Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Impact Assessment Studies

Especially after 1990, a kind of homogeneity has been seen in the design of
poverty alleviation policies in Latin America. The studies about the formulation of social policies
have been given good experiences by Latin America countries, particularly regarding anti-poverty
policies. This paper studied the evolution details about the design of mitigation poverty programs
implemented in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. These countries were chosen as representative cases
concerned with poverty alleviation schemes in the region. The methodology used the path
dependence concept to analyze anti-poverty schemes designed by these countries. This paper
focused on Conditional Cash Transfer and anti-poverty strategies implemented in these three
countries. The research showed evidence of a learning process during the path dependence
procedure among the formulation of anti-poverty schemes in Mexico, Brazil and Peru.

EXTRACTO El presente documento está organizado en tres apartados. El primero de ellos, lo que se denomina una serie de elementos que contextualicen la intervención de Zonas de Orientación Escolar en las coordenadas de la evaluación de programas sociales. Un segundo apartado proyecta lo que podría considerarse una propuesta de evaluación. Finalmente, se presentan algunas cuestiones que quedan pendientes respecto de la viabilidad de una evaluación de Zonas de Orientación Escolar en los términos anteriormente planteados.

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

Purpose – Recent operations management research suggests that adopting and implementing the right practices are essential to attaining “world-class” performance. The purpose of this paper is to report the leading operations management practices and the strategy deployment framework that emerged from a qualitative study that addressed the question of how managers implement strategy in an organisational excellence environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Group work with managers responsible for implementing strategic initiatives was followed by case studies of seven organisations via in-depth semi-structured interviews. A survey questionnaire strengthened the validity of the constructs of strategy deployment that were identified in the case analyses.
Findings – In total, seven strategy deployment constructs were identified and linkages between them are described. The 50 leading deployment practices indicate a mix of hard and soft management skills applied across the seven constructs.
Practical implications – The leading deployment practices have the potential to raise the performance of organisations by improving the implementation of strategic initiatives. The framework is relevant to the deployment of both corporate and business unit strategy such as manufacturing or operations, and should be of interest to managers in these areas.
Originality/value – Researchers have noted for more than a decade that no generally accepted framework of operations management practices has emerged for strategy implementation. Most strategy studies have focused on strategy formulation, content, or on project/programme management. There have been few multiple case studies of leading strategy deployment practices in diverse organisations from both private and public sectors.

ABSTRACT
This research empirically investigated the project monitoring mechanisms within the Safety and Security SETA (SASSETA) with the view of improving project implementation and good governance. Several studies have been carried out with the aim of determining critical success factors (CSF) which contribute to project success. The analysis of these studies shows a particular pattern of events with some CSFs appearing consistently in a number of studies. One such factor is the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) function. Learning programmes within the SASSETA is largely ran as projects. It is therefore true that monitoring and evaluation of those projects can ensure that projects can be completed is a structured fashion – on time, on budget, within scope and producing expected results. However, this has not been the case as SASSETA programmes and its monitoring and evaluation activities are still not integrated organisation-wide, which affects the manner in which programs are implemented. SASSETA has consequently challenged and inspired the study to share solutions and to achieve this goal, as one of the 21 SETAs that were established as part of the government’s HRDSSA strategy, it selected to allow for the application of quantitative research approach.
Using a qualitative methodology, Questionnaires and structured interviews were used as data gathering techniques. A stratified sampling method was employed in pursuit of this study and thirty employees were chosen to participate as well as service providers employed by the SETA.
The researcher used literature review approach to analyse the factors related to M&E influencing project success and identified four main categories which are: Strengths of M&E team, monitoring approach adopted, political influence and project lifecycle. Exploring the role of M&E and effective project implementation in project success was the primary objective of the research.
The findings of the study indicates that a majority of participants agreed that that there is a need to have an formalised monitoring and evaluation framework within SASSETA that will ensure that public finances utilised by the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) are accounted for. Nonetheless, the study confirmed that good governance and project implementation are two key proponents in service delivery that are intertwined. The failure to adhere to Treasury regulations and other external accountable institutions' requirements will further fuel inactive quality service delivery provision that is so ever prevalent within the public sector. In light of these challenges, it is recommended that effective and efficient financial allocation should be considered as a priority, this as well as continuous spending on Monitoring and Evaluation both on the job and off training.
There is a unanimous agreement among participants that skills development has a key role to play in order to address the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. This role must be played in the context of an underperforming and fragile South African economy (NSDS Report, 2013).In addition a fair allocation of financial and non-financial resources tailored towards improvement of the M&E and project implementation should be highly observed. The limited compliance of governance standards evidenced may add to discernment and limited service delivery as unfeasible project implementation tasks are regularly endorsed which if proper M&E is not implemented can affect performance of the whole organisation which necessitates the importance of proper M&E with the view of improving project implementation. The fundamental pattern that arose from the study is that adherence to governance principles and application of monitoring and evaluation linked to the overall organisational strategy is a myth. Utilising findings of the study, a conclusion is drawn that the SASSETA does not have proper M&E set up and in this way very; little compliance to SETA legal imperatives will be achieved. A good M&E without management support is likely to succeed. As part of recommendations, the researcher recommended improved management support as a key factor that will ensure effective M&E and project success and efficient accountable, corrupt free service delivery which will be evident in improved AG reports.

