Professor Dr Benon C Basheka, PhD, FCIPS

Dean, School of Business and Management

Uganda Technology and Management University

(UTAMU)

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START UP QUESTIONS?

1. What is evaluation capacity Development?

2. What capacity do we strengthen and institutionalize?

3. Why do we strengthen and institutionalize evaluation

capacity?

4. How do we strengthen and institutionalize evaluation

capacity?

5. Who should institutionalize and strengthen

evaluation capacity?

INTRODUCTION Evaluation capacity building (ECB) remains a hot topic

of conversation within the evaluation field.

In Africa evaluation (capacity) has increased over time

due to many factors but including:-

Growing voices regarding good governance and need for more

effective public administration systems.

Africa-wide initiatives intended to build evaluation capacity

Global trends and development partners interested in giving a

helping hand to build capacity

The evaluation consultants who have been selling their

methodologies to different actors.

IT IS A FACT THAT ...

In the 21st century, evaluators and organizational leaders became

interested in, and committed to, building the evaluation capacity

of their members.

1. Efforts seeking to enhance stakeholders’ understanding of evaluation

concepts and practices became visible

2. Efforts aimed at creating evaluation cultures were intensified

3. Strategies to help their members learn about evaluation were scaled

up in most organizations.

4. Standards for conducting and Managing evaluations were introduced

5. Professional associations became a common feature

6. University Courses on evaluation became visible and evaluation

discipline matured from infancy to adulthood

7. Evaluation was increasingly seen as a science

Efforts in ECD became visible among:-

1. Development partners

2. International organizations

3. Government MDAs

4. Universities

5. CSOs

CONCEPTUALLY,

• While some people make a clear cut distinction between monitoring and evaluation

– International literature adopts evaluation since monitoring is considered part of evaluation

– It is common in their discourses to use the term programme evaluation which combines both M & E

Growing number of evaluands has capacity implications

The things to be evaluated (evaluands) now days have capacity implications

They range from :-

1. Laws

2. Products

3. Services

4. Organizations

5. People

6. Processes

7. Social state of affairs of any kind (Stockman & Meyer 2013:67)

EVALUATION CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT?

Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) is the process whereby people, organizations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and maintain evaluation capacities over time (OECD (2006).

ECB is the intentional work to continuously create and sustain overall organizational processes that make quality evaluation and its uses routine” (Stockdill, Baizerman, and Compton (2002, p. 14).

The ability to conduct an effective evaluation (i.e., one that meets accepted standards of the discipline) (Milstein & Cotton, (2000,p. 1)

The extent to which an organization has the necessary resources and motivation to conduct, analyze, and use evaluations (Gibbs, Napp, Jolly, Westover, & Uhl, 2002, p. 261)

FROM WHAT ANGLE SHOULD ECD BE APPROACHED?

• When the field is claimed by many other

fields?

• When its maturity levels differs across

countries?

• When in developing countries the focus and

locus problems are still prevalent?

DISCIPLINES FROM WHICH EVALUATION BORROW?

• ‘Social Research Methods’

•Sociology

•Economics

•Statistics

•Development studies

•Public Administration

•Social Anthropology

•Education

•Project Management

•Management

•Engineering

•Policy Analysis

•History

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EVALUATION CAPACITY

• Needs to be conceived from different angles:

– As a profession with a set of standards and these have

to be strengthened and institutionalized

– As a field of practice (whose origins are much older

and have moved side by side the civilization journey).

Current challenges of the practice requires more capacity

interventions

– As a discipline of study it is an academic field now

declared to be in adolescent stages in some countries but

capacity interventions remain urgent in Africa

What are Professions ?

A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation

Facts about professions

• Major milestones which may mark an occupation being identified as a profession include:

1. An occupation becomes a full-time

2. The establishment of a training school

3. The establishment of a university school

4. The establishment of a local association

5. The establishment of a national association

6. The introduction of codes of professional ethics

7. The establishment of state licensing laws

Evaluation Professionalization?

• Professionalization is the social process by which any occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence.“

• This process tends to involve establishing

– acceptable qualifications

– a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members of the profession

– some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs.

