Diagnostic Study of Collaboration Between the State and Civil Society Organization (CSOs) in the Field of Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies – Final Report

In order to strengthen national Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems for better governance in Africa, the Twende Mbele program has focused on strengthening collaboration between governments and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in its partner countries. Indeed, CSOs conduct alternative evaluations, participate in the development and implementation of policies and programs and have information systems that generate evidence that is useful for decision-making and governance.

In Benin, the National Evaluation Policy (PNE) defined the role and place of civil society in the national evaluation system. The NEP stipulates that civil society organizations must be involved in the conduct of evaluations and participate in their conduct. They must be consulted during the process and contribute to the reliability of the evaluation work through their knowledge and expertise in the fields concerned. They will be chosen on the basis of their representativeness and their importance in the sectors concerned and will each be called upon to intervene as far as it is concerned within the limit of the level of participation retained for the circumstance.

More generally, in many African countries, we can observe that CSOs play a crucial role in improving the production and use of evaluation data. Therefore, a framework for sharing and learning between governments and CSOs should make it possible to strengthen the implementation, sustainability and impact of national evaluation systems (NES), thus contributing to the achievement of one of the main objectives of Twende Mbele.