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How to Build M&E Systems to Support Better Government
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Governments in a number of developing countries are devoting considerable efforts to strengthen their monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and capacities. They are doing this to improve their performance ― by establishing evidence-based policy-making and budget decision-making, evidence-based management, and evidence-based accountability.

The World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has accumulated considerable experience in this topic via a program of research and technical assistance which has analyzed the experience of governments in a wide range of countries and public sector environments. IEG’s publications on this topic document good-practice and promising-practice country systems for M&E. They also include diagnostic guides, country diagnoses, examples of highly influential evaluations, and didactic material on monitoring and evaluation tools and on impact evaluation, among others. The purpose of the present volume is to synthesize and digest for readers this body of knowledge.

This volume highlights the experience of several countries which have succeeded in building a well-functioning government M&E system, including Chile, Colombia and Australia. The special case of Africa, where there are many severe capacity constraints, is also examined. Ways to strengthen a government M&E system and to strengthen government demand for M&E are presented, and the importance of conducting a country diagnosis and preparing an action plan are stressed.


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See video of the formal launch of this book at the World Bank

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What are others saying about this report?

"The Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank has a long-standing program of support for developing countries working to strengthen their M&E systems. This experience comes from a wide range of countries and public sector environments. Much of the experience has been documented in IEG publications but has not been synthesized until now. This book will be valuable to government officials and donors concerned with the institutionalization of government M&E systems."

Ajay Chhibber
Director, IEG-World Bank

"A central argument of this book is that utilization of M&E information is a necessary condition for the effective management of public expenditures for poverty reduction. This book makes a valuable contribution to those who are building government M&E systems in support of sound governance."

David Shand
Former Financial Manager Advisor
The World Bank

"The World Bank is devoting a growing amount of effort to supporting developing countries in their efforts to strengthen their results orientation. We see this as an important way of improving development effectiveness. This volume helps to digest for readers the growing body of knowledge of the Bank in helping institutionalize government M&E systems. I recommend this book to government officials, our development partners, and Bank staff who are working to build country capacity to help countries know about and achieve results on the ground."

Susan Stout
Manager, Results Secretariat
The World Bank

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FULL REPORT (also available in Spanish and French)

or By chapter:

Chapter 1: Introduction

PART I—WHAT DO MONITORING AND EVALUATION HAVE TO OFFER
GOVERNMENTS? (Chapters 2-4)


Chapter 2: What is M&E? An M&E Primer

Chapter 3: Contribution of M&E to Sound Governance

Chapter 4: Key Trends Influencing Countries—Why Countries Are Building M&E
Systems


PART II—SOME COUNTRY EXPERIENCE (Chapters 5-9)

Chapter 5: Good Practice Countries—What Does “Success” Look Like?

Chapter 6: Chile

Chapter 7: Colombia

Chapter 8: Australia

Chapter 9: The Special Case of Africa

PART III—LESSONS (Chapters 10-11)

Chapter 10: Building Government M&E Systems—Lessons from Experience

Chapter 11: Incentives for M&E—How to Create Demand

PART IV—HOW TO STRENGTHEN A GOVERNMENT M&E SYSTEM (Chapter 12-13)

Chapter 12: The Importance of Country Diagnosis


Chapter 13: Preparing Action Plans

PART V—REMAINING ISSUES (Chapter 14-15)


Chapter 14: Frontier Issues

Chapter 15: Concluding Remarks

PART VI—Q&A: COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Annexes
Annex A: Lessons on How to Ensure Evaluations are influential

Annex B: A Country Diagnosis — The Example of Colombia

Annex C: Terms of Reference for an In-Depth Diagnosis of Colombia's M&E System

Annex D: Evaluation of IEG's Support for Institutionalizing M&E Systems

Annex E: Glossary of Key Terms in M&E


The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is an independent unit within the World Bank; it reports directly to the Bank's Board of Executive Directors. The goals of IEG 's evaluations are to draw lessons from Bank experience, and to provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank's work.

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