….. • Professions also possess

– Power

– Prestige

– High income

– High social status and

– Privileges

• Their members soon come to comprise an elite class of people, cut off to some extent from the common people, and occupying an elevated status in society

PRACTICES OF EVALUATION

Evaluation is as old as the world itself and has moved side by side the journey of human civilization

Depending on how far one goes back, various roots of evaluation practices will appear and so are the ECD efforts

Biblical Times

The scriptures tell us under genesis 1:31 that when God created the earth, the light in the darkness, the firmament in the midst in the midst of the waters, the plants, the animals, and finally man, at the end of the fifth day’…God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good

Michael Q. Patton reports

God’s archangel came then, asking God, 1. How do you know that what you have created

is ‘very good’? 2. What are your criteria? 3. On what data do you base your judgment? 4. Just what results were you expecting to

attain? 5. And aren’t you a little close to the situation to

make a fair and unbiased evaluation?”

God thought about these questions and that day and God’s rest was greatly disturbed. On the eighth day God said, “Lucifer go to hell.”

In other Examples,

• From the philosophical works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to the mathematical methodologies of Pythagoras and Euclid, the ideas of the ancient Greeks shaped many institutions and contributions to many fields including evaluation.

• The Delphic oracle of the ninth to the third centuries BC was the first central intelligence database of the ancient world, an interdisciplinary think tank of approximately 90 priests, deemed the best educated experts of antiquity. – They collected and evaluated information and advised ordinary people and

leaders, among them Alexander the Great.

In ancient Greece, • The practices of their 12 gods, shed

some light on how evaluation was done.

– The council of the Olympian gods and goddesses made collective decisions with input from an expert panel, which consisted of Zeus (the president of the gods), Athena (the goddess of wisdom), Hermes (the god of information and commerce), and any other god whose area of expertise would be pertinent to the subject in question.

In their Working methodology

• Meetings were problem-oriented participatory sessions, characterized by intense discussions and searches for best solution.

• The gods' decisions were persuasively communicated to mortals and powerfully implemented with follow-up reports (Theofanides 1999).

The Olympian style of management and decision making was as follows:- 1. Identify the problem or theme for action. Collect all relevant information and

data, through the intelligence work by Hermes, the god of informatics. 2. Search for solutions via dialogue with all participants. Discuss step 1 with all

concerned parties and propose alternative solutions. 3. Select the best problem solution or action theme, mainly by conferring with

the concerned party or parties 4. Announce the decision of the gods to all mortals concerned through the god

of informatics, Hermes. Send Peitho, the goddess of persuasion, to illuminate the best solution in step 3 as the decision of the gods of Olympus

5. Use lightning and thunderbolts to implement the Olympian decisions in step 4 to achieve the desired goals identified in steps 1 and 3.

6. Implement all decisions, supervised by Hermes, the god of informatics, who announces to the Olympian gods the results of their action taken in step

Today, things have changed and evaluation capacity development interventions are complex due to

complex problems

Demand & Supply of Evaluation Excess supply, or surplus, is the condition that exists when quantity supplied exceeds quantity demanded at the current price (EUROPE & N. AMERICA).

Asia at equilibrium , where quantity (E Capacity) supplied equals quantity (E Capacity) demanded.

• Excess demand, is the condition that Africa has where quantity of E Capacity demanded exceeds quantity supplied at the current price

Evaluation Capacity Based on Interventions

1.Types of Programme Evaluations: Before

Interventions

2.Types of Programme Evaluations:

Accompanying Interventions

3.Types of Programme Evaluations: After

Interventions

4.Types of Programme Evaluations: Evaluation

Scopes

Different Interventions have implications for ECD

1.Political level Interventions

2.Programme level interventions

3.System level interventions

4.Performance level interventions

5.Individual level interventions

Comprehensive Evaluation Capacity Package (CECP)

1.Society level

2.Government level

3.Organizational level

4.Group level

5.Individual level

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Enabling environment (institutional framework, power structure & influence)

Organizational level (systems, procedures & rules)

Individual level (experience, knowledge & technical skills)

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Successful capacity development requires not only skills & organizational procedures, but also incentives & good governance

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Levels of Evaluation Capacity

(OECD paper - 2006)

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Dimensions of Evaluation Capacity

Evaluation capacity can also be categorized into other

dimensions:

1. Evaluation Capacity for teaching Evaluation

2. Evaluation Capacity for planning and Designing evaluations

3. Evaluation Capacity for Conducting Evaluations

4. Evaluation Capacity for Managing Evaluations

5. Evaluation Capacity for Using Evaluations

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Framework to Analyze Evaluation Capacity Development

