This qualitative case study seeks to understand what 'participatory' in participatory monitoring and evaluation means in an international development context. The objective is to identify the characteristics of a participatory monitoring and evaluation process, according to experts and specialists in the field. The paper seeks to highlight the greater issues of power and voice in monitoring and evaluation in international development. Twenty monitoring and evaluation practitioners and specialists were interviewed for this purpose and their scholarly articles and books on the subject were reviewed to enumerate some key characteristics of participatory monitoring and evaluation, while understanding who participated, to what extent and how and if it could be true participation if there was a template for it.