Ghana Launches 2015 International Evaluation Year

The maiden celebration of the International Evaluation Year [EvalYear] 2015 has been launched in Accra.

As it was declared by the United Nations [UN], Ghana as a member country marked the international event amidst the lightening of the [Global] Evaluation Torch.

Prof. Stephen Adei, former Rector, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration [GIMPA], in his keynote address noted that a major constraint on national development has been weak standards, monitoring and evaluation in the country especially the latter.

He mentioned that there is very little else to write home with regard to the demand, supply and use of evaluation in development activities in the country and there is an urgent need to strengthen evaluation for better development results in Ghana.

According to Prof. Adei, without evaluation we may never appreciate the extent of the good work that is being done and how to do better or assess the irrelevance of some development interventions as well as how to do things differently in future.

He said the weak state of Monitoring and Evaluation [M&E] in Ghana is worsened by the way politics is conducted in Ghana with ruling governments interested in looking for the slightest and insignificant evidence to support โ€œbetter Ghana agendaโ€ and a vociferous opposition bent on proving that the better Ghana agenda is a mirage.

As a result, he indicated that even today statistics generated by the Ghana Statistical Authority (GSA) such as the rate of inflation, GDP growth rate is not believed by a significant proportion of Ghanaians including the elite and intellectuals.

He, therefore, call for the establishment of a Policy Evaluation Oversight Unit at the Presidency while stressing the need to build the capacity of evaluators and make evaluation an integral part of governance.

Prof. Adei added that adequate resources must be put into evaluations and not to assume that coupling M&E will ensure that, the NDPC estimates that less than 3% of the overall spending on M&E go into evaluation.

The Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said we ought to develop systems, procedures, policies and programmes, legislations and institutions that could help us report on how much progress has been made towards the attainment of this long term national vision.

He officially launched the EvalYear 2015 adding that parliament will further collaborate with NDPC to rigorously promote the demand and use of evaluation in policy-making.

The Director General of the National Development Planning Commission [NDPC], Dr. Nii Moi Thompson has significantly ensured that the EvalYear 2015 opens the opportunity for Ghana to take priority step in promoting the demand and use of evaluation in policy-making.

The event was organised by the Ghana Monitoring & Evaluation Forum [GMEF] in conjunction with NDPC, UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] under the theme, โ€œStrengthening Evaluation for Better Development Results in Ghana.โ€

Mrs. Dede Bedu-Addo, Coordinator of the Ghana Monitoring and Evaluation Forum [GMEF] said Ghana must adopt the full practice of dialogue and citizens participation towards the development of a national evaluation policy.

By Abubakari Seidu Ajarfor, [emailย protected]


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