Learning about the effects of development education programmes: Strengthening planning, monitoring, and evaluation (PME) through reflective practice

This article reports on the results of an action research project (2010–13) in which ten Belgian organizations who implement development education programmes explored different planning, monitoring, and evaluation (PME) approaches with the aim of learning more effectively about their results. PME approaches piloted included outcome mapping, most significant change, and scoring tools. This article seeks to further the debate about the implications of the complexity of development education programmes for their PME. Such debate is needed in view of a growing call for results-based management of externally funded development education programmes. Based on the literature from the fields of international development cooperation and development education, and supported by our study results, we argue that there is a need for alternative results-based management approaches that promote learning and help actors involved in development education deal with unpredictability and non-linearity.