Parliamentary Capacity Building Workshop, 29-31 May 2025, Cape Town
Twende Mbele in collaboration with DPME, South Africa, organised a 3-day capacity building workshop to bolster and augment existing M&E capacities among Members of Parliament (MPs) and parliamentary researcher departments of Twende Mbele partner countries. This workshop aims to foster champions and cultivate an appreciation of the value of M&E evidence in informing public-sector planning, policymaking, and budgeting. The forum is part of Twende’s 2024-2026 approved work plan aimed at enhancing and advancing parliamentary oversight leveraging M&E. The interactive event was co-facilitated in English and French.
PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP
The purpose of the 3-day capacity building workshop was to build and augment existing M&E capacities among Members of Parliament (MPs) and Parliament Researchers of Twende Mbele member countries: Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, South Africa and Uganda. This capacity building workshop aimed to foster champions and cultivate an appreciation of the value of M&E information in informing public sector planning, policymaking, budgeting and implementation processes. The workshop continued the Twende Mbele’s mission of improving oversight through M&E. The workshop was co-facilitated in English and French, and was interactive, bridging the gap between M&E theory and its practical application in the oversight functions of parliament.
The aim of the capacity building and peer-learning by Parliamentarians workshop was to:
- strengthen the demand for and use of evaluations among parliamentarians and parliamentary support staff.
- Enhance the capacities of parliamentarians and parliamentary support staff in M&E evidence production and use;
- Link evaluation practices to the oversight roles of parliamentarians;
- Integrate evaluation into planning and budget processes of parliament.
The three-day training covered the following thematic areas.
- The importance of M&E and building a culture of using evidence in oversight and accountability
- Evidence-based policy-making cycle and Medium-Term Development Plan
- Integrating evidence in planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes
- The importance of theory of change in measuring outputs, outcomes and impact, assumptions and risks in implementation of policy plans, strategies and programme
- The role of research and sources of empirical evidence in M&E processes
- How to use credible, reliable sources of data in problem diagnosis and decision-making
- Developing actionable recommendations and improvement plans
- Collaboration between parliamentary committees and key stakeholders
The training was a success and indeed assisted members of parliament to gain the required skills. Thus, the overwhelming majority (92.3%) of respondents to the post-training survey rated the workshop as very pertinent to them/their work. Further, most respondents found the training content to be timely and informative (76.9%), while almost everyone (92.3%) highlighted the need for a follow-up training. This is indicative of their perceived relevance of the training, curiosity to deepen their knowledge and or skill in evidence-use for parliamentary oversight, cry for additional support to fully grasp issues / techniques discussed and / or brought to their attention for the first time. It also speaks to the trust and confidence in the trainers’ individual and collective expertise and delivery styles.
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