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Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)

aid worker interviewing CAR refugees in Cameroon

Humanitarians need monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to know whether they're on the right track and to assess performance and outcomes.

Humanitarian M&E practitioners often face challenges due to the volatile contexts in which humanitarians operate and the nature of the work undertaken.

Improving the quality of M&E is one of ALNAP’s areas of strategic focus. We do this through research, peer-learning events and a Community of Practice.

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Review of the OECD DAC criteria for evaluating humanitarian action

M&E during COVID-19

Humanitarian M&E guidance

Monitoring of humanitarian action

Use of evaluation evidence

Review of the OECD DAC criteria for evaluating humanitarian action

ALNAP is updating its 2006 guidance on evaluating humanitarian action using the OECD DAC criteria.

We want to hear from you? Take our survey and share your feedback on using OECD DAC evaluation criteria.

M&E during COVID-19

M&E practitioners are dealing with a myriad practical and strategic challenges due to COVID-19, from rethinking their approaches to evaluation strategy and planning, to relying on remote M&E and data collection.

ALNAP convened a series of skills-building workshops in February and March 2021, bringing over 100 M&E practitioners together to reflect and exchange learning from their work during COVID-19. ALNAP prepared the below papers for the workshops, which were updated to also include key discussion points from the events. This 'M&E during COVID-19' series also includes a paper looking into real-time learning during COVID-19.

Humanitarian M&E guidance

How do we know whether the objectives of humanitarian action are being met?

Humanitarian action is all about saving lives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity during and in the aftermath of crises and natural disasters. Evaluation of Humanitarian Action (EHA) provides systematic and objective examinations to draw out lessons learned, which help to improve policy and practice and enhance accountability.

ALNAP regularly releases guidance to support evaluation practitioners, from our EHA Guide, to our most recent paper with CaLP on challenges when evaluating cash-based assistance. In 2022 we will release an updated version of our popular guidance on Evaluating humanitarian action using the OECD DAC criteria.

Monitoring of humanitarian action

When providing relief to people affected by crisis, how do we know if we’re doing it right? How do we know what we need to change to improve? For many humanitarian organisations, this is hard to know.

Little progress has been made on the monitoring front and three issues in particular keep coming up: how to use qualitative methods to collect data; how to monitor the outcomes of programmes; and how to make M&E more useful for decision-making at project level. ALNAP has published three papers exploring each of these issues and looking at ways of fixing them.

Use of evaluation evidence

Not taking action on M&E insights is a missed opportunity. They provide valuable evidence to trigger change and improved performance in programmes approaches and policies.

ALNAP aims to support the effective uptake and use of M&E findings and wider knowledge management and learning processes in humanitarian action.

Our research looks at how to improve the utilisation of M&E for more effective humanitarian practice and sector-wide learning.

IM Resource Portal

Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)

Review of the OECD DAC criteria for evaluating humanitarian action

M&E during COVID-19

Humanitarian M&E guidance

Monitoring of humanitarian action

Use of evaluation evidence

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