Are We Nearly There Yet? Leading a Journey Powered by Evidence
Dugan Fraser is the Program Manager for GEI.
Editing support provided by Maria Fyodorova, Communications Consultant for GEI.
When I was a kid my parents would load my four siblings and me in the back of a truck and drive us all over southern Africa on camping holidays I really didn’t appreciate. On those long, dusty journeys we would press our faces against the window to the cab and moan pitifully “are we nearly there yet…?”
During my 30-odd year career as a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) professional, I have often asked myself the same question.
We know that evaluation and monitoring should be at the heart of any debate on what works. Robust M&E systems are essential for governments and institutions. They help them design effective policies, support decision-making, and create a clear sense of what progress is being achieved. Yet, many countries still lack effective M&E systems, making evidence-informed decision-making difficult.
M&E isn’t new. After decades of effort, we need to ask: WHY aren’t we nearly there yet?
A Challenging Road Ahead
There are a variety of reasons why many country governments lack effective M&E systems. One of the core reasons is the history of M&E and its relationship to country contexts. I remember many instances when the monitoring and evaluation work I was doing was mainly to satisfy donor requirements. Donors want to make sure that their financial contributions are being well-managed - this is completely appropriate - but this has had an undesirable side-effect. In many countries, M&E systems do not integrate with the rhythms and cultures of public institutions in a way that makes them useful to government decision-makers. They often feel like burdensome policing functions, rather than systems that provide information for learning, improvement, better policy design and better results. In addition, they are often project or donor-specific, resulting in systems that aren’t coordinated and that are siloed from each other.
An even more problematic issue emerges from inappropriately designed and siloed M&E systems. Important policymakers – such as those responsible for national budget allocations – often dismiss evidence produced through M&E systems as unreliable. They prefer to draw on their own personal sense of what is effective and what isn’t. Although this is understandable due to the lack of trust in M&E systems, it creates a culture where data and evidence are viewed as unnecessary for policymaking. It also fosters a lack of transparency and creates the potential for corruption.
Another obstacle relates to the supply of M&E skills. In many countries, there are not enough evaluators who fully understand the local context or who have an appreciation for the culture and history of the country. In addition, many evaluators who can appreciate context, may lack the skills necessary to evaluate at the level of complexity that exists in many countries. An added challenge is that even when they are qualified and experienced, they do not get fair access to M&E work opportunities because of how many donor and government procurement systems are structured.
Mapping Our Way Forward
Addressing these challenges is the reason why the GEI has been established. And unlike my childhood camping trips, the GEI is not embarking on a single journey. We are a global partnership with many travelers and diverse collective caravans, each operating in their own contexts and with their own approaches. However, our differences are our biggest asset, since we each bring a piece of what is needed, and we all share a vision of better evidence leading to better policies and, ultimately, to better lives. The Global Evaluation Initiative was established to finally get us “there.”
By bringing together a wide range of stakeholders, the GEI will link partner countries with global sources of technical skills and financing with four key objectives:
Strengthen the enabling regulatory environment and develop the M&E systems and capabilities of governmental institutions. Through its network of partners, GEI will strengthen the public systems that need to be in place for M&E to be implemented at the national level. This effort will involve a range of strategic activities including supporting governments with diagnostics to identify existing M&E capacities and mapping out opportunities for strengthening those capacities. Our efforts will also include policy advisory services that will tailor the best solutions to local contexts. By harnessing the on-ground experience, knowledge and relationships of our network of experts, GEI will help to construct approaches that are reflective of local needs and that provide the kind of evidence that will guide and inform decision-makers.
Support the development of individual skills to create a cadre of professional evaluators, M&E specialists, and other evaluation stakeholders. The GEI partnership will facilitate the delivery of training and development programs that target a variety of key stakeholders involved in implementing effective M&E systems in public institutions. We will expand the reach of existing programs being delivered by our network partners and conduct needs assessments that will help us deliver the most necessary training support. To make these programs more accessible, GEI will offer financial support to participants, where feasible.
Generate tailored M&E knowledge relevant to local contexts. Through curating and analyzing the knowledge of our network of local and international experts, GEI will be able to compile best practices that can then be adapted to better suit individual country contexts. For instance, the Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Analysis (MESA) tool will help GEI gather, structure, and analyze information on existing M&E country systems and identify successes to be shared with other governments. In addition, our knowledge platform will serve as a clearinghouse of information on M&E programs and stakeholders around the world that are involved in influencing and supporting government institutions.
Promote the sharing of M&E knowledge locally, regionally, and globally. GEI will create and support opportunities for convening and engaging around the most important M&E topics. For example, GEI will continue to curate the annual gLOCAL Evaluation Week, in which organizations across the globe host M&E knowledge-sharing events. GEI will also promote the sharing of knowledge among its consortium of partners to amplify each partner’s voice and will facilitate efforts to extend the conversation to audiences not always targeted for M&E knowledge exchange.
Let’s Journey Together
Developing a critical mass of knowledge, resources, and technical skills to close the M&E gap will require sustained efforts, at scale, across every region of the world. Doing this as quickly as possible can only be done through collaboration and cooperation amongst a wide range of actors.
So please join us! Comment on this blog or reach out to us on social media: LinkedIn and Twitter. What has been your experience with the barriers described above? Share your stories with us.
If you would like to contribute your knowledge to this blog, we would be happy to work with you - please contact us at contactgei@globalevaluationinitiative.org.
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Stay in touch and let’s travel together: we have far to go.
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank