Participants will be able to differentiate and appreciate linkages between evaluation systems, government-wide M&E systems, and how evaluation systematically feeds into public service policy, planning, budgeting and management as well as other regional and global systems; understand the role of different components of evaluation systems and make decisions about which components might be needed

Can evaluation of policies and programmes help governments better respond to complex social, political and economic problems? Does it matter if governments do not entrench evaluations as an essential part of public service management and public policy implementation? Countries face unprecedented development pressures; growing inequality, political disruptions, threats brought by climate shifts. Join us in this workshop to explore how institutionalization of evaluations of public policies and programmes through National Evaluation Systems enables governments to generate and use evidence to tackle complex problems.

The workshop draws from documented experiences of governments that have evaluation systems. It explores both the technical and cultural/political elements of institutionalization of evaluations within the public service. It also examines how formalization of evaluation within management of public services strengthens the use of evidence in the public policy.

Instructor 1: Matodzi Amisi, leader of the National Evaluation Systems practice at the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results at Wits University.

Instructor 2: Ian Goldman, Head of Evaluation and Research and DDG in South Africa’s Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) from 2011 to June 2018.

5 days

M&E staff in governments, International development agencies, VOPEs, academics

This workshop is intermediate, some basic understanding and experience with monitoring and evaluation is required for participants to get substantial benefit from the workshop.