their village in future and to prioritise amongst these.Steps in the proc…

Leaky pot

To explore how governments lose revenue through tax avoidance and corruption. This image of a leaking pot is used to support part…

Maps

To present local information, problems and opportunities in a clear, visual way. A basic map of a local area can be overlaid with…

Peeling the onion

To uncover and facilitate a process of deeper analysis about different forms of power related to specific issue.Visible power: ob…

Power flower

To look at shifts in different forms of power. The power flower tool provides a critical lens and a simple way to gather, consoli…

Problem tree

To explore cause and effect.A tree can be used to explore cause and effect or problem and solution. The various elements of a tre…

Ripples of change

To assess the levels of change resulting from a programme or project. A stone dropped in water creates ripples outwards. This ima…

River

To explore the history of an individual, community or organisation. The characteristics of a river (its changing width, current a…

Seasonal calendar

To help participants to analyse the distribution of agricultural work / crops / illnesses / etc. over the year.Cross referencing …

Value for money grid

To review community or organisational costs related to a particular programme intervention or project and assess value for money.…