The organization of monitoring and evaluation of public sector programs in South Asia is described, and the ways in which information from the studies is actually used are discussed. Reasons why there has been so little interest in evaluating the performance and maintenance of public sector programs are considered. (SLD)

The experience of development assistance (donor) agencies with the monitoring and evaluation of their projects in the developing countries is reviewed. The concepts and definitions of monitoring and evaluation are traced and problems and issues that emerged in the 1970's are reviewed. Future directions are discussed. (SLD)

The question of whether economic development programs can be evaluated seems simple, but the answer is not simple because of the nature of evaluation. Determining a program's effectiveness requires the evaluator to distinguish changes due to the program from changes due to nonprogram factors. The evaluator must focus on outcomes caused by the…