AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

Various sources (Mebrathu 2002, Mosse 2004, ODI 2007) have identified discrepancies between development policies and practices. Such a discrepancy was experienced in the internship host organisation where there seemed to be a discrepancy between monitoring and evaluation (M&E) policies and practice. This report sheds light on the challenges that the internship host organisation faces in relation to M&E practices and shows how these challenges can be regarded as due to a lack of skills, expertise and resources in small-scale NGOs. It is also shown how the general assumption that policy ought to be implemented as a plan for action, can indeed be challenged with a reverse understanding of the relationship between policy and practice. Such a framework, together with the enhanced emphasis of showing accountability of development through M&E, can have an unintended negative impact in regards to which development interventions and indeed organisations are deemed successful and valuble and which are not.