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Environmental monitoring is a continuous process, which is necessary so that any organisation, program or project can, anticipate, respond to and adapt to changes in its environment.

Environmental Monitoring:

• Provides information useful to the organisation or project in its routine work;
• Is necessary for strategic planning;
• Lets us know what is happening within and outside of the organisation;
• Tells a planning or project team how the organisation reacts to its decisions and actions;
• Tells us what further actions are necessary as our actions proceed;
• Informs us about changes that we need to be aware of.

The type of information needed to monitor the internal (organisational) and external environment depends on the type project and the nature of the organisation we work in.

We should identify:

• The strengths of the organisation or project;
• The weaknesses in the organisation or project;
• The opportunities that exist;
• The threats we face.
  

• What are we getting better at?
• What are we getting worse at?
• Changes in the structure of the organisation.
• Changes in the culture of the organisation.

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