International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research (IJPAMR), Vol. 6, No. 3, May, 2021. Available online at http://journals.rcmss.com/index.php/ijpamr; www.academix.ng ISSN: 2350-2231(E) ISSN: 2346-7215 (P) Anselem C. Nweke, 2021, 6(3):33-40 33 Monitoring and Evaluation: A Practical Approach to Public Service Delivery Dr. Anselem C. Nweke Department of Public Administration Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus Abstract This paper monitoring and evaluation: a practical approach to public service delivery investigates the role of monitoring and evaluation in public service delivery. The primary responsibility of the government is to do for the people that which the people cannot do for themselves. It therefore, behoves on the public sector to provide the catalyst for affordable and quality services to the citizens. It was observed that basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, education, power, health, water supply, peace and security are lacking or short in supply in Nigeria. The non availability or inadequate provision of these basic needs of life is attributed to poor service delivery. The high level of poor service delivery in Nigeria is as a result of weak or lack of monitoring and evaluation system. The paper therefore argued that monitoring and evaluation are sine qua non for public service delivery. As a matter of fact every government project or programme should be adequately monitored and evaluated to track the development of the project in line with the stated goal or objective. In essence, monitoring and evaluation strengthens the management of government activities, supports accountability relationships within civil society and service delivery. Key words: Accountability; Evaluation; Monitoring; Public service and Service delivery DOI: URL:https://doi.org/10.36758/ijpamr/v6n3.2021/04 Introduction The hallmark of public administration is efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency has to do with the state or quality of being efficient. It has to do with the ability to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort with minimum resources. It entails competency in duty or performance. Effectiveness has to do with the ability to carry out responsibility successfully. It is the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result or outcome. The business of every government is conducted by public administrator. Thus, public administration is government in action. They exhibit efficiency and effectiveness in their task through accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort In the words of Banton (2020), efficiency signifies a peak level of performance that uses the least amount of inputs to achieve the highest amount of output. Efficiency requires reducing the number of unnecessary resources used to produce a given output including personal time and energy. It is a measurable concept that can be determined using the ratio of useful output to total input. It minimizes the waste of resources such as physical materials, energy, and time while accomplishing the desired output. It is imperative to note that public services are services provided by a government to its citizens and non citizens that are resident in the state. Basic services like water, health care, education, transport, security etc. are considered essential for human survival and hence constitute a fundamental human right. The effective delivery of such services is crucial for wellbeing of the people and development goals. There is an argument on service delivery which states that, in order to have effective public