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MAJA DRAZIÓ external, formal and informal sources). This kind of monitoring is done at the level of EC or European delegation (it stands for monitoring which is done by the donor). 3) External Monitoring involves external agents (donor officials or contracted consultants and the use of donor designed and approved monitoring methods and reporting formats which are designed primarily to meet the donor’s own upward reporting and accountability requirements. In this work, the main focus will be on internal monitoring intended as an added and external (to project management) input, which is usually done with the aim of getting technical, methodological and strategic advices anda bigger picture in relation to project management and its sustainability, impact, relevance, efficiency and effectiveness. A good internal monitoring process should be a key element of good project management, since it supports timely decision making by project managers and other stakeholders (partners, targets, etc.), ongoing learning, accountability for result achievement and risk management. While the general purpose of monitoring is very clear by its definition, in the context of aid effectiveness and international cooperation development, monitoring should be more oriented in ensuring the principles of partner ownership, alignment with local systems, donor harmonization and mutual accountability for development results.’° In Project Cycle Management Guidelines" it is clearly exposed that one of practical ways of promoting ownership among local stakeholder and on different stages of Project Cycle Management” is to promote monitoring as a learning process, not only as an “auditing” tool. The current efforts in further improvement of monitoring process are oriented towards changing some of the aims of monitoring, which should be more focused on enhancement of participation and ownership of local stakeholders of development processes. That kind of monitoring would implicate a continuous dialogue with partners and stakeholders as well as with the EC and should foresee activities aimed on supporting the effective and successful have responsibility for broad and different portfolio activities. (European Commission, Strengthening project internal monitoring.) 10 Ibid. European Commission, Aid Delivery Methods Project Cycle Management is a methodology for the identification, preparation implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes. PCM methodology is based on the principles of the Logical Framework Approach. It helps specify key tasks, quality assessment criteria, roles, responsibilities and decision making options to support effective management, the achievement of desired results and learning from experience (European Commission, Strengthening project internal monitoring.).
