An Assessment Of The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) Monitoring And Evaluation System

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to assess AECF’s M&E system. Specifically, it sought to assess whether AECF’s monitoring and Evaluation system meets the set standards and establish the strengths and weaknesses of the Monitoring and Evaluation system. The main sources of data were interviews with program staff and review of AECF documents. Descriptive statistics was the main method of data analysis. The overall score for the AECF M&E system was 75 percent which implies that the system is functional. The results show that some components scored very high while others score very low. The best performing component is Costed M&E Workplan with a score of 91 percent followed by Routine Program Monitoring with a score of 88 percent and Supervision and Data audit with a score of 85 percent. Other components had lower scores. For instance, Survey and Surveillance, had the lowest score of 53 percent followed by Organizational Structure with M&E functions that scored 61 percent and M&E Advocacy, Communication and Culture with a score of 63 percent. Therefore, components with the lowest scores need strengthening to be fully functional. The study identified the following as the major challenges; there are inadequate M&E staff at AECF including lack of M&E leadership, AECF does not have an online database therefore the systems are not automated, there are unclear reporting lines and the M&E budget is minimal to conduct M&E activities. Based on these findings, the study recommends that; AECF needs to resource the M&E department including hiring an M&E leadership and procure a Management Information system (MIS) that will help in automation of processes