Strengthening enabling environment for evaluation in Sri Lanka Presentation at the Regional Consultation on National Evaluation Policies held in Hanoi, Vietnam 23rd Nov 2016

Government structures Population of 20.3 million spread around 25 Districts in 9 provinces designated as middle income country Sri Lanka is a democratic republic and a unitary state which is governed by a semi-Presidential-Parliamentary system of government, 225 members in the parliament headed by the Secretary General of the parliament (including 13 female member representation) Members chamber headed by Speaker of the house . Sri Lankan government - out of 55 ministerial position 48 were cabinet ministers in the central government Sub nationally 40 in numbers as provincial ministers represent all 09 Provinces.

First Woman Prime Minister in the World Hon Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranayke

Year Description Implementing Agency Outcome 2001 -2003 Proposed by the then secretary of the ministry initiated “The National Evaluation Policy” SLEvA, Then Ministry of Planning and Implementation policy did not take off from Ministry Level due changes in the governing party. 2013 Draft was officially handed over to the then “new” secretary to President at the 4th biannual conference of SLEvA SLEvA, Participation of South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation (PFDE) The Government of Sri Lanka did not persuade further on this document. 2015 Stakeholder consultation session . Headed by Hon Kabir Hashim Chair PFDE. and GPFE SLEvA and Eval Partners – sponsored by Eval partners Review session to the policy headed by Hon Kabir Hashim under the 100 day program initiated by the care taker Government 5th Biannual conference of SLEvA dedicated a debate on NEP. panel representation were DPMM, UNICEF, SLEvA, Head of South African DPME. Via Skype. SLEvA, Department of Project management and Monitoring (DPMM) and sponsored by UNICEF Assurance given by the DPMM that NEP will be drafting according to the government policies and regulation by using SLEvA draft as influencing document . 2015 -16 After the Three stakeholder consultation sessions DPMM prepared a 08 pages NEP for the government DPMM and South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation (PFDE) Preparation of the Road Map, committee setting up and revisiting the draft with new inputs from the consultation session. 2016 Committee Meeting on finalization of the draft. DPMM,NEPS and Ministry of Planning. Final Paper will be presenting to the Cabinet approval in due course of 2016

Influencing VOPE on NEP and Sri Lanka Parliamentarian Evaluation Forum South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation –(PFDE) South Asia South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation (PFDE) Chairman Members of the committee from Sri Lanka Hon Kabir Hashim - Chairman Member SAARC countries – Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Maldives, Bangladesh Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Parliamentary committee 2016 National Evaluation Policy – way forward Based on request made by Chairmen of South Asia Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation (PFDE) to the parliament members …. Hon. Kabir Hashim 09th Aug-16 and & 7th Oct- Presented two “Adjournment Motion” to the chamber by Hon. Buddhika Pathirana Formulation of National Evaluation Policy on Development and Allocation of funds for evaluation in the national Budget, “To established the 1st Ministerial Level commitment to the NEP given assurance that relevant ministry will honor the request from the Chamber.” 7th Oct 2016 - Launch National Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation at the parliament of Sri Lanka 11th 2016 – formulation of 12 member parliamentarian committee Hon . Budhdika Pathirana Parliamentary committee

Sri Lanka Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation Hon Ananda Kumarasiri Chair of the Forum

National Evaluation Policy The draft policy was reviewed to include EFGR evaluation aspects Two stakeholder consultations were held in Jan and Aug 2016 Held two parliamentary debates based on two motions submitted by a member of parliament: Proposing the parliament to formulate the NEP Proposing the parliament to allocate funds for evaluation from the national budget cc

National Evaluation Plan A workshop to develop the national evaluation plan in line with Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020 was held on 4 and 6 October 2016. The workshop was supported by EvalGender+ network The workshop was attended by DPMM, ministry officials, VOPE members, parliamentarians and development partners A working committee was appointed to finalize the plan The working committee conducted meetings and compiled the plan.

Engaging parliamentarians Hon. Kabir Hashim, a Sri Lankan parliamentarian was instrumental in engaging parliamentarians in evaluation globally A session for parliamentarians was held on 7th October at the parliament in participation of 20 parliamentarians Sri Lanka Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation was initiated on 7th October The first meeting of the Forum was held on 11th November at the parliament It has been proposed for a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Evaluation

Political commitment Hon. Prime Minister is the responsible cabinet minister for M&E and SDGs The State Minister in charge of M&E is directly involved in the NEP process, parliamentary debates and the parliamentarians forum The parliamentary debates and the session for parliamentarians were held with blessings from the Hon. PM

Evaluation Capacity Building IRBM workshop conducted by MES in 2014? for public officials…… IRBM workshop conducted by MES in 2016 for public officials A workshop on Logical Frame Analysis (LFA) was conducted by a South African expert in September 2016 for six line Ministries and Departments including DPMM, Department of National Budget, Department of Census and Statistics and agencies such as ICTA as a pilot project. TOT ……………….

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