Building an Effective M&E System (BMS)

Purpose

M&E professional should have all the required knowledge and skills to set up and maintain an effective M&E system. A system is a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose. In other words, a system is a set of parts that perform a collective function. This definition conveys the idea that the system is not only the parts that perform a collective function but also the way those parts interact.

Considering the definition of the system, the M&E system refers to all the resources, indicators, tools and processes that are collectively used to ensure whether a program is implemented according to the plan and whether it is achieving desired results. In real world, the M&E framework describes how the MEL system for the program should work, who is responsible for what, what forms and tools will be used, how the data will flow through the organization, and who will make decisions. Therefore, a well-crafted (effective) M&E system will do the following:

ü  Seek to integrate, align, prioritize, contextualize, and resource monitoring, evaluation and learning activities and processes

ü  Support the design process and program implementation

ü  Adapt as needed to remain relevant, and

ü  Contribute to accountability, learning, adapting and achieving the program purpose.

 Elements of competency and performance criteria

 Learning units describe the essential outcomes of a competency. Performance criteria describe the required performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the learning unit.  By the end of the module, the trainee will be able to: