Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

Access to a wide variety of resources.Effective within a limited budget.Realistic targets within the circumstances.Limitations of the NOLNet monitoring and evaluation: Time constraints and participants busy with other commitments. Much more work was required than initially anticipated. Bad timing with people leaving due to it being the end of the academicyear. Limited number of methods and lack of triangulation. Over-emphasis on programme inputs such as number of participants. Limited consideration of impact on capacity development. Limited opportunities for feedback, with an additional workshopdesigned for feedback suggested. Lack of financial resources.Figure 4.2: Summary of NOLNet strengths and limitationsThe NOLNet exercise demonstrated the benefits of adopting process-basedmonitoring and evaluation into such programmes. It enabled participants toengage, provide feedback and evaluate what was taking place. Such anapproach facilitates a transition in culture from one of monitoring andevaluation as different expressions of solely external imposition, tomonitoring and evaluation also functioning as internally driven programmesof improvement (section 6.6). The result, as noted by participants in theNOLNet focus group, is that skills are gained by those involved throughoutthe process (21/02/08):„It is amazing what those internal staff took out of involvementin the process – it was a significant capacity building event forthem in itself ... we had our weaknesses as well – but that isthe beauty of the report… it helps us now to improve on thoseareas that we had either turned a blind eye to or were simplynot aware. But you can only get that through an evaluationonce people have had the opportunity to express themselves.‟151