Building capacity through participatory monitoring and evaluation : an emperical [sic] assessment

Abstract

The twenty-first century has seen the words self-reliance, participation, accountability, capacity building and learning as common in development rhetoric as they are contravened in practice. This practicum report shows how participatory monitoring and evaluation has the potential to make the rhetoric real. It establishes participatory monitoring and evaluation as one of the great frontiers and challenges for development with implications for learning and change which are institutional, methodological and personal.

This practicum report describes the process of participatory monitoring and evaluation and capacity building through learning, utilization and self-evaluation. The outcomes of this process in terms of consequences of integrating different stakeholders, building capacity at individual and collective level and organizational changes are described.

Using theoretical literature on these themes, a holistic and transformative framework based on learning, capacity building and utilization is applied to participatory monitoring and evaluation. Steps to implementation are suggested for evaluators and program implementers.