Why monitor and evaluate regional NRM efforts?
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This fact sheet provides an introduction to monitoring and evaluating the social and economic aspects of NRM.
Monitoring and evaluating the social and economic aspects of NRM is an essential part of regional NRM planning. It is a difficult task requiring dedicated resources and time.
What are monitoring and evaluation?
Any project in which a regional NRM body or the community has invested time, resources or money should be evaluated to determine whether the investment was worthwhile, whether more funds should be invested, and what further improvements could be made in the future.
Monitoring involves continuously collecting information to inform your evaluation.
Why evaluate?
Evaluation seeks answers to one or more of the following questions:
Learning and development
How well did the project achieve its objectives and how might this be improved over time?
Accountability
Can you demonstrate to investors that money has been spent in the most effective way, that their objectives were reached, and that it is an investment worth continuing—or not?
Effectiveness and efficiency
How well has the project delivered on its stated goals and objectives? Did the program work? Did it do what you thought it was going to do?
Appropriateness
Were the project's strategies and mechanisms (including regional planning and delivery) the most appropriate means of achieving the region's objectives? Did the project make sensible use of resources for the problem at hand?
Is it enough to monitor and evaluate biophysical impacts?
No. Biophysical impacts are strongly linked with social and economic impacts. A change on one side of the relationship is likely to affect the other. Evaluating social and economic impacts of NRM activities can be more difficult than evaluating biophysical impacts, but is no less important.
What are some of the benefits of social and economic monitoring?
An evolving knowledge, rather than a snapshot, of a region
A good social profile describes current social and economic values and conditions, as well as trends. For example, information about a change in average farm debt may influence land-owner participation in an incentive program.
The social and economic capacity in the region
A community's willingness to change, financial capacity, knowledge, networks and resources will determine its ability to undertake certain NRM activities.
The capacity of regional NRM bodies to deliver the regional plan
Regional NRM bodies have abilities and limitations too. For effective planning and to ensure continual improvement, an NRM body's capacity should be monitored and evaluated over time.
The impact (positive or negative) of NRM on the region
Carrying out an NRM plan will (and should) have an impact on a region. It is the responsibility of the NRM body to try to alleviate known negative impacts, and enhance the positive ones (intended or otherwise) for future planning.
The Adaptive Management Framework
Adaptive management is a cyclical decision-making process where learning from previous outcomes informs the next iteration of the cycle.
The Adaptive Management Framework recognises that improved outcomes arise from an evolving learning-based model in which the gaining and sharing of knowledge is used to continuously review and evaluate implemented management actions. It provides a useful conceptual model for NRM bodies to use in organising their planning.
Useful resources
- Regional NRM planning: the challenges of evaluation seen through different lenses
- The National Natural Resource Management Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
Related topics
- How do you evaluate social and economic aspects of NRM?
- How do you choose indicators to measure social and economic change?
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Last updated 07 January 2009