A: Architecture

– Evaluation responsibility

– Coordination

– Links with other functions

B: Evaluation Resources

– Finances

– Staffing

– Evaluation flow and coverage

C: Efficiency of Evaluation Management

– Planning

– Terms of reference

– Procurement

– Evaluation steering committees

– Quality assessments

D: Quality of monitoring systems

– Reliability

– Timeliness

In Uganda,……

• The architecture is pleasantly developing

– Evaluation responsibility exists

– Coordination of evaluation is visible

– Links with other functions is better although some gaps exist

• Evaluation Resources are on the positive development

– Evaluation finances are not adequate but have improved

– Evaluation Staffing is slowly on the rise but strategic position is not yet where we

want

– Evaluation flow and coverage

• Efficiency of Evaluation Management is weak and poor

– Planning for evaluation is adhoc and does not receive adequate time

– Terms of reference development is still poor

– Procurement processes are lengthy and riddled with unethical challenges

– Evaluation steering committees exists and is functional

– Quality assessments are there but not well financed

• Quality of monitoring systems

– Reliability is questionable because of stakeholder influences on evaluation results and the quality of evaluators used

– Timeliness is still a matter of concern

General positive developments in Uganda as of 2015

• AT GOVERNMENT LEVEL

– Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation Policy

– The Community of Evaluators exist in Government

– Monitoring and Evaluation Departments exists

– There is the Parliamentary forum on Monitoring and Evaluation

– There is the Uganda evaluation association housed by Government

– The Annual Evaluation week supported by Government

– Evaluation capacity development project (ECD)

– Government evaluation facility

– Government Evaluation Facility (GEF)

– National Monitoring & Evaluation (NM&E)

– National Monitoring and Oversight (NM&O)

SPECIFIC ECD INTERVENTIONS

1. Strengthening Monitoring Capacities in the Ugandan Public Sector

A 2 – year project supported by UNDP aiming at contributing to increased effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in Uganda’s public sector by strengthening results-oriented monitoring capacities across Government.

Training of top civil servants in Monitoring Government program-practical approach

Operationalisation of National M&E Policy

2. Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) Project

Three year Project funded by the Republic of Germany Government through GIZ. The project focused on the following four components:

Information events, (popularizing evaluation) Gender-sensitive and development evaluation standards, Continuous training courses in short and medium on evaluation, and, Establishment of a blended learning Master’s course in evaluation

originally to be at Makerere University but now at UTAMU

WITHIN UNIVERSITIES:-

1. Some Courses in evaluation exist at different levels

2. Faculty exists teaching evaluation

3. Focus and locus problems

4. No specialized departments for evaluation

5. Different approaches are used to teaching evaluation

6. Some divide based on public-private, young or new etc

SOME SPECIFIC COURSES

1. Masters in Evaluation(Pilot-Ceval-GIZ-UTAMU)

2. Masters in Monitoring and Evaluation (UTAMU)

3. Msc in Monitoring and Evaluation (UMU)

4. Masters in Management Studies (Monitoring and

Evaluation)(UMI)

5. Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and

Evaluation (UTAMU,UCU,MU,UMI)

Education is Changing...

This used to mean textbooks and

prescribed readings…..

…..but now we can use….. At UTAMU both commercial and

open education services are

available to help students access

Virtual Learning

Education is opening up….

UTAMU Hybrid Model

Community Engagement

Transformational e-Learning Content Space

Policy Makers (e.g.. National Council for Higher Education)

Collaborative Partners

UTAMU e-Learning Content Space

Digital Teachers Digital Students Digital Family

UTAMU Content Database

Open Access Database

UTAMU E-Library

UTAMU Social Applications

Integrated Layer

E-Libraries

AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

1. Extensive training and workshop opportunities have existed

2. Some qualifications have been attained

3. Some professional growth has been attempted

4. Some sharing of opportunities exists

5. Professionalization efforts

6. Community of evaluators now exist

7. Consultancy opportunities exist

THE AFRICAN JOURNEY ON ECD

1. March 1987 conference by DAC of the OECD to give donors and beneficiaries the opportunity to discuss evaluation

2. May 1990-seminar to clarify evaluation needs as perceived by African countries and the exploration of ways and means of strengthening self-evaluation capacities.

