Annual Report 2018 - 2019
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Annual Report 2018 - 2019 July 2019 CONTENT ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................... iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. iv I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Background on APNODE ................................................................................................................................ 1 II. KEY ACTIVITIES IN 2018-2019 ................................................................................. 2 2.1. Meetings of the Executive Committee ............................................................................................................. 2 2.2. APNODE Strategic Plan 2017-2020 and Work Plan 2018-2020 .......................................................... 3 2.3. Expanding the Network ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2.4. Cementing the Network: APNODE National Chapters .............................................................................. 4 2.5. Knowledge Sharing & Peer Learning ............................................................................................................... 5 2.6. Communication ......................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.7. Capacity Development ........................................................................................................................................... 8 2.8. Resource Mobilization ........................................................................................................................................... 9 III. FINANCIAL SUMMARY ............................................................................................ 10 ii ACRONYMS ACEPA The African Centre of Parliamentary Affairs AfDB African Development Bank AFIDEP African Institute for Development Policy AfrEA African Evaluation Association AGM Annual General Meeting APNODE African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation APNODE-CI Ivorian APNODE National Chapter CLEAR-AA Center for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa CLEAR-FA Center for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Francophone Africa EALA East African Legislative Assembly EC APNODE Executive Committee ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States E4D USAID’s Evidence For Development Program GIMPA Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration GPFE Global Parliamentarians Forum on Evaluation IDEV Independent Development Evaluation MP Member of Parliament PAP Pan African Parliament RFE Réseau Francophone pour l’Evaluation TanEA Tanzania Evaluation Association UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNDP United Nations Development Programme UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women VNRs Voluntary National Reviews iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Annual Report covers the period August 2018-July 2019, from the fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of APNODE to its fifth AGM. The Report seeks to highlight initiatives and engagements undertaken over the 2018-19 operational year, mapping-out challenges, progress, and success stories. Following a brief introduction, subsequent sections of the report are dedicated to the Network’s activities, engagements, and partnerships established. The narrative is presented in line with the thematic focal areas of APNODE’s Strategic Plan, namely, network expansion, knowledge sharing, communication, capacity development, and resource mobilization. Over the period under review, the Network engaged in a number of knowledge sharing and training events, all aimed at enhancing members’ capacity as well as raising its visibility. The Network further sought to entrench its relevance by actively engaging in a number of global and regional dialogue forums, as well as partnering with other stakeholders to drive the agenda for an enhanced use of evaluation knowledge across the continent. As a result, members attended and participated in events in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Kampala, Uganda, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Skills and competencies of APNODE members and other parliamentarians in evaluation were also strengthened over the year. Participation by members in events in Colombo, Kampala, and Cote d’Ivoire resulted in improving the capacity of approximately forty (40) parliamentarians and parliamentary support staff. APNODE’s 4th Annual General Meeting, held in Libreville, Gabon, attracted over seventy-five participants from across the continent, including a number of first time attendees from countries such as Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Guinea, Malawi, and South Sudan. APNODE further collaborated with the Center for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) on its ‘Regional Strategy Validation Workshop’, which sought to explore ways to strengthen regional collaboration with CLEAR-AA’s strategic partners working to support the supply, demand, and utilization of evaluative evidence. As part of the Network’s sensitization efforts, the Chairperson of APNODE, Senator Roger Mbassa Ndine, addressed the ECOWAS Parliament in December 2018. His presentation to the Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament focused on sensitizing the Parliament about the Network's objectives, mission, achievements and institutional structure. The Vice-Chair of APNODE, Hon. Evelyn Mpagi-Kaabule, also represented the Network at a multi-stakeholder workshop in December 2018 on the theme "Towards Evidence-Based SDG and Agenda 2063 Reporting: Strengthening National Evaluation Capacities for the Africa We Want" in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations, UNECA, UNICEF and the African Union. APNODE members also participated in the 9th biennial conference of the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in March 2019. APNODE members participated in numerous sessions as panelists, session Chairs, etc., coupled with invaluable contributions from the floor. This demonstrated the value and central role played by the parliamentarians in driving the demand for, and utilization of evaluation knowledge for effective oversight. APNODE continued its collaboration with CLEAR-AA and Twende Mbele on parliamentary capacity development, enabling parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers from across the continent to dialogue on key issues pertaining to the use of evaluation as evidence to enhance oversight. The associated peer-learning, knowledge and experience sharing yielded valuable fit- for-purpose and nuanced approaches to aid parliaments in their daily work. iv Cognizant of the African proverb, “If you want to travel fast, you go alone; but if you want to travel far, you go with others”, the year in review saw APNODE strengthening its existing partnerships with CLEAR, African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), UNICEF, UN-Women, Réseau Francophone pour l’Evaluation (RFE), EvalPartners, and Twende Mbele, even as it forged newer links with the likes of the Global Parliamentarians Forum on Evaluation (GPFE), Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), and USAID’s Evidence For Development (E4D) West Africa Program. The strategy is to improve the Network’s visibility while ensuring that its relevance at the country, regional, continental and global levels is recognized. Despite these achievements, the Network still faced some challenges. Implementation of the APNODE work plan was limited due to lack of resources. Similarly, APNODE’s membership continues to fluctuate as members struggle to fulfill their membership payment obligations. The pace of securing membership of more national and regional parliaments has been slow, however, some headways is being made. Specifically, discussions with the ECOWAS Parliament delegation attending the 9th biennial AfrEA Conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in March 2019, resulted in a commitment by the Regional Parliament to join APNODE. Efforts are also ongoing to secure the membership of other Regional Parliaments, the Pan African Parliament (PAP), and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). v I. INTRODUCTION This Annual Report covers the period August 2018-July 2019. The Report is structured into three main sections – Introduction, Key Activities, and the Financial Summary. 1.1. Background on APNODE Initiated by African parliamentarians in March 2014 at the AfrEA Conference held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE) was established based on the recognition of the importance of evaluation in national decision-making and the crucial role of parliamentarians and parliaments in ensuring that evaluation evidence is used for strengthening decision-making, with a view to greater development effectiveness and inclusive growth. APNODE was formalized and operationalized at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the headquarters of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in July 2015. APNODE’s objective is to provide a forum for parliamentarians and parliaments in Africa to make use of, and advocate for, development evaluation in order to promote development effectiveness and inclusive growth on the African continent. To this