Samuel [user:field_middlename] Boakye

Samuel Boakye

Vice President for Research and Innovations in Evaluation
International Center for Evaluation and Developmemt
United States of America

My contributions

  • How to Measure the Impact of Monitoring and Evaluation Work

    Discussion

    • Samuel Boakye

      Vice President for Research and Innovations in Evaluation International Center for Evaluation and Developmemt
      United States of America

      Dear all,

      This ICED newsletter below could be provide some relevant information to the on-going discussion submitted by Abubakar.

      Best regards

      Samuel

    • Samuel Boakye

      Vice President for Research and Innovations in Evaluation International Center for Evaluation and Developmemt
      United States of America

      Dear Abubakar,

      It is obvious from you discussion that your current M&E system is not functioning as designed. The challenges you mention are not unique to your country; I have found out in my recent work that in many African countries, existing national M&E systems face many challenges including:

      1. Difficulty in accessing project and program level data for quick decision-making,
      2. Lack of standardization in data generation resulting in data that is of poor quality and unreliable,
      3. Delays in submission of periodic evaluation reports by various sector agencies and ministries,
      4. Little or no support for real time monitoring and reporting, hence, delays in decision-making and remedial interventions,
      5. Existing national M&E system  not providing for adequate citizen participation,
      6. Capacity of M&E personnel at all levels.

      I also found that some sector ministries and agencies have their own M&E systems which, are specific to their needs and are not linked to the national M&E System therefore making it extremely difficult to compare and analyse national evaluation data.

      My proposed solution is for your country to strengthen the existing M&E System to ensure that it is effectively coordinated and efficiently managed by developing a comprehensive, functional and integrated national M&E System that covers all levels of governance (national, district, sub-district), institutions (including sector ministries), projects and programs implementations. This solution must be backed by a legislative instrument/directive to ensure active participation of all stakeholders including Government leaders (Parliamentarians, Ministers and others). Developing a comprehensive M&E system would entail developing a national M&E framework which would define the theory of change, results chain, indicators etc. etc.

      Let me know if you need further details

      Best regards,

      Samuel Boakye

      ICED

  • The issues facing global agriculture

    Discussion

    • Samuel Boakye

      Vice President for Research and Innovations in Evaluation International Center for Evaluation and Developmemt
      United States of America

      Dear Isha,

      'agriculture-based interventions' is a nebulous term whose assessment cannot be determined a priori. The issues you list, together with others, could serve as the underlying goals for agriculture-based interventions (design, implementation, evaluation and learning).

      However, evaluation results from such interventions will arguably vary within different contexts. There is therefore, a great deal of specificity in evaluating each agriculture-based intervention. If the issues you have listed are included in your Terms of Reference (TOR) for the evaluation, I agree you are obliged to adhere to the terms; you will not normally impose your views on what needs to be evaluated if you are hired as an external evaluator.

      Samuel Boakye

      ICED