In FP7 Afromaison project, complex research and stakeholders engagement processes take place in 5 African countries, following a common operational framework. Aiming at the design and viability of new INRM strategies and its related institutions, the project has not only to monitor its own progress and outcomes, but also to finely analyze the different external conditions which foster or hinder these results, and attempt to decipher causes. The main aim is not so much to assess the "external" environmental conditions and changes, but rather to deeply look at the action-research process itself, at the stakeholders evolution and finally at social learning and changes in practices and organizations of the natural resource users. Therefore a common protocol for monitoring and evaluation has been specified, looking at different possible changes, considered either as factors or effects. Initially based on the ENCORE framework (Ferrand, Le Bars, 2004), which considers External / Normative / Cognitive / Operational / Relational / Equity dimensions, it's been adapted to local requirements to organize and provide an open model for monitoring activities and results. This monitoring and evaluation must be autonomously made by the local process holders, with all the risk of self-assessment. This has been addressed by systematizing records and structuring information. Dealing with an embedded research intervention, the key instrument is a logbook mechanism, supposed to record all interventions and interactions, participatory events, external sudden drivers (e.g. crisis). Additional tool record stakeholders engagement by listing participants and tracking their inclusion in steps. When possible, specific additional interviews or questionnaires are made on the way. All meetings normally include an ex-post questionnaire and a structured debriefing. For the wide scale Ugandan process, 5 evaluators have been recruited to monitor the 30+ facilitators, using electronic pads and an intern