Monitoring Evaluation and Decision Making in Non-Governmental Organization Projects: A Case Study of Adventist Development and Relief Agency Rwanda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of data collection and use in project monitoring and evaluation in the Rwandan NGO context. To achieve this purpose, the study examined the type and quality of data collected, how it is used in making decisions and the overarching challenges. The study revealed that data collection and use is constrained by a number of factors including inter alia limited capacity of staff in data collection and analysis, low investment in the Monitoring and Evaluation systems and processes as well as a disconnect between data collected and the decisions taken at the higher echelon of the organization. In light of these bottlenecks, the study calls for systemic change in the organization’s processes, practices, capacity building and empowerment of staff involved in data collection. The report further makes a case for more investment in M&E systems arguing that without databases and sufficient budget to disseminate data among others could reduce the scale of impact at the organization and national levels. The findings affect the way data collection is seen and done; for NGOs, the report helps them to be effective and accountable to their key constituents by using data to increase their visibility and communicate the impact of their work to the skeptics. The study further facilitates evidence based advocacy and strengthens synergy between government and NGOs. For students of project management and aspiring future project managers, the findings further demonstrate and increases their understanding and appreciation of the whole idea of making use of data in their daily decision making. Since the study was mainly focusing on the practices in organizations, qualitative methods were used to collect data from the selected institutions and respondents. In particular, the review of official documents provided a bulk of data on how and what type of data is collected and how it is used.