Reporting of Monitoring; After the Observations are Made
 by
Phil Bartle, PhD

Training Handout

How to report the observations and analysis

 While this document focuses on reporting of observations made while
 monitoring, the
 next module, Report Writing, looks more in detail about the writing
 of reports itself.

 Reporting is a major activity during project monitoring. It is the
 way in which information about the process and output of activities,
 and not just the activities, is shared between the stake holders of
 the project. In the case of a school construction project, reporting
 does not end at mentioning the number of times the community met to
 make bricks and build the school walls, but also mentions the number
 of bricks and school walls that were constructed plus the process
 through which they were accomplished.

 In community projects, reporting is mainly done through two ways:
 verbal and written.

Verbal Reporting:

 This is a process where reporting is done orally. It is the
 commonest means of reporting. The community members find it easier
 and more effective to communicate to others in words.

 The advantages of verbal reporting are:
 The ability for a wider proportion of the community to
 participate. Many community members especially in rural areas are
 illiterate and cannot write. Those that can write find the writing
 of reports time and resource consuming which makes them reluctant
 to document all the information acquired during project
 monitoring.

 Clarity and timely distribution of information. Verbal reporting
 is always done immediately after an event. This makes the
 information arising out of the process to be relatively valid,
 reliable and up to-date than the information that is documented.
 The people that give the reports, get an opportunity to discuss
 with the community and get immediate feedback. This helps in
 decision making.

 Low cost. Verbal reporting cuts down significantly the time and
 other resources spent on reporting.

 The challenges of verbal reporting include:

 . Wrong reporting. Some community members may deliberately
   disseminate wrong information verbally to protect their interests.

 Verbal reporting is so tempting because a person reporting knows
 that no body will disqualify the reports. In other cases the
 people giving the information are not given the time to think
 through the responses.

 . Storage, replication and consistency: Since during verbal
   reporting information is neither documented nor recorded, it is
   very difficult to keep and retrieve it for further use. This
   information is only kept in the minds of people who participated
   in the implementation of the project. This therefore makes it
   difficult to share the information with people beyond the
   community especially in instances where those people who know the
   information cannot or are not willing to reveal it. The
   information collected is also not likely to be consistent
   especially in cases where past information is needed to generate
   new data.

Written Reporting:

 During monitoring it is important to report about the results of
 activities not just the activities. Write what you observe, along
 with reviewing reports of technical people.

 The advantages of written reports are:

 . They provide reliable information for management purposes (Written
   reports can be cross-checked over time with other information
   to ascertain accuracy);
 . They help to provide information from the technical people; and
 . The reports that are written are easy to manage.

 The challenges of written reports are:

 . Day to day writing during project monitoring activities is always
   ignored; and
 . Documentation of reports is very costly both in time and money.

 See Levels of Monitoring for an explanation of the levels used
 here. Uganda uses: 1 = village, 2 = parish, 3 = sub-county, 4 =
 county and 5 = district.

Reporting Roles of Key Stake Holders:

Community level:

Project Committees:

 . Design and publicise (in liaison with mobilizers) the project
   implementation work plan to the, Parish Development Committee,

 Local Councils and the community;

 Compile and publicise the monthly project progress reports to the
 . Parish Development Committee, Local Councils at village and parish
   level and Community Development Assistant; and
 . Keep the project site file (including the work plans, monitoring
   reports and any other specific project information) for each
   project.

Community Mobilizers:

 Prepare reports about village level project identification process
 and submit copies to the Parish Development Committee and the

Community Development Assistant;

 . Collect and submit reports about the community and specific
   individuals in the community; and
 . Submit reports on all training conducted in the community.

Parish Development Committees:

 . Give an up-date about projects in the parish to the community in
   local council meeting;
 . Report to community and CDA about resources and how they are used
   in each project;
 . Submit an annual report to the CDA on the main actors in the
   community projects.

Local Council One and Two:

 Document minutes of council and executive meetings for their
 management decisions and use by the sub-county, district and
 national teams.


Sub-County and District Level:

Community Development Assistant:

 . Submits a monthly summary of project progress reports to the
   district;
 . Report on status and functioning of community mobilizers, project
   committees and parish development committees;
 . Submits a summary of training conducted by mobilizers and to the
   mobilizers;
 . Submits a report on the main contributors in the community
   projects to the district.

Community Development Officer (District Co-ordinator):

 Submits a monthly summary of district progress reports to the
 national office.


National Office:

National Co-ordinator:

 . Submits half year progress reports in the country to the national
   steering committee, ministry and donors;
 . Prepares up-dates of project activities and outputs and submits
   copies to each district, who in turn publicise the report to the
   sub- counties and parishes.
 . Submits SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
   reports twice a year on the strength and weaknesses of the project
   design to the ministry and donors. Include bad and good
   implementation experiences. May be part of the six month report;
 . Compiles and publicises survey and qualitative enquiry findings
   whenever such studies are conducted.

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Updated: 2003 May 8