Monitoring And Evaluation Of Soil Conservation And Watershed Development Projects

This book provides diverse information and critical know-how to implement appropriate methodology and cost-efficient monitoring and evaluation systems better suited to assess the impacts of soil conservation and wastershed multi-sectoral development activities. It draws on a worldwide experience of specialists and a large array of ground-truthing projects and programmes. This book will meet its objective if it contributes to convince financing institutions and project managers that integrated watershed management activities have the potential to generate highly desirable impacts for the society at large, which have to be accurately measured by adequate M&E systems.

The project has become fundamental to international development and humanitarian practice, playing a key role in defining objectives, funding streams and ultimately determining what success looks like. This book provides a much-needed overview of the project in international development practice, guiding the reader through the latest theoretical debates, and exploring the core tools and stages of planning and design. The book starts with an overview of the role of the project through development history, before taking the reader through the stages of a standard project management cycle. Each chapter introduces the stage, the most common tools used to support that phase of planning, and the critical debates that exist around it, with examples to illustrate discussions from around the world and a range of development fields. The book explores the challenges to working effectively in contemporary aid contexts, including the role of politics and the pressures wrought by the demands to demonstrate quantified results. Throughout, the book argues for the need to see the project as a form of governmentality that arranges resources and people in time and space, and that extends neoliberal forms of managerial control in the sector. Ending with suggestions for innovation, this book is perfect for anyone looking for an accessible and engaging guide to the international development project, whether student, researcher or practitioner.

Watersheds as hydrologic units comprise combinations of arable and nonarable land and drainage lines and are utilized by permanent and transient populations with varying skills and commitment to long term resource husbandry. The range of issues relevant to watershed management is enormous and includes environmental issues, crop and livestock production, social and cultural concerns, infrastructure planning and entire questions of governance and control. This volume presents the results of a highly selective program of research and consultation. The authors : 1) present a discussion of the major watershed development problems of the Asia region; 2) examine the fundamental building blocks of watershed management projects; 3) demonstrate how benefit-cost analysis techniques can be used to assist in the selection of watershed management technologies; 4) discuss the revegetation of denuded forest land; 5) explore one of the most troublesome subjects in conservation policy - land tenure; and 6) elaborate the connections between planning, monitoring and evaluation of watershed projects.