Module 12 - Monitoring and Evaluation: Measuring and Assessing Agricultural Development Programs

• Support to funding agencies (for example, competitive grant programs) must establish realistic and clearly understood performance measurement mechanisms.
  
  
• Measuring the performance of agricultural projects requires indicators to assess outcomes and impact not only on beneficiaries but also to assess contributions to the national economy and relevant agricultural strategies. In CDD and extension projects, establishing effective systems to monitor decentralized programs must ensure that the data are available at the appropriate levels. This often requires linking a central M&E unit to decentralized implementation organizations and their respective M&E units.
  
  
• Investments in intensification of sustainable agricultural production, environmental management, and land resources require holistic monitoring systems capable of critically evaluating economic, social, and environmental changes throughout and following program implementation.
  
  
• Public investments in agricultural private sector and market development should be evaluated against the objectives of poverty reduction, efficiency, and sustainability.
  
  
• Since poverty reduction is the primary objective of Bank investments, monitoring of outcomes and assessing impacts on the poor, women, and minority groups needs special attention, even though many poverty reduction effects for these groups are likely to be indirect.
  
  
• The M&E plan and budget should provide for special studies that are a practical tool for providing data disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, or other key characteristic of client population; for stakeholders to learn about and affect the project and M&E process; for collecting information on agricultural systems, evaluating project impacts, and especially for assessing and measuring project outcomes; and to track specific planned and unplanned impacts or operational issues (such as access to technology by women or minority groups, and changes in land tenure and other social conditions in the area) (Rajalahti, Woelcke, and Pehu 2005).

Selected Readings

Asterisk (*) at the end of a reference indicates that it is available on the Web. See Appendix 1 for a full list of Websites.

AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Information System). 2000. “Monitoring and Evaluation for AKIS Projects: Framework and Options.” AKIS Good Practice Note. World Bank, Washington, DC.*

IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development). 2003. A Guide for Project M&E. Managing Impact for Rural Development. http://www.ifad.org/evaluation/guide/index.htm

Kusek, J., and Rist, R. 2004. Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System: A Handbook for Development Practitioners. Washington, DC: World Bank. *

Rajalahti, R., J. Woelcke, and E. Pehu. 2005. Monitoring and Evaluation for World Bank Agricultural Research and Extension Projects: A Good Practice Note. Agriculture and Rural Development Discussion Paper 20. World Bank, Washington, DC.*

World Bank. The Logframe Handbook: A Logical Framework Approach to Project Cycle Management. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/06/07/
000160016_20050607122225/Rendered/PDF/31240b0LFhandbook.pdf.

References Cited

Ezemenari, K., A. Rudqvist, and K. Subbarao. 1999. “Impact Evaluation: A Note on Concepts and Methods.” Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network Draft. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Kusek, J., and Rist, R. 2004. Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System: A Handbook for Development Practitioners. Washington, DC: World Bank. *

Rajalahti, R., J. Woelcke, and E. Pehu. 2005. Monitoring and Evaluation for World Bank Agricultural Research and Extension Projects: A Good Practice Note. Agriculture and Rural Development Discussion Paper 20. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Rossi, P. H., H. E. Freeman, and S. Rosenbaum. 1982. Evaluation: A Systematic Approach. 2nd ed. Beverly Hills: SAGE Publications.

World Bank. Operational Manual. http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/institutional/manuals/opmanual.nsf/.

World Bank. The Logframe Handbook: A Logical Framework Approach to Project Cycle Management. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/06/07/
000160016_20050607122225/Rendered/PDF/31240b0LFhandbook.pdf.

World Bank. 2003. “Monitoring and Evaluation Component in Agricultural Operations: A Toolkit.” Agriculture and Rural Development Department Draft. World Bank, Washington, DC.