Gossip

Hi to new and returning visitors to MandE NEWS - from Rick Davies, Editor, MandE NEWS

This is a new step forward by Mande NEWS. I hope by starting up this Blog I might be able to generate some more content for Mande NEWS, on a more continuous basis. This will probably be more ad hoc and more from the hip, so some it will probably end up being deleted, later on in the cold light of day. Anyhow, here goes

Right now I am in XXXX, YYYY, working on monitoring and evaluation of the country's PRS (Poverty Reduction Strategy) Look here for Google findings on PRSPs http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=prsp+poverty+reduction+strategy+paper&btnG=Search

When milestones become millstones: The Annual Progress Report (APR) on the implementation of the PRS is due shortly. The relevant government department is working hard to get it out on time. In the process the end purposes of such an APR are being lost sight of. Getting content is the main concern. Readibility will be a secondary concern, if there is time. Identifying the impact of the APR? Well, there has not yet been time to look at what happened with the last APR yet.

Mission creep at multiple levels in all directions: Donor and other comments are now coming in on the earliest draft of the APR. Could you explain x a bit more...? Why do you have no information on y...?

And this is response to an APR that is already try to track progress relative to indicators not just on the original PRS but at least four other policy documents that have come into the picture since the PRS was written. These include:
- a summary revision created by the government when it came into power
- the Poverty Reduction Support Credit, a WB device
- Multi-Donor Budget Support policy document
- HIPC triggers
- Milleniuum Development Goals (okay, they were there before the PRS)

Needed?: Some continual and public mapping of how the various poverty related (govenment and donor) policies relate to each other (or not), in terms of overlapping indicators and objectives. Both existing and planned policies.

Postcript: 6 hours later, my laptop hard drive leaves this world. The second in 18 months. I will not be buying another HP laptop! Fortunately I have been backing up reasonably often, and I am carrying two memory sticks (much recommended)
from "Rick on the Road" at http://mandenews.blogspot.com/

More: continued here

Question: How do you assess a country’s ownership of a PRSP?
Answer: Bit by bit. There have been plenty of questions raised about the extent to which PRSP’s are really owned by the government of the country they refer to. (See Google search on ownership of PRSPs). But how do you assess whether a PRSP has country ownership? Well, maybe the way the question is asked could make a difference. One way is to ask who owns what parts of a PRSP. Rather than asking whether the whole document is owned by the whole government. In XXXX there are some PRSP objectives and associated indicators that could easily be adopted and owned by specific sections of government. For example, those relating to education or health, or macro-economic management. Okay, then how would you recognise when sections of government had taken ownership of specific objectives like these? Beyond simply saying so, which may not mean too much, these sections of government might actually collect and make information available about the associated progress indicators. Even stronger ownership might be associated with a detailed analysis of that data, as well as its collection and dissemination. In other words, the section of government would be investing its resources into M&E of their objective, and actually paying a cost in order to enable achievement of that objective. Back in country XXXX, the recently produced Annual Progress Report does not show any signs of any sections of government visibly owning specific sections of the PRSP. Nor is it clear who has been able to provide what information relating to PRSP indicators. In fact there has been an apparent unwillingness to explicitly state what info! rmation has not been made available by whom. The scale of lack of ownership has effectively been withheld from view. from "Rick on the Road" at http://mandenews.blogspot.com/

Evidence that the world is getting better
...a new approach to monitoring and evaluation;-)I have recently been reviewing the language we use, in the world of development aid, and come to conclusion that there is an accumulating body of evidence that the world is getting better.Here are some examples of changes I have noticed. If you have noticed other similar changes, please post them as Comments below.In the past we only had projects, now we have programmesIn the past we had plans, but now we have strategiesIn the past we did research, but now we do analytic workIn the past we just did monitoring and evaluation, but now we do management for development results (MDR)In the past we were concerned about coordination, but now we are concerned about harmonisationIn the past we only wanted things to work but now we expect them to be fit-for-purposeIn the past we only had interests, but now we have passionsIn the past we had problems, but now we only have issuesIn the past we only had news, but now we have breaking newsIn the past we were just donors, but now we are development partnersIn the past we were just NGOs, but now we are Civil Society Organisationsfrom "Rick on the Road" at http://mandenews.blogspot.com/