Advanced Monitoring and Evaluation

Accredited by the Services Seta unit standards 120372 at NQF Level 4 worth 5 credits, 243811 at NQF Level 5 worth 8 credits, 15219 at NQF Level 5 worth 4 credits and 15220 at NQF Level 5 worth 4 credits

5-day course

Monitoring & Evaluation practices and insights are becoming ever more important in today’s business and government landscape. Government clearly and unequivocally entrenched the notion of accountable governance, performance management and the importance of monitoring and evaluation in the form of target driven service delivery in the May 2004 State of the Nation address. The Government has committed themselves to effective service delivery and an ambitious set of development targets with clear timeframes, also at the provincial level.

The successful achievement of these targets and the meeting of outcome based objectives as planned and budgeted for in terms of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), require a collaborative and transparent national and provincial monitoring and evaluation system in support of both sound performance management and strategic management. The establishment and efficient functioning of a credible and effective government-wide monitoring and evaluation system has become an important component in the performance management system of the South African Government.

Monitoring and evaluation has been identified as pivotal to the fulfilment of the “People’s Contract”. In this process the many government departments, agencies, organisations and businesses have an important role to play, also in terms of the guidelines that were issued from the President’s Office in September 2005.

Over the past two decades there has been a broad shift towards evidence-based decision making, with the public sector being no exception to this shift. Examples of this shift are prominent in the international arena, and there is a wealth of information associated with measuring and tracking developmental progress across the globe. (eg World Bank Development indicators, UNCHS Global Observatory, etc). In this process a set of closely integrated professional support functions have received attention, notably strategic planning and management, policy management, legal review, strategy and planning, programme management and implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Until relatively recently, implementation-based monitoring and evaluation (focussed mainly around monitoring inputs and outputs) predominated, particularly in public sector management. Increasingly however, policy makers have shifted their focus from the immediate effects of policy to also grappling with how to ensure and measure developmental outcomes that are sustainable in the long term. This broad approach is referred to as Results Based M&E (RBM&E), which aims to combine implementation-based monitoring with results, impact or performance monitoring.

A results-based monitoring and evaluation approach is typically designed to address the “so what” question. For example, “so what about the fact that outputs have been generated, so what if activities have taken place, so what that the outputs from these activities have been counted?” A results-based system provides feedback on the actual outcomes and goals of government actions. Results-based systems require answers to the following questions:

• What higher-order objectives and expected outcomes have government set?
• Have outcomes and impacts been achieved?
• Are outcomes and impacts sustainable?

From this point of departure, it is essential that leaders, managers, teams and individuals in organizations, public and private, develop their skills to understand, track and report on monitoring and evaluation. This course on Monitoring & Evaluation will empower you to understand, direct and implement that phases of a robust and results-based M&E framework. The following learning outcomes will be included:

Learner outcomes:

• Develop and extend your understanding of monitoring & evaluation and how these tools fit into the related processes of strategic management, project management and policy implementation;
• Apply the various tools encapsulated in the Government-wide M&E framework and other related guidelines (Stats SA, Presidency indicators etc)
• Apply more advanced competencies to set up a fully functional M&E framework for your organization / department / business unit;
• Learn how to draft more complex indicators and targets;
• Develop and structure a clear reporting processes that provides valuable information for management decision-making at all levels;
• Develop competency to collect, analyze and present M&E findings for different level audiences;
• Understand how to link M&E findings to policy development processes in your sector; and

Course programme:

Day 1:

• Overview of M&E – recap of concepts, legislation & processes
• Application to work-based M&E example – linking to projects & programmes;
• Developing and selecting appropriate indicators for project outputs and outcomes;
• Linking your indicators to baselines, milestones and targets

Day 2:

• Setting up & reviewing your monitoring and evaluation framework;
• Linking the framework to existing tools such as logframes and budgets
• Aligning the individual and organizational processes of M&E in your institution – strategic re-engineering for M&E context

Day 3:

• Research methodology for M&E processes and practices;
• Research design – problems statements and evaluation questions
• Understand the difference between process and outcome evaluation practices; and
• Develop project evaluation reports.

Day 4:

• M&E reporting – differences between monitoring reports & evaluation reports
• M&E reporting – structuring different reports & linking data interpretation correctly
• M&E presentation techniques – using software, graphics, descriptions and other related tools for various audience levels
• Linking M&E results to policy development processes in your sector

Day 5:

• Detailed application to own work-based example
• Building capacity for M&E in your unit, department and sector
• Institutionalizing M&E throughout your organization & its related processes of communication and reporting

Accredited by the Services Seta

Imsimbi Training is an Accredited Training Provider with Services Seta number 2147. Imsimbi Training is a Level 2 BBBEE company.