Using M&E Evidence in Planning and Budgeting in South Africa

Monitoring and evaluation are management processes/tools that provide public sector institutions with insightful information about the performance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of policies, programmes and projects. M&E helps to provide an evidence base for public resource allocation decisions and identify how challenges in implementation should be addressed and successes replicated. The value of M&E is demonstrated when it is used to design development interventions which enable public sector institutions to learn and become more effective, thereby increasing the likelihood of development interventions achieving positive outcomes or, at least, reducing the likelihood of resources being invested in interventions that cause harm or make no difference in people’s lives. Unless governments use the performance data and evaluation evidence they generate to shape plans and to decide where resources are allocated, the processes themselves have no inherent value. The value of M&E lies in its use by public management institutions and society to improve governance and achieve accountability, and by enabling learning and improvements to take place in policies and programmes.