Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an essential component of any intervention, project, or program. This mini-course covers the basics of program monitoring and evaluation in the context of population, health, and nutrition programs. It also defines common terms and discusses why M&E is essential for program management.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• identify the basic purposes and scope of M&E;
• differentiate between monitoring functions and evaluation functions;
• describe the functions of an M&E plan;
• identify the main components of an M&E plan;
• identify and differentiate between conceptual frameworks, results frameworks and logic models;
• describe how frameworks are used for M&E planning;
• identify criteria for the selection of indicators;
• describe how indicators are linked to frameworks;
• identify types of data sources; and
• describe how information can be used for decision-making.

This course takes approximately two hours to complete.