Diagnostic Study of the Collaboration Between the State and Civil Society Organisation (CSO)

In order to strengthen national Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems for better governance in Africa, the Twende Mbele program has prioritised strengthening collaboration between governments and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in its partner countries. CSOs can collaborate with governments in the conduct of 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 (NEP) defined the role and place of civil society in the national evaluation system. The NEP stipulates that civil society organisations must be involved in the conduct of evaluations. 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.

In many African countries, we see 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.

It is within this framework that Twende Mbele and CLEAR AA developed the project Strengthening the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in National Evaluation Systems.  In 2018, Twende Mbele partner countries undertook diagnostics of the CSO landscape and began piloting projects to strengthen collaboration. This brief represents a summary of the results of an initial scoping study on the collaboration between CSOs and the Government in Benin, which will lead to the design of a pilot project aim at both building capacity for collaboration and a sustainable framework for collaboration in the NES.