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The goals of monitoring and assessment are to: (1) track basic information about client status and (2) conduct follow-up research to explore in greater depth trends and issues highlighted by monitoring. |
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"What is not measured will not be done" |
It is useful to think about social performance information systems in terms of processes rather than events. A social performance information system is thus not a neutral information gathering exercise, but a process that can challenge many assumptions and practices of an MFI.
Developing a monitoring system
The social performance monitoring system is developed during the planning stages (or retro-fitted during implementation), used and refined during the implementation stage, and may continue beyond the completion of implementation. There is no blueprint for a social performance monitoring system.As you consider the core elements of your social performance management system – the routine monitoring and follow-up research – you will need to answer the following questions:
- What information is needed and who needs it?
- What information will you collect?
- How will you collect the information you need?
- From whom will you collect the data?
- How frequently will the information be collected?
- Who will collect, collate, analyse and report the information?
Most of these questions involve specific research techniques and methodologies for which more guidance is offered in the Imp-Act Practice Notes.
Remember, don’t make your plan too ambitious. Most organizations start out wanting to know more than they can effectively use and end up investing their resources unwisely. The main challenge is to pinpoint what your organization really needs to know, rather than that which would be nice to know, and your next challenge is to think about how you can get that information as efficiently as possible, striking an acceptable balance between the quantity and quality of data and the resources you have to manage it.
Choosing Tools
A variety of tools are available that can be used to collect information that will answer the questions above. The figure below provides an overview of how some commonly used tools can be used and adapted as necessary:
Source: Social Performance Management Guidelines, Imp-Act
More Information
For more information on setting up a monitoring system, the following are a list of excellent resources: