Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is a combined term for the processes set up by organizations such as companies, government agencies, international organisations and NGOs, with the goal of improving their management of outputs, outcomes and impact.
Its purpose is to determine if the outputs, deliveries and schedules planned have been reached so that action can be taken to correct the deficiencies as quickly as possible.
[2] Evaluation is a systematic and objective examination which is conducted on monthly and/or yearly basis, unlike Monitoring, which is a continuous assessment, providing stakeholders with early information.
Monitoring checks on all the activities on the last [implementation stage] unlike Evaluation which entails information on whether the donated funds are well managed and that they are transparently spent.
[2] The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in February 2005 and the follow-up meeting in Accra underlined the importance of the evaluation process and of the ownership of its conduct by the projects' hosting countries.
[6] The credibility of findings and assessments depends to a large extent on the manner in which monitoring and evaluation is conducted.
To assess performance, it is necessary to select, before the implementation of the project, indicators which will permit to rate the targeted outputs and outcomes.
This group also provides guidelines and relevant documentation to all evaluation organs being part of the United Nations or not.
[8] Most agencies implementing projects and programmes, even if following the common UNEG standards, have their own handbook and guidelines on how to conduct M&E.