This volume is not a handbook but, drawing on experiences from a number of projects, it is thought provoking at several levels: the aims of monitoring and evaluation (M & E), its forms, methods, outcomes and uses. The Introduction provides a useful guide to the structure of the book, whose four parts cover ‘Principles of M & E Projects’ in Soil Conservation and Watershed Development (SCWD) (five papers), and ‘M & E in Practice’ (seven papers). These provide interesting comparisons across a wide geographic spread, a variety of projects and a range of their approaches to M & E. In the Epilogue the editors have identified five future challenges based on the authors' conclusions. Two authors independently indicate that monitoring should be asking: ‘Are we doing the project right?’, while evaluation should become an iterative process alongside each monitoring, asking: ‘Are we doing the right project?’, and – if honest – may produce some uncomfortable answers. One author cogently urges a rethinking of M & E's dominant paradigm, pointing out that the technical information and external accountability-oriented approach needs to be supplanted by an actor-specific learning approach, since it is people's perceptions of benefits that count. This reviewer challenges assumptions commonly lurking in the ‘soil conservation’ paradigm: what happens if we transform ‘soil and water conversation’ to ‘water and soil conservation’? It changes project conceptualization, with repercussions for design and M & E of many soil conservation and watershed development projects. (The response to this is apparent within No-till Farming Systems Footnote ^†, also published by WASWC a few months later than this book!).