ABSTRACT
Monitoring programmes, by necessity, must be commensurate with the socioeconomic and technical and scientific development of the country where they are implemented. For example the extent of development of national legislation and co-ordinating or oversight programmes will affect activities undertaken. Similarly, more complex analytical variables require highly trained technicians and costly laboratory facilities. In general terms, it is possible to distinguish three levels into which monitoring programmes can be classified (Table 3.1). All elements of assessment, from objective setting to data interpretation, are related to these three levels. The aim is to progressively develop monitoring operations from the basic level to the more comprehensive levels. Each level is associated with increasing demands on staff (expertise and numbers), inspection and fieldwork (complexity and frequency), laboratory facilities (range of analysis, throughput) and data management and reporting capacity.