These research emperically investigated and reviwed the current project monitoring mechanisms within the Safety and Security SETA (SASSETA) with the view of improving project implementation and good governance.To achieve this goal, SASSETA as one of  the 21 SETAs  that were established as part of the goverment's HRDSSA1 strategy was selected to allow for the application of quantitative research approach.Questionnaires structured in a likert scale format and structured interviwes were used as data gathering techniques. A stratified sampling method was employed in persuit of this study and thirty employees were chosen to participate as well as service providers employed by the SETA.
The research aims to offer the best options in monitoring and evaluation systems which will ensure that SETAs funding is accounted for. It is hoped that this research will lead to a SETA-wide monitoring and evaluation framework which will be adopted by the DHET and all beneficiaries of SETA Discretionary Grant funding which includes employers, trade unions, Community Based organisations, unemployed and employed leaners, and all present and future stakeholders which will hopefuly assist in improving the Global Competitiveness Rating of South Africa.
The findings of the study indicates that a majority of participants agreed that that there is a need to have an intitunialised monitoring and avaluation framework that will ensure that fund utilised by the SETA are accounted for. Nonetheless the study confirmed that good governance and project implementation are two key proponets in service delivery which are intertwined and the failure to adhere to Treasury regulations will further fuel innective qualitiy service provision that is so ever prevalent within the public sector.
In light of these challenges, it is reccomended that effective and efficient financial allocation be considered a priority as well as continous spending on Monitoring anf Evaluation both on the job and off training.
There is an unanimous agreement among partcitpants that skills development has a key role to play in addresing the triple challenges in South Africa of unemployement, poverty and inequality as well as urgent need to accelerate growth and equity in the context of underperfoming economy within a fragile global economy.  In addition a fair allocation of financial and non-financial resources tailored towards improvement of the M&E and project implementation should be highly observed.

Projects are an increasingly important aspect of modern business and Project Management is recognized as one of the fastest growing professions today. This course introduces the project manager to the essential project management concepts and methods. Through discussion, workshops and real world examples, participants learn how to identify project components, organize them effectively and control the project from the earliest steps of developing the project charter through the final steps of a project - documenting lessons learned. The course underlines the importance of understanding the relationship between projects and organization’s strategic goals. It also discusses the technical, cultural, and interpersonal skills necessary to successfully manage projects from initiation to closure. It emphasises that project management is a professional discipline with its own tools, body of knowledge, and skills. Concepts are reinforced by case studies covering a wide variety of project types and industries.

Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
 Understand key aspects of project design, planning, implementation, administration and Monitoring and Evaluation
 Understand approaches to design, implement, monitor and evaluate projects
 Link a logical framework and translate it into a concise and transparent budget and a simple work plan
 Understand best practices techniques for project management, monitoring and evaluation
 Understand and appreciate the use of Microsoft Project in project planning and monitoring

