Linking monitoring and evaluation to impact evaluation

This is the second guidance note in a four-part series of notes related to impact evaluation developed by InterAction with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation.This second guidance note, Linking Monitoring and Evaluation to Impact Evaluation, illustrates the relationship between routine M&E and impact evaluation – in particular, how both monitoring and evaluation activities can support meaningful and valid impact evaluation. M&E has a critical role to play in impact evaluation, such as: identifying when and under what circumstances it would be possible and appropriate to undertake an impact evaluation; contributing essential data to conduct an impact evaluation, such as baseline data of various forms and information about the nature of the intervention; and contributing necessary information to interpret and apply findings from impact evaluation.