Assessment of the Monitoring and Evaluation System for the National Council for Population and Development

Abstract

An M&E system refers to all indicators, tools and processes that an organization uses to measure if a program has been implemented according to the plan (Monitoring) and producing the desired result (Evaluation). An assessment of an M&E Systems is an important exercise that is aimed at identifying strengths and weaknesses in the system, recommend actions to maintain its strengths and improve on its weaknesses (WHO, 2009). Most of the M&E System assessments reviewed adopted the 12 components that were interrelated and which are divided into three categories; People, Partnerships and Planning, Data and Information, and information use as developed by world bank and adopted by UNAIDS (2008). The purpose of this study was to assess the capacity of NCPD’s M&E system to meet performance objectives, identify gaps, and determine appropriate interventions. The study employed a descriptive case study design to assess the M&E Systems of NCPD and utilized a purposive sampling approach. The MECAT tool was used for data collection and analysis. The results revealed that NCPD had a fairly good M&E system which had an average score of 7.5 out of 10. Nine out of 12 capacities scored more than 8 points out of 10 with organizational structure being the strongest at 9 out of 10 points. However, human capacity for M&E which had an average scores of 2.4 out of 10 and M&E partnership and governance with a score of 3.9 out of 10 are the weakest. It is therefore recommended that NCPD should employ strengthening measures on human capacity and partnerships. Additionally, future assessment should employ all tools available in MECAT so as to achieve in-depth results.