Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System for the Government of Cape Verde Synergy International Systems, Inc.

Objectives The Monitoring and Evaluation System will address the information needs of the Government of Cape Verde related to project progress monitoring and impact analysis. The system will address the questions: What? Where? How? Why? and support the information flows through the governmental hierarchy (both vertically and horizontally). In order to perform this task M&E will allow users: To input project data at the level of implementation and route it from bottom to top through the relevant hierarchy To regularly monitor the implementation progress by project milestones To define, plan, input, and monitor project outputs, including financial and time indicators To provide a set of reporting and analytical tools to conduct comparative analysis of project indicators in order to identify delays, problems and potential risks, as well as their impact on project implementation. To define and capture outcome and impact indicators To evaluate the overall impact of any particular project by making assumptions and defining proxy indicators

Project Key Phases The M&E MIS has been financed by the Millennium Challenge Foundation/Cape Verde and is implemented in technical cooperation with the Department General of Planning/ Ministry of Finance and the national IT Agency (NOSI). October 2008 – Feasibility Study November Approval of the first model of M&E MIS November 2008 – January 2009 Development of M&E MIS January 2009 – February Visit of 3 NOSI IT experts to Synergy/Armenia March 2009 – April 2009 – Client review of M&E MIS May 2009 – Approval of the second model of M&E MIS June 2009 – July Development of M&E MIS August 2009 – September Client review of M&E MIS November Integration with SIGOF December 2009 – User Training / Project finalization

At the time we started… The Government of Cape Verde had been implementing performance-based project execution since 2004, which assures that payment to implementers/contractors is made only upon successful completion of an activity. Programs and sub-programs are incorporated into the national framework (DERCP). They have one or several impact and outcome indicators associated with them. All the government operations are implemented as projects (investment or functional). The formulation of these projects is done in relation to national programs and sub-programs. One project should be linked only to one sub-program, and several projects might be implemented to fulfill a single goal. Depending on the scale of the project, it may be divided into one or several contracts or activities. Each contract, in turn, is divided into several milestones. Milestones are listed in the project document along with a set of predefined outputs. There is some diversity among the number of outputs per project. The nature of output indicators varies among the Ministries.

At the time we started … The Government of Cape Verde had established a process for the collection of project outputs (both physical and financial). The project financial indicators were being captured through SIGOF The project outputs were being submitted and kept mostly in non-electronic format. The physical progress of the project was reported by project managers and/or contractors at each milestone. The reported progress was verified by audits conducted at project completion. There was no precise strategy for implementing corrective actions for projects facing problems.

M&E MIS First review The pilot execution of the system identified two main shortcomings: Limitations of human capacity, e.g. lack of the experts in each sector who are able to define the chain of proxy indicators and draw conclusions Additional costs for collecting proxy indicators As result, the model was changed to a simpler one.

National Framework The National Framework is the hierarchy of national goals and priorities defined during budget planning. At the current stage it is implemented as a three level hierarchy. Each level is characterized by: Name Strategy Description Validity period (start and end dates) Ranking of Priority Responsible Unit Impact Statement The success of a particular framework element is measured through the set of related outcome indicators. The national programs/sub-programs and sub-sub-programs are implemented through a set of related projects and activities.

Projects All the government activities related to development and functional budgets are defined as projects. During the budget preparation cycle projects requests are registered in SIGOF. Once the budget is approved, projects become a subject for monitoring and evaluation. The project object consists of the following: General Information Organizations & Contacts Financial Information Monitoring & Results Notes & Attachments The financial data is collected through SIGOF during budget execution. Physical progress data is captured directly through the data entry facilities of the M&E MIS.

Indicators The proposed model operates with outcome and output indicators. The output indicators are used to measure the project outputs and do not require development of a complex profile. The outcome indicator, which is used to measure the outcomes of the implementation of the national framework requires definition of a proper methodology for data collection and evaluation. The Indicator object of the M&E MIS has the following properties: Name Description Responsible Organization Methodology for data collection and evaluation Cost of data collection Sets of progress data Means of verification

Reporting The information flows within the Government follow a strong bottom-to-top concept. There is no precise procedure for performing a post implementation analysis of the project impact. There is no well defined and standardized reporting institution implemented in the line ministries. Most of the reports are generated on request and contain only financial data. Project outcomes are used only for payment release authorization, which significantly limits their utilization in terms of analysis. The standard list of sector-wise impact and outcome indicators is being developed by DGP at MOF but has not yet been approved. The national indicators are reported on an annual basis. NSI maintains a list of national output and outcome indicators and is trying to develop a database on the indicator metadata.

Project Monitoring In addition to planned values, the M&E MIS captures data on actual achievements. This allows users to monitor projects’ progress among all three dimensions: Outputs Cost Time Per each dimension, the project is ranked according to a comparison of the original estimates and actual values. The reporting engine of the M&E system allows users to search and sort the projects according to this ranking. This allows project managers and decision makers to identify the projects requiring immediate attention and corrective actions. The same information on project outputs and timeframes should be used for the performance based funds release.

Project Monitoring

Progress Evaluation The evaluation of budget implementation is done on the level of individual projects as well as on the level of programs, sub-programs and sub-sub- programs. On the level of the project, evaluation is done based on the results of an audit. All identified outcomes are registered in the Project Outcomes, Success Story, and Factors Contributing to Project Sustainability fields. It is assumed that Program success is defined as a combination of the successful implementation of the related projects and “hitting the target” for the associated impact indicators.

Integration with SIGOF Logical Objects Project structure & data including financial, physical and time indicators Classifier system Metadata on indicators The data for outcome and impact indicators Registered users list GIS data Attachments/External files

Integration with SIGOF System Level Utilizes NOSI’s SAN and backup networks MS Exchange server is used for notification delivery purposes DBMS Level The analytical part of the system is nested on the SIGOF database scheme through materialized views The Data Entry retrieves data by using SIGOF Oracle-based functions Uses the local workstation cookie and Session ID to resolve the User ID and retrieve user permissions User Interface Level Shared working space while keeping page header. Frame based IU URL based call with passing Session ID Defines the place for Help and Language selection

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