The Presidency
The presidency has published the third draft of the national evaluation policy framework on its website for comment.
Comment is invited until 30 September 2011.
The draft was drawn up within the performance monitoring and evaluation department.
In the foreword, reference is made to the green paper on improving government performance. It was tabled in Parliament in 2009.
The green paper calls for higher levels of efficiency in service delivery. Wasteful and unproductive expenditure has to be drastically reduced.
“Genuine change based on critical self-reflection is required. That means changes in how we behave, not just superficial adjustments to existing processes, systems and formats”.
The minister, Collins Chabane, is quoted as saying that the policy framework provides the “next essential part of the jigsaw, setting out the basis for a government-wide evaluation system to be applied across the public sector, but initially focusing on our priority areas”.
The policy framework is designed to identify shortfalls in the way government operates in certain areas and come up with solutions to enhance performance.
The framework also aims to:
• Use evidence obtained from evaluations
• Provide a common language and minimum standards
• Promote the use of findings
• Place specific focus on the public sector
• Put in place clear roles and responsibilities
All large and strategic programmes are to be evaluated on a periodic basis as opposed to the current practice of undertaking evaluation in a sporadic manner.
According to the document, a large part of South Africa’s planning system is “unregulated and has developed in an ad hoc basis”. The overall quality of plans is also brought into question.
A clear link must also be created between evaluation and planning, policy making and budgeting.
Effective monitoring and evaluation can only take place if minimum standards for planning are in place.
In the framework, evaluation is defined as “the systematic collection and objective analysis of evidence on public policies, programmes, projects, functions and organizations to assess issues such as relevance, performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and value for money, and recommend ways forward”.
Evaluation will focus on:
• Policies
• Sector and cross-sectoral plans
• Programmes
• Projects
The framework also calls for the development of three year and annual national and provincial evaluation plans.
All evaluations are to be made public.
It is envisaged that parliamentary committees will play a key role in this regard.
Recommendations are to be contained within the evaluations. It will be expected of departments to produce plans to address the recommendations.
The framework indicates that the department and the offices of the premiers will provide technical support and quality control for evaluations.
Training courses will also be provided by Palama and tertiary institutions to build evaluation capacity in South Africa.
The draft framework can be viewed at www.thepresidency.gov.za.
Sabinet Cape Town Office
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