Project execution

RBM doesn’t end with project design. The systems for monitoring and evaluation of performance and for risk management that were designed during the design phase have to be deployed during the initial stages of the project. In addition, RBM provides you with a set of tools that you can use for project management, follow-up and evaluation.

Monitoring and evaluation of performance

Performance is an important concept in RBM. It means the progress towards the different results. This means that monitoring isn’t restricted to verifying whether the activities take place according to planning. The plan may have to be modified, but the most important thing is to know whether the results are or will be achieved (in time). The idea behind tracking the performance through monitoring and evaluation, is to better manage the outputs and effects that are the real development results.

Compared to other approaches, RBM puts the emphasis on the effects or intermediate results (purpose of the project), instead of on the immediate results or outputs (or even activities).

However when you develop your monitoring system, in the RBM approach it is important to work on a participatory basis. In order to avoid that you develop a system that is too complex and cumbersome, you need to make sure that the monitoring system:

  • Does not weigh too heavily on the available resources
  • Does not take too much time and effort (or else people will skip monitoring and reporting altogether)
  • Involves as many people as possible, not only the beneficiaries but also other stakeholders to get an external view and verify (triangulate) information
  • Doesn’t use too many indicators and different sources of information (or sources that are very complex to gather). Also remember that basic statistics that are readily available in developed countries are often not available (or outdated, or unreliable) in developing countries.

The information from the monitoring system should allow you to act: to modify your planning, your activities, the distribution of resources, etc. to changes in the context and to make sure that the results will be achieved.

Similarly, the evaluation of the project’s effects should be done based on participation of the stakeholders. Any evaluator (of the organisation or external) should consult the stakeholders, including the (intended) beneficiaries of the project.

Step 9: Collecting information on performance

RBM - step 9

The monitoring system with its indicators and description of who will measure what at which intervals (or for how long) allows you to collect information in a systematic way. Once collected, the information can be aggregated and synthesised if necessary and then be analysed.

Information gathering happens at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, every 3 or 6 months or sometimes once a year) or every time an activity occurs. Sometimes this happens by going over the whole list of indicators and establishing the situation for every indicator at that moment, for instance during a monitoring mission. In this case you will get a set of information (data) at a given point in time. By putting this information in a table and adding new columns for consecutive sets, you will be able to see the evolution.

In other cases information gathering for different indicators happens at different moments and you don’t measure the whole set of indicators each time.

Step 10: Analysing the project’s performance

RBM - step 10

Using the Performance Measurement Framework, you can analyse the information that you gathered to assess:

  • Whether the activities and the use of resources lead to the desired results. The relation between the use of resources and the results allows you to appreciate the efficiency of the project.
  • Whether the outputs lead to the desired effects or the realisation of the purpose of the project. In other word, is the project effective?
  • Does the intervention strategy that’s been selected lead to the desired direct and intermediate results. This is about the pertinence of the project.
  • Does the institutional, political, social and organisational environment of the project enable its success? Or is it slowing down the project or preventing the achievement of certain elements? We’ll go deeper into this question under risk management.

Step 11: Reporting

RBM - step 11

Analyses and the conclusions are generally noted down and distributed in the form of reports. Again, keeping the participatory nature of RBM in mind, you should not forget that reporting is not something you do for the benefit of the donor and for headquarters only (upward accountability). Partners and beneficiaries must be informed too (downward accountability). The whole idea of this participatory approach to monitoring and learning is to stimulate a feeling of ownership of the project and its results by the beneficiaries.

Normally, a series of intermediate progress reports are produced over the course of a project. Often donors or organisations will have their own templates that are mandatory to use. In any case, such reports should contain:

  • An overview of the project’s realisations so far
  • An overview and analysis of the things that have yet to be realised
  • A description of what will be done in the coming period to reach the objectives
  • A brief description of the evolution of the general situation (project’s environment)
  • A status update about the resources: financial expenditure, human resources, logistics, planned missions…
  • A financial planning for the coming period

Step 12: Follow-up of risks and assumptions

RBM - step 12

During the project’s design phase, the risks and assumptions were identified and listed in the risk register. This risk register can be used during the execution of the project to reassess the situation and the risks periodically.

The risk register allows you to reassess whether:

  • The likelihood that the risk will occur has changed
  • The potential impact of the risk on the realisation of the project’s objectives has changed.
  • There are any new risks that can be identified and that require monitoring in the future

It is possible that the project becomes less sensitive to certain risks over time, because the population becomes more resilient to those risks thanks to the achievements of the project. On the other hand, new and unexpected risks may materialise. This may even lead to a situation where it becomes practically impossible or too dangerous to continue the project. In such extreme cases, the information gathered using the risk register may help you support your decisions and convince your donor.