Monitoring and evaluation

Abstract

The paper presents findings of a research on the differences in the roles and the relative adoption of M&E in project management amongst the donor funded and non-donor funded projects in Kenya. The research involved literature review and random sample survey of 51 projects (26 donor funded and 25 non-donor funded projects) through administration of questionnaires and subsequent analysis of the data from the project stakeholders respondents. The results show that the donor funded projects tend to have a more formal approach to M&E than non-donor funded projects. Non-donor funded projects have short and irregular monitoring schedules and lower levels of evaluation as compared to the donor funded projects. They were relatively less complex and of lower quality. The most likely explanation is that lack of evaluation could have attributed to the lower quality in these projects. The conclusion reached was broad based, and suggests that donor funded projects give greater emphasis to M&E than their counterparts and are more formal in their approach. Formal M&E is more critical to them because their projects tend to be larger and more complex - soft, less deterministic - than private sector or even government projects. Based on the research findings, non-donor funded projects should intensify and formalize the use of M&E in order to raise project performance levels and quality. However, important ideological and practical factors must be considered in any comparative appraisal.