3. High-level Seminar Held In Abidjan, Côte D‟ivoire, In November 1998

– Brought teams of senior officials from 12 African countries and 21 international agencies

– Task was to look at the evaluation status—and help plan the future—of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity development in Africa.

– Participants acknowledged that M&E was no longer primarily a donor activity.

– Africans were seeking to build national M&E capacity to realize its benefits

4. September 1999, the inaugural conference of the AfrEA in Nairobi-was attended by over 300 evaluators from 35 countries.

5. 2000 Johannesburg Workshop and Seminar brought together teams from 12 African countries and 21 international development assistance agencies.

– Suggestions from participants for institutional support and more training in evaluation designs, methodologies and practices.

– Suggested that various databases, including one that would list evaluators (practitioners, consultants, officials in charge of M&E, a body of inspectors and auditors, and private sector firms), be established to form the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA).

– A database for lessons learned and good practices in M&E was also proposed.

The Objectives of Johannesburg 2000

1. Define the requirements and capabilities of M&E in the context of

good governance and accountability for better results

2. Familiarize the participants with the development, requirements

and uses of M & E systems

3. Present ways of designing and conducting cost-effective

evaluations of issues Build professional teams using national M&E

associations and networks

4. Develop a collaborative strategy and infrastructure for a pan-

African M&E net-work, which could review and evaluate sound

practices with a view to adopting them in Africa

EVALUATION CAPACITY STATUS IN AFRICA?

• Much of the M&E capacity development in the region has been undertaken by development agencies using mainly foreign consultants

• Michele Tarsilla (2014) provides a critical overview of ECB initiatives undertaken by international development partners in Africa over five years (2009–2014)

The study had the following Questions:-

1.What is the current level of ECD recognition amongst

development partners operating in Africa?

2.What are the main modalities of ECD implementation

amongst international funders in Africa today?

3.What is the content of the ECD initiatives

implemented by international funders in Africa today?

4.How do international funders evaluate the

effectiveness of their ECD strategies in Africa?

Additional questions

• The paper also explores two additional questions:

1.What has been learned on what works and what does not

work in ECD in Africa?

2.What are the possible synergies that could be put in place

between ECD funders and African institutions to achieve more

effective ECD programming in Africa in the future?

Key findings

On question 2 regarding the main modalities of ECD implementation in Africa , nine major trends were noted:-

1.The tendency amongst larger ECD funders to implement projects and programmes that are entirely devoted to the strengthening of evaluation capacity, either short-term or long-term

2.The increasing practice amongst smaller ECD funders to mainstream a discrete number of ECD activities in projects and programmes with a different sectorial or thematic focus.

3.The increasingly common provision of funding for ECD activities to multi-donor initiatives featuring a specific ECD mandate and a variable primary target, such as Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR) and Eval Partners.

4.The continued prominence of short-term training

despite the realisation of the corresponding

limitations

5.The realisation amongst several bilateral

development agencies that, for ECD initiatives to

be successful in Africa, a stronger internal

evaluation capacity within their respective

organisations is first needed.

6.The strengthening of international partners’

learning agendas and the subsequent increased

focus on mutual and context-specific learning

beyond the traditional accountability focus of

past ECD strategies.

7. The proliferation of online platforms for the

generation and dissemination of evaluation

knowledge in the African region.

8. The decentralised funding and management of

ECD initiatives within international

development partners might engage more

directly with in-country partners to implement

ECD initiatives in the field.

9. The majority of ECD funders are still targeting

either the supply or the demand of evaluation

but not both at the same

On question 3-the content of the evaluation capacity development strategies implemented by international funders in Africa today, four main findings emerged.

1.ECD strategies mostly consist of short-term training

initiatives.

2.The content of evaluation training modules was more

theoretical than practical.

3.An increasing number of ECD strategies stressed the critical

link existing between performance management and

evaluation.

4.Most training content was developed outside of Africa.

On the lessons learned on what is working and what

is not working, five main findings emerged :_

1.Short-term training initiatives targeting individuals are

no longer effective unless they are combined with

other activities and are implemented as part of

systemic processes.

2.Parachuting international consultants – of unverified

experience – from outside of Africa does not enhance

the development of national evaluation capacities

across the continent.

