Planning: This consists of the intentions and the thinking behind why you are doing what you are doing. It includes the process of creating a common understanding and language for your work and specifying what impacts you hope to have and how you will measure them. Monitoring: This is the process that takes place throughout the life of the programme by routinely tracking implementation. Evaluation: This is a systemic assessment conducted at certain points in time during the life of your programme to determine the impact of your programme. Ideally, evaluation data should be collected at the start of your programme (often referred to as the baseline) and, at a minimum, at the end (sometimes called an endline). When resources are available and the programme time frame is acceptable, evaluation data may also be collected at a midpoint (known as the midline). PROGRAMME EVALUATION A widely accepted definition of ‘programme evaluation’ is that by Rossi, Lipsey and Freeman (2004, p. 16) who define it as ‘the use of social research methods to systematically investigate the effectiveness of social intervention programmes in ways that are adapted to their political and organisational environments and are designed to inform social action to improve social conditions’. They broaden this definition by identifying three themes – application of social-research methods; effectiveness of social programmes; and informing social action – as pillars on which programme evaluation purposively rests. Rossi et al. (2004, p. 16) further posit that, by definition, social programmes are activities whose principal reason for existing is to ‘do good’, that is, to ameliorate a social problem or to improve social conditions. In this regard, they argue that the evaluation of a programme generally involves assessing one or more of five domains: (a) the need for the programme; (b) the programme’s design; (c) its implementation and service delivery; (d) its impact or outcomes; and (e) its efficiency. Patton (1997, p. 23) broadens this definition of ‘evaluation’. He defines programme evaluation as ‘the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics and outcomes of programmes to make judgments about the programme, improve programme effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about future programming’. Patton refers to ‘utilisation-focused evaluation’ which emphasises that what happens from the very beginning of a programme will determine its eventual impact long before any final report is produced. According to Patton, utilisation-focused evaluation begins with the premise that evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use; therefore, evaluators should facilitate the evaluation process and design any evaluation with careful consideration of how everything that is done, from the beginning to the end, will affect ‘use’. ‘Use’ relates to how real people in the real world apply evaluation findings. Patton’s definition emphasises systematic data collection rather than the application of social-science methods. In this regard, utilisation-focused programme evaluations are carried out for, and with, specific intended users. Therefore, such evaluations involve examining much more than goal attainment by, for example, focusing on broader issues such as implementation, programme process, unanticipated consequences and long-term impacts. Patton (1997, p. 24) argues that his definition has three interrelated components, namely the systematic collection of information about a potentially broad range of topics for a variety of possible judgements and uses. From his perspective, programme evaluators may use research methods to gather information, but they may also use management Module 8: Understanding programme monitoring and evaluation 127 8