Africa

Country Programs  

CLEAR is currently working with governments in Lesotho, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Namibia to develop M&E policies that will structure, systematize, and institutionalize the way M&E is practiced in the public sector. The CLEAR Anglophone Africa flagship program in Tanzania includes five projects: 

• Research on existing M&E systems
• Developing and supporting the initiation of the national M&E strategy
• Developing and initiating a national M&E capacity strengthening plan 
• Strengthening an evaluation culture through strategic partnerships with voluntary organizations for professional evaluation 
• Strategic support to the Parliament. 

Under GEI, CLEAR will expand its public sector M&E support to other countries in the region.  

Global Environment Facility: Evaluating Environmental Outcomes and Socioeconomic Cobenefits in Uganda

The Global Environment Facility’s (GEF)’ IEO is tasked with evaluating the impact of the facility’s ongoing work and producing knowledge products. GEF-IEO explored the impact of sustainable forest management interventions on income in Uganda using a novel, replicable quasi-experimental geospatial interpolation approach, combining geospatial data such as land surface temperature and precipitation with household assets information from the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Survey. This analysis included 33 project locations in Uganda.

GEF-IEO’s analysis clearly showed that GEF sustainable forest management projects were associated with an increase in household assets by approximately $180 between 2009 and 2011. Evidence was strongest for areas between approximately 2 and 7 kilometers from a GEF project location. Areas over 7 kilometers away lacked the data needed to draw a reliable conclusion. In total, 480 distance bands between 0 and 5 kilometers from project locations were tested.  

Geospatial data, combined with other survey data, can provide a unique window into evaluating the effectiveness of environmental outcomes and their relationship with socioeconomic variables. GEF-IEO brings this technical expertise and a specific thematic focus to the GEI partnership.  

Peer Learning Program to Strengthen Systems of Evidence in Legislatures and Parliaments across Africa

CLEAR has engaged parliamentarians in Benin, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Africa to strengthen legislative oversight in their countries and regions. This work builds the M&E capacity of parliaments and lays the foundation to expand ECD programs into other national parliaments in the region. To support this initiative, CLEAR also produces scoping reports on parliamentary M&E capacity and delivers peer learning and training workshops for parliamentarians and parliamentary support staff. 

This program aims to support more effective institutional arrangements and encourages public accountability through systematic checks and balances by legislative bodies.  

Guiding African Governments Involved in Developing Voluntary National Reviews  of Country Performance against the Sustainable Development Goals 

As part of their commitment to the SDGs, countries report periodically on their progress toward achieving their commitments. These reports are called voluntary national reviews (VNRs). CLEAR is working in partnership with ’the United Nations Children’s Fund Evaluation Office to help countries use their VNRs as an opportunity to draw on evidence from evaluations to reflect on, learn about, and improve country policies and programs. The program supports the nine African countries that will be reporting on their VNRs in 2021:  Angola, Chad, Madagascar, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Cabo Verde, Djibouti, and Tunisia. The process has included training in rapid evaluation methods, synthesis of existing evaluations, and evaluative workshops.

Creating a Culture of Sharing Best Practices in the Senegalese Public Administration 

In Senegal, CLEAR is working with the Bureau Organisation et Méthodes (BOM) to strengthen the capacity of senior public administration staff, focusing on knowledge management and creating a dynamic for sharing best practices. CLEAR organized a capacity building workshop for 21 government officials. The workshop led to increased operational efficiency and sustainability of BOM’s operations, and over 80 percent of participants had a very favorable opinion of the knowledge management capacity framework. 

This long-term integrated support to manage and share knowledge assets shows positive signs for the expansion of promising practices. Looking ahead, CLEAR plans to support the full articulation of BOM’s knowledge management strategy and support the development of knowledge tools based on interventions and innovations within the Senegalese public administration. 

"This workshop was very useful because it showed the importance of implementing a knowledge management system that activates and encourages the sharing of ideas, collaboration and access to information derived from the knowledge and experiences acquired during the activities carried out by the organization."  
—Abdoul Aziz Kane, president of SENEVAL (Senegal) 
 

ECD Program for Moroccan Court of Audit

The Islamic Development Bank financed an ECD initiative for the Moroccan Court of Audit, which recently mandated the implementation of evaluations of public sector projects and policies. 

The program aimed at strengthening the human and institutional evaluation capacity of the Court of Audit and included four components: 

1. A five-module training course in evaluation and results-based management cofacilitated by an evaluation expert and Operations Evaluation Department staff
2. The development of an evaluation manual and the related tools and procedures 
3. Practical field-based experience for two champions from the Court of Audit through participation in an evaluation commissioned by the Operations Evaluation Department 
4. Expert support for four pilot evaluations conducted by the Court of Audit

More than 20 staff from the Moroccan Court of Audit benefited from the ECD program.  
As a GEI partner, the Islamic Development Bank continues to support ECD initiatives in Middle East and North Africa, leveraging other partners’ work to strengthen M&E facilities and capacities in the region.