What will this section enable me to do?

• Use monitoring to actively adapt where necessary
• Avoid stopping service/evaluation by acting on monitoring results promptly
• Establish clear processes and tipping points for continuing
• Identify where not to spend money on ineffective services or evaluations

Changing or stopping isn’t failure

Stopping something that isn’t working as planned is not failure—it’s responsible resource management and learning in action.

Stopping can be the right decision because it:

• Protects service users: Continuing an ineffective service wastes people’s time and may prevent them from accessing alternatives that could help them
• Frees up resources: Money, staff time, and effort can be redirected to services with better evidence, potentially helping more people or achieving better outcomes
• Demonstrates accountability: It shows funders, partners, and the community that you’re making evidence-based decisions rather than persisting with something simply because it was started
• Adds to the evidence base: Identifying what doesn’t work is as valuable as identifying what does. It prevents others from repeating the same mistakes and contributes to the evidence base about what approaches are ineffective in specific contexts

Failure would be continuing to invest in something that demonstrably doesn’t work, ignoring evidence, or being unable to adapt when circumstances show a different approach is needed.

That being said, good quality monitoring and evaluation provide opportunities to identify challenges early and make adaptations, reducing the likelihood of having to stop.