The minister of state, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, has said that the role of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) is key to ensuring effective delivery of the achievements of the objectives of the plan.
The minister stated this at a one-day national dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policy and launch of the National Policy on M&E, supported by the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), under the Partnership for Advancing Women in Economic Development (PAWED) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
He noted that some of the roles of M&E in any project, programmes and policies implementation include: “provision of consolidated source of information showcasing project progress; generating reports that contribute to transparency and accountability, revelation of mistakes and offer of paths for learning and improvements; provides a way to assess the crucial link between implementers and beneficiaries on the ground and decision makers; and adds to the retention and development of institutional memory.”
WEE is an intervention sponsored by the Gates Foundation, which believes that women’s economic empowerment is beneficial not only to individual women but also to their children, households, and communities. The programme aims to help women and girls move from limited power, voice, and chores at home and in the economy to having the skills, resources, and opportunities needed to compete equitably and benefit from economic gains.
To ensure implementation, the Nigerian government in September 2021 inaugurated a technical working group for the pilot monitoring and evaluation framework for the WEE interventions
In his remarks, the director-general of NIPSS, Professor Ayo Omotayo, stressed the need to deal with the challenges around the institutional positioning of the government M&E Policy Coordination Unit.
He said the collaboration with dRPC and others has gone a long way to help NIPSS in fulfilling its mandate. “Today’s event will gather experiences and insight from various stakeholders. We hope that the contributions will be harnessed for a better future,” he said while urging the participants to ensure result-oriented policies to get a better country in terms of service delivery. “We need an M&E framework that will keep monitoring national projects.”
Omotayo said NIPSS is committed to supporting M&E policies at all levels of governance in Nigeria. He noted that there is a need for a strong culture of accountability and transparency. He urges everyone to fully participate in various projects relating to WEE.
“I urge us all to devote time and energy to review this document in order to have a framework that will help our country to enthrone good governance and ensure accountability, transparency and provision of welfare and development to the citizens,” he said.
The director, M&E department, Ministry of Finance, Zakariya’u Lawal, who gave an overview of the National M&E policy in Nigeria and its influence on the pilot WEE M&E framework supported by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) said the principles of good governance comprises accountability, rule of law, public participation, responsiveness and effectiveness.
He noted that good governance is about effective and satisfactory service delivery to citizens of a country, adding that there is always a symbiotic relationship between good governance and M&E.
“But, at the centre of any good governance framework is a good monitoring and evaluation system. By this policy we are trying to inculcate the culture of evaluation. Without a good M&E system there won’t be effective service delivery, he said.
According to him, the policy was developed to promote core principles for evaluation in government policies, adding that the National M&E policy ensured that all MDAs are involved in monitoring government policies, programmes and projects in their ministry.
Lawal highlighted key areas tracked under the WEE M&E framework as access to finance; access to skills acquisition; access to employment; access to quality health care services; access to marketing facilities; access to agricultural inputs; and regulatory and policy.
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