In the last 20 years or so, as mobile technology evolved and big data became more accessible than ever, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has grown in prominence as a distinct discipline (Nhlema,2014). Rather than being an add-on at the end of the traditional project cycle, M&E is now a central tool, not just for assessment of achievement or progress, but also for long-term planning, resource allocation, and improvements and innovation in program design. And M&E isn’t just for data crunchers who spend their days hunched over Excel spreadsheets— everyone from graphic designers, communicators, educators, and program officers are using numbers to tell or show a story, teach a concept, or achieve strategic organizational or business goals. This paper will share Water For People’s 6 years’ worth of experience, successes, lessons and doubts around using the monitoring application, AkvoFLOW, to collect over 40000 lines of WASH data since 2010 in Malawi.
