How can monitoring and evaluation (M&E) information systems improve programme impact and assist peaceful development in situations prone to violent conflict? This paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association outlines M&E’s status as a unique discipline and describes M&E strategies and tactics implemented in real-world, peace-precarious situations. Even under the stresses of violence and conflict, M&E approaches can help build knowledge of how to push forward peace and development.
M&E supports development by generating relevant, accurate, and timely information. This information enables stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions that can improve programme design and enhance the impact of interventions. Although M&E approaches overlap with academic social science, one major distinction is a typical lack of scientific or quasi-experimental control groups in M&E work and related project research. M&E is necessarily pragmatic, almost always faces budgetary constraints, and may need to rely on limited human capacity, especially in low-resource settings. Less precise and less costly data than required for academic research can nonetheless convey valuable information for M&E purposes. Implementing M&E in peace-precarious situations raises particular challenges, including dramatic changes in the status of institutions and individuals and the physical security of the project team.
A selection of empirical studies based on the implementation of M&E methods is outlined below:
- In Nepal, Maoist violence disrupted the Maternal and Neonatal Health (MNH) Programme, forcing the M&E plan and survey design to be dynamic. Some initially targeted rural beneficiaries could not be reached, leading to more focus on urban residents.
- Iraq’s Local Governance Project (LGP) implemented quality of life surveys while working to help stabilise new and emerging local government institutions. The intensity of civil conflict increased data collection costs and the urgency with which results were requested.
- In Iraq, the Training Model Primary Providers (TMPP) project assisted the Iraqi Ministry of Health in training efforts focused on primary health care provision, throughout a particularly challenging conflict period. Project staff recruitment and retention – local and expatriate – were major pressures on implementation.
- In Rwanda, an assessment of health management information systems was complicated by staff reductions in the ministry, a changing political landscape, and the reorganisation of administrative and health districts in the middle of the study.
- In Ukraine, the Assocation of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) connects government officials at municipal, city, and village levels across the country. The integration of M&E results information into a website was of critical use for AUC members during a period of intense political uncertainty.
The case studies show that certain features which should be common to all M&E efforts may be of particular importance in peace-precarious situations:
- A flexible approach will make use of both quantitative and qualitative data.
- A rapid or rotating calendar of data collecting activities reduces the risks of missing key measurements in a fast-changing political context.
- Promoting dialogue and feedback about the information use of M&E keeps projects on track and relevant to the evolving situation.
- Integrating the perspective of the ‘M&E field’ into M&E work will increase awareness of the value of getting data which is ’good enough’ where social science purity is impossible. A strategic selection of indicators and metrics can produce useful results, even in difficult circumstances.
