In development work, terms like impact evaluation, monitoring, and evaluation are often used together, but they serve different purposes. Knowing how impact evaluation vs. monitoring and evaluation differ helps teams learn, adapt, and demonstrate results more meaningfully across projects.
What is Monitoring? #
Monitoring is the ongoing process of tracking a programme’s activities, outputs, and immediate outcomes. It focuses on day-to-day progress: Are activities being delivered as planned? Are targets being met on time? Data is collected regularly—often weekly, monthly, or quarterly—to support timely decision-making while the project is running.
Monitoring answers questions like: Is implementation on track? Are resources being used as intended? It’s usually part of internal management and helps identify issues early so teams can adjust approaches quickly.
What is Impact Evaluation? #
Impact evaluation (a subset of evaluation) goes further. It looks not just at progress, but at the actual change that a programme has made, especially on outcomes and long-term effects. Unlike routine monitoring, impact evaluation is typically conducted at specific points (e.g., mid-term or after completion). It compares what happened with what would have happened without the programme to understand the real contribution of the intervention.
This type of evaluation helps answer bigger questions: Did the programme improve livelihoods? Did health outcomes change as intended? It provides evidence of causal effects rather than just tracking activities.
Key Differences Between M&E and Impact Assessment #
- Purpose: Monitoring keeps track of progress, while impact evaluation assesses meaningful change and effectiveness.
- Timing: Monitoring is continuous; impact evaluation happens at specific stages or after the project ends.
- Depth: Monitoring focuses on outputs and immediate results; impact evaluation explores outcomes and long-term effects.
- Use of data: Monitoring data feeds into evaluation, but impact evaluation often uses additional analysis and comparison to determine real effect.
Complementary Roles of M&E and Evaluation #
Monitoring and impact evaluation don’t replace each other—they complement one another. Monitoring keeps programmes on track and helps make in-flight adjustments, while impact evaluation provides deeper insights about whether and how change happened. Together, they strengthen learning, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making in development work.
List of recommended resources #
For a broad overview #
Designing an M&E System for Impact Evaluation: Tips for Program Designers and Evaluators!
This article by Dr. Jyotsna Puri and Dr. Francis Rathinam talks about the difference between a monitoring system and an impact measurement system as well as discusses what good program monitoring and evaluation can offer to impact evaluation.
Evaluation: Monitoring, Outcome and Impact
This article by unwomen.org discusses the process of evaluation and its three key components: monitoring, outcome evaluation, and impact evaluation. It provides a broad understanding of the topics and helps to differentiate between the often confused processes of monitoring and impact evaluation.
For in-depth understanding #
Monitoring and Evaluation, and Impact Evaluation
This chapter in the book The Changing Role of National Development Banks in Africa by Joshua Yindenaba Abor discusses some important concepts such as monitoring and evaluation and impact evaluation which are key to inclusive economic development. The chapter also discusses the importance of M&E as well differentiates it from the process of impact evaluation.
Monitoring, Evaluating, and Assessing Impact
This chapter from the IP Handbook of Best Practices provides an in-depth understanding of monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment. This chapter focuses on building organizational capacity to plan, monitor, evaluate, and assess the impact of R&D investments.
Case study #
Impact Evaluation Helps Deliver Development Projects
This paper by Arianna Legovini, Vincenzo Di Maro, and Ciao Piza analyzes the question – Does impact evaluation research help or hinder the delivery of development projects? – by constructing a new data set of 100 impact evaluations and 1,135 projects approved by the World Bank between 2005 and 2011.
The Government Monitoring and Evaluation System in India: A Work in Progress
This paper by Santosh Mehrotra discusses the evolution of India’s approach to monitoring and evaluation of government programs. Mehrotra describes the Indian government structure and sets the context for the challenges of building a government-wide M&E system in India.
References #
Understanding Impact Evaluation: Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices
