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Ireland developed its government evaluation
system in response to the requirements for
accession to the European Union. The system
has subsequently been strengthened for internal
reasons, related to the government’s
wish to improve the value-for-money obtained
from all areas of public expenditure. This
has been reflected in the government’s
Expenditure Review Initiative.
From the perspective of developing countries,
Ireland provides a number of lessons about
success factors and impediments to developing
an M&E system. One lesson is that strong
external pressures, linked to the availability
of significant resources, can be a key catalyst
in initiating an M&E system. (An analogy
for poor countries is the requirement to
prepare Poverty Reduction Strategies, with
related M&E systems, in the context
of debt relief under the Highly Indebted
Poor Country initiative.) Once in existence,
an M&E system can be used for additional,
nationally-driven purposes. Of course, country
demand and incentives to utilize M&E
information can be expected to be very important
for the institutionalization and sustainability
of such a system. The Irish case again underlines
the difficulty of ensuring a direct link
between M&E information and budget decision-making
and other resource allocation processes.
Formal procedures and practices may be necessary
to establish direct links.
Another lesson is the merit of periodically
reviewing progress in developing such a
system, and reorienting the system - sometimes
substantially - as a result. Ireland is
continuing to pilot further improvements
to its evaluation system.
The small pool of evaluators in Ireland
has been a constraint on the system, although
this has enabled them to develop rapidly
their understanding of the requirements
of the system. The small skills pool has
underlined the importance of using this
resource carefully; it has implications
on both the demand and supply sides. On
the demand side, it suggests the importance
of not trying to develop an overly complex
or demanding system; instead, it is better
to focus on the most cost-effective M&E
activities, where these activities are determined
by the likely utilization of the M&E
information which the system is producing.
On the supply side, there would be merit
in working to expand the limited capacities
in a planned manner - for example, via targeted
training, curriculum development, on-the-job
skills development, secondments, networking
support, regular review of M&E quality,
or period contracts with consulting companies.
Where there is reliance on civil servants
to undertake evaluations, it is particularly
important to ensure they are sufficiently
trained and are provided with adequate guidelines
and other support to enable them to function
effectively.
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