There’s a scenario I get involved in every so often – “Glenn, can you evaluate this project for us?”… sometimes the scenario plays out as:-

💰There’s been some financial commitment (say, £10m) – to “do something about business growth”
🌫️There was a lack of clear rationale and objectives for the £10m, and what it was spent on
💬The project was approved and began in 2020, there was no clear articulation of what success would look like in 2025

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻:
1) a clear rationale and clear objectives;
2) delivery is credible and the best option available; and
3) set targets, aims and ambitions so you know if you’ve been successful.

9/10 times a project runs into trouble because one or all of these three have not been properly articulated at the outset.

Monitoring and evaluation plans are pretty much essential these days – but why do them? a few reasons:

– Reputation
– Organisational performance
– Value for money
– Programme/project performance
– Contract management
– Risk appraisal
– Financial due diligence, approval and management
– Audit and external scrutiny

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀: 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙘𝙪𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙚 / 𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧…
🌟Can you tell them what a success story you have?
🌟With hard numbers, results, impacts?
🌟With valid estimates of value for money and ROI?
🌟And an informed view of what works, and how to improve delivery?
🌟Or how you could deliver something great, with less money?

6 months ago – I had a client that wanted an evaluation based on them doing more of the same with a similar budget. Instead of planning for scrutiny, they planned for for a pat on the back… 2 months ago the government annouches major cuts, and a big influencer is saying “there’s no proof any of this works…”

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀… 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙. This means:
👊 understand the lessons learnt
👊 evidence activities, outcomes, impact
👊 estimate VfM
👊 be able to explain why poor or great performance has happened
👊 next iteration should cut out the poor performing bits / or be able to use the evaluation findings for continuous improvement; and find efficiency savings
👊 be prepared for some tough questions