For Improvement & Expansion of M&E Directorate of OAA
_____________________________________________________________
Noorullah Noori
February 24, 2009
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. OAA-M&E Directorate Functions
3. Strength and weaknesses of the OAA/M&E Directorate System
3.1 The Strengths
3.2 The Weaknesses
4. Road Map to Build the OAA/M&E directorate Result-Based M&E System
5. Conclusion
Appendix 1: Current needs and areas of improvement
Assessment Report
For Improvement & Expansion of M&E Directorate of OAA
1. Introduction:
1.1. The Needs for responding to Afghanistan Government’s strategic objectives became to catalyst that prompted, the Office of Administrative Affairs’ and Council of Ministers Secretariat (OAA/CoMSec) management to embark on an all-out effort to establish the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Directorate based on the Presidential Order number 2363, dated December 13, 2005. The establishment of M&E Directorate was preceded by careful review of organizational structure through internal consultations. The main purpose of establishment of OAA-M&E is to provide information that will enable improve Government accountability, enhance Government strategic planning and effectiveness, tracking progress as well as enhance informed decision-making at Government levels in the implementation of government policy and program interventions under multi-sectoral response in Afghanistan Government.
1.2. This short paper aims to portray a status of how to improve & expand Monitoring and Evaluation directorate of OAA in general by adoption of long-term expansion strategy, result-based M&E system and other necessary tools. Several issues are touched among others the functions; its strength and weaknesses; road map to build a result-based M&E system; influential champions; creation of strong incentives both to improve the current M&E system and to expand it, and long-term commitment to institutionalizing M&E systems as well as include a short conclusion.
At the end a one page recommendations with a diagram for responding to current needs is also developed and added as an appendix to this assessment report.
2. OAA-M&E Directorate Functions
M&E Directorate under Office of Administrative Affaires (OAA) currently conducts monitoring the implementation of Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM). M&E Directorate carry out responsibility of compiling reports for the President and CoM on the implementation status of decisions and decrees. The OAA-M&E Directorate is asked to:
• Coordinate and manage reports received from the ministries and government’s Independent Organizations on implementation of Presidential orders, decrees and Council of Ministers (CoM) decisions
• Prepare consolidated and timely periodic reports and assessments on performance of ministries and government agencies on the implementation status of orders, decisions and decrees.
• Develop and facilitate the planning and reporting system among ministries and government agencies
In addition, as per the President’s special instructions, the M&E Directorate is also assigned to monitor and evaluate priority projects being implemented by government ministries and independent organizations. Although evaluations of priority projects are not currently carrying out however, M&E department will work on it by strengthening its capacity. The OAA-M&E Directorate like many other public offices faces some internal and external challenges. M&E Directorate office is also facing overlap of responsibility with some other public offices. Also the M&E Directorate supposed to develop and facilitate planning and reporting process among ministries and government agencies concerning both policy and operational issues however, this has not been happening due to ministries’ resistance to the idea of M&E Directorate direct involvement in the process.
3. Strength and weaknesses of the OAA/M&E Directorate System
3.1 The Strength:
a) The level of utilization of OAA/M&E system is relatively high for the decision makers within the Office of Administrative Affairs and other Government levels. The systematic use of information of the M&E system, in particular, its exercise of an annual and Simi-annual etc reports on achievement of targets being addressed in Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM).
b) The use of OAA/M&E directorate information as a basic information for senate and or Parliament to support government (ministries and independent directorates) for showing their achievements also shows its high utilization level. Ministries and independent directorates have to provide public explanations to the nation where they had achievements and where not and why not during the year in annual accountability process organized by OAA/M&E directorate. Despite its limitation to only provide information on progress of achieving targets being addressed in Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM), in fact it is basically beneficial as one of a trigger to warrant a more in-depth investigation of the causes.
c) This two high utilization of M&E system is very likely to support the sustainability of the system as it is embedded in core government process of providing information on progress of achieving targets being addressed in Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM) for transparency, accountability and enhance decision making.
