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113 It is a good idea to start a monitoring or evaluation process with a document review as it provides a better understanding of the philosophical, historical and operational aspects of a project, programme or policy. For example, document review of an evaluation of a waste management programme of a city may help in the stakeholder analysis, in that it will help determine whether the implementation of a programme is on course as initially planned. Apart from that, document review can also be used when designing various data collection instruments like questionnaires and interview guides as well as answering evaluation questions such as; what is the number of organisations or individuals involved in the city waste management? How many personnel (with what positions) are there and what is the overall cost for the programme? A number of issues should be adhered to when conducting document review. These may include: deciding what documents the evaluator will access, where and how the evaluator will access them; compiling documents that are most relevant to the evaluation questions, understand who produced, how, when, why the documents were produced to better understand the context (CDC, 2009). Transects In a participatory research project, transects are a mapping activity which give an evaluator hands- on experience and provide an accurate picture of the area under study. It is similar to direct observations. Transects are basically walks which can be used for monitoring and evaluating projects and in the process used to verify earlier collected information of a particular local situation. In most cases, transects are used for projects concerned with the communities’ land use or social aspects. Depending on the objectives of the monitoring and evaluation, a transect walk can either be a straight or meandering path, involving one or more observers. However, it is recommended that different observers be involved like the community leaders, extension officers, representatives of farmers and any other relevant stakeholders (Guijt and Woodhill, 2002). This is encouraged mainly due to the fact that the named stakeholders will, more often than not, have a good understanding of the community and would in many cases be able to explain things along the way, as the evaluator asks questions while observing and listening. It is therefore, important to clarify the following before embarking on this activity: 1. Has the transect route been identified? 2. What is the purpose of the study and what will be observed? 3. When will the transect walk be conducted? 4. Which local analysts/stakeholders will accompany the evaluator/observer? Once everything has been clarified, it is important to note that a record of the things observed during the transect walk should be taken. The notes (findings of a transect) will then be used by the