Monitoring and evaluation is an art in itself. Certainly not all organisations will possess the expertise to carry out these activities independently - quite apart from the fact that an evaluation can best be done by an independent organisation, one with no direct interest in the outcome. Many organisations founder over the costs of M&E and see it as a low priority in the budget. In addition, donors often do not make available extra budget for a thorough evaluation. This is not good for the sector.

For the further development of this field, it is important to give more attention to M&E. M&E is now largely limited to measuring effectiveness in relation to the objectives as formulated in advance. Relevance, impact, sustainability and efficiency are evaluated only to a very limited extent. Because of this, knowledge development stops at the level of assumptions. A young sector such as sport and development cooperation is in need of hard facts as proof from the field that sport works. If the sector is to take the next step towards professionalisation, organisations but also donors must be aware of the importance of M&E and make room in the budget for objective evaluations. In addition to effectiveness, performance must be evaluated in relation to other sub-goals (sustainability, efficiency, impact and relevance).