3.2 The weaknesses:
a) The M&E directorate is only focus on providing information on progress of achieving targets being addressed in Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM), where it can be expanded to measure progress toward indicators mentioned in ANDS too. This expansion is prevented due to high level of bureaucracy within government institutions and as a result there is no central M&E system.
b) Neither improving the quality of public spending, nor evaluating sector and program policy; output/outcome and impact evaluations in the macro level, has been conducted by the OAA/M&E directorate. However it is rare but still is the wasting of time for staff and cause of delay in day to day business. The good example of such evaluations is the evaluation of road construction projects of municipality of Kabul which should be actually done by the technical staff of Ministry of Public Welfare.
c) Although there is systematic approach to undertaking data/information from ministries and independent directorates by OAA/M&E directorate, its scope is limited to provide information on progress of achieving targets being addressed in Presidential decrees, orders and decisions of the Council of Ministers (CoM) only.
d) There are no actions taken on close and direct relationship between good and bad sector ministries and independent directorates’ performance with the next budget reduction or termination of the program as a result of M&E directorate reports.
4. Road Map to Build the OAA/M&E directorate Result-Based M&E System
In order to ensure the effectiveness of the delivery of tangible result, prerequisite effort has been and should be intensified to move forward to new approach which is result-based M&E system, among others:
4.1.There should be increasing of strong incentive demand for the extension of utilization of the M&E systems to some extent possible that include : a) a final-term review of the current government achievements in collaboration with Five Year Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS); b) a comprehensive report of M&E directorate findings on government policies implementation since its establishment. The final-term review should be a comprehensive exercise involving sector ministries and independent directorates analyzing major problems of government priorities such as; security, elimination of corruption and poverty alleviation .
4.2. The methodology approach of the framework of M&E system should be result based oriented inhibits; indicators for targets progress measurement.
4.3. To enable to obtain an optimal utilization of result-based M&E systems, it is important to realize the need to equip the OAA/M&E directorate with enough operational tools and professional staff by which result-based M&E system can be operational in real means and should not be like dreaming in the air.
4.4. It is important to realize the existing obstacle of disconnecting between OAA/M&E directorate and Ministry of Finance (MoF) & Ministry of Economics (MoE) departments responsible for monitoring and evaluation of ANDS. It is also essential to have a coordinating body approach to develop a proper M&E system for monitoring and evaluation of ANDS and as M&E directorate of OAA is well experienced in M&E activities as government core/central agency, it is necessary for MoF & MoE departments responsible for M&E of ANDS to be in line with OAA/M&E directorate and if possible work under the supervision of M&E directorate.
4.5. It is also important to tackle the deficient data (both quantitative & qualitative) by attempting improvement of the reliability of data through quality control of its verification and reconciliation in timely manner through practical monitoring (M&E directorate staff visits) from ministries and Independent directorates.
4.6. A weak of capacity and knowledge of result-based M&E system may be resolved by re-structuring of OAA/M&E directorate, capacity building of existing staff and intervention of well experienced staff to play role as influential champions for improvement of current system of OAA/M&E directorate and future possible expansion of directorate.
5. Conclusion:
The chance of utilization and sustainability of the OAA/M&E directorate is relatively high. Yet, as a little attention is paid to the improvement and expansion of M&E directorate, it may have put at risk the demand for long-term survival of M&E directorate within Office of Administrative Affairs. For OAA/M&E directorate, to move forward to a sustainable directorate within OAA adopting the expansion strategy and result-base M&E systems is a must. While a prerequisite legal framework to introduce the OAA/M&E directorate has been in place, the challenge is to have a well organized directorate having all necessary equipments, enough professional staff, expansion strategy and hence result-based M&E system. Nevertheless, the crucial challenge is the implementation of an expansion strategy and result-based M&E system in a highly bureaucratic environment which is not so easy but yet, it is not impossible.
Appendix 1 Current needs and areas of improvement:
In order to address current needs and challenges the OAA-M&E directorate needs to be improved. The main areas for improvement in the current situation could be listed as below:
• Efficient and effective hierarch ally structured and organized directorate, including all facilities for running day to day business.
• Availability of adequate professional and Sami-professional staff for completion of tasks properly, systematically and in/on time.
• Efficient and coordinate systems for data collection, analysis and exchange of data, such as- less duplicative data collection, reduction in unneeded data, scale in data collection etc.
• Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of directorate including planning, budgeting and resources use more efficiently and search of resources and links for further improvement and sustainability of directorate.
• Establishment of a transparent system that could alert staff in different situations such as; coming challenges, important news (changes in department, staff promotions, donations, etc)
Below is the proposed structure for current situation:
