Table Of ContentMONITORING AND EVALUATION OF
SOIL CONSERVATION AND
WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF
SOIL CONSERVATION AND
WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Editors
Jan de Graaff
Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands
John Cameron
University ofEast Anglia, United Kingdom
Samran Sombatpanit
WASWC, Thailand
Christian Pieri
Formerly ofthe World Bank, France
Jim Woodhill
IAC, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands
with assistance from
Annemarieke de Bruin
Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands
Boca Raton London New York
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Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
Monitoring and evaluation of soil conservation and watershed
development projects/editors, Jan De Graaff ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57808-349-7
1. Soil conservation projects--Evaluation. 2. Water resources
development--Evaluation. 3. Watershed management--Evaluation.
I. Graaff, J. de.
S627.P76M66 2007
631.4' 5--dc22
2007038165
Foreword
Much concern is being expressed about the state of the world's soil and
availability of water. Interventions to conserve soil and develop
watersheds are being undertaken globally by a wide variety of agencies,
but we need to have instruments to assess the access of these
interventions. This means identifying the variables that the interventions
are aiming to affect, indicators of those variables, and the people who are
the intended beneficiaries.
It is therefore important that effective monitoring and evaluation
(M&E) techniques are identified to ascertain that these interventions
contribute to halting further environmental degradation, but also to
determine their wider socio-economic impact and to learn from these
experiences. This book offers evidence that better practices in monitoring
and evaluation systems, with differing procedures and tools,have already
been developed and applied in many countries.
In soil conservation and watershed development activities it is
difficult to disentangle the roles of physical factors and human factors
with respect to effects on soil and water availability and quality and the
impact of interventions from underlying processes. For instance,
sedimentation rates may be affected by both lower rainfall intensities and
soil and water conservation activities. And tree survival rates may relate
to climatic and biological conditions, and also to management and better
care by the local population.
Monitoring and evaluation activities should encompass the entire
range of relevant factors that bear on the performance and results of
project activities, this book therefore focuses on both physical and socio-
economic factors and indicators. In short, this book gives an overview of
how monitoring and evaluation systems have been applied and can be
applied in various types of soil conservation and watershed development
projects in many different countries in the world, and can serve as a
reference book for allthose involved in designing M&E systems for future
projects.
MlODRAG ZLATIC
President
World Association ofSoil and Water Conservation
Preface
Large numbers of development projects in the last thirty years have had
soil conservation and watershed development as major components.
Arguably there has been some ascent on a steep learning curve through
experience of failure, given Norman Hudson in his acclaimed study on
'the reasons for success or failure of soil conservation projects' (FAO Soils
Bulletin 64,1991) could claim that only 25percent ofthe projects started in
the 1970scould be rated as successful, while those started during the 1980s
the figure rose to 56 percent.
The editors of this book are convinced that continuing improvement
in project performance requires even more effective Monitoring and
Evaluation (M&E) techniques to inform decision-making. The writing of
this book was therefore initiated by the World Association of Soil and
Water Conservation (WASWC) in 2002after publications on two essential
soil conservation topics, Extension and Incentives, had been executed in
1997 and 1999, respectively. The exact purpose of this book is to help all
stakeholders, either directly or indirectly, to plan and execute more
effective soil conservation and watershed development projects/
programmes.
'Effectiveness' is a rather vague term, especially when assessing
development projects/ programmes. It may cover a very wide scope
indeed, ranging from 'getting the budget spent', to 'seeing interventions
implemented/infrastructure constructed', to 'seeing soil material kept in
its place and watershed looks nice', to 'many or most people living in the
area attain a better livelihood.' In this book we are primarily concerned
with getting a healthy mix of environmental and livelihood impacts. The
M&E techniques described in this book vary in the mix offered. But in all
cases they are intended to offer practical advice to active practitioners.
Production of this book has been done through inviting academics
and professionals who have long years of experience to contribute.
Altogether we have received 25 papers from many countries in all
habitable continents, which we had grouped into four categories to
facilitate analysis and easy reading, i.e. Principles, M&E in Practice,
viii MONITORINGANDEVALUATIONOFSOILCONSERVATIONANDWATERSHEDDEV. PROJECTS
Physical Tools, and Socioeconomic Aspects. Readers are welcome to
contact and interact with any of the authors for further discussion or
cooperation. E-mails of all senior authors are provided to make such
contact an easy task.
In editing this book, the editors have done their best to get examples
from various locations and environments. To help the reader through the
chapters, the Introduction is a straightforward description and we
recommend this should be used to scope the range of material on offer
here.The Epilogue, on the other hand, offers amore analytical synthesis of
all chapters and indicate various principles that are crucial in getting to
appreciate the methods or systems being used in monitoring and
evaluating any soil conservation and watershed development
intervention.
During the course of production of this book we have received
guidance and comments from our advisers, David Sanders and Tage
Michaelsen, formerly of FAO and Thomas Hofer of the Department of
Forestry, FAO, Rome, our deep thanks to them. We also thank
Annemarieke de Bruin of Wageningen University and Research Centre,
The Netherlands, who helped substantially in compiling appendices
concerning training courses and recent M&E literature. Last, and not the
least, we thank Science Publishers of Enfield, New Hampshire, U.S.A. for
facilitating us in all steps of this book's production.
THE EDITORS
Contents
Foreword v
Preface vii
List of Contributors xiii
Introduction 1
Part 1: Principles of M&E inSCWD Projects
1. Principles and Practices of Monitoring and 13
Evaluation for Watershed and Conservation Projects
TedC. Sheng
2. Monitoring and Evaluation of Watershed 27
Development Projects in India
D.C. Das, K.K. Gupta and K.G. Tejwani
3. Monitoring and Evaluation of Soil Conservation and 51
Watershed Development Projects: An Approach to
Sustainable Development
Janya Sang-Arun, Machito Mihara, Eiji Yamaji, and
Samran Sombatpanit
4. Impact Monitoring of Soil and Water Conservation: 69
Taking a Wider Look
Karl Herzveg
5. M&E as Learning: Rethinking the Dominant Paradigm 83
Jim Woodhill
Part 2: M&E in Practice
6. Monitoring and Evaluation for 111
Efficient Sustainable Development Projects
Edgar Hernandez
