Making development evaluation more usefull through Country-Led M&E Systems* Marco Segone, Systemic Management, UNICEF Evaluation Office, and former Vice President, IOCE *: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF.

Based on books published by UNICEF in partnership with key international institutions

Webinars are available at 1 2

A new framework is needed: From … UNICEF Develop Agencies

A networked partnership Bank Bilaterals CSO UN agency UNICEF Country …to

Mutual accounta bility Paris Declaration and AAA on Aid Effectiveness Managing for results Harmoni zation Alignment Ownership National ownership and capacity development: the key ingredients to CLES

Partner countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies Partner countries exercise leadership in developing and implementing their national development strategies Donors respect partner country leadership and help strengthen their capacity to exercise it. Implications to the M&E Function Strengthen and use country-led M&E systems M&E capacity development Paris Declaration Commitment

UNICEF … in line with the UN General Assembly … national Governments have the primary responsibility for coordinating external assistance and evaluating its contribution to national priorities mandated the United Nations system to promote national ownership and capacity development, and to make system-wide progress in harmonizing evaluation practices

CLES: what Country (and not donors) leads and owns the evaluation process by determining: what policy or programme will be evaluated (including donors coordination and alignment) what evaluation questions will be asked what methods will be used what analytical approach will be undertaken how findings will be communicated how findings will be used

11 International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation – IOCE (Organisational membership) International Development Evaluation Association – IDEAS (Individual membership) Source: Quesnel, 2006 “Country” led? Not exclusively the Government Also civil society, including Professional evaluation organizations (from 15 to 118 in a decade)

CLES: Challenges drive towards ownership is partly externally-driven longer time frame perceived risk by partner countries that independent evaluations of donor support may have political and financial consequences perceived risk by donors/development agencies of weak national capacities and, in some cases, of weak independence of national M&E systems Priority for donors/development agencies is its own accountability Shifts in power relationships

CLES: potential way forward Middle income, transition and developing countries cooperation to share good practices and lessons learned National evaluation organizations fostering national demand (and supply) for monitoring & evaluation International organizations strengthening national capacities to design and implement national M&E systems through Knowledge Management System and facilitating South-South Cooperation

We should always aim at strengthening National ownership and leadership, and not undermining it: Selecting topics of mutual interest Implement evaluations jointly with Governments, as a first step towards country-led evaluation Hiring local experts to the maximum extent possible Not assuming there are weak evaluation capacities, even if none is immediately apparent Co-ordinating with other UN agencies and key international stakeholders Invest in the country-led process, even if it may require additional efforts and less control We need a mind shift to do things differently...

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