Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

A results framework (RF) presents an operating unit’s strategy for achieving a specific objective.* Typically, it is laid out in graphic form supplemented by narrative. An RF includes the objective and the intermediate results, whether funded by USAID or its partners, necessary to achieve it. The framework also conveys the development hypothesis implicit in the strategy and the cause-and-effect linkages between the intermediate results and the objective. It includes any critical assumptions that must hold for the development hypothesis to lead to achieving the relevant objective. In short, a person looking at a results framework should be able both to understand the premises underlying the strategy and to see within the framework those intermediate results critical to achieving the objective.