Deputy Director-General: Monitoring and Evaluation,
Office of the Public Service Commission of South Africa
29 June 2011 1

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• Constitutional democracy, middle-income country, population: 49 million, diverse language and culture
• Economic giant of Africa, exerts much influence on international governance discourse
• Developmental State model to address inequalities and transformation – centrality of government recognised
• M&E is Constitutionally entrenched
• Recently host of the successful 2010
World Cup
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• There is widespread support for any instruments which improve transparency and accountability
• The early democratic period was largely one of setting standards and monitoring compliance – to regulate and modernise the State
• Several actors contributed to the commentary on government performance – media, civil society and oversight institutions
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• Standards for good governance for the country are
Constitutionally enshrined as 9 values and principles for public administration
• The PSC is the Constitutional body responsible for
“investigating, monitoring and evaluating” the Public Service
(comprising 140 departments in 9 provinces, employing 1,1 million public servants) motto –
Custodian of good governance
Promoting professional ethics
Efficient, economic and effective use of resources
Development-oriented
Delivers services fairly and equitably
Public participation
Accountability
Transparency
Good HR management and career development
Representative
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 Compliance levels have improved, but there remains pockets of repetitive poor performance
 In some instances, there is administrative compliance with regulation, but the felt benefit at the citizen level has been uneven
 Compliance on its own may have created a “gaming management culture”, with disproportionate efforts being place on meeting reporting obligations compared to checking on actual service delivery
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• Reports on the quality of governance are tabled at management meetings of all departments (rated), for engagement, and management action tracked and reported on
• Departments are expected to comply with advice on the adjudication of grievances
• Policy impact is assessed – example, Poverty alleviation programmes, rural development
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• Recognition that compliance, and a focus on outputs, albeit important may not adequately citizen to State intention and promises.
• The same issues are repeated by oversight institutions – creating a perception of oversight ineffectiveness and scepticism
 This means a candid reflection on the current systems to infuse a new thrust to oversight – the genesis of the outcomes approach, typified by the observation “a school as an output does not necessarily generate quality education (the desired outcome)”
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• Cabinet since 2005 began developing a Government wide M&E System - a system of systems.
• Key features were agreement of outcomes, outputs, key activities, inputs, delivery forums and delivery agreements and performance contracts between president and Ministers
• A set of 12 Outcomes in 2010 was approved - set the strategic agenda for government. It addressed the theory of change, intervention logic, indicators and targets with baselines.
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• The Outcomes approach seeks to:
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 improve service delivery by increasing the strategic focus of government making more efficient use of resources
 more systematic M&E
 all in order to inform government decisions and promote evidence-based policy making
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• That there is problem analysis and a clear understanding of the problem
• That there is a Theory of Change and what are the
Levers of change (Greatest impact, cause and effect, and build knowledge on what works)
• There is an intervention logic
• Are clear indicators, baselines & targets and clear basis for monitoring progress and evaluating results
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Development of high level outcomes, outputs, activities and metrics
Ruling Party election
Manifesto: 5 priority areas
MTSF: 10 strategic priorities
12 strategic outcomes
(based on consultation process)
Performance Agreements with
Minister(s)
• Based on outcomes
• High level outputs, indicators, targets and activities per outcome
• Implementation Forum to produce Delivery Agreement per outcome
Step 1
Done
Step 2
Done
Develop and implement detailed inputs, outputs, activities, metrics and roles and responsibilities
Establish Implementation Forum
Negotiate detailed inputs, activities, metrics and roles and responsibilities
Step 3
Delivery Agreements between stakeholders
Coordinate implementation
Monitor and evaluate
Step 4 ongoing
Feed back loop to annual revisions of
Delivery Agreements

• Quality basic education
• A long and healthy life for all South Africans
• All people in South Africa are and feel safe
• Decent employment through inclusive economic growth
• Skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path
• An efficient, competitive and responsive economic infrastructure network
• Vibrant, equitable, sustainable rural communities contributing towards food security for all
• Sustainable human settlements and improved quality of household life
• Responsive, accountable, effective and efficient Local Government system
• Protect and enhance our environmental assets and natural resources
• Create a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world
• An efficient, effective and development oriented public service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship
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• Outputs
 Service Delivery Quality and Access
 Human Resource Management and Development
 Business Processes, Systems, Decision Rights and Accountability
 Corruption Tacked Effectively
• Indicators (for output on service delivery quality and access)
 % improvement in user satisfaction
 Distance travelled to obtain a government service reduced
 % reduction in waiting times
 Value for money
M&E Feedback loop
• Key activities (for output on service delivery quality and access)
 Improve front‐line service supervision
• Inputs required (for output on service delivery quality and access)
 Funding, capacity building support
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Departments
Technical
Implementation Forums
Technical Clusters DGs
Implementation
Forums
Ministerial Clusters
Cabinet Committees
Cabinet
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• The objective is to institutionalise regular monitoring of implementation of the Delivery Agreements.
 The revised POA will be based on the final Delivery Agreements
(the high‐level outputs and metrics per outcome)
 Aim is to increase strategic focus in comparison to former POA
 Implementation Forums will:
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Monitor implementation of the Delivery Agreements and unblock blockages
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Prepare quarterly progress reports against Delivery
Agreements, for the relevant Cabinet Committees and Cabinet
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Adopt similar approach taken in Government’s management of the preparations for the World Cup
 Quarterly progress reports against POA will also be placed on website
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EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT
Effective spending on the right priorities
(outcomes approach)
• Delivery Agreements
• for 12 outcomes
Monitoring of implementation of
Delivery Agreements
• Building M&E capacity in Government
• Comprehensive expenditure reviews
Getting basic administration right
• Appropriate location of decision powers
• Clarity regarding mandates and roles and responsibilities
• Performance monitoring of individual institutions
• Internally‐focused implementation support programmes by the centre of
• government
Improving interaction between government and citizens, communities and stakeholders
Tackling corruption
• Multi-agency initiative to address corruption in procurement
• Improve internal departmental investigations and disciplinary processes
• Improve coordination of anti-corruption work of various agencies
Amendments to legislative and regulatory frameworks
• Review of spatial land use legislation
• Review of frameworks for recruitment, competency assessments,
Performance management and discipline
• Review of Treasury
Regulations
• Panel to identify unnecessary red tape
DEFINED BY FOUR PILLARS, EACH A KEY ENABLER OF OVERALL SUCCESS IN
BUILDING A MORE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SERVICE
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• The Presidency M&E thrust behoves all oversight institutions to shift towards outcome monitoring and evaluation.
• A more qualitative and diagnostic narrative – with intervention is required
• Review is underway to align oversight systems where possible, and present a more coherent approach to oversight
• Work is labour intensive, and has helped to significantly heighten M&E in the country
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• The PSC shall co-host the 3 rd South African
Monitoring and Evaluation Conference between 5-9
September 2011, themed: M&E for outcomes, answering the “So what?”
• See www.psc.gov.za
and www.samea.org.za
• The PSC shall also co-host the International
Conference on National Evaluation Capacity between
12-14 September 2011, see www.undp.org
• Questions
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