Excerpt from Essay :

Monitoring System of Starbucks

Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

Monitoring consists of everyday assessment of activities and projects, while evaluation entails the routine assessment of attained undertakings. Monitoring oversees the amount of work done while evaluation oversees the impact of the work done yet. There are number of audiences to be tapped upon for information regarding monitoring and evaluating post disaster projects such as:

Agencies

Funders

Government

Public

Afflicted community

In case of post disaster projects, monitoring and evaluation is twofold complicated due to occurrences like:

Project designs made in a hurry

Baselines are often overlooked

The relevant data is unavailable

Yet, competent monitoring and evaluation can enhance a project's viability and motivate the stakeholders; they can assist in understanding the international public about reconstruction, knowledge which is short in supply. For normal circumstances, many tools and resources are present for monitoring and evaluation (Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstructing after Natural Disasters, 2010)

Governments have their policies on monitoring and evaluation (M&E), some induce them to disclose information with respect to projects developed from public funds. Nongovernment organizations and international financial institutions (IFI's) have M&E rules in place. But, there isn't a policy which governs a project's reporting by an agency to a government / project beneficiaries. Monitoring is a bit of a grey area where efficiencies do collaborate but enticements aren't appealing. Government needs to develop protocols for gathering of information and reporting data about post disaster which will solidify gathering, consolidation and analysis at the domestic scale. Rules must be effected in place for minimizing parameters for M&E in case of projects and facilitate disclosing results. With such rules and regulations in effect, the government can keep tab on all project costs and progress on current projects (Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstructing after Natural Disasters, 2010)

Monitoring System and Indicators

Indicators are an important part of M&E (monitoring and evaluation) system. For instance on the national scale, an indicators can give the experts and policy makers to logically reach a sound decision on how to respond to AIDS epidemic. On the international scale, synchronized indicator sets UNGASS and the UNGASS Addendum: Additional Recommended Indicators) assist the transnational agencies and organizations to take plausible action against epidemics that decides the usage of funds and M&E professionals. The resources are allocated and planning is done accordingly. M&E professionals have a diverse array of tools at their disposal. Indicators are handy tools which can be quite useful, but if misused, they can waste considerable amount of resources and data obtained can be useless as well. Indicators should be qualitative and competent. Indicators should provide useful and practical data. They need to be sound technically. Their usage must be easy, practical and feasible. Apart from that, they should have a stellar record of performance (Rugg, 2010).

Indicators are employed for furnishing information on:

Achievement

Performance

Accountability

Those three elements are the foundation of monitoring and evaluation. Apart from that, indicator furnishes data on which strategic action can be taken for instance managing AIDS epidemic. It's not possible to address an epidemic in the absence of indicators and prepare a response. The indicators should be of top notch quality for obtaining viable information and being able to pool concrete data from a certain location (Rugg, 2010).

Essentially, an indicator points out that something / value is true. It verifies the presence or an indication of a value / condition / situation. In case of monitoring and evaluation, the indicator is just a quantitative metric which furnishes information with respect to performance monitoring, calculating achievements and establishing accountability. It's useful to realize that quantitative metric signifies data on worth of any project / activity / programme (Rugg, 2010).

Literature Review

Features of competent indicators

A competent indicator must be lucid and brief. It must be aimed on providing data on a singular issue at hand depending upon usage, furnishing information which would outline a definite line of attack. Competent indicators are also tasked with gathering concrete and credible information. In essence, competent indicators must measure and measure correctly their denoted quantity. In any case otherwise, the indicator's data may have least / no value if it doesn't serve its purpose. There are number of aspects to look in case of an indicator, but these three must be kept in mind as they affect the reality of the data: (Rugg, 2010)

(1) Validity: The degree to which a quantity is correctly measured / thought of being measured

(2) Reliability: The uniformity of the data gathered multiple times by the same method and under similar conditions.

(3) Bias: Certain occurrence during the data collection method leading to overall error (Rugg, 2010).

New Economic Foundation accepted AIM criteria for indicators in 2000, which determines the eminence of indicator:

Action...

It's not a good indicator if it doesn't outline a line of attack

Important: The stakeholders must consent to an indicator as its generated data will outline the course of action.

Measurable: The data collection method must be defined as well as the easiness of collecting it.

Simple: Albert Einstein wasn't referring to indicators but he said that, 'everything should be simple yet not simpler too'. On a side note, only some indicators are perfect. Hence, it's better to locate simple indicators which can provide data needed for use instead of perfect indicator (Rugg, 2010)

A Sustainable development

SD stands for Sustainable Development. It was coined for the first time in an IUCN report titled 'World Conservation Strategy: Living resources for sustainable development' in 1980. The popular definition of SD within the vast SD literature was given way back in 1987 by World Commission on Environment and Development in a report titled 'Our Common Future' commonly known as the Brundtland Report:

'Sustainable development is the development which fulfils the demands of the present generation by not compromising the future generation in attaining their demands. It consists of two concepts within: concept of need, especially the poverty stricken community globally and restrictions caused by the technology as well as social organization to fulfill present and future demands' (WCED, 1987:43)

Sustainable development might therefore be observed as including three diverse features:

Equalized development (compromising between environmental, social and monetary interests)

Sharing responsibility and equity over time

Involvement

SD is shown in pictorial terms. Figure 1 is one such example, as it portrays the relationship between society, environment and economy. They are three enclosed circles bounded by each other. According to this, the economy exists in a society as it needs human interaction between people. Society is bigger than economy. Society entails family, music, art, religion and ethics on the whole but they don't take part in exchanging services and goods. But society relies on environment for its existence. It requires food, air and water which an environment provides. The environment covers the society providing it raw material, food, air and water to exist. Society is smaller than environment.

Figure 1: One demonstration of the probable link amid the triple bottom line variables, environmental, economic and social development. Within this diagram the environment has been assumed to classify the limitations for economic as well as social growth and development. Other connotations of the link amid nature as well as the economic structure do nonetheless subsist.

What is the indicator for sustainable development?

SD is an abbreviation for sustainable development which involves tools and methodologies for evaluating and monitoring progress. One handy tool in this regard is indicator and indices. Indices consist of more than one indicator. SDI stands for sustainable development indicator is a quantitative tool which analyses alterations, while being able to evaluate and monitor progress regarding managing social, environmental, economic and institutional resources as well. The indicator directs to some issue or condition. Its aim is to show how suitably the system is operating with respect to desired goals. Indicator is also used for evaluation taking in consideration if a project keeps SD in context. Indicators quantify something and in that perspective, they don't indicate. It doesn't mean that no qualitative indicators exist. The aim of the indicators defines the need for quantitative and qualitative indicators, but quantifiable indicators are more often used (Gallopin 1997).

Rather than 'solving one problem method', SDI factors in multiple factors and designs a framework which addresses them on the whole such as social, economic and environmental aspects of a community realizing the connection between them.

Comprehending the important of those three and linking them is the key for designing competent indicators. For instance, highways, freeway and other infrastructure results in better commuting and connects regions well which results in a dynamic employees and low rate of unemployment and prevent ecological contamination. An indicator which can measure the compromise between ecological contamination and infrastructural construction would be quite intriguing from the context of SD.

Figure 2: An illustration of the interaction amid diverse features of the three SD variables.

The Enterprise

The Starbucks Corporations came into being on November 4, 1985. It deals in…