Advancing Partners & Communities Subawardee Guidance for the Performance Monitoring Plan

A PMP is a road map for monitoring and evaluating program performance and provides detailed, time-bound information that explains when and how data will be collected and analyzed. The PMP is used to guide the collection of data for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and is a critical component of the project's overall management and implementation. The PMP is designed to provide timely information for monitoring progress around project implementation, supervision, and management. It also serves as a report of results of implemented activities and interventions as a form of accountability to USAID and meets the required project reporting standards. Additionally, the PMP uses data to advocate for support and expansion of effective approaches uncovered in the course of the project and continuously monitors and assess progress and generate lessons learned for improving implementation and design of strategies and approaches. The PMP should include the following sections: 1. Title Page: The title page serves as the cover page for the PMP and includes the organization and project name, the PMP's date of submission, the awardee's agreement start and end dates, and the contact information of the person to contact in case any questions arise. 2. Project Overview: The Project Overview is a brief synopsis of the project activities that also includes the organization's overall objectives and how the project will address the problem at hand. 3. Intermediate/Expected Results (IR/ER): IR/ER are the results or outcomes to be achieved through the awardee activities. IR/ER are to be broken down into sub-IR and sub-ER, and awardees are to refer to their project's original solicitation to determine the appropriate terminology for their specific awards. 4. PMP Table: The PMP table is designed to capture quantitative information about activities and will be used to measure performance and progress. The PMP Quality Checklist is a checklist designed to help awardees in the development of the main components of the PMP, which include the List of IR/ER and the PMP Table. The checklist is designed to help awardees decide whether or not their PMP meets the basic characteristics of a good M&E plan. The checklist includes the following questions: 1. Is the PMP clear and well-organized? 2. Does the PMP deal mostly with results and indicators, rather than strategy or operations? 3. Is there an indicator table, with targets and baseline estimates where relevant? 4. Is the information on data flow and reporting responsibilities complete? 5. Are the indicators aligned with project activities and clearly defined? 6. Is there enough information in the PMP to judge the quality of the indicators? 7. Do the indicators reliably measure what is intended, and is their collection and use feasible? 8. Is the number of indicators adequate to reflect project results, but also manageable? 9. Are the indicators sufficiently disaggregated to meet information needs? The PMP should be concise and not exceed 20 pages, including appendices. A clear and easy-to-follow PMP is more likely to be implemented correctly and will help ease project management.