Planning, monitoring and evaluation system 

Planning as part of the PME system
 

Planning each intervention consists of the following phases: preliminary evaluation, participants evaluation (who should be involved in the project), condition analysis, defining the objectives (where we want to get), defining the indicators for achieving the goals (how to find out if we have managed), defining the results, activities and resources (how will we manage?), preparation for monitoring and evaluation (how are we going to check if we have managed?), under presumption that before starting the planning for a concrete intervention, the organization already has a defined mission, vision and mandate, that is, global strategic objectives and priorities. 


What does the preliminary evaluation comprise?

The preliminary evaluation usually comprises the following:
a general evaluation of the national, religious and social context in the field where the intervention is planned;
a determining the target group and end users, that is the people who have some direct benefits from the intervention;
a interests analyses of all involved parties on which the intervention (project) can have influence, or actors who can influence the project;
a primary determining the ways with which the organizations, taking into consideration their mission and resources, will try to carry out the intervention.
 

Planning the project 

After a fundamental examination of the conditions for the intervention, the organization starts to plan the project that is mapping. This is the first element of the PME system, after the objectives and developed strategies are defined. Planning should not be considered to be something totally separated from the monitoring and evaluation. In the process of planning, the way of monitoring and evaluation is always projected, which means that their implementation later in the project is determined during the planning process.

The organizations’ intervention, especially in the smaller communities, also projects an active participation of the target group in the planning. It should be based on the local community’s needs and the following is to be taken into consideration:
·      Who is involved in the project, what is the role of the women, the other marginal groups or categories;
·      Who will benefit from the project;
·      Which methods will be used in the process if participation planning (planning with participation of all concerned parties), for example a group discussion, interview, working groups etc.
 

Problems analysis

The following phase is a situation analysis, more precisely the problems analysis, or as it is also called, a “starting point analysis”. Here the key problems are considered and the possible solutions so first the priority problems are determined, their reasons and the local community resources which are at disposal.

Project’s objectives should be precisely and clearly defined and give pictures of the changes at the target group. Here we should make difference between the general and the long-term objective which refer to problems of wider importance and project objectives – which refer to what we want to achieve with the project after its termination and which are directed towards the immediate reasons for the problem.

 

WISE defining of the objectives
 
The defining of the objectives should be WISE, that is, the objectives should be measurable, prompt, attainable, realistic and determined.

The next step in the planning is to determine what is to be done so that the goals can be achieved. At the same time it is necessary to:
·      Determine the results through which we are going to achieve the goals;
·      To determine the activities for achieving the results, with special accent on who would be involved in which activities, when and where;
·      To list the necessary resources for each activity (human, material and financial).

Determining the results provides defining the accountabilities in the project implementation, which means that they, together with the objectives, should be clearly defined, but also feasible in a relatively short period of time.

The preparation for monitoring and evaluation is an integral part of the planning. With the monitoring, the degree of resources accessibility can be noticed, the activities where they are used and which results are reached, but also to give information which is used in the evaluation.

 
(to be continued) 

Prepared by: L. Alcheva – Jovanovska
Used from: PME Bridges, published by ICCO, Holland