RE: Peut-on se contenter de l'évaluation seule pour s'assurer de l'atteinte des ODD? | Eval Forward

Dear Mustapha,

Thank you for your post, which brings up many important topics indeed!

To only take-up a few, I would start by loudly asserting the view that monitoring and evaluating are by no means mutually exclusive and unquestionably complementary.

It may be that Evaluation has developed well as a practice, and more so than its sister function Monitoring. Still, a study we have done (on which we recently shared preliminary results here https://www.evalforward.org/blog/evaluation-agriculture ) did show that in many developing countries, evaluations are done mostly when supported by a dedicated external funding: an indication that the bigger sister is not yet that sustainably established… 

Your post still does raise a big question which is a concern to me too: why has the Monitoring function not yet been the subject of the same donor interest; why are monitoring systems not a number one requirement of all donors, considering how essential it is as a tool to learn from past actions and timely improve future ones? As our study also revealed, before promoting evaluation, countries need to establish Results Based Management, which starts, even before monitoring, with planning for results. 

It is a fact that in many institutions, from national to international levels, monitoring is still heavily underrated and underinvested. Maybe one way would be to start by identifying who has a stake in ensuring the ‘M’ fulfils its function of identifying what works and does not, why and under what circumstances? In this respect, we evaluators could take a role in supporting the emergence of this function within our respective spheres of influence; putting aside our sacred independence cap for a while… Would other evaluators agree?

All the best to all,

Aurelie