The Sorry State of M&E in Agriculture: Can People-centred Approaches Help?

This article argues that if the multiple purposes of M&E were recognised and pursued it would help align the incentives of funders, implementers, M&E service providers, and intended beneficiaries to increase the impacts of agriculture on poverty. In reality, these multiple purposes are rarely pursued, leading to the weak provision of meaningful M&E. We make the case that M&E in agriculture is not immune to this, and it may even be more susceptible due to agriculture's unique properties. We argue that one possible way forward is people-centred M&E, which looks for ways to balance multiple accountabilities. People-centred M&E embraces farmer feedback, focuses on incentivising learning within organisations and finds ways to share M&E information more openly.