Address by Archbishop Ndugane at Evaluation Gap Initiative
Address by the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane.
26 May 2006Ladies and gentlemen.
Most of us who have been working in Development have been concerned about the absence of sufficient evidence informing us of the extent to which development programmes are leading to an actual improvement in people’s lives. So it is with particular pleasure that I am with you today, at the dawn of an International Impact Evaluation Initiative.
I have been asked to share with you the discussions that were held in South Africa two weeks ago. CDG and the African Monitor co-hosted the African leg of the Evaluation Gap Consultations. Several role players were represented in this meeting, including the African Development Bank, The African Economic Research Consortium, as well as the South African Treasury Department.
We successfully deliberated on the demand for rigorous impact evaluations; the feasibility of an international, independent evaluation initiative; as well as the role of African countries and institutes in the proposed Global Impact Evaluation Council.
There was certainly strong consensus that impact evaluations are necessary not only to guide development processes, but also to accelerate development and encourage accountability. There was strong agreement that impact evaluations contribute to evidence-based policy making, which is crucial for Africa’s socio-economic development.
For instance, Mr Kimani from the Economic and Social Council in Kenya stated that the core mandate of the Council was to gather, analyze, and compile information in order to feed it to cabinet for policy making. He testified that through the council, evidence-based policy making in Kenya has improved.
Ladies and gentleman, in our deliberations there was also overwhelming support for an INTERNATIONAL EVALUATION GAP INITIATIVE. The delegates at this meeting felt that such an initiative would assist to provide much needed data, as well as capacity building in the area of impact evaluations. It could also be an instrument for resource mobilisation.
Several cautionary points must be noted however:-- Firstly there was concern about the process of obtaining membership to the club. There is a need to ensure that this Council is broadly inclusive both in the structuring of the membership fee, as well as in the membership criteria. We were all unanimously in favour of the proposal to drop the term “Club” for something more inclusive! Also, there was concern that African governments might be wary of becoming members of yet another international club. It would be worthwhile therefore to spend some time in this meeting deliberating on this issue.
- Secondly, government delegates particularly felt that there should be an acknowledgement that not all government programmes need impact evaluations. African governments are under pressure to respond quickly to social and development challenges. Waiting for an impact evaluation might not be practical. Therefore, prioritising which programmes need impact evaluations will be crucial for the Evaluation Gap Council.
- Thirdly, as with all international initiatives, the Council would have to ensure that its work is relevant to different regions of the globe. For instance, in what ways can we ensure that the methodologies propagated by this initiative are relevant for Africa? Can we have impact evaluation from an African perspective? The African partners of this initiative must answer this question.
- The capacity of organisations to do impact evaluations is also likely to be a hindrance. One of the roles an initiative like this could play is to ensure that capacity is given to low-income countries to perform impact evaluations, both in terms of financial resources, as well as skills.
- Lastly, there is a need to recognise the other evaluation initiatives that are taking place even if they are not impact evaluations. One must note though, that when we were referring to evidence-based policy development, we also included data from research studies and other forms of evaluation, as well as impact evaluations. In other words, this initiative must consider how it can strengthen other evaluation processes, and use them as building blocks for impact evaluation.
We also spent some time deliberating on what role could African institutes and organisations play in this International Initiative. We agreed there was an important role in for African organisations, and that each organisation needed to consider how it saw itself contributing to the initiative.
In this regard, ladies and gentleman, there are several avenues where the African Monitor could be of some assistance.
The African Monitor intends to monitor development implementation as well as assess its value on the ground. In this way, we will be in a position to advise governments and donor institutions about good practice in development funding as well as programme implementation.
The African Monitor intends doing its work by bringing a strong African civil society voice to the development debate, and to raise key questions from an African perspective:-- Are development promises being kept?
- What difference does all this make on the ground?
- To what extent do grassroots communities benefit from such development?
- Firstly, the TOGONA of the African Monitor can play an effective role in igniting political will for evaluations. With access to high level decision makers within African Governments and the donor community, the Togona will play a crucial role to raise awareness about the importance of monitoring and evaluation.
- Secondly, the African Monitor can avail data relating human stories and case studies of local experiences of development programme implementation. While these will not be impact evaluations, they will provide vital information about how communities are experiencing development. We believe that local community members and their anecdotes are an important part of evaluating the effectiveness of development programmes. As the Nobel prize-winning economist, Amartya Sen, has clearly shown, the involvement of local populations is fundamental to the enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of development initiatives.
- Thirdly, being a key continental body in Africa, the African Monitor can drive and potentially coordinate efforts to bridge the evaluation gap.
To conclude, ladies and gentleman, I believe that this is an important initiative, with potential to contribute substantially to development. I will urge this forum to consider the questions raised, so that even at this initial stage, we can start strategically thinking about how this initiative will work on the ground.
Thank you.