MODULE:

BUSINESS MONITORING, EVALUATION AND AUDITING

LEARNING UNIT I:
DESIGN AN M&E SYSTEM AND TOOLS

BY: Jean Claude NZAYISENGA

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 Unit objectives
At the end of this unit one, trainees should be able to:

 Adequately formulate M&E business goals, outcomes, output, activities to be carried

out, indicators, means of verification and assumptions of the system in accordance
with a business plan,

 Properly select and design of the M & E tools to measure indicators in accordance
with the goals,

 Accurately define the responsibility, data flow and data management as per

organizational structure

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 LO 1.1: Formulation of M&E business goals, outcomes,
output, activities to be carried out, indicators, means of
verification and assumptions of the system in accordance
with a business plan
 Description of the business
• The business description is mainly composed of:
(i) Vision
(ii)Mission
(iii) Objectives
(iv)Core activities

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Description of the business (Cont’d)
• A business vision is a:

Memorable and inspirational summary that describes our reason for

existence as an organization,

Succinct statement about what our organization is trying to achieve to

help third parties such as investors or the media better understand us, it
answers the question: “Where do I see my business going?”

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 Example of vision for Inyange
Industries
• To be the leading East and central African dairy &
beverage brand, producing high quality products while
enhancing shareholder value

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 Description of the business (Cont’d)
• Characteristics of a good vision statement
A good vision statement should:
1. Be short: two sentences at an absolute maximum
2. Be specific to your business and describe a unique outcome that only you can
provide
3. Be simple enough for people both inside and outside your organization to
understand
4. Be ambitious enough to be exciting but not too ambitious that it seems
unachievable
5. Align to the values that you want your people to exhibit as they perform their
work
6. Be understandable. Do not use words that are open to interpretation

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 Description of the business (Cont’d)
• A business mission:

A mission statement is a short statement of why a business

organization exists,

It is a brief description of an organization’s purpose with

reference to its customers

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 Example of mission for Inyange
Industries

• To secure the highest value for all stakeholders in the food

value chain while enriching the lives & health of all consumers
with the most nutritious & tasty choices through a wide range
of dairy & beverage products

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 Description of the business (Cont’d)
• Business objectives
These are statements stipulating a business’s short, medium and long-term
targets that are intended to be accomplished through its operations,

They should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound.

Example: I will increase my sales to 1,500,000 FRW from 1,000,000 FRW a

month through integration of home delivery in my distribution channel by
December 31, 2023.

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 Description of the business (Cont’d)
• Core business activities
These are a company’s central and most important activities in
which its competency lies,
They are activities that are main source of a company's profits
and success, usually the activity that the company was
originally set up to carry out
Example: Production, marketing and sales activities.
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 Monitoring and evaluation system

• Definition

Monitoring and Evaluation System refers to all the

indicators, tools and processes that you are used to measure if
a program has been implemented according to the plan
(monitoring) and is having the desired result (evaluation)

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 Monitoring and evaluation system
(Cont’d)

M&E goal is to improve current and future management of

outputs, outcomes and impact

 It identifies trends, measures changes, and captures

knowledge to improve programmmes’ performance and
increase transparency

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Monitoring and evaluation system
(Cont’d)

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 Monitoring and evaluation process

• In M&E process, a logical framework tool is often used as its

basis,

• A logical framework or log frame is a document that gives an

overview of the objectives, activities and resources of a
business,

• It also provides information about external elements that may

influence the business, called assumptions
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 Logical Framework (Log frame)
• Hierarchy of objectives/results chain
Goal: long-term development objective of a single intervention. It targets improving
conditions (people or business). Example: % reduction of production costs, increase
of profitability levels,
Outcome: Intermediate project/business objective that targets changes in practices,
behavior effect of the output
Outputs: Immediate results of activities/what we produce
Activities: What we do
Inputs: What amount of $ and time or any other resource were invested?

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 Log frame (Cont’d)
OVIs: the things which help us to measure the progress of the
project/business in terms of success and failure. The project/business
must be capable of showing the progress at any given time

Means of Verification: methods and sources of information

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 Log frame (Cont’d)
Assumptions:

These are the factors existing for your project to succeed. Potential accidents during
implementation of the project. They represent the external logic of the project. They
are always stated in a positive way. What facts (environment) must prevail for your
project to be attained

In other words they also refer to conditions which could affect the progress or
success of the project, but over which project managers have no direct control,
e.g. price changes, rainfall, land reform policies, non-enforcement supporting
legislation.
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 Log frame (Cont’d)

An assumption is a positive statement

of a condition that must be met in
order for the project objectives to be
achieved.
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Log frame (Cont’d)

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 Business performance indicators
• There are two main ways of measuring company’s performance:

Financial measures (Financial ratios)

Non-financial measures (KPIs)

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 LO 1.2: Select and design M&E tools

• Classification of M&E tools:

(i) Strategic M&E Tools

(ii) Administrative M&E tools

(iii)Financial tools

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 Strategic M&E Tools
(i) Result framework
• It is a tool to evaluate and monitor the business.

Indicators: are devices that show a measurement.

