Members of Ghana Monitoring and Evaluation need adequate capacity building

Accra, Dec 11, GNA –
Mr Kwabena Agyei Boakye, Chief Director of the Ministry of Monitoring and
Evaluation has called for frequent capacity building for members of the Ghana
Monitoring and Evaluation Forum(GMEF) to sharpen their skills to take up both
domestic and international projects.

He also appealed to
them to cluster their members into various areas such as; Health, Education,
Infrastructure, Agriculture among others to become handy for prospective
clients.

Mr Boakye made this
call during a three-day annual conference of GMEF in Accra on the theme; “Over
a decade of promoting M&E in Ghana: Achievements, challenges and
prospects.”

The GMEF was
established in 2008 as a network of public spirited individuals, who seek to
strengthen policy, programme and project delivery in Ghana, through the
promotion of open dialogue around monitoring and evaluation issues to influence
development opportunities.

Its mission is to
strengthen efficiency and effectiveness in the conduct of M&E information
for public sector goals.

The forum also
facilitates policy review and planning processes and enhances public sector
management and decision making, improves accountability and transparency in the
utilization of public resources.

The conference
attracted over 50 participants who would undertake training programmes in their
area within the three days.

Mr Boakye said
Monitoring and Evaluation was a dynamic environment that needed sufficient
skills and constant upgrading to be able to handle the issues at stake and
called on the members to indulge in more training programmes to reach the
height of the profession.

He said Ghana was
moving higher in terms of M&E, but added that tools for making good reports
and funding were crucial in attaining greater heights and urged the management
to identify the training needs of its members and act accordingly.

He appealed to the
younger ones to take their time in acquiring adequate skills and knowledge to
become marketable, rather than rushing to acquire wealth at their early ages.

Madam Dede Bedu-Addo,
Coordinator of GMEF said since their establishment, they were able to provide
capacity building to both private and public sector organisations, including;
the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, PPMED.

She said they also
engaged a lot of Development Partners and was having cordial relations with
UNICEF that had been their major partner.

She gave the
assurance that the GMEF would soon come out with a policy that would leverage
their partnership with government Agencies, private sector and Civil Society
Organisations.

Topics  such as; Transforming Data for new insights
in M&E data analysis/visualization with tableau, Ethical consideration in
the ownership and rights over evaluation data in Ghana among others would be
treated.

She however
mentioned funding and commited available leaders as their major challenges that
they were working around the clock to change.

GNA