Monitoring and Evaluating

Description: Monitoring – the systematic process of collecting, analyzing and using information to track a defence planning system’s progress toward reaching its objectives and to guide management decisions. Monitoring usually focuses on processes, such as when and where activities occur, who delivers them and if the processes are conducted as planned. Monitoring is conducted after a planning cycle has begun and continues throughout the entire planning period. Evaluation – the systematic assessment of the defence planning system’s overall performance. Evaluation focuses on expected and achieved accomplishments, examining the results chain (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts), processes, contextual factors and causality, in order to understand achievements or the lack of achievements. Evaluation aims at determining the relevance, impact, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of interventions and the contributions of the intervention to the results achieved. An evaluation should provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The findings, recommendations and lessons of an evaluation should be used to inform the future decision-making processes regarding improving the defence planning system’s.