M&E Paper 5: The Challenges of Monitoring and Evaluating Programmes

The recent focus on the need to measure (or demonstrate!) the results of social development work can pose problems when thinking about results at programme level . This is partly to do with both the different understandings of the term ‘programme’, and with the usual problems of levels of measurement and attribution.

This paper first attempts to present some clarity in understanding the different uses of the term ‘programme’, and then uses the different types of programme to demonstrate the issues that are thrown up for monitoring and evaluation (M&E).