Monitoring and Evaluation Data Analytics

Pretoria: 12-16 August 2024

Course overview

This course pays special attention to data analytics in its quest to help participants in improving their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) data collection and analysis competences for them to make informed decisions at their workplaces. Data analytics helps participants improve on how to collect raw data and to convert the raw data into actionable insights. It pays attention to tools, technologies, and processes that are used to find trends, solve problems and inform decision-making using data. In so doing, this course seeks to enhance the skills of professionals who lead project implementation, participate in projects, supervise, manage, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate projects. M&E increase the chances of project success. The whole project life-cycle is monitored and evaluated.

Monitoring is vital for informed decision-making (evidence-based decision-making) as it helps in gauging implementation progress against what was planned; aligning actual implementation, budgets, quality and scope with what is in plans. Monitoring entails the collection and analysis of data relating to what is being implemented largely pertaining to progress or lack thereof, quality, scope and budgetary issues. Evaluation can be carried out prior to implementation to give an insight into the status quo (unravelling the nuanced reality obtaining which intervention seeks to alter) and ex-post project implementation to gauge the effect of the project on those acted upon and to draw lessons to inform future implementation. In essence, M&E help us gauge the value we are generating from the efforts we put into projects through careful tracking and evaluation of the outcomes and impacts of our projects.