Supporting the Development of National Evaluation Systems

Moderator

• Grace Igweta, Senior Evaluation Officer, WFP

Panellists

• Herman Maïssa, Advisor – Director, General Secretariat of the Government, Department of Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies, Gabon
• Tamiru Terefe, Former Policy and Programme Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Ministry of Planning and Development of Ethiopia
• Stefanie Bitengo Ombati, Assistant Director, Social Development and Programme Coordinator, M&E and MIS - National Social Protection Secretariat, State Department for Social Protection, Kenya
• Elisée Vinadou Ouissouo, Head of School Food Service, Ministry of Nursery and Primary Education, Benin
• Valentina Prosperi, Evaluation Manager, UNICEF Ethiopia

How can Governments and the United Nations work together to strengthen National Evaluation Systems?

• A UNEG report reviewing the progress of 2014 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on national evaluation capacity illustrated several lessons in strengthening and establishing national ECD, including:

• All United Nations agencies should conduct their evaluations in a way that fosters national capacity development.
• United Nations agencies and their evaluation functions should continue to support the capacity-development of national evaluation ecosystems, including support to the enabling environment, institutional and individual capacity.
• All United Nations agencies should coordinate and collaborate on national ECD at corporate, regional and country levels, allocating adequate time and resources.

• The building of NES requires commitment and is a long-term process. An enabling environment is very important in individual and institutional capacity-development. Evaluation should be conducted early to demonstrate the potential. Equally, evaluation should be conducted in a way which fosters national ECD.
• United Nations agencies need to collaborate more in their support to national ECD as a system. United Nations agencies should support nationally-led evaluations.
• In Kenya, a social protection sector review was used to inform the development of social protection policy. This was then used by United Nations agencies and other development organizations to shape their support. Indicators were aligned with the social protection policy and approaches to monitoring its indicators were agreed. Government worked with stakeholders to develop tools across the system and aligned with the social protection policy to allow for a monitoring and evaluation system.
• It is important to have one plan and one national M&E system for all, as parallel systems can be problematic.
• Ethiopia recognised challenges including gaps in national evaluation capacities for results‑based National Evaluation Systems and rigorous evaluation and monitoring, as well as the collection and dissemination of data. An M&E capacity assessment was conducted, M&E guidelines were developed with associated key performance indicators, master reporting formats were developed to align sector approaches, and digital monitoring capacities built following a National ECD plan. The way forward is to encourage usage, implement a capacity-development plan, further coordinate partnerships with development partners, and improve financing.
• To improve National Evaluation Systems, a way forward is to strengthen the legal framework for M&E, reposition the monitoring and evaluation unit at the ministry, make monitoring and evaluation units more effective by involving the highest level of authority, and establish a national evaluation framework that brings together institutions of the United Nations system with those of the government.
• All United Nations agencies should coordinate and collaborate on national ECD at corporate, regional and country levels, allocating adequate time and resources.

Conclusion

National ECD should be central to the work of United Nations agencies, both in their mandates but also as part of their evaluations, using the process to support and strengthen national evaluation capacity. At the same time, coordination amongst United Nations agencies and most importantly with government partners and stakeholders must not be an afterthought. Not only in the implementation of individual evaluations but also in the implementation of recommendations and support to decision-makers.