Making development evaluation more usefull through
Country-Led M&E Systems*
Marco Segone,
Systemic Management, UNICEF Evaluation Office,
and former Vice President, IOCE
E-mail: msegone@unicef.org
*: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF.
Based on books published by UNICEF
in partnership with key international
institutions
Webinars are available at www.mymande.org
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A new framework is needed: From …
Develop
Agencies
UNICEF
…to
Bank
UN agency
Bilaterals
Country
UNICEF
UN agency
CSO
A networked partnership
National ownership and capacity development:
the key ingredients to CLES
Managing for
results
Mutual
accounta
Harmoni
Alignment
Ownership
zation
bility
Paris Declaration and AAA on Aid Effectiveness
Partner countries exercise effective leadership over
their development policies and strategies
Paris Declaration Commitment
 Partner
countries exercise leadership in developing and
implementing their national development strategies
 Donors respect partner country leadership and help strengthen
their capacity to exercise it.
Implications to the M&E Function
 Strengthen
and use country-led M&E systems
 M&E capacity development
… in line with the UN General Assembly …
• national Governments have the primary responsibility for
coordinating external assistance and evaluating its
contribution to national priorities
• mandated the United Nations system to promote national
ownership and capacity development, and to make
system-wide progress in harmonizing evaluation practices
UNICEF
CLES: what
Country (and not donors) leads and owns the
evaluation process by determining:
 what policy or programme will be evaluated
(including donors coordination and alignment)
 what evaluation questions will be asked
 what methods will be used
 what analytical approach will be undertaken
 how findings will be communicated
 how findings will be used
“Country” led?
• Not exclusively the Government
• Also civil society, including Professional evaluation
Evaluation Associations and Networks
organizations (from 15 to 118 in a decade)
International Organisation for
International Development Evaluation
Cooperation in Evaluation – IOCE
Association – IDEAS
(organisational
membership)
(Individual membership)
International
Level
Regional Level
ReLAC
Sub-Regional Level
IPEN
Sub-National
Source: Quesnel, 2006
International
Development
International Organisation
for
Evaluation
Association
Cooperation
in Evaluation––IDEAS
IOCE
(Organisational
membership)
(individual
membership)
AFrEA
AES
EES
5
11
36
7
10
Countries
Countries
Countries
Countries
ACE
13
National Level
Year 2005
Countries
AEA CES
NWEA,SEA, WREN, SQEP
SWEP
CLES: Challenges
• drive towards ownership is partly externally-driven
• longer time frame
• perceived risk by partner countries that independent
evaluations of donor support may have political and
financial consequences
• perceived risk by donors/development agencies
of weak
national capacities and, in some cases, of weak
independence of national M&E systems
• Priority for donors/development agencies is its own
accountability
• Shifts in power relationships
CLES: potential way forward
• Middle income, transition and developing countries
cooperation to share good practices and lessons learned
• National evaluation organizations fostering national
demand (and supply) for monitoring & evaluation
• International organizations strengthening national
capacities to design and implement national M&E
systems through
• Knowledge Management System and
• facilitating South-South Cooperation
We need a mind shift to do things
differently...
We should always aim at strengthening National
ownership and leadership, and not undermining it:
• Selecting topics of mutual interest
• Implement evaluations jointly with Governments, as a
first step towards country-led evaluation
• Hiring local experts to the maximum extent possible
• Not assuming there are weak evaluation capacities,
even if none is immediately apparent
• Co-ordinating with other UN agencies and key
international stakeholders
Invest in the country-led process, even if it may
require additional efforts and less control
Thank you