Abstract
Following the failure of the Kampala Northern Bypass (KNB) project to eliminate the heavy traffic congestion and to help divert the heavy transit vehicles that were weakening the roads from Kampala City Centre, this study was aimed at examining the level at which this project realised the benefits that were expected from it and the factors that were responsible for this level. This aim was met using three objectives, which included: (a) establishing the level at which this project was perceived to have realised the benefits that were expected from it and investigating the (b) implementation factors and (c) user-factors that accounted for this level. A hypostudy was developed out of each objective and tested to achieve the objective and subsequently the main aim of the study. A case study design was employed following the rationale of pragmatism as the research philosophy. The sample consisted of 380 road users selected using convenience sampling to provide required data using a questionnaire and three (3) KNB project implementers selected purposively to provide qualitative data using an interview protocol. The collected qualitative data was analysed using the narrative and thematic technique. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and multivariate regression methods aided by the SPSS (Version 22). Findings indicate that the level at which the KNB project realised the expected benefits was such that it failed to realise some benefits such as elimination of traffic congestion and helping road users to save travel time and travel costs. However, it realised a low and therefore below satisfactory level of economic benefits, which included facilitating establishment of new businesses, expansion of the existing businesses, and easing transportation of business inputs and outputs or merchandise. It also led to a moderate increase in tax collection. The implementation factors that significantly constrained this project from realising its benefits as expected included client- and contractor-factors. The main client factors included being bribed by contractors to win the contract and awarding the contract in a legally un-transparent manner. These factors effectively reduced funds that contractors would have used to finance the construction of KBN as designed. The main contractor-factors included working unethically, reducing the width of the road, demoralising their staff by not paying them promptly and failing to complete the project in time. The main user factors included diverted traffic, latent demand and triple convergence. From these findings, it was concluded that there was need to improve the level of benefit realisation from the KNB project by eliminating the constraining effects of these factors. Recommendations made to realise the needed improvements included weeding bribery out of the contractor identification and contract-awarding process, ensuring that contractors work ethically and pay their staff promptly. Other recommendations were made to the Government of Uganda to reduce diverted traffic by improving the condition of all other bad and potholed roads in Kampala City and by redesigning KNB by delinking it from feeder roads, especially those that go to residential areas. The study was largely based on perceptions of respondents and did not delve into the financial implications of its recommendations. Further research was therefore recommended using objective data and into these implications.

The paper evaluates the educational aspect of the impact of Mexico’s PROGRESA
programme on school enrolment during the period 1997-1999. Because of data and time
limitations, I focused my analysis only on the impact of the programme on school
enrolment. In the empirical analysis, I used differences in means and double-difference
approaches and found that the enrollment rates were higher during the first year and
lower in the subsequent years. However, the programme was found to be associated with
a positive effect on school enrollment for the beneficiary children. This effect is more
relevant during the first year. The policy implication for our findings is how government
could continue to sustain this programme with the fact that children are attracted to
schools not only by the scholarship funds under the educational component but also by
the other components, i.e. health and nutritional aspects. The main challenge would be to
see these children continue their education for more than the three years evaluated.

The general objective of this study was to determine the factors hindering
women’s access to micro credit in an urban region of northern Tanzania. Using a
structured questionnaire in a random sample (n=32) from women entrepreneurs,
and also a random sample (n=10) from workers of two microfinance institutions
in which two were managers and eight were loan officers, the study aimed to
identify setbacks that are faced by women entrepreneurs in their economic
activities, sources of their capital, access to micro credit and qualifications to
access micro credit from financial institutions. Findings suggest that micro credit
interest rates are high, husbands withdraw from family responsibility after
wives take micro credit, and women need education on how to use micro credit
after having accessed it and restricted ownership of family assets limit
collateral. These are significant barriers for women in this region seeking
assistance with micro credit. Implications of these results suggest the need for
best practice approaches in gender and development programs, capacity
building programs and economic development programs so as to ensure
equity in women’s paid economic activities

The importance of interventions to improve education for marginalized groups cannot be over emphasized. Dupoto-e-Maa Education project was one such intervention. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of Dupoto-e-Maa Education Project in increased enrollment public primary schools for pastoralists in Kajiado Central District, Kenya. The evaluation question addressed the thematic area; enrollment rate of pupils. The evaluation used both cross-sectional survey and phenomenological research designs. Phenomenological research design provides in-depth information about individuals, groups or institutions as they naturally occur. This design helped generate qualitative data through information gathered from head teachers, School Management Committees (SMC), teachers, pupils, Quality Assurance and Standards Officer (QASO) and project staff. The cross-sectional survey design assisted the evaluator to access quantitative data from a wide range of informants. A sample size of 173 respondents, selected using probability and non probability sampling procedures participated in the study. The instruments of data collection that were used in this study included questionnaires, interview guide, document analysis guide, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guide as well as observation guide From the analysis it was concluded that Dupoto-e-Maa education project had significantly influenced enrollment rates in the project supported schools in Kajiado Central District. It was recommended that the government through the Ministry of Education and various other stakeholders supporting education need to come together (on board) by providing more funds to Dupoto-e-Maa education project. The project should also be linked to funds like the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) as well as the Kajiado County Government to facilitate its activities as well as its expansion and sustainability.

