Step 1: Clarify your aims

Before starting a project, you make a plan. What do you want to achieve and for whom? It is important to include monitoring and evaluation already in the beginning of this planning, so that you can integrate monitoring and evaluation activities in your timeline and you can budget for them. Moreover, it helps you to involve relevant people, from within or outside your organisation, timely.

On the other hand, you also need to have a project plan in order to do monitoring and evaluation. You need to know what you want to evaluate. What was your goal, what did you want to achieve and who did you want to affect with your project? When would you regard your project successful?

There are different methods which could be helpful in making a thorough plan for your project. The Theory of Change (ToC) is a popular method. Another method is the Logical Framework. Projects aimed at capacity building are often evaluated on four levels: reaction, learning, behaviour and results (Kirckpatrick).

In the video below, the Upaya Foundation explains how they measure their impact using the Logic Model or Logical Framework: