Book Description

When decision-makers want to use evidence from monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to assist them in making choices, there is definitively a demand for M&E. When there is great capacity to supply M&E information, but low capacity to demand quality evidence, the consequence is a mismatch between supply and demand. In this context, monitoring is look as evaluation. This article deals with this observation, and gives insights on the evidence related to the fact that African governments are developing stronger local demand for evidence generated from M&E research.The argument presented here is that demand for evidence is increasing, leading to further development of M&E researches, with monitoring being dominant over evaluation. As part of this dominance there are attempts to align monitoring systems to emerging local demand, whilst donor demands are still important in several countries. There is also evidence of increasing demand through government-led evaluation systems in few countries; South Africa, Uganda and Benin being the leaders. One of the main issues that this article notes is that the M&E systems are not yet conceptualised within a reform effort to introduce a comprehensive results-based orientation to the public services of these countries. Results concepts are not also yet consistently applied throughout the M&E systems in the case countries. In addition, the results-based notions that are applied appear to be generating perverse incentives that reinforce upward compliance and control to the detriment of more developmental uses of M&E evidence.