Monitoring and Evaluation Concept in Project Management

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When management of certain programs establishes them, they need to make a follow up that ensures that there is compliance with the set standards and expectations of the project (Vaagaasar, 2009). Project management involves the process through which a project is established, implemented, monitored, evaluated, and any adjustments made to the system to attain its set goals and objectives (Livingston, 2008).

Oxfam being an international federation of fifteen organizations working in 98 countries need to have a strong monitoring and evaluation team to handle its large volume of work and projects. Currently Oxfam has entered into a contact with Dak Nong Doet that seeks to improve the province’s education quality delivery, the project focuses on teachers, pupils, ministry of education and training, and teachers.

To ensure that the goals of the project have been attained, Oxfam needs to have an effective monitoring and evaluation program. This paper discusses the role that monitoring and evaluation plays in an organization and gives recommendations on the best approach that the organization can adopted for effective monitoring of Dak Nong Doet education project.

The nature of Oxfam projects

Oxfam is an international recognized NGO that establishes various programs targeting different needs within the society especially in rural development areas, poverty reduction programs, hungers and other such programs that needs fast and effective attention. There are different projects that the international organization manages and their nature and approach always vary with the intended outcome.

Projects may take the form of civil society developments, ethnic minority issues address, and focus on girl and boy child, addiction programs, and women empowerments.

One of the most renown program that Oxfam has undertaken successfully is the education system where it aims at improving education for the less fortunate in communities; the main focus of these programs are the disadvantaged areas like third world countries, disaster stricken areas among other areas that need arises (Long and Plosser, 1983).

In the past few years, the main focus that the company has had is to improve education in Tra, Vinh, Lao Cai and Dak Nong provinces where the main focus has been girl child programs; when dealing with the projects, the company has its main focus on the school, the child and the ministry as they are players in the segment for an effective implementation.

In the same years, the organization has been advocating for the expansion of its programs or models through Ministry of Education and Training (Posond, 2008).

The next coming years, the organization is focusing on building effective governance in education in Vietnam where it will have the main focus on the teachers, school managers, pupils, and education representatives in all level of education (Marcus, 2010).

Oxfam has signed a performance contract with Dak Nong Doet where it aims at promoting social accountability in the provinces education sector; with the project that has its own objectives, the organization need to have an effective Monitoring and Evaluation in Development programs.

The Monitoring and Evaluation in Development needs to address all areas of the program failure to which it will mean that the projects will not take shape and objectives will not be attained (Walkenbach, 1997).

Monitoring and Evaluation in Development

Project management evaluation stage has the following roles to play in the entire project management:

A project can be defined as a designated ally of tasks that aims at accomplishing a certain task within an organization; it has a period, expected expenditure, expected outcome, and a work framework or schedule; in every stage of the project, there are certain measures that needs to be considered to ensure that the project is running smoothly.

Oxfam project evaluation should address all risky areas and ensure that correct measures have been taken to adhere to the set objectives and goals (Newbold,1998). In a nutshell Monitoring and Evaluation in Development has the following main objectives to attain alongside the projects main objectives:

to plan, organize and control activities: this is to ensure that the set level of operation is maintained in time, costs, and the expected delivery time
Manage activities and organize resources (both human and physical) for the project. This ensures that the human capital that is involved in the projects fits their roles and they do not get higher or lower gains from the projects. The nature of Oxfam projects is that a person can get direct benefit from the project at the expense of the larger population; such moves should be controlled by Monitoring and Evaluation programs (Pons, 2008)
putting all the logistics of a project into place so that there will be full attainment of project goals and objectives: the engagement that Oxfam has entered with Dak Nong Doet should be looked into to ensure that both parties to the program adhere to what they had promised each other; when such moves have been taken then the goals of the project will be attained effectively
Ensuring that the project is accomplished in time with the available resources and if possible have some new strategies of completion of tasks that is better than the original plan.

Dak Nong Doet and Oxfam project has some probable risks that the organization’s monitoring and evaluation programs should address before they limit the attainment of the entire project.

