Participatory Monitoring and Learning (PM&L) is a process of collaborative review and problem solving, through the generation and use of information on a regular basis throughout the project cycle. It is a process that leads to corrective action or improvement within the project, based on the shared decision-making of a number of stakeholders.
Action for Social Advancement (ASA) launched a pilot initiative that experimented with the Participatory Monitoring and Learning (PM&L) approach, within three World Bank assisted rural development projects in Madhya Pradesh, India—the District Poverty Initiative Project (MP-DPIP), Rural Women’s Empowerment Project (Swashakti) and MP Forestry Project.

The goal of the two-year World Bank-funded pilot was to field-test and fine-tune PM&L approaches that would improve participation of primary and secondary stakeholders within the project cycle. The pilot’s overriding hypothesis was that PM&L can contribute to improved learning, participatory decision-making and better governance at all levels within a project, primarily at the community level. Ultimately, it enables a project to become innovative, bottom-up and demand-driven.

The ASA PM&L initiative adapted a number of existing PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) tools to undertake monitoring and learning ‘at the community level’, within the three World Bank assisted projects in Madhya Pradesh. This Handbook presents a number of these tools, together with others synthesised from experiences of other organisations. It offers an overview of the kind of tools that are proving to be effective in PM&L processes.

The Handbook provides facilitators with practical information on how to apply the tools. It is hoped that use of these tools in the field will further fine-tune them and also lead to the development of new tools

The Handbook is structured as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Preparation
Chapter 3: Tips on Using Common PRA Tools within PM&L
Chapter 4: PM&L Tools
Chapter 5: How to Present the Results