Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 66

How will we know Millenium Development Results
when we see them?
Building a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System
to Give us the Answer

Abstract

Results Based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a powerful public management tool to help policy makers track progress and demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of a given policy, program, or project. In the context of MDG’s having results based M&E system is important to assess whether government’s are effectively using resources and making appropriate policy choices to achieve progress towards MDG achievement. Developing countries need as good as or better information than the more affluent countries to make decisions for they can least afford to put in place strategies that have weak implementation, have no discernible results, or are unfocused.

Thus, the information and analysis that can come from a results-based M&E system goes to the heart of the matter for poorer countries—how will they know results when they seem them and how can they gather sufficient information to continually ensure they are using their scarce resources most appropriately in pursuit of their MDG’s. The introduction of results based M&E strategies in developing countries is still in its infancy. As these governments move forward with their own strategies, they are trying new and innovative approaches that are enriching the pool of data and experiences. There is no blue print for moving forward and the challenges faced by developing countries are many. This paper discusses some approaches tried in a number of countries to build MDG results based M&E systems and some of the challenges encountered along the way.

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