Baselines. Monitoring and Evaluation Planning Series 10

In order to understand the changes brought about by a project or programme it is necessary to understand what the original situation was. This is known as the baseline. Baselines can range from simple exercises to large, expensive surveys. They are an important part of many Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems. Some projects and programmes combine the use of baselines with control groups. Baselines are normally carried out at or near to the start of a project or programme.

This is paper number 10 of our Monitoring and Evaluation Planning Series.