In the field of international development and social impact, monitoring and evaluation is known in many ways, using different terminologies. All forms guide project management, project evaluation, assess performance, and enhance impact. You may have heard of  MEAL, RBME, MEL, MERL, and M&E— terms often used synonymously with each other, but are they all the same?

At IMA International, we often use MEAL for our training programmes, as in our Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning course.

To help understand the differences between these terminologies, let's break them down:

M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation)

• Monitoring: The continuous process of collecting and analyzing data to track project progress against predetermined goals or objectives.
• Evaluation: The systematic assessment of a project or programme after it has been implemented. This is to determine its effectiveness, efficiency, and it's impact.

Purpose: M&E focuses on tracking and assessing the performance of a project or programme. This  ensures accountability, and providing data to inform decision-making.

Monitoring and Evaluation is often seen as a more straightforward framework focusing on the systematic tracking of project activities and outputs (Monitoring) and assessing the outcomes and impacts (Evaluation) and most often will be the foundation for any project tracking and reporting.

MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning):

• Monitoring and Evaluation: The same as traditional M&E, focusing on tracking progress and assessing outcomes and impacts.
• Accountability: Ensures that the project or programme is accountable to stakeholders. This is done by integrating feedback mechanisms and improving transparency.
• Learning: A deliberate effort to learn from the data collected during monitoring and evaluation. This focuses on adapting and improving future interventions based on lessons learned.

Purpose: MEAL emphasises the importance of not just tracking and assessing a project but also incorporating stakeholder feedback (accountability) and learning at various points in the project cycle, to improve future projects. Different organisations place varying levels of emphasis on Accountability and Learning. Which is more important, will depend on the context an organisation works in and what it's trying to achieve. A highly participatory organisation may focus more on accountability towards the people benefitting from a project, whereas a different organisation may focus more on accountability towards donors, or those expecting results.
An organisation that's engaged in innovative work may place more emphasis on learning, perhaps learning from mistakes, or learning how to do things better to improve implementation. Accountability and Learning are usually motivations in most projects. However, if we design a MEAL system primarily for accountability, it will not be as useful for learning. On the other hand, if we design a good learning system, it will often provide accountability requirements as well. At IMA we feel the inclusion of A and L are important for improving the effectiveness and participation of projects among different stakeholders. The importance of both are explored throughout our courses, as we discuss ways to develop a learning culture within your organisation and how to develop accountability for effective projects.

RBM&E (Results-Based Monitoring & Evaluation)

• Results-Based: A focus on the project or programme results and achieving long-term outcomes
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Traditional M&E, focusing on progress and impact assessment.

Purpose: Building on Monitoring and Evaluation, it can be considered that RBM&E, is more results-oriented, with an emphasis on achieving longer term results and learning from the process in real-time so that adjustments can be made to improve the impact of a project or programme. However, arguably if you are implementing effective M&E, you will be results-orientated and working towards achieving long-term positive and measurable outcomes. If you include the A & L of MEAL, you will also be incorporating continuous learning and accountability to your stakeholders to achieving results.

MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning):

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Traditional M&E, focusing on progress and impact assessment.
• Learning: Places strong emphasis on learning from both successes and challenges in the project or programme. This encourages organisations to adapt their strategies in response to the data collected and improve project processes and implementation for more effective projects and programmes.

Purpose: MEL promotes a cycle of continuous improvement and organisational learning. Ensuring that learning from project implementation is integrated into decision-making processes to improve future projects and aim to make impacts more effective. Some organisations place emphasis on the learning, not just for learning from project processes, but internal organisational learning, to improve knowledge management, or enhance organisational capacity and efficiency, which overall aims to improve project implementation capacity as well.

MERL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning):

• Monitoring and Evaluation: As in the other frameworks, focusing on tracking and assessing progress and outcomes.
• Research: Involves incorporating a research component to go beyond basic data collection. With a focus on generating new knowledge or understanding through structured studies and investigations.
• Learning: As with MEL and MEAL, learning is emphasized to improve future actions based on findings.

Purpose: MERL extends the M&E framework to include a focus on research. This makes it particularly useful for projects that aim to generate evidence or contribute to broader knowledge in the field. IMA have worked with organisations focusing on MERL. Our work with the UK Health Security Agency, supported development of their MERL capacity as part of an overall strategy to effectively address the evolving challenges in public health security and emergency response.

So which acronym should I use, MEAL MERL MEL or M&E?

Determining which acronym or which form of Monitoring and Evaluation might seem like a tricky task. Ultimately, identifying your organisation's goals and objectives of what it wants to achieve in your projects and programmes, will help in deciding whether you want M&E, MEAL, RBM&E, MEL or MERL, but ultimately there are many similarities between them and over time, many organisations will use different terminology, but will not neglect to focus on the learning or accountability, despite using 'only M&E'. Whilst it may seem confusing, choosing how to monitor and evaluate your projects and programmes will be determined by your internal capacity, funding, time, and organisational objectives. We encourage the inclusion of learning, because it is vital we learn from our projects and programmes to improve implementation and processes the next time around. Accountability is important because it encourages participation, which is particularly important when considering the people a project works with, who may be a minority group. Ensuring accountability to these stakeholders will empower them, and participation, ensures their voices and concerns are heard.

If you would like to find out more about how you can enhance the M&E capacity of your organisation to improve the effectiveness of your projects and programmes, or integrate Accountability and Learning into your M&E system, why not try IMA's Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning course, and start your learning today!