Donors, managers, district officials and communities all want to know the same things: what has been done, what it cost, and what changed. Monitoring and reporting answer those questions. In Ghanaian NGO adverts, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, and financial tracking are among the most requested skills, from assistant level upwards.
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring is the regular, ongoing checking of a project: are activities happening as planned, are outputs being delivered, is spending on track? It happens weekly or monthly, throughout the project.
Evaluation is a deeper look, usually at the middle or end, asking whether the project achieved its outcomes and why. It is often led by M&E staff or an outside evaluator.
Together they are called M&E. Some organisations add learning and call it MEL or MEAL (with accountability). As an assistant or officer, you will mostly do monitoring: collecting data, updating trackers and helping with reports.
Where monitoring data comes from
- Attendance sheets from trainings and meetings.
- Activity reports from field staff.
- Receipts and payment records.
- Surveys and field forms, often filled on a phone with free data collection tools such as KoboToolbox or ODK, named here as examples.
- Observation and photos, taken with consent.
- Records kept by partners, such as a water committee log book or a school's meal register.