This document discusses the importance of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for decentralization. M&E generates transparency and accountability through reports, allows stakeholders to learn from each other, and finds mistakes to enable improvements. Monitoring involves systematically collecting project data, while evaluation assesses completed projects. M&E should be integrated into all project design and use previous monitoring data to understand how projects develop. The document also provides examples of how one organization conducts cost-effective M&E through integrated staff work and a dedicated team.

1. Page 1 of 3 Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation_ Dec 14, 2014
Importance of
Monitoring and
Evaluation to
Decentralization
Monitoring and Evaluation is essential to add value
for the development of individuals, organizations
and communities as a whole. Despite this broadly
bought-in conviction, M&E still lacks substantial,
effective, and transparent practices with integrity.
Therefore, M&E should take place to determine the
benefits, risks, needs and limitations of services and
service delivery.
Monitoring and Evaluation is important because:
 Generates reports contributing to transparency and
accountability, and allows to share lessons learned;
 Is the only comprehensive source of information
showing project progress;
 Provides assumptions questioning and testing;
 Lets stakeholders learn from each other’s
experiences derived from knowledgeand expertise;
 Finds out mistakes and offers path changes for
improvements;
 Proposes channels for raising funds and influencing
policy;
 Has the organizations learn from their experiences
incorporating them into policy and practice;
 Conducts assessment of the link between
implementers and beneficiaries at one hand and
decision-makers at the other hand;
 Adds to the retention and development of
institutional responsibilities.
Monitoring:
Monitoring is a periodically recurring task already
beginning in the planning stage of a project.
Monitoring is a practice documenting results,
processes and experiences to be used as a basis to
steer decision-making towards path correction.
Monitoring is checking progress against plans while
the data acquired through monitoring is used for
evaluation.
Monitoring is the systematic and routine collection
of information from projects and programs for four
main purposes:
 To learn from experiences to improve practices and
activities in the future;
 To have internal and external accountability of the
resources used and the results obtained;
 To take informed decisions on the future of the
initiative;
 To promote empowerment of beneficiaries of the
initiative.
Evaluation:
Systematically and objectively as possible, assess a
completed project(or a phase of an ongoing
project that has been completed). Evaluations
appraise data and information that inform strategic
decisions, thus improving the project in the future.
Evaluations should help to draw conclusions about
five main aspects of the intervention: relevance,
effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.
Information gathered in relation to these aspects
during the monitoring process provides the basis
for the evaluative analysis.
Monitoring & Evaluation:

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M&E is an embedded concept and constitutive part
of every project design. M&E is a control
instrument for any project, ideally understood as
dialogue on development and its progress between
all stakeholders. In general, monitoring is integral
to evaluation.
During an evaluation, information from previous
monitoring processes is used to understand the
ways in which the project developedand stimulated
change. Monitoring focuses on the measurement of
the following aspects of an intervention:
 On quantity and quality of the implemented
activities (outputs: What is being done? How
activities are managed?)
 On processes inherent to a project (outcomes:
What were the effects /changes that occurred as a
result of intervention?)
 On processes external to an intervention (impact:
Which broader, long-term effects were triggered by
the implemented activities in combination with
other environmental factors?)
The evaluation process is an analysis or
interpretation of the collected data which digs
deeper into the relationships between the results of
the project, the effects produced by the project and
the overall impact of the project.
Governance Strengthening Project’s M&E:
GSP/ Taqadum’s streamlined and integrated
approach to M&E helps make evaluating impact a
cost effective initiative. By integrating monitoring
and evaluation into staff’s scope of work, GSP/
Taqadum ensures that M&E is happening in a
cross-cutting comprehensive manner and that
data is being collected and analyzed from the
ground up. This approach helps contain costs as
no additional funds are needed to implement
daily M&E activities. GSP/ Taqadum also has a
dedicated M&E team to managethe project’s
M&E platform. As a result of this approach, GSP/
Taqadum only incurs minimal express costs
dedicated solely to monitoring and evaluation.
This approach has proven to be a cost effective
way to monitor and manage as many indicators
tracking national-level activities and data.
GSP/Taqadum field staff collects required
documents and forward these documents to
M&E unit where data quality assurance checks
are performed on submitted reports to ensure if
it meets the pre-defined report outlines and the
narrative requirements in order to be counted.
Recommendations:
1: Establishing M& E Units in PC and GO
The establishment of M&E units in the PC and
GO is designed to ensure that key decision-
makers during the devolution phase can quickly
grasp the progress of this considerable endeavor
by reviewing key performance indicators and
take the necessary actions to remedy potential
problems. Additionally, the work of M&E unit can
be linked to the variety of improvements being
conducted by the internal consulting units
working on organizational development
improvement solutions. The M&E unit could
also be used to collect other important
management data for planning and decision-
making processes
2: Enacting Local Revenue Collection Laws
Law 21 includes several sources for local
governments to collect revenue. However, it
lacks laws and instructions for the collection
and use of these revenues. Enacting such laws
and guidelines will assist local governments in
generating revenue and help them meet
citizen’s needs with fewer instances of
corruption and misuse.
3: Benchmarking Public Services at Devolution

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The support articulated here is to benchmark
key current processes that impact public
services, delivered directly or indirectly, from
the devolved ministries. Benchmarking these
services lays the foundation to improve back-
end processes that are being transitioned to
local administrative units and helps to ensure
that local government is at least positioned to
gradually improve servicedelivery and by
extension, citizen satisfaction of the services
provided. Two important issues for managing
public services efficiently and effectively in Iraq
are 1) establishing a performance management
plan and benchmarking indicators within and
with other countries, and 2) establishing a local
government code to guide and help public
officials in decision making without being
paralyzed by unknown or conflicting laws.