Monitoring and evaluation in agricultural and rural development projects: Lessons and learning

Project M&E systems are a requirement of most major funding agencies and result from a concern that many projects fail because they are badly managed. However, M&E systems themselves have a poor record. This paper argues (a) that project design is a significant factor in project failure and (b) that the over‐ambitious terms of reference for M&E systems contribute to their failure. Technical issues may permit managers to ignore M&E information, but these issues may not be as important as the potential threat which information may represent. Progress is being made in addressing these issues but M&E has been slow to learn from its own experience.