Each year many organizations face project failures. There are many reasons for this. This paper highlights the major reasons leading to the failure of project. This paper also proposes a process which can help organizations to meet the project targets. This is a result of a project assessment activity conducted on various ongoing projects in an organization. The result is the identification of most common reasons of project failure and development of a project planning process by implementing the principles of project management. Various process of project management from ten knowledge areas were tailored to develop this process. The proposed process was implemented on one of the ongoing project the result was the project meeting its target without reporting any misses during its execution.

The SPC Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) division in collaboration with the AusAID Climate Change Initiative and the USP Institute of Applied Science has been jointly implementing the project “Building Climate Resilience and Coastal Resource Governance Capacity (BCRCRGC)” in Kadavu, Fiji Islands for the past fifteen months. The aim of this project is to strengthen provincial coastal fisheries governance capacity and management. A key objective of the project is to enhance coastal fisheries and marine ecosystem resilience and the ability to identify and implement climate change responses.
As part of the project there is an emphasis on alternative livelihood options to increase the capacity of local communities to adapt to climate change through diversification of livelihood security. For this component of the project Sanima and Ravitaki districts have been chosen as project sites.
Ravitaki district comprises of seven villages Wailevu, Mokoisa, Muani, Ravitaki, Burelevu, Matanuku and Nasegai with a total land mass of approximately 4,161 ha. Sanima district comprises of six villages; Drue, Navoatu, Naikorokoro, and Naivakarauniniu on the eastern side of Kadavu and Mataso and Namara on the southern side of Kadavu. Sanima district has a land mass of approximately 6,341ha.
In Nasegai and Matanuku villages in Ravitaki district the project has invested considerably in the establishment and support of seaweed mariculture whilst in Muani and Namara villages in Sanima district the project has completed feasibility studies to establish Virigin Coconut Oil production.
In the case of the seaweed mariculture interventions, after more than one and half year of project implementation, the project management team observed very slow progress including the absence of any seaweed harvesting since project inception.
Despite there being multiple sources postulating possible causes of the non-performance of the project, these were uncertain. In early November, 2014 a fact finding mission team was tasked by the project management team to visit the sites and identify the status of the project.

This study reviews the monitoring and advocacy on the Eastern Cape Human Settlements Department by the PSAM’s Monitoring and Advocacy Programme (MAP) between 2009 and 2012. The main purpose is to examine whether the programme has achieved its objectives and what the impact does the programme have in the department, and the development or advocacy landscape in general in the Eastern Cape, especially on improving public resources management within the Department of Human Settlements.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor’s vision is “to ensure that the right to social accountability is universally realised”. To realize this vision, the MAP conducts research, monitoring, advocacy and capacity building within 5 departments in the Eastern Cape. The activities of the MAP are aimed at analysing and identifying systemic challenges that inhibit the progressive realization of human rights that the Departments monitored are required to fulfil. The MAP engages in various forms of advocacy aimed at improving government transparency and accountability. The assumption being that this type of advocacy will improve the delivery of public services and ultimately reduce poverty.
The PSAM is of the view that the Department will make significant strides in reducing housing backlog, whilst improving the quality and pace of housing provision if they:
• Better manage its budget, spending it efficiently and effectively,
• Plan adequately and correctly for housing needs,
• Implement the Auditor General recommendations,
• Deal decisively with corruption through disciplinary action and laying of criminal charges against offenders.
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The study highlights some of the challenges that the MAP was faced with, while taking note that measuring the impact of advocacy initiatives can be particularly challenging because the work itself can evolve rapidly in response to political or environmental opportunities. The external atmosphere in which the advocacy takes place is changing all the time. The goal of some advocacy work, like the PSAM’s, is not just to change legislation and policies, but also attitudes, behaviours, and make maintainable changes in decision making processes. At times outcomes may take decades to come to fruition.
The study found that there is evidence that over the study period the PSAM has achieved a level of success. There is evidence to show that the PSAM research outputs have reached and to some extent influenced some stakeholders over the study period. Through the outputs produced, the organization has led the way to strategic relationships being formed with key individuals within the Department. Some of the stakeholders influenced include Senior Managers and Directors of Programmes within the Department.
Despite this success, the study also shows that there are areas in which the PSAM can improve. A challenge that is highlighted in this study is around engaging with key stakeholders. Despite the fact that the PSAM research reaches most of the targeted stakeholders, there is evidence that in many instances it has been difficult to ensure that those stakeholders engage with the outputs.

