Strategy is inextricably intertwined with monitoring and evaluation (M&E). In order to determine the impact of the MQA’s return on investment in the mining and minerals sector’s training programmes, against the number of people trained, the MQA Board established the Risk, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. It is an integral part of the MQA’s value chain and its contribution towards, among other things, organisational strategy, planning, monitoring, impact assessment and evaluation, and risk management enables the organisation to track its impact on skills development in the sector.