Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Tools and Materials

Monitoring and evaluating programs successfully requires clearly defined program objectives and appropriate indicators of program performance. Indicators are the critical link between objectives (stated as results to achieve) and the types of performance data that need to be collected and analyzed through M&E activities. Lack of clear objectives and key indicators limit a program's critical self-assessment for program decision-making, accountability, and learning.

An indicator answers the question, "What data will demonstrate our accomplishments to meet our objective?" It is important to select one primary indicator and at most one secondary key indicator to best demonstrate the accomplishment of the objective. Data collection may be most cost effective and sustainable if done through an existing data collection system (e.g., a national service statistic system), as long as the data is reasonably useful. Establishing a new monitoring system, although this might be useful to collect data that optimally matches the selected indicators, may be costly, time consuming, and duplicative, and still not guarantee optimal data.

• LAM indicators: Each indicator is defined, including its purpose, data requirements, and sources.
• Survey questions: This sample survey questionnaire contains seven basic field-tested and verified questions that allow you to calculate a program's selected LAM indicator(s) from your own data. These questions can be incorporated into your program's existing survey or used in a tailored and focused survey that generates LAM-use data.
• Calculating LAM rates: Input absolute numbers from your survey results or service statistics data to calculate indicator rates.