How To Build Your Expertise: Monitoring And Evaluation

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is an emerging and fast-growing field in international development. Today, increasing demand for measuring project impact by investors has led to the integration of M&E into most global development projects. Consequently, demand for workers in this area is high, while supply is low. This means that if you fulfill the requirements of the M&E occupation, you are likely to get a position in the area of work.

One of our Monitoring and evaluation skills training student Andrew recently shared his work experience with me on how he built his expertise in M &E over years. “I have always felt the need to improve in monitoring and evaluation skills because it has increased the efficiency of the planning process and implementation of measures. It has also helped me optimize the use of resources and provide empirical evidence for future planning and appraisal of any measures, which is why developing these skills are important for me”, Andrew said.

We held a discussion with Andrew on how he builds his monitoring and evaluation career and here is a summary of what he had to say;

1. Brush up on your knowledge and skills

The top tip that has kept me up to date is refreshing my skills and always being on the lookout for information and training on new and innovative M&E techniques. This is the only way to stay sharp and on top of your game, not just in M&E, but in any area of life. To use the analogy of mobile technology, either you keep upgrading yourself or risk becoming obsolete.

Once you have completed an M&E course, don’t just stop there. You can participate in webinars, attend M&E conferences, read blog posts, etc. For instance, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank publishes interesting blogs on the current trends and developments in the field. A personal favorite of mine is the blog posts from SocialCops. I love how they break down technical information in an accessible and easy-to-understand manner. For example, explaining how sampling works or how to design a survey design.

2. Subscribe to online platforms that focus on M&E

The online platform is a good source of knowledge on monitoring and evaluation expertise; browse for such sites and subscribe to them.

The advantage of using the internet to learn is that you have free access to a variety of information you can employ to grow your M&E expertise. For example, an essential resource is ‘My M&E.’ This is an interactive Web platform that shares knowledge on country-led M&E systems worldwide.

Monitoring and evaluation websites are rich sources of useful documents in a wide variety of thematic areas.

3. Join an Evaluation Society or Association

I definitely recommend that you become a member of your national/regional evaluation society or association. Not only does this give you credibility, but it is good for networking and for keeping abreast of the developments in your local context.  I also recommend you join a group (LinkedIn, yahoo, etc) and make an effort to be an active participant and attend the conferences/events whenever you can. Even if you are new to M&E, you can contribute by asking questions within the group. Share a problem you have been grappling with on your project. I regularly learn new things from my groups.

4. Find a Mentor

Identify a personality in the M&E field that you admire and would love to learn from. Once you identify them, use your networking skills to reach out to them. Mentors are beneficial as they have achieved what you hope to someday; they will teach you their ways so you can learn and even do better than they have.

Final thoughts…

Make sure you utilize M&E training. Short courses on M&E are responsible for my career advancement in the M&E field. Better yet, join this monitoring and evaluation class today and build your expertise.