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Monitoring and Evaluation of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development Projects. Edited by J. de Graaf, J. Cameron, S. Sombatpanit, C. Pieri and J. Woodhill. Enfield, NH, USA: Science Publishers (2007), for World Association of Soil and Water Conservation, pp. 532, US$69.50. ISBN 978-1-57808-349-7.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

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Abstract

Type
Book Review
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

This volume is not a handbook but, drawing on experiences from a number of projects, it is thought provoking at several levels: the aims of monitoring and evaluation (M & E), its forms, methods, outcomes and uses. The Introduction provides a useful guide to the structure of the book, whose four parts cover ‘Principles of M & E Projects’ in Soil Conservation and Watershed Development (SCWD) (five papers), and ‘M & E in Practice’ (seven papers). These provide interesting comparisons across a wide geographic spread, a variety of projects and a range of their approaches to M & E. In the Epilogue the editors have identified five future challenges based on the authors' conclusions. Two authors independently indicate that monitoring should be asking: ‘Are we doing the project right?’, while evaluation should become an iterative process alongside each monitoring, asking: ‘Are we doing the right project?’, and – if honest – may produce some uncomfortable answers. One author cogently urges a rethinking of M & E's dominant paradigm, pointing out that the technical information and external accountability-oriented approach needs to be supplanted by an actor-specific learning approach, since it is people's perceptions of benefits that count. This reviewer challenges assumptions commonly lurking in the ‘soil conservation’ paradigm: what happens if we transform ‘soil and water conversation’ to ‘water and soil conservation’? It changes project conceptualization, with repercussions for design and M & E of many soil conservation and watershed development projects. (The response to this is apparent within No-till Farming Systems Footnote , also published by WASWC a few months later than this book!).

References

Goddard, T., Zoebisch, M. A., Gan, Y; Ellis, W., Watson, A. and Sombatatpunit, S. (Eds) (2008). No Till Farming Systems. Special Publication No 3. Bangkok: World Association of Soil and Water ConservationGoogle Scholar.