Monitoring and evaluation plans should make use of data already being collected by others.

This may include data being col­lect­ed by gov­ern­ments, aca­d­e­mics, indus­tries, indige­nous orga­ni­za­tions, com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions and NGOs, and may include sur­vey data, gov­ern­ment sta­tis­tics, mod­el results, exper­i­men­tal results, and remote­ly sensed data. Con­sid­er part­ner­ships with enti­ties that have already invest­ed in infra­struc­ture to sup­port mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion activ­i­ties. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to assess the mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion design and infor­ma­tion needs with data from exist­ing efforts, and the prob­a­bil­i­ty that these efforts will or will not con­tin­ue to pro­vide need­ed infor­ma­tion, before decid­ing to depend on oth­ers to sup­ply data.