Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of a Watershed Investment Program (WIP) is critical for ensuring outcomes on the ground, reducing uncertainties, informing reporting and communication to investors and donors, and adaptively managing the program over time. Monitoring and evaluation are the processes by which data are systematically collected and analyzed to track project or program progress towards objectives and to measure outcomes and impacts and evaluated to inform program decision making and management.

An effective M&E program provides valuable information about the intensity and direction of changes and whether project or program objectives are being achieved, to inform adaptative management, and to help inform further investments in WIPs based on a deeper understanding of elements of success. To illustrate further,

• The links between our strategies (and the interventions/activities we undertake) and the outcomes we seek are sometimes empirically untested.
• Evidence is needed to assess the impacts of our strategies or interventions/activities, and to improve on them where possible.
• Risks are important to consider. By continuously monitoring and evaluating how our work impacts both people and nature, we are better able to avoid, minimize and mitigate unintended consequences and negative impacts, and to adaptively manage for better outcomes.
   

Common M&E failure points to be mindful of: 

• Poor communication between partners to set realistic expectations: While NbS have the potential for significant environmental and human benefits, it is critical that limitations and assumptions also be concurrently communicated to ground expectations. Besides obfuscating project goals, poor communication can lead to unsubstantiated or unnecessary monitoring investments.
• Vague objectives and/or poor experimental design: Successful monitoring is predicated upon clear and relevant project objectives, which in turn must inform clearly defined and justified monitoring objectives.
• Failure to turn data into information and knowledge: There can be an overemphasis on the planning of data collection and experimental design. During M&E planning, at least equal emphasis is needed on defining data analysis and reporting processes to ensure monitoring investments actually result in useful information for decision-making purposes.
• Failure to act on and not just review the data collected: Successfully collecting, analyzing and reporting monitoring data is a sizeable achievement. However, the real value of M&E depends on its ability to support evidence-based decision-making. As with data analysis and reporting, the procedures under which monitoring results will be leveraged for decision-making must be clearly established at the outset. What decisions? When? By whom? According to what thresholds?