The adoption and deployment of the Oxfam-Dak Nong Doet education system involves great risks, primarily due to the vast initial costs, high over-budget ratio, chances low success rate, failure to meet the project goals, and partial attainment of the initially set implementation.

Furthermore, initiation costs are typically greater than a tailored integration plan but maintenance and modification costs of post-implementation are lower; Dak Nong Doet and Oxfam decided to have an approach that not only sees Dak Nong Doet students attain good education but one that ensures continuity and maintenance of the project.

McComb, Kennedy, Green and Compton (2008) creates an evaluation framework regarding the main issues encountered in the rural development programs and the related costs and benefits; the study has emphasized the requirements of a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of; the writer also suggest that evaluation and monitoring should try to assess attempts of incorporating intangibles into conventional cost-benefit analysis.

It is proposed that decision making should be based on scoring methods, cost/benefit analysis, risk analysis and ranking. However, some scholars argue that scoring and ranking techniques are straightforward but insufficient due to the project interdependence. Cost/benefit and risk analysis methods are insufficient either for the interrelated criteria (McComb, Kennedy, Green and Compton, 2008).

The concept of Monitoring and Evaluation as should be adopted by Oxfam and Dak Nong Doet project

The main aim that the monitoring and evaluation of the program focus on is the development of leaders and managers who can be relied upon to see the entire project come to pass effectively; the leaders should assume the role of planning and making responsive decisions that will see the program come to pass effectively, at any one point the programs should ensure that the programs reach majority of population living in poverty and to sustain the change over a period of time.

The Oxfam and Dak Nong Doet project monitoring and evaluation programs should consider the authenticity of policies, strategies and programs for both quantitative and qualitative change; this will facilitate the existence of equal resources distribution and ensuring that the target group get the benefits as had been anticipated.

The programs should embrace high levels of transparency, accountability and high performance as it can only be through such policies that it can succeed and the people targeted by various projects benefit. With an effective monitoring and evaluation standards, the organization will be assured that its funds address issues in the society and they remain sustainable as the company would have wanted them to be.

Data collection methods for the evaluation

When a project is running, there are checks and balances that should be implemented to offer red flags in the case the set objectives and pathways as has been laid are not adhered to. Project managers have the mandate of ensuring that there are effective internal controls that address any chances of risk; to collect data on the progress and the steps to make the following are effective method of monitoring and evaluation data collection;

Use efficient test-run reports

Before implementation and after implementation of a project, a Oxfam should be taking an appropriate research on what the world is going through and make relevant reports that can aid in the management of the project; it should be in touch with the occurrences in the project area and other areas of the economy. It is important to consider the following key report types:

Single-page project report: this is a short report that offers a single but direct grasp of the project. It should be summarized to offer an overview of what the project if like and how it is expected to be; when there is an observable disparity between what is on paper and what can be observed on the ground
Budgetary information: it provides room for an aggregate roll-up on budgetary status; the main issue is to ensure there are resources for every project
Project dashboard: they have one-lie simplified reports on execution level and the progress of the project.
Resource allocation view: a comparison of the current available resources and their chances of availability in the next 12 months
Strategic alignment: reports that align the entire project with the role and goals of an organization.
Flexible pivot table capabilities: it uses drag-and-drop pivot table-style analysis to offer management platform of answering certain questions pertaining the project as they arise.

Conduct postmortems

To manage effectively projects, managers need to have an ongoing budgetary and analyzing method; they should never assume that since the project has been well planned; then that is the end of the story, they should understand that there are changes that might affect the project negatively thus they need to be checked effectively.

A constant review of the budget, periods and the final periodical results will assist project managers keep the project on its toes. There are some changes that are expected to be observed in a project as it develop, they include an improvement on the lives of the children and the general school environment.

To have the data, the monitoring and evaluation team should undertake regular surveys on the area of implementation the surveys should look into the expected result after certain duration and compare the same with the on paper or the project blue print expectation, in the case there is some disparity they should be addressed effectively (Kumar, 2005).

