The monitoring plan is a document prepared by the Inter-cluster coordination group (ICCG) at the beginning of the year. It summarizes what data will be collected by all humanitarian actors, how and when, where it will be stored, how it will be analyzed, and how the information gathered will be shared, at scheduled intervals or in real-time, for internal purposes (organizations, clusters, ICCG, HCT and HC) as well as external information (people affected, local government, media, general public). 
The monitoring plan is composed of 3 elements:

• The Monitoring Framework 

This is a table that gathers all indicators attached to the strategic, specific and cluster/sector objectives.
For each indicator, the framework covers: need / baseline / target / disaggregation / source / collection methodology / frequency / who will collect it.

• Narrative Presentation

A narrative presentation explains how monitoring will be conducted over the duration of the HRP. It includes data collection methods, what tools will be used, the resources required, distribution of responsibilities, how the analysis will be conducted, information sharing channels, potential issues such as resources, access, tools, etc.

• Timeline for the Reporting / Information Sharing

The timeline visualizes what reporting products will be produced when. 

Information sharing may come in various forms:

– pdf reports, such as the Periodic Monitoring Report, Humanitarian Dashboard, or other
– online reports, as in Humanitarian InSight which is the external website of HPC tools.
 

A monitoring plan offers the following advantages:

• The preparation of the plan allows all actors to discuss and determine how ambitious the monitoring work should be at collective level, along the duration of the respective humanitarian plan, setting a balance between what is useful, and what is realistically feasible, with the existing resources;

• Once agreed, it informs everyone (HCT, actors, government, donors) on what will be monitored at collective level and what will not be monitored, and what report may be expected by when;

• It distributes the tasks among all HPC stakeholders: OCHA, ICCG, cluster coordinators, organizations. Each actor will know what needs to be done and by when, for monitoring at collective level;

• It identifies what tools and resources are required for response monitoring at collective level.

Description of Template Documents
This OCHA internal document offers a structure for a country HRP monitoring plan, with narrative, timeline and monitoring framework. The PDF annotated template explains the different parts. The Word document gives a base to start from. The Excel templates allow to prepare the timeline, and the monitoring framework.