An exercise of resource matching for the different activities will also need to be carried out to see what kinds of resources are available. In case of a shortfall in resources, the planners may decide to defer or drop some activities. A realistic activity costing and budgeting will also help the programme personnel to carry out cost effectiveness and cost benefit analyses, and thus reduce wastage of resources. Some organisations carry out some form of monitoring of their activities, particularly quantitative monitoring. However, most of them do not systematically analyse, interpret or draw inferences from the data generated, or they tend to interpret the data randomly.
Many organisations are also resistant to the concept of evaluation for various reasons.
It is important for programme implementers to understand that monitoring and evaluation primarily address their own need for better and more cost effective service delivery methods. Even with simple methodologies, a great deal of valuable information can be elicited, which needs to be systematically analysed and interpreted, and which can be of value in planning and improving the programme. In practice, however, most programmes have found it difficult to achieve community participation for several reasons. Many developing countries had a period of colonial rule before they became independent, followed by socialist governance in which the state is viewed as solely responsible for all welfare and development work. Concepts of decentralisation and bottom up approaches are relatively new in many of these countries even today.