Chrispen Hanyane
Geographic Information Systems, Impact Assessment, Value Chain, Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in socio development programs faces a number of challenges. First, most M&E approaches schedule M&E activities either as mid-term or end of project activities. Secondly, M&E technologies rely on statistical or spread sheet technologies which are unfamiliar to a large percentage of stakeholders in socio development. Thirdly, most M&E information processing systems run as stand-alone systems. These issues have negative impacts on the contribution of M&E to social development. This paper discusses the effects of these challenges and then describes an M&E model that has been developed to address these challenges. The challenge of scheduling M&E is addressed by embedding M&E at the center of operational system. This approach ensures that some M&E tasks are executed each time stakeholders carry out daily operational tasks. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology was used to simplify user interfaces to M&E systems. The complex tasks of numerical analysis are hidden behind the user friendly visualisation effect of GIS. The challenge of stand-alone M&E system was addressed by mainstreaming M&E systems into the value chain of the application domain. Use of value chain techniques creates knowledge systems within stakeholder communities. Additionally, the M&E systems designed using this approach were carried out in a participatory manner. All stakeholders, including rural poor from communities in place participated in the design of systems that mainstream M&E through knowledge management.
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