Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field

This paper reports on the author's experiences as manager of a capacity-building project in Latin America. The project aimed to strengthen planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) in agricultural research. Nine lessons are drawn: (1) Project design is much more than a technical process; it is esse...

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Autor principal: Horton, Douglas
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Service for National Agricultural Research 1998
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/136381
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author Horton, Douglas
author_browse Horton, Douglas
author_facet Horton, Douglas
author_sort Horton, Douglas
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper reports on the author's experiences as manager of a capacity-building project in Latin America. The project aimed to strengthen planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) in agricultural research. Nine lessons are drawn: (1) Project design is much more than a technical process; it is essentially one of negotiation. (2) In capacity-building projects, design activities cannot end when implementation begins. (3) A priority for capacity-building efforts is to prepare managers to deal with complexity, uncertainty and change.(4) In capacity-building efforts, don't patronize managers, but seek to collaborate as equals.(5) Organizational assessment is a complex social process, intertwined with organizational politics. (6) In designing capacity-building projects, it is essential to involve managers and staff members in assessing needs and opportunities. (7) Action-learning strategies offer great potential for capacity building. (8) In the context of strategic management and organizational learning, PM&E take on new meanings. (9) Training is most effective when it is designed to serve a purpose within an organizational change process. Capacity building is more a process of social experimentation than of social engineering. Management systems cannot be imported but need to be developed within organizations. Development agencies should play catalytic, facilitating roles, rather than take responsibility for organizational change. To support genuine capacity development, donors and funding agencies need to ensure that their planning and accountability procedures foster flexibility, innovation, and learning.
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spelling CGSpace1363812025-01-09T06:03:50Z Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field Horton, Douglas research This paper reports on the author's experiences as manager of a capacity-building project in Latin America. The project aimed to strengthen planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) in agricultural research. Nine lessons are drawn: (1) Project design is much more than a technical process; it is essentially one of negotiation. (2) In capacity-building projects, design activities cannot end when implementation begins. (3) A priority for capacity-building efforts is to prepare managers to deal with complexity, uncertainty and change.(4) In capacity-building efforts, don't patronize managers, but seek to collaborate as equals.(5) Organizational assessment is a complex social process, intertwined with organizational politics. (6) In designing capacity-building projects, it is essential to involve managers and staff members in assessing needs and opportunities. (7) Action-learning strategies offer great potential for capacity building. (8) In the context of strategic management and organizational learning, PM&E take on new meanings. (9) Training is most effective when it is designed to serve a purpose within an organizational change process. Capacity building is more a process of social experimentation than of social engineering. Management systems cannot be imported but need to be developed within organizations. Development agencies should play catalytic, facilitating roles, rather than take responsibility for organizational change. To support genuine capacity development, donors and funding agencies need to ensure that their planning and accountability procedures foster flexibility, innovation, and learning. 1998-11 2024-01-04T07:48:37Z 2024-01-04T07:48:37Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/136381 en Open Access application/pdf International Service for National Agricultural Research Horton, Douglas. 1998. Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field. International Service for National Agricultural Research
spellingShingle research
Horton, Douglas
Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title_full Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title_fullStr Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title_full_unstemmed Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title_short Building Capacity in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Lessons from the Field
title_sort building capacity in planning monitoring and evaluation lessons from the field
topic research
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/136381
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