COSAS Vanguard

M&E

What Monitoring and Evaluation Actually Measures

COSAS Vanguard Editorial · Tue Feb 10 2026

Monitoring tracks whether a programme is being implemented as planned. Evaluation asks a harder question: is it producing the change it set out to produce, and for whom?

Treating the two as a single reporting exercise tends to produce data nobody uses. Treating them as distinct disciplines, each with its own methods, produces evidence an organization can actually act on.