Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning

The key to achieving organisational goals comes from determining and understanding the real needs and wants of target markets, to optimise delivery of desired outcomes more effectively and efficiently. MERL should be a continuous process that is integrated into any business or development programme.

Monitoring the effectiveness of projects, programmes or interventions over time combined with periodic, systematic and objective evaluations of their design, implementation and results is not only key to the success of these but provides the basis for learning and adapting to optimise success.

Learning often occurs too late in the project cycle to influence change, whereas it should be an ongoing practice, involving the transformation of knowledge into wisdom and the development of practices to increase effectiveness and sustainability. Learning includes sharing of best practices and lessons learned both externally and internally.

The purpose of Evaluation is essentially forward-looking, enabling lessons and recommendations to inform and influence decisions about future programmes. Research and evaluation are similar in their objective to answer a question. But while M&E generates information for decision-making,  Research is undertaken to increase the body of knowledge on a particular issue or to test a theory or hypothesis.

 Digital data and new media and information technologies are changing how the world does  MERL but many M&E activities still rely on a limited, inappropriate and inadequate set of methods or design.

Q Partnership has over twenty years’ experience in the field of MERL. We have supported the development of M&E frameworks and systems and conducted over 500 qualitative and quantitative research studies and context analyses for clients across and beyond Africa. Our experience covers diverse thematic sectors, including, but not limited to health, education, agriculture, service delivery, democracy and governance, child protection, gender, migration, conflict assessments, opinion polls, business and economics, finance, manufacturing, and mining.

 These studies have provided our non-profit and private clients with invaluable insight, necessary to guide their strategic planning, to design and implement programmes and projects, and to help identify the most valuable and efficient use of resources.