Abstract
Background: Since 2015, the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) has implemented more than seven diagnostic tools to better understand monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in the region. Through the process of adapting global tools to make them more appropriate to an African context, CLEAR-AA has learned several lessons about contextually relevant definitions and boundaries of M&E systems.Objectives: This article aims to share lessons learned from adapting and implementing a range of global tools in an African context, and puts forward certain key criteria for a ‘Made in Africa’ tool to better understand M&E systems in the region.Method: This article reviews CLEAR-AA’s diagnostic tools, as well as global good practice diagnostic tools, and compares the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. It further looks at the implementation of specific tools in context and proposes components on the basis of these lessons.Results: This review has found that most M&E tools have a heavy focus on the technical and contextual aspects of M&E but very few do a thorough job of accommodating the institutional factors. Furthermore, the relationship between the technical elements, the institutional elements and the organisational culture elements has not been made apparent.Conclusion: A contextually relevant diagnostic tool for M&E systems will balance technical considerations of capacity, institutional factors and issues of organisational culture. Drawing on approaches from organisational change may be of help to strengthen our tool development endeavours.
Highlights
A familiar adage of evaluators is that it matters what you measure
This research contributes to a discussion of how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is understood, by developing a diagnostic tool that can be used to determine whether prerequisites are in place to build a results based M&E system
The purpose of this article is the development of a diagnostic tool which will be applicable to an African governance and management context, drawing from the lessons and best practices of the diagnostic tools that the centre has engaged with empirically
Summary
A familiar adage of evaluators is that it matters what you measure. While evaluators may have applied this in various ways in their work, it is often forgotten when measuring monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems themselves. A frequent critique by M&E practitioners in developing countries is that the literature on M&E systems has generally emerged from contexts of strong institutional capacity This means that many of the tools and methods are inappropriate for local evaluators. Since 2015, the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) has implemented more than seven diagnostic tools to better understand monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in the region. The Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) has carried out, engaged with or designed diagnostic tools to understand and measure the M&E systems of complex institutions at the national, provincial and municipal levels of government in South Africa, as well as other public and private sector institutions in the region. As the debate continues around M&E tools and approaches that are most relevant to the continent, this tool will be available for trialling and evolution as various dimensions are tested, and the implications of the local institutional context are better understood
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