Constructing Conservation Impact: Understanding Monitoring and Evaluation in Conservation NGOs

A growing number of scholars critically examine large conservation organisations to explore organisational intentions, practices, and outcomes. In parallel, other scholars have problematised audit cultures, suggesting that these seemingly good practices of evaluation and measurement are not neutral and instead have consequences for governance and power. This article combines literature on conservation NGOs, organisational theory, and audit culture to study the inner workings of conservation and to understand the construction of effectiveness and impact. I draw on semi-structured interviews to examine how a large, international conservation organisation, which I term the World Conservation Organisation (WCO; a pseudonym), coordinates monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes among its international, national, and local offices. I find individual staff within WCO make varying assumptions about the M&E policies and place different values on M&E, which results in different institutional logics towards M&E and a broader organisational failure to measure progress and reflect upon outcomes. The findings also show difficulties in translating broad organisational goals into specific project activities, underscoring tensions in implementation and limitations in M&E practice. I also find that organisational and managerial pressure to report success is greater than donor pressure, a finding that expands understandings of NGO-donor dynamics.