Monitoring And Evaluation (M&E) Learning Workshop

Purpose and Objectives

• to expose the participants to the monitoring and evaluation challenges facing the public service
• to establish clarity and common understanding on different levels and responsibilities of M&E in government
• to share and exchange M & E good practices and (also failed experiments/practices) at different levesl of government and in other public/development agencies
• to contribute to the development of a more appropriate M&E framework in the public service, taking into account sectoral and contextual differences and variations

Background and rationale

Monitoring and evaluation has been identified as priority in service delivery. There is an acknowledgement across the board that there is a big gap in this area in government, and that a clear governance and development indicators are needed to measure government performance. It is one of the critical issues that have been identified in the January 2004 Cabinet Lekgotla which tasked the G&A cluster to establish a task team to develop an overaching M&E framework. Subsequently, the G&A cluster has prioritised the issue and is embarking on a process to establish a state-wide monitoring and evaluation framework with shared indicators.

The joint MPSA workshop held on 01 December 2004 also identified M&E as a critical challenge. The DPSA is expected to provide some guidance and direction on how to help government evaluate and monitor its performance as there presently exists no uniform M&E framework/system for the public service in the country.

At a micro-level, departments are grappling with monitoring and evaluating their own service delivery progress. Several departments and provinces have however developed their own provincial specific M&E systems to assist them in tracking their performance, particularly in relation to performance monitoring of the implementaion of the provincial growth and development plans.

Inputs and presentations will come from:

• Public Service Commission/Presidency;
• Public bodies, viz. DBSA,UNDP, HSRC
• provinces that are implementing provincial growth and development plans, notably Free State M&E system
• line functional departments like DWAF, DEAT, etc

Participants will be drawn from national departments and provinces. This will be officials who are responsible for policy development and planning, performance and service delivery monitoring in their respective departments.

Programme

• Welcome and Opening
  
• A proposed M&E Framework for government
  Ms. Kefiloe Masiteng, Presidency
  
• M&E System for the Expanded Public Works Programme
  Stanley Henderson, Department of Public Works
  
• Case study: Demonstration of the interactive Free State M&E system to monitor the implementation of the provincial Development Plan
  Albie van Rensburg, Project Manager
  
• Case study: Design and development of an integrated M&E system to track the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan
  Herbert Batidzirai, M&E Specialist
  
• The DBSA M&E system: experiences at local government level
  Geroge Mathebula
  
• The UNDP M&E Framework: a case study
  Thulani Mabaso
  
• Attendance List
  
• Report on the M&E Learning Workshop