Growing calls for accountability and efficiency in the discourse of development in
donor countries has afforded the practice of impact evaluation an enviable position.
Combined with the constraints of time, resource and capacity, impact evaluations face
complex challenges in their endeavor to produce action worthy knowledge (Chambers
2000). This thesis utilizes the concepts of Coercion and Commitment in the global aid
chain (Wallace et al., 2006), to unpack the factors that shape the ‘evidence’ produced
by evaluations, by using a case study of an evaluation being undertaken by IDS in
Pakistan.

The increasing nature of construction or building project and the continuous nature of fraudulent activities being executed by the contractors on site has led project engineers / managers the quest for software solutions for monitoring and managing project activities from start to finish. The software solutions for managing construction projects like the Microsoft projects, Project commander, Procore, Co-Construct, etc which can only solve problems of project planning and activities scheduling but cannot handle pre-planning processes like workflow activities between the stakeholders and also cannot handle fraud detection or control in ongoing projects. This research work proposed a model and developed a web based software solution based on the proposed architectural model to fill in the gap. The Rule-based forward chaining techniques was used to realize the fraud detection and control objective. Use-case diagram was used to model the application behavior. HTML, JavaScript, Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), jQuery and MySQL implementation tools were used to develop the software prototype. The proposed system was tested; results revealed that the system is able to achieve its objectives effectively.

First and foremost, mountain ranges are transitional geographies of geo-political (trans-border and demography) and environmental (climate change, bio-diversity and water) interest for international development organisations and foreign aid policy. In some cases, mountain areas act as a transport/logistics/trade or economic/growth corridors (accessibility and infrastructure, i.e. not necessarily production centres). The vision for the development projects of the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula and the entire peninsula shifted (a) from being part of a regional geo-political refugee settlement in 1951-55 (UNRWA) and 1968 (re-surfaced in 21st century CE), (b) to being part of a national strategic development project supported by the USAID, JICA, UNDP, GEF, EU Commission, DFID, UNEP, etc, between 1979-85 and 2006-10. The dependence of national development projects on international donor organisations and planners ― characterised the projects by the limitations of the post-colonial understanding and regional security stereotypes for the development space. Drawing on the 20-year field survey by Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR), for example, the planners’ understanding was limited by the deficiencies of cartographic data on colonial and post-colonial maps, where the maps remained under-developed and re-compiled by national survey authorities. There is another relatively true assumption, that the State’s maps for the mountain range define the limits of how far the projects are allowed to recognise and/or change on ground. The international donor support stands for a series of development studies, i.e. sectoral and disciplinary working papers, area-focused case studies, or specific project plans with execution grants. Moreover, the grants were widely perceived by the donors and the recipient central national governments alike as a discontinuous investment in the geo-political stability of the trans-border mountain areas. Consequently, the donor’s overlooked the final follow-up stage post the handover to local authorities, while the perennial deficiency in the politised land use policy and governance remained unanswered. Paradoxically, similar practices led to under-financed projects, uneven pattern of development and inland depopulation.

During the last decade the UK Government has used area-based initiatives as a key strategy to tackle deprivation, despite the criticisms that few of these initiatives have been evaluated. This paper evaluates the impact of one such area-based initiative on employment. The New Deal for Communities (NDC) program aids financially residents of 39 of the most deprived neighborhoods in the country to design and implement policies that could tackle unemployment and improve their living conditions. Using the difference-in-difference method the paper shows that the program increased the probability of jobless individuals entering employment in NDC areas compared to residents living in similar deprived areas used as control group. The program had the greatest effect on those who were in job-training, full time education and in receipt of incapacity benefit before the program began. If the NDC program increased the supply of skilled labor and encouraged inactive individuals to join the labor force, individuals in NDC areas already in employment could as a result be displaced into unemployment or less well paid jobs. However, the evidence presented here shows that the program did not cause displacement effects among those residents who were already employed in NDC areas before the program began.