MONITORING HANDBOOK - Methods and tools for monitoring developed in the GenderTime project

Abstract

This Monitoring Handbook offers guidelines and recommendations concerning monitoring which were developed and applied during four years of monitoring activities in the GenderTime project. It also includes detailed information about the specific monitoring tools that were designed and implemented within the GenderTime project. As a Handbook, it thus presents the reader with “guidance on ‘how to’ and practical tools” (UNDP 2009: 2) that can be used to strengthen monitoring efforts in change programmes. It is meant to provide inspiration about how to think creatively about different options available by presenting a range of tested methods and tools. We believe that the handbook, by providing this type of practical information, can fill a gap not only in the existing literature on evaluation and monitoring but also be a contribution to the literature on change management and action research. We hope that the handbook can be useful to others involved in gender equality change projects. The handbook can, hopefully, also be relevant for those involved in change projects more generally, not exclusively targeting gender equality. The overall purpose of GenderTime is common for many change programmes, i.e. to generate “changes in patterns of behaviour, events or conditions by bringing fresh inputs to that system in the hope of disturbing and re-balancing it” (Pawson & Tilley 2004:3). Many of the practical guidelines and recommendations are wideranging and of a general character, meaning that even if they do not constitute a standard set of tools and methods that can be adopted to any situation, they are not specifically or necessarily linked to intervention programmes dealing with gender equality