Recommendation for an effective Monitoring and Evaluation program for Oxfam and Dak Nong Doet project

Oxfam and Dak Nong Doet project should adopt computer aiding monitoring and evaluation systems supported by qualitative and quantitative data from the field; the systems can be in-house developed or they can be sourced from commercial markets, in whichever the way that they have been attained, and then the system should be responsive to the needs of the projects.

They need to have the capacity of interpolating of different issues and information then give the desired response to the managers for effective decision-making.

The operators of computer aided project developments should have a good understanding of how the system works as well as understand the various logistics that are involved in the project at hand, it is by doing so that appropriate mechanism can be adopted (Shane, 2003). An effective computer aiding monitoring and evaluation is likely to address the following areas:

Project evaluation process or methodology: give a framework of the pathway that the project should follow
Cost and benefits measurement: evaluate the benefits and gains that every stage in the project is leading to a dif there is a stage that is not fully operation, the system should be strong enough to alert the managers (Wenzhe, Maoshan, Duffield, Young and Youmei, 2007).
Progress reporting: the system should be able to check and report the progress of the system periodically and offer reports that can be used to improve the project, to be in a position to do this, the system should incorporate some checks and balances and have optimal performances levels.
Communication of key project data: in management of a project, data and information is of essence, there is need to have timely and relevant data at all times. This will offer the much-needed resource to manage the project effectively: an effective system should have the ability to offer the required data when needed and portray the data in an acceptable manner.
Resource and capacity planning: resources are limited, they need to be effectively managed and put in optimal use, an effective system should have the capability of offering a resource allocation tracking system
Cost and benefits tracking: as the project unfolds, there is an urgent need to have all the areas on track, the system should ensure that it looks into the development of a project and make improvements changes where needed (Gary, 2010)

Computer aiding monitoring and evaluation assess the project as a whole and assist managers to have a better track of the project progress, they are of great benefit to management and they need to be of the right operation, failure to which a project will suffer.

The main objective of an effective computer aiding monitoring and evaluation program is to put available resources into optimal use; resources are scarce so their management and utility is paramount in modern societies (Cleland and Ireland, 2006).

Managers should understand that their main role id linking the laid down strategy with actual performance, they should understand that they should be the pioneers of development and operation in the firm (Wheelen and Hunger, 1998). When they fail to undertake effectively their duty, they should be assured they are leading their organization to failure.

The first thing that program managers should embark on is internal analyzing of its potential, and ways that the potential can be put in proper use. With limited resources and having a variety of mutually exclusive projects to undertake, the managers should ensure they select that project that offers maximum returns to the target population and cost the organizations involved relatively manageable costs (Andersen and Vaagaasar, 2009)

To create synergy and keep a project running, program managers needs to develop management elements and factors that can be used to motivate the team players to work hand; they should be encouraged through being shown the success they have made so as they can feel motivated to develop the project further.

A project is bound to be faced with a number of risks; there is need for management to establish the risks that are to be associated with the project and develop adequate mitigation measures. When managing a project, there is needed to have an honest management and team, this will facilitate the development of appropriate decisions making systems to the benefit of the company (Wynant, 1980).

Communication is important monitoring and evaluation as well as in initialization, concluding and making final reports of project; computer aiding monitoring and evaluation keeps project managers on track and reminds them on their role to communicate the progress of the project for evaluation purposes. There is need to develop and maintain effective communication method.

Managers should be able to offer directions and receive feedbacks from the ground using an appropriate communication method (Anderson, 2010).

Depending with the technology adopted and the nature of a project, communication can take different forms: they include online reports, word of mouth, and periodical letters. Project success can be measured in terms of the practicability of business relationships that is directly proportional to the quality of communication (Anbari, 2010).

Conclusion

Oxfam-Dak Nong Doet project aims to improving the provinces education system; the focus of the project is to school administrators, pupils, parents, ministry of education and training, and teachers. The project has its main risk such as chances of not attaining its set goals and objective if risks associated are not effectively managed.

Monitoring and evaluation program address risks within a project and ensures that every stage adheres to the pathway as planned and outcomes are attained as required. For an effective monitoring and evaluation, Oxfam should adopt a computer aiding monitoring and evaluation program that assist to keep track the progress of the project; when such a program has been adopted then the project will be successful.

References

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