Assessing the Tools of Water Planning: A Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

The Water Planning Tools project is developing methods to assist water planners and community stakeholders monitor and evaluate a water planning process, measure its progress against a set of shared objectives and make adjustments that improve the overall outcomes.

In the project, we are specifically looking at trialling planning tools which serve as:

• a mechanism for improved decision-making;
• a facilitator of social process;
• a means of improving outcomes; and
• a pathway for positive changes in the community.

Developing a method for assessing how each of the tools being trialled meet these objectives is vital to our research. To do this, we will be using a participatory monitoring and evaluation (or PM&E) approach. Through this, we will build a framework for evaluation based on adaptive management principles.

In PM&E, researchers, agencies and the community participate as co-evaluators. Negotiation and deliberation is used to generate agreement on what should be measured, and how (Tan et al 2008). Approaches to PM&E are now widespread. The challenge is to adapt these to water planning processes, particularly for assessing plans manage trade-off decisions and deal with risk and uncertainty.

The central value of participatory monitoring and evaluation is that it aims to build shared understanding and ownership of the constraints that hinder a planning process, and to develop a shared response to problem solving between water planners and community members.

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