A guide for practitioners

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using proxy indicators, it is important to ensure that the proxy is giving at least approximate evidenceon the performance.Pre-designed indicatorsWhen indicators are constructed independently of the context of an individual country, sector,organization, project/program/policy, the indicators are known as pre-designed indicators. A numberof international development organizations may construct indicators to track development changes.Examples of pre-designed indicators include the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UnitedNations Development Program’s (UNDP’s) Sustainable Human Development Goals, The World Bank’sRural Development Indicator, and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Financial SoundnessIndicators.MDGs contain eight goals, with corresponding targets and indicators assigned to each. UNDPestablished the Human Development Index (HDI) in 1990 to measure the quality of life in all countries.The World Bank’s Rural Development indicator contains indicators for rural wellbeing, improvementsin the rural economy, development of rural markets, and others. The IMF uses indicators of financialsoundness.The advantages of using pre-designed indicators include possibility to aggregate across similar projects/programs/policies and possibility to make cross-country comparisons. The disadvantages of using predesignedindicators include difficulty to address country specific goals, top–down nature and lack ofstakeholder participation. It is important to note that pre-designed indicators may not be relevant to agiven country or organizational context.6.3 Constructing indicatorsIndicators determine the type of information to be collected for M&E system. Indicator constructionneeds time and should be done with care and in a participatory manner. It should be done bycompetent personnel who have expertise in the issues covered by the M&E system. Indicators have to beconstructed to meet specific needs. Since the objective is to achieve measurement of the results chain,indicators should reflect each element of the results chain. Although indicators should be identifiedacross the performance framework, from resources through ultimate outcome, it should be noted thatRBM emphasizes measuring achievement of results more than the use of resources (CIDA 1999).Indicator selection guides the subsequent operation by indicating what information/data to look for. Ifwe do not assess the issue with the right measurement, we may not be able to get the right informationneeded. Therefore, it is good to ask the right question for each of the issues selected for M&E.Stakeholder participation in selecting indicators helps the incorporation of stakeholders’ interests andconcerns, and improves the usability of M&E information. Therefore, it is important to distil stakeholders’interests into good, usable indicators. Thus, the different level of results should be disaggregated tomake sure that indicators are relevant across the concerns of different stakeholder groups and not justfor a single stakeholder group. It is important to be thoughtful about the number of indicators chosen,because each indicator will need data collection, analysis, and reporting system behind it. Monitoringtoo many indicators, given the limited capacity to do so, is difficult and decreases the quality of theM&E information. Moreover, too many indicators can also negatively affect the response rate. It alsogets in the way of the ‘real’ work of implementation and complicates things. Therefore, it is veryimportant to reduce the number of indicators to the minimum necessary that meet key management,36
learning, reporting and decision-making needs. In addition to reducing the number of indicators, thefrequency, and level of detail can also be reduced to ensure manageable size of indicators. In general,it is good to include only the information required to improve decision-making. This calls for theregular revisiting of the indicators selected for monitoring.Although indicators can be adopted or even dropped, dropping or modifying indicators should be donewith caution and consultations. When indicators are changing, baselines against which to measurechange or progress also needs to be changed. In order to minimize revision, indicators should bethought through carefully when they are first established.37
Page 1 and 2: Improving Productivity and Market S
Page 3 and 4: Authors’ affiliationsBerhanu Gebr
Page 5 and 6: 9 Reporting and using monitoring an
Page 7 and 8: AbbreviationsANOVABoARDCBOCIDADACHD
Page 9 and 10: 1 IntroductionAgricultural developm
Page 11 and 12: 2 Results-based monitoring and eval
Page 13 and 14: OutputsOutputs are direct products
Page 15 and 16: (outputs), and/or the change in acc
Page 17 and 18: to systematically collect relevant
Page 19 and 20: Ultimate outcome(long-termimproveme
Page 21 and 22: 3 Relationships between the concept
Page 23 and 24: outputs) and outcome targets is cru
Page 25 and 26: the quality of new or renewed proje
Page 27 and 28: intervention had not taken place?
Page 29 and 30: 3.3 Differences and complementariti
Page 31 and 32: 4 Participatory monitoring and eval
Page 33 and 34: 4.3 Fundamental principles of PM&EF
Page 35 and 36: how the results are to be used. End
Page 37 and 38: involved in selecting the results s
Page 39 and 40: 4.5.6.Note that implementation focu
Page 41 and 42: contributions to the achievement of
Page 43: Quantitative vs. qualitative indica
Page 47 and 48: Targets are established for each in
Page 49 and 50: possibility when primary data colle
Page 51 and 52: an initial review of the literature
Page 53 and 54: Field experimentsIn rare cases, con
Page 55 and 56: 8.5.1 Qualitative vs. quantitative
Page 57 and 58: 9 Reporting and using monitoring an
Page 59 and 60: management in M&E implies capturing
Page 61 and 62: Clear roles and responsibilitiesCle
Page 63 and 64: addressed. First, there are issues
Page 65 and 66: Annex 1 Glossary of common M&E term
Page 67 and 68: Note: An activity is economical whe
Page 69 and 70: LLessons learned: Generalizations b
Page 71 and 72: RReach: The beneficiaries and other
Page 74: ISBN 92-9146-245-4Federal Democrati

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