Sub-Award Management Monitoring Tool

What It Does

The Project Monitoring and Reflection Tool provides civil society organisations (CSOs), particularly those acting as lead organisations in sub-granting or partnership arrangements, with a structured, adaptable framework for monitoring project implementation with sub-grantees and implementing partners. It is designed to facilitate collaborative, reflective conversations rather than top-down inspections.

The toolkit guides users through twelve thematic areas of monitoring:

1. Progress towards objectives
2. Safe and equal access
3. Community and stakeholder participation
4. Safety, security, and risk management
5. Finance
6. Donor requirements
7. Procurement and asset management
8. Personnel
9. Context-specific questions
10. Sub-granting (if applicable)
11. Relationship and feedback
12. Changes to project plans

It also includes a pre-visit document review checklist and an end-of-monitoring Action Plan with a signature section for shared accountability.

This toolkit fills a critical gap in partnership management resources by combining a range of subject areas where monitoring is required into a single, clear, adaptable instrument designed for any context or CSO. It helps organisations make monitoring visits more efficient, structured, and productive — whether conducted in person or remotely. Moreover, with the range of subject areas covered it allows for the review of partnerships with a focus on collaborative problem solving and action.

Primary Users:

Lead CSOs managing sub-grants or implementing partnerships. It is relevant to any organisation responsible for overseeing a partner’s project implementation and accountability to award/donor requirements.

Expected Outcomes:

This toolkit will strengthen the capacity of local CSOs to conduct rigorous, equitable, and constructive project monitoring. By providing a ready-to-use yet adaptable structure, the toolkit aims to improve accountability between partners, identify risks early, support course-correction, foster trust-based working relationships, and ultimately contribute to more effective and locally led project implementation.

Adaptation and Sources

Adapted from:

IRC’s Partnership Project Workbook — Monitoring and Report Checklists (2023), which forms part of IRC’s broader Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results (PEER) system.

Key changes:

The adapted toolkit retains much of the core structure and thematic scope of the original base tool but makes several significant changes to improve accessibility and usability for CSOs operating. These changes include:

• Consolidated and simplified structure: The original is embedded within an Excel workbook and tied to IRC’s internal processes and terminology. The adapted version distills the monitoring and reflection function into a single, standalone Word document that any CSO can use independently.

• Developed to meet the needs of a wide range of organization: The original is based on and contains numerous references to IRC internal processes, systems, and compliance obligations. These have been removed or reframed where appropriate, as considerations and good practices applicable to any lead organization. More importantly the tool considers the reality of CSOs with differing approaches, systems and steps to partnerships and consequently has approached the tool to meet this reality.

• Restructured thematic areas: Some sections from the original have been merged, simplified, or retitled to reduce overlap and improve flow. For example, “Adherence to Humanitarian Principles” and “Partner Advocacy Priorities” which are specific to IRC’s programming approach have been absorbed into broader sections on safe access and community participation. The dedicated “Relationship and Feedback” section has been strengthened to reflect the tool’s more partnership-oriented framing.

• Added accessible guidance notes: Where the original relies on a separate guidance document (Partnership Project Monitoring and Review — Guidance for Use), the adapted version embeds short guidance notes directly within each section, making the tool self-contained and usable without additional reference materials. Lastly, examples, suggestions/tips, and explanatory notes have been added throughout.

Why It Works for Small/Medium CSOs

• Minimal jargon: The tool avoids overly technical language, so no specialised training or expertise are needed to put it into practice.

• Low operational burden: It is designed to be used directly during or immediately after a monitoring visit, requiring no elaborate data systems or reporting infrastructure.

• Highly adaptable: Each section includes explicit prompts to adapt questions to the specific project, partnership, and context. A dedicated and existing “Context-Specific Questions” section invites users to add their own. Additionally, it can be used in conjunction with other monitoring or verification tools.

• Works in any modality: The tool is explicitly noted as usable whether monitoring is conducted in person or remotely, making it accessible in low-connectivity or insecure environments.

• Designed to meet a wide range of monitoring needs: The tool is flexible enough to support both light-touch check-ins and more intensive compliance-focused reviews, and it can be applied across a variety of sectors and project types. Users can scale the depth of each section depending on the stage of the partnership, the risk level, and the specific monitoring purpose.

• Designed to fit into any CSO’s sub-award management process: Rather than being a tool that is fixed to a predetermined sub-award process, the tool is designed to slot into whatever sub-award management approach a lead organization already has in place. Its modular, adaptable structure means it can complement existing workflows.

• Standalone and ready-to-use: The tool requires no accompanying software or platform, and some contexts may require very little adaptation.

• Guidance heavy: The tool includes examples, guidance, and tips throughout to ensure clarity and effective use.