Project Cycle Management Training Handbook - CFCU

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Project Cycle Management Training Handbook
Don't get
swamped!
Effective reporting is dependent on the users and reporters having a
common understanding of why a report is required and what it will be
used for. However, experience shows that this approach has two
important weaknesses; first, it assumes that users know what they
need in advance, second, users tend to request more information than
they really need. Both situations are to be expected during the early
stages of a programme when the roles and functions of implementing
agency staff are still being clarified. In practice they may not be
resolved over time when a third weakness may become apparent;
users are not aware of what information is available. Given that both
the users and uses are expected to change over time the identification
of information requirements will be an iterative process, and the onus
will be on those responsible for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) to
undertake a continual review of users requirements through:
♦ attending planning and review meetings to note what appears to be
lacking or redundant for effective decision making
♦ encouraging comments and suggestions on the content and format
of reports directly from user to reporter
6.2.3 Review Indicators
Selection of indicators has already been discussed in Chapter 3.
However, poorly specified indicators have frequently been cited as a
major weakness in the design of M&E systems. Common problems
encountered in the selection of indicators include:
♦ selection of too many indicators - People have a tendency to overestimate
the amount of information they need to make decisions.
Specification of information needs involves a trade-off between the
amount of information required to make decisions, and the amount
of information that a decision-maker can practicably read and
analyse. All too often, a manager over-specifies his or her
information needs, only to find that it is simply impossible to read
the reports and absorb the information contained in them.
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