PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 7 Monitoring and evaluation

A new discipline has emerged in recent years - Monitoring and Evaluation, usually known as M&E. M&E usually involves analysis of three aspects of development projects: · Physical programmes; · Financial progress; and, · Project impact or benefit monitoring. The last of these has its own acronym, PBME (Project Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation). PBME aims to identify the extent to which intended project beneficiaries are in fact receiving the benefits planned. It also looks more broadly at the impact (positive or negative) the project may be having on other people, on the environment, on the regional or national economy. The following notes look at the role RRA may have in PBME of agricultural development projects.