Core: is a basic or essential meaning

Base line: is a starting point or data used for a comparison or a control

Cumulative target: summation of data at starting point and projected figures

Sources of information: are a people, thing, or place from which information comes,
arises, or is obtained

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 Strategic M&E tools (Cont’d)
(ii) Risk monitoring

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 Strategic M&E tools (Cont’d)
(iii) Questionnaire: this list of questions, usually printed, submitted for
replies that can be analyzed for usable information.

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 Administrative M&E tools
• Administrative tools shall be classified into
performance appraisal and attendance or time
sheet.

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 Financial tools
The sources of data for financial reporting include:
• Invoice
• Receipt
• Stock book (Inventory)
• Sales Records
• Order forms
• Account receivable
• Account payable and
• Cash
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 LO1.3: Define responsibility, data flow and
management
 Organizational structure
• It defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination and
supervision are directed towards the achievement of organizational
aims

• It also deals with levels of authority or hierarchy and accountability

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Organizational structure (Cont’d)

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 M&E data flow and management in a
business

In groups of 10 members, think of any possible

business of your choice.
Elaborate its M&E data flow and management
Maximum: 2 pages
Deadline: Next class

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 M&E business structure
A business M&E structure answers the following questions:

Who should be involved?: Responsible person

When do we monitor and evaluate?: Frequency

What do we want to know?: Information needed

How will we get information?: Methodology

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LEARNING UNIT II:

APPLY M&E SYSTEM

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 Unit objectives
At the end of this unit two, trainees should be able to:
• Properly collect data according to the evaluation goals using the
appropriate techniques,

• Properly analyse data using the appropriate tools and interpretation of the
results in line with the M & E goals and sector indicators

• Appropriately report findings and formulate of recommendations

according to data results against baseline using the recommended template

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Outcome 2.1: Collect data according to the
evaluation goals

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 Professional ethics related to data
collection
• It is good practice to let people know who you are (your name, organization and
reason for collecting data when you ask them if they would like to participate
• You should have permission from participants (people providing the data) and
they should be made aware that their involvement is voluntary. Participants are free
to withdraw from any active data collection or intervention program at any point
without pressure or fear of retaliation.
• Avoid or minimize anything that will cause physical or emotional harm to
participants. Make participants aware of any potential harms prior to their
participation

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 Professional ethics related to data
collection(Cont’d)
• Try to remain neutral and unbiased. Don’t let your personal preconceptions
or opinions interfere with the data collection process.
• Keep collected data confidential (respondents should be anonymous)
• When collecting data, try to avoid taking advantage of easy to access
groups simply because they are there (this is called “convenience
sampling”). Data should be collected from those that most help us answer our
questions
• Be respectful of people’s time and when possible, compensate them for it.

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 Data collection techniques
• Desk review

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 Data collection techniques (Cont’d)
• Observation

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 Data collection techniques (Cont’d)
• Interview: is a conversation where questions are asked to elicit information

• Questionnaire: is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions

and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from
respondents

• Focus group: It provides concentrated amounts of rich data, in

participants’ own words, on precisely the topic of interest

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 Data collection process

1. Identification of types of data

• According to sources: • According to instrument of
data/research design:
Primary data
Quantitative data
Secondary data Qualitative data

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 Data collection process (Cont’d)

• Identification of target respondents

• Sampling (probability & non-probability)

• Collection of data (primary & secondary)

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 Sample size
• There are different formula used to calculate the research sample size
• The sample size can also be calculated by hand, using the following
Yamane Slovin’s formula:

• Where: n: Sample size, N: Population size and e: margin error with 95%
confidence interval

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 Outcome 2.2: Analyze data using appropriate
tools and interpret results in line with the
M&E goals and sectors’ indicators

 Data analysis
• Data analysis is the process of systematically examining data with the
purpose of spotlighting useful information. There are 2 types of data
analysis:

• Quantitative data analysis

• Qualitative data analysis

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  Data interpretation

Data interpretation is concerned with making value judgments of

analyzed data according to the evaluation criteria to make useful
recommendations and lessons learned.

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 Data interpretation standards

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 Data interpretation standards (Cont’d)

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 Outcome 2.3: Reporting findings
and formulate recommendations

Describe the activity that people on the picture are doing.

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 Report tool/template
• Avoiding redundancy
• Keeping the length of the main part
• Being sure to make a summary of evaluation results
• Using specific expressions, in simple manner, emphasizing issues to be conveyed
• Avoid using technical terms too often
• Using visualization such as tables, pictures, symbols, colours and figures in
appropriate and simple manner when explaining data so that the reader can receive
messages to be conveyed through the data
• Stating the limitation of the evaluation study
• Stipulating the sources of quoted data
• Placing the evaluation grid, contents of the questionnaire, and collected data in
appendix
• Trying to convince (be factual and understandable).

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 Reporting process
Reporting process can be divided into three
parts:
- Report writing
-Report submission
-Report presentation

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 Components of evaluation report
• Executive summary
• Preface/acknowledgement
• Table of contents
• Content:
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Findings (Discussion of findings)
Section 3: Conclusions
Section 4: Recommendations
Appendices

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THANK YOU !

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