The objective of this course in Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is to enhance development practitioners’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes in assessing needs of clients, determining desired outcomes and designing and implementing a plan to reach those goals and document impact.

The main aim is to increase the capacity of the development sector in Zambia to deliver efficient and effective project outcomes and to be able to measure and evaluate these outcomes. As no one person is a sole depository of knowledge development, practitioners will have opportunity to learn from each other by sharing of knowledge and experiences.

This is a professional course which aims to provide development practitioners with key elements needed for Programme Planning and operationalizing a Monitoring and Evaluation system. Emphasis will be put on participatory methods that promote stakeholder commitment for sustainability. In addition to lecture format the training will also use participatory methodologies and as much as possible be practical and relevant to the needs of industry.

The target group for the course includes middle and senior managers, M&E officers, and supervisors both in the public and private as well as any other interested persons involved with formulating, managing, or monitoring development interventions. Graduates who want to enhance their M&E skills could also benefit from the course.

By the end of the course, development practitioners will have:

1. Appreciation of the purpose and benefits of Programme planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting
2. Understanding of the concepts, principles and processes of programme planning, including monitoring and evaluation
3. Understanding of the importance of integrating monitoring, evaluation and reporting into project planning, and an understanding of where they fit into the project cycle
4. Knowledge to do a stakeholder analysis, problem analysis, objectives analysis, alternatives analysis,
5. Knowledge of how to plan a project using the Logical Framework Approach
6. Knowledge and skills in using different tools and methods for collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data
7. Knowledge and skills in designing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems
8. Competence in formulating change-oriented indicators and change monitoring frameworks
9. Knowledge and skills in common types of evaluations
10. Competence in effective report writing and presentation.

Either a diploma or a degree from a recognized institution in any professional discipline such as planning, social work, agriculture, etc. School leavers must have five “O” Levels, including the English Language.

The course objectives will be achieved by the traditional face to face weekly lectures and group exercises. There will be five three-hour lectures per week.  Students will be encouraged and required to read around the topics. Students will also be encouraged to understand any development programmes / projects implemented or being planned in their organisations in order to seek ways of applying what they learn in class.  As a typical student's attention span is 15-20 minutes, care will be taken to use a variety of methods. Using different teaching methods in one session keeps the students' attention and reaches students who have different learning preferences. The M&E component will include “hands-on” field work after the leaners have been facilitated in the development of both quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. Mobile (using mobile data collection devices) and traditional data collection methods will be used.

1. Introduction to learning
2. Introduction to Programme planning
3. Needs identification
4. Context analysis
5. Problem analysis
6. Objective analysis
7. Alternative analysis
8. Logical framework as a planning tool
9. Resource planning
10. Indicators / measurement of objectives
11. Risk analysis and management
12. Analysis of assumptions
13. Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation
14. The Logical Framework as a Monitoring and Evaluation tool
15. Operationalization of M&E systems
16. Common types of evaluation
17. Data collection methods
18. Utilizing collected data
19. Technological tools for Program / project design and M&E

• Class assignment 5%
• Class participation 5%
• Class attendance 5%
• Class test 25%
• Final examination 60%
• Total 100%

Mulungushi University certificate will be provided