3.Engaging both the executive and legislative powers

was critical to the success of a national ECD initiative.

4.Blended targeting was key to ECD effectiveness.

5.Bad evaluation terms of reference (ToR) discourage

ECD.

On question 6 regarding what possible synergies could be put in place one of the three following perspectives on future ECD engagement in Africa were espoused:-

1.Some ECD funders are interested in establishing synergies with

other like-minded organisations and partners in Africa, such as

AfrEA.

2.Some partners are interested in establishing synergies with

other ECD funders and partners, but not AfrEA, at least in the

short term.

3.Some partners are currently not planning any specific ECD

partnership to pursue in the near future.

How do we strengthen ECD?

Different Levels approach 1. At Individual level?

1. Improve the knowledge and skills of individuals through long term education.

2. Build technical skills to apply basic evaluation approaches and methods.

3. Mentorship programmes on building effective systems is critical.

2. At Group level?

1. African evaluation association needs to be regional!

2. Strengthening the UEA to play its professional role

3. Advocate for a Legislation to protect the Evaluation profession

4. Develop Certification arrangements for evaluators

5. Effectively enforce standards application

6. Association needs to increase membership and develop a sustainability plan

3. At Organizational level? 1. Strengthen organizational evaluation approaches.

2. Within an organization, there have to be effective mechanisms to support evaluation.

3. Established systems and processes support staff to identify, collect, and use evaluative information

4. Partnership is likely to be the only sustainable way

5. Professionalization is likely to be key

4. At Government level? 1. Ministry of Deputy Minister for evaluation?

2. Centers of excellence in evaluation

3. Sustained political Commitment

4. Strengthened parliamentary forum on evaluation

5. At society level?

1. CSO strengthening

2. Citizen empowerment

A Multidisciplinary Model of Evaluation Capacity Building

to be developed and to what level, the instructional goals and objectives of the ECB activity

or process, available resources, and relevant evaluation, learning, or change theories.

Though an ECB activity may be well designed, the implementation component of the model

suggests that the timing of the ECB effort, the facilitator’s expertise and effectiveness, the par-

ticipants’ frequency and quality of participation, and the extent to which the activity is imple-

mented as designed will also affect how well participants learn from and about evaluation. And

it is not surprising that facilitators should evaluate their ECB efforts to determine their effective-

ness and impact on the participants’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes and the organization overall.

Connecting the two large circles is a double-sided arrow, transfer of learning, which refers

to the application of evaluation knowledge, skills, and attitudes to the work context. This

transfer of learning arrow links the ECB effort to what is required to sustain evaluative think-

ing and practice. But before we describe what contributes to sustainable evaluation practice,

we highlight the importance of understanding the organizational learning capacity of the

system in which the ECB is occurring. We propose that the extent to which and the ways in

which the organization’s leadership values learning and evaluation, creates a culture of

inquiry, has the necessary systems and structures for engaging in evaluation practice, and pro-

vides communication channels and opportunities to access and disseminate evaluation infor-

mation will significantly affect not only if and how people learn about evaluation but also the

extent to which evaluation practice becomes sustained.

Preskill, Boyle / Evaluation Capacity Building 3

Figure 1

A Multidisciplinary Model of Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB)

Key Considerations in Building Evaluation Capacity

1. Evaluation capacity must be „unbundled‟: Different evaluation capacities

should be taken into account. One size fit all approach should be avoided in Africa.

It is important to distinguish between the capacity to manage evaluations and the

capacity to conduct them, as well as capacity to use evaluations.

2. Individual training on how to conduct evaluations is not sufficient for

development of national evaluation capacity. Experience shows that

enhancing individual capacities without strengthening the organization

and the enabling environment can be counterproductive as the individual

experts may be frustrated by the institutional arrangement and processes

3. Individual training on how to conduct evaluations is not sufficient for

development of national evaluation capacity: Also needed is the capability to

use evaluations for learning and adapting methods to objectives

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Opportunities exist to be exploited

Growing interest among universities and national and regional research institutions to provide services in evaluation. This provides opportunities to work with these institutions in further developing capacities and promoting specialized training in evaluation.

