Monitoring and Evaluation Tool

Praxis Paper 23

Monitoring and Evaluating Capacity Building: Is it really that difficult?

by Nigel Simister with Rachel Smith

January 2010

Praxis Paper 23: Monitoring and Evaluating Capacity Building: Is it really that difficult? © INTRAC 2010

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Contents

1. Key concepts in capacity building

Basic definitions Different perspectives Capacity building for what?

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2. Key concepts in M&E of capacity building

M&E for what? Good and bad practice in M&E Deciding how far to measure The direction of M&E

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3. Organisational assessment tools

Strengths and weaknesses of OA tools for M&E An evolving consensus?

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4. Other tools and approaches used for M&E of capacity building

Planning tools Stories of change Other monitoring and evaluation tools Client satisfaction Different M&E processes Triangulating methods

5. Donors

Accountability for what? Quantification Moving goalposts

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6. Current practice

How much M&E of capacity building is carried out? Barriers to carrying out M&E of capacity building

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7. Questions for further debate

What is M&E for? Standardisation of organisational assessment tools The adoption of outcome mapping M&E of individual capacity M&E of wider civil society Donor agreement on extent of M&E External judgement INGOs and added-value The gap between theory and practice

8. Conclusions

Annex 1: Bibliography Annex 2: Acknowledgements Annex 3: Tools used for organisational assessment

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Praxis Paper 23: Monitoring and Evaluating Capacity Building: Is it really that difficult? © INTRAC 2010

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Few doubt the importance of capacity building in the modern era, and few would deny that effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is needed to support this work. Nevertheless, the monitoring and evaluation of capacity building is as much a challenge now as it was two decades ago. This paper examines both theory and current practice, and discusses some...