TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction

Monitoring & Evaluating Public Policies

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction Monitoring and evaluation: Two concepts that are closely related. Both are tools to inform decision-making and ensure accountability.

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction Monitoring is a tool for routinely checking progress on how a policy is being practically implemented. The establishment and adjustment of an adequate set of indicators to track results facilitates monitoring and should take place in the early part of the policy’s implementation.

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction Unlike monitoring, which is an ongoing process, evaluation is a time-bound exercise that attempts to assess objectively the relevance, performance and success of a completed phase of a programme and project.

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction

Costing and budgeting are an essential component of PRSPs. Costing refers to determining the resources needed to implement interventions, for example, time, labour and equipment. The total costs of several interventions and programmes are then calculated together to form a budget.

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction Suggested Dialogue Questions: In their own words, have a few people in your group describe what they see as the difference between monitoring and evaluation. Does anyone have any experience in monitoring a project? If so, share it with the group. If not, think of project and discuss how it could be monitored – i.e. what are some of the indicators that could be used to measure results? How could information on those indicators be collected? Brainstorm some ideas on how youth organizations could increase their involvement in monitoring public policies, either at the local or national level. What are some of the challenges faced? What are some of the missed opportunities?

TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction (Template slide – to be used to add additional material as needed).