Over the last decade, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes have become an important source of knowledge management and organisational learning in the public sector.    

Many organisations are realising the importance of ‘knowing what they know’ and being able to extract that knowledge and use it to improve their operations. Today, success and survival in this increasingly competitive environment critically depend on the quality of knowledge management and learning that public entities employ. 

In the M&E domain, knowledge means the utilisation of information, combined with the potential of people’s skills, technical competencies, insights, thoughts, commitments and motivations. In public entities, knowledge resides in different places distributed across the organisation such as knowledge hubs, databases, filing cabinets and peoples, heads. Organisations need to know what their knowledge resources are and what M&E processes to employ to extract this knowledge.  

Knowledge management on the other hand is the assembly of the processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilisation of data and information. It is about managing the processes of developing, preserving, using and sharing knowledge to add value to the organisation.

In the public sphere today, many government entities are dedicating resources to knowledge management efforts. Organisations want to leverage knowledge to advance their business strategies. Knowledge management efforts normally focus on organisational objectives such as improving performance, creating a competitive advantage, innovations, sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement. Knowledge management is an enabler of organisational learning in that it facilitates learning through the practical use of the knowledge.  

Organisational learning, on the other hand, takes place when an organisation uses the knowledge generated to improve performance, create a competitive advantage in the market, initiate new innovations, share lessons learned with key stakeholders, and undertake integration and continuous improvement efforts. In simple terms, learning is about the organisation making use of the knowledge generated to improve and perform better.   

Information generated from M&E processes is instrumental in creating knowledge that enhances organisational learning.  However, M&E can only play a significant role if measures to enhance organisational learning are put in place. Organisational learning can only be enhanced when there is regular exchange of information, reporting, use of the knowledge generated, learning sessions are held and information from the M&E processes is fed back into the learning process for improvement. Organisations need to focus on learning from M&E processes to make a meaningful contribution to the achievement of results, accountability and innovation for better results and impact from their work.

The two most direct ways of using knowledge gained from M&E processes is to inform ongoing and future planning and programmes development, and also scaling up or replication of programmes. Lessons learnt through M&E processes have to be availed to key stakeholders so that they incorporate or replicate them into new programmes and projects. This is how organisational knowledge leads to organisational learning; by ensuring that learning is incorporated into planning and development of new programmes and projects or other organisational development processes.

Finally, the use of knowledge (learning) is as important as the generation of knowledge. A good M&E system ensures that knowledge and information is generated and disseminated to the right audience. Some of the commonly-used knowledge dissemination mechanisms in M&E include the use of reports (printed and soft copies) shared on Internet sites and through e-mails, meetings, workshops and conferences.

The writer is a senior consultant - monitoring & evaluation, government and public services at PwC Rwanda.