Monitoring And Evaluation And Achievement Of Development Project Goals In Rwanda : A Case Study Of Umutara Community Resources And Infrastructure Development Project In Nyagatare District

Abstract

The purpose of this research project is to assess the impact of Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) towards achieving development project goals in Nyagatare District. The specific objectives of the research was to assess the impact of developed plans for M&E to determine the level of poverty reduction in districts development projects. Primary data was collected using self-administered questionnaires to be issued to the respondents. Data was collected using a census for the population sample and simple random sampling for selecting sectors where all the names of the sectors were placed on the table and pick them randomly, the sample size was 33 from a population of 98 opinion leaders. The researcher used descriptive statistics and statistical program for social sciences (SPSS) to make data interpretation easy and clear and therefore measure the impact of M&E in poverty reduction projects in Nyagatare District. The research result reveals a number of areas that require emphasis to achieve the sustainable consistency and contribution of efficient M&E of development projects. It is from that background the researcher came up with the following recommendations: Due to the importance of M&E system visa a vis efficient and effective performance in development projects, project designers are recommended to follow M&E procedures during planning and implementation stages in order to achieve their set objectives. Nyagatare District is recommended to keep on monitoring, advising and training the managers and entire staff of development projects to ensure that implemented activities are owned by the people for sustainability and relevance, and realization of expected impact of the projects. The line ministries are also recommended to take seriously M&E reports submitted by the District and ensure follow up in areas that need improvement and enough training should be organized for M&E staff to increase their skills and capacity.