"Work in Progress": The Hidden Dimensions of Monitoring and Planning in Pakistan

The study argues that monitoring systems for large numbers of projects constituting public sector development programmes such as found in Pakistan, are built on the positivist premise that progress can be summarised objectively and in a few concise statements or indicators. Theory and handbooks on the subject largely support the view that monitoring is relatively unproblematic (yielding `data') as compared to for instance programme evaluation (yielding value judgements). The premise is not borne out after a close examination of the working of monitoring systems in the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan (and to a lesser extent other areas). Heroically assuming that government departments are dispassionate servants of government, most of the monitoring conducted materialises as progress reporting on paper from the side of implementing agencies about their own projects to the agency that funds them (in this case the Planning and Development Department). Other possible monitoring options are not pursued seriously, such as systematic project visits by the funding agencies.