Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System: A Handbook for Development Practitioners
2004
Jody Zall Kusek, Ray C. Rist
The World Bank
While the role of the state has changed and evolved during recent history, it is now readily apparent that good governance is key to achieving sustainable socioeconomic development. States are being
challenged as never before by the demands of the global economy, new information and technology, and calls for greater participation and democracy.
Governments and organizations all over the world are grappling with internal and external demands and pressures for improvements and reforms in public management. These demands come from a
variety of sources including multilateral development institutions, donor governments, parliaments, the private sector, NGOs, citizens’ groups and civil society, the media, and so forth.
Whether it is calls for greater accountability and transparency, enhanced effectiveness of development programs in exchange for foreign aid, or real results of political promises made, governments and organizations must be increasingly responsive to internal and external stakeholders to demonstrate tangible results. “The clamor for greater government effectiveness has reached crisis proportions in many developing countries where the state has failed to deliver even such fundamental public goods as property rights, roads, and basic health and education” (World Bank 1997, p. 2). In short, government performance has now become a global phenomenon.
Results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a powerful public management tool that can be used to help policymakers and decisionmakers track progress and demonstrate the impact of a given
project, program, or policy. Results-based M&E differs from traditional implementation-focused M&E in that it moves beyond an emphasis on inputs and outputs to a greater focus on outcomes and impacts.
Building and sustaining results-based M&E systems is not easy. It requires continuous commitment, time, effort, and resources—and champions—but it is doable. Once the system is built, the challenge
is to sustain it. There are many political, organizational, and technical challenges to overcome in building these systems—both for developed and developing countries. Building and sustaining such systems is primarily a political process, and less so a technical one. There is no one correct way to build such systems, and many countries and organizations will be at different stages of development with respect to good public management practices in general, and M&E in particular. It is important to recognize that results-based M&E systems are continuous works in progress.
Developed countries, particularly those of the Organisation for European Co-operation and Development (OECD), have had as many as 20 or more years of experience in M&E, while many developing
countries are just beginning to use this key public management tool. The experiences of the developed countries are instructive, and can provide important lessons for developing countries. Developed
countries have chosen a variety of starting points for implementing results-based M&E systems, including whole-of-government, enclave, or mixed approaches—that may also be applicable to developing countries. For their part, developing countries face a variety of unique challenges as they try to answer the “so what” question: What are the results and impacts of government actions?
This introduction is divided into three parts. First, it focuses on the new challenges in public sector management, namely the many internal and external pressures facing governments and organizations to manage for results. Second, it examines the use of M&E as a public management tool that can be utilized to track and demonstrate results. Third, it documents the M&E experience in developed countries, as well as the special challenges facing developing countries.
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