This volume highlights the experience of several countries that have succeeded in building a well-functioning government M&E system, including Chile, Colombia and Australia. The special case of Africa, where there are many severe capacity constraints, is also examined. Ways to strengthen a government M&E system and to strengthen government demand for M&E are presented and the importance of conducting a country diagnosis and preparing an action plan are stressed. This volume, from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank, details how governments in developing countries can strengthen their monitoring and evaluation systems and capacities. It synthesizes the current knowledge about the topic, drawn from a variety of publications from the IEG, including guides, country diagnoses, examples of evaluations, and didactic material on monitoring and evaluation tools and impact evaluation. Monitoring and evaluation systems are not well understood or documented. Part I of this volume focuses on precisely what monitoring and evaluation has to offer to governments.