USAID’s monitoring data have a variety of potential uses and users, some within the Mission and others external to the Mission, or even external USAID altogether.
Within a USAID Mission, monitoring data can be used to inform portfolio reviews and decisions about possible adaptations to development programming. Monitoring data can also be used to help decide if an evaluation is needed or to inform or support evaluation findings. Prior to utilizing monitoring data, USAID staff should consider what information will be relevant and ensure that it is ready in time for that use. Ideally, the potential use(s) of monitoring data will have been thought of well in advance of actual use to guarantee that the appropriate data have been collected and analyzed in time for its ultimate use.
USAID regional and pillar bureaus may use monitoring data to understand trends across a region or sector, even though some of the nuances of individual Mission data points may be lost at this level.
Host country governments and other donors may have uses for monitoring data, if the data are available to them. Often this may be discussed during strategy or project design stages, though some uses may not become clear until later in the Program Cycle.