Increasing appreciation and demand from African Governments to reinforce institutional capacities to develop evaluation policy and evaluation coordination at national level

Increasing pressure on Governments to be transparent and accountable

in the use of national resources as well as demonstrating results of their policies, programs and projects. The complexity of governance in the modern world requires officials to have more knowledge for optimal decision-making.

Strong and growing demand by donors in civil society organizations (a

requirement for accountability of public action);

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But Challenges must be systematically addressed The current trend in evaluation capacity across the continent is broadly rooted

on two main challenges:

Low demand for credible evidence about performance and the scant use of the information generated through evaluation efforts to inform public decision-making.

The poor integration of institutions and actors associated with the effective evaluation of public policies, programmes and institutions.

The lack harmony among donors and the national evaluation systems.

Weak human resources (Inadequate evaluation professionals)

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Within Universities

1. Recognizing evaluation as a new discipline and

advocating for its independence but integrative

nature-addressing the locus and focus problem

should be critical

2. Poorly educated graduates in evaluation who do not

match the skills required in the job market

3. The marketization of evaluation courses without

building adequate staffs and institutional capacities

4. Increased arrogance by public institutions or long

established institutions that they have better

capacity than private or newly established

institutions

5. Quality assurance systems and regulating

the kind of people who teach evaluation

courses especially graduate level

programmes – Addressing numbers of students visavis the existing

capacities for graduate supervision

– Curriculum design that is integrative but also

philosophically grounded to produce a complete

evaluation expert with global and national skills and

competencies

– Selection of research topics for evaluation study

and dissemination of findings

– Failure to blend theory and practice in the teaching

of evaluation

At a Practice level

Capacity strengthening is needed at the Seven steps

for designing effective evaluations:-

Planning and preparing an evaluation:

– Developing terms of reference

– Stakeholders identification

– Investigation and survey designs selection

– Designing Evaluation criteria

– Developing appropriate indicators

– Designing appropriate schedules

Implementing an evaluation:

– Data collection and analysis methodologies.

– Managing and moderating meetings

– Preparing and supporting conflict resolutions

– Building a culture of teamwork.

• Data gathering:

– Planning data Gathering

– Use of multi-methods for collecting data are needed

• Data processing:

– Transformation of data for analysis

• Qualitative data transformation

• Quantitative data transformation.

• Data analysis: – Qualitative data analysis techniques

– Quantitative data analysis techniques

– The evaluation design has to define what data should be

analysed, and to what extent and by which methods.

• Data interpretation and assessment:

– Inferences

– Deductions

• Utilisation of the evaluation:

– Reporting and communicating evaluation results.

– Initiating the use of an evaluation

– Stakeholder engagement

SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF ECD

DEPENDS ON 3 FACTORS:-

1. The awareness and appreciation at the governmental decision

making level

2. The institutionalization and meaningful integration of the

various evaluation functions in the government machinery at

all levels

3. The development of human and financial resources to support

a professional, dedicated, and effective cadre of evaluators and

evaluation managers

African Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Workshop Report (2012)

– How do we embark on establishing M&E as

integral to public management practice and

culture?

– What are the most effective ways of developing

evaluation capacity in Africa?

– How are M&E systems integrated with planning

and budgeting across countries?

– How do we institutionalise M&E in government

and ensure M&E information is utilised

effectively?

– What are the similarities and differences in M&E

systems across countries and what successes

and

– common challenges are there amongst

countries?

– What are the different structural roles and

partnerships in the design of an effective M&E

system?

– How do we ensure that M&E is focused on

results and what methods are there for ensuring

that data feeds into decision-making processes?

CONCLUSION

• Significant efforts have been made in ECD at:

– Individual Level

–Organizational level

–Group level (UEA)

–Government level

• Issues of sustainability need careful consideration

– Emphasis on short-term training courses needs to

be upgraded to long term efforts which give

permanent knowledge

– Use of external consultants to conduct

evaluations even where there is local capacity

needs to be extensively discussed and

appropriate solutions agreed upon by

stakeholders

– Building synergy among actors in ECD is the sure

sustainable way to avoid duplication of efforts

• There is no single model of success. Countries have

developed different configurations, in accordance

with their capacities, culture and reform strategies;

– The institutional setting is a key element defining the

level of success achieved;

– The most visible element of success is the linkages

created with decision making and, in particular, the

budget process;

– Success is dependent on technical strength and political

support;

– Implementation is not linear; and

– Structures generally change over time.