Sonia Le Bay and Christiane Loquai (eds) Assessing decentralisation and local governance in West Africa Taking Stock of Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity of Local Actors Assessing decentralisation and local governance in West Africa ASSESSING DECENTRALISATION AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN WEST AFRICA Taking Stock of Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity of Local Actors Sonia Le Bay; Christiane Loquai Bamako: Communicances, 2008-271p. Registration of copyright: August 2008 ISBN 99952-58-06-4 ASSESSING DECENTRALISATION AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN WEST AFRICA Taking Stock of Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity of Local Actors Sonia Le Bay and Christiane Loquai (eds.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword 4 Introduction 6 PART I. THE CAPITALISATION PROCESS AND ITS RESULTS 8 Chapter 1: Methodology 10 1.1. The process of joint stocktaking, analysis and learning 10 1.2. The objectives and targets of the capitalisation process 10 1.3. How have experiences been capitalised?12 Chapter 2: The steps and products of the process 14 2.1. Step 1 – Identifying, documenting and analysing experiences 16 2.2. Step 2 – Organising a subregional seminar for exchange and learning 17 2.3. Step 3 – Publishing and disseminating the experiences and results 18 2.4. Step 4 – Networking and broadening exchanges and learning 18 Chapter 3: Developing the M&E capacity of local actors 20 3.1. What kinds of capacities need to be developed? 20 3.2. Why invest in developing local capacities for monitoring and evaluating decentralisation? 21 Chapter 4: The findings of the case studies: A synthesis 22 4.1. Developing the capacity to analyse and monitor local development at the municipal level 23 4.2. Self-evaluation tools for assessing local government performance 24 4.3. Strengthening citizens’ control and local stakeholders’ capacity to monitor the delivery of decentralised services 26 4.4. Opening external M&E systems to local perceptions 28 1 Chapter 5. How to assess decentralisation and local governance: 31 Taking stock of experiences with tools for strengthening the M&E capacities of local actors 5.1. Consistency, coordination and complementarity of M&E approaches and tools 31 5.2. Budget support and related M&E challenges 32 5.3. National policy changes and new M&E challenges: An example from Mali 35 5.4. Decentralisation, local governance and poverty reduction 37 PART II. THE CASE STUDIES Chapter 1. The context of decentralisation and local governance in West Africa 42 Chapter 2. Developing the capacity to analyse and monitor local development at the municipal level 44 2.1. Cameroon and Mali: Strategic planning and monitoring of municipal development 44 2.2. Niger: Planning and M&E in municipalities, focusing on poverty reduction 57 2.3. Ghana: Experiences with district-based poverty profiling, mapping and pro-poor planning as an M&E tool 74 2.4. Mali: Geographical information systems (GIS) for the development of rural municipalities 90 2.5. Mali: Municipalities in figures: needs and realities 103 Chapter 3. Self-evaluation tools for assessing local government performance 130 3.1. Mali: Assessment of local government performance, experiences with a self-evaluation tool 130 Chapter 4. Strengthening citizens’ control and local stakeholders’ capacity to monitor the delivery of decentralised services 157 4.1. Mali: Towards a basic health-sector information system for municipal actors (SIEC-S) 157 4.2. Benin: Public control in the education sector, pilot phase of the participatory local impact monitoring methodology (SILP) 174 Chapter 5. Opening external M&E systems to local perceptions 188 5.1. Mali: Participatory monitoring and evaluation as a means of empowering local government in the region of Mopti 188 5.2. Mali: Public perceptions as a barometer of local governance 204 5.3. Mali: Evaluating the impact of decentralisation 221 Conclusion: Lessons learned and challenges 233 2 ANNEXES 237 Annex I : Acronyms 238 Annex II : Bibliography 240 Annex III : Guide for the preparation of case studies 244 Annex IV : Brief biographies of case-study authors (in alphabetical order) 249 Annex V : Country overviews 253 - Benin 254 - Cameroon 258 - Ghana 261 - Mali 264 - Niger 268 3 FOREWORD Sonia Le Bay (SNV-Mali) Christiane Loquai (ECDPM) According to a Bambara adage, 'He who knows all will not die'. Today, is an evident desire, in many countries of the West African region which have launched decentralisation reforms since the 1990s, to try out new approaches and new methods of cooperation to build local monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity!1 By sharing with the readers some of the experiences and lessons learned from these new M&E approaches, this publication aims to make a modest contribution to the knowledge available on the subject. This publication is for all actors in development, working in the field of decentralisation and local governance, especially practitioners and policy makers working on issues connected with capacity building in the area of monitoring, evaluation and democratic control of local governance structures. The case study presented in this document has been prepared in the context of an exercise that aimed to document, analyse and learn from experiences with different approaches/methods and instruments for building the capacities of different actors in decentralisation and local governance, and in particular, the capacities of local government to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of these complex reform processes. This learning exercise started in Mali. It has been a joint initiative by the Réseau de Réflexion et d'Échanges sur le Développement Local (REDL,2 a Malian network of development organisations and programmes working in the field of decentralisation and local development), the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV-Mali), the Malian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Government (MATCL) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), an independent foundation based in Maastricht in the Netherlands, in cooperation with several development organisations working in West Africa. The purpose of this exercise has been to jointly map and document relevant experiences in the West African region and share 'good practice' and lessons learned. A total of 11 case studies from different countries of the West African region were prepared during this exercise, and a seminar held under the auspices of the MATCL in Bamako on 17 and 18 May 2006 provided a forum for a structured exchange of experiences. The facilitators of this joint documentation, analysis and learning exercise would like to thank all those who contributed to the process. In particular we thank the authors and members of the teams that prepared the case studies, the members of the Malian REDL network and the organisations working in other West African countries that have supported and co-financed the preparation of the different case studies. Through the generous support of these organisations and 1- Taken from the welcome speech given by Mr. Ibrahima Sylla, decentralisation advisor at the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Government (MATCL) of Mali, at the subregional seminar 'Building capacities for monitoring and evaluation of decentralisation and local governance in West Africa: exchange of experience and learning'. 2- See Annex I for a list of acronyms. For more details see http://www.snvmali.org/actus/redlinfo0606.pdf.The REDL members taking part in this learning exercise were SNV-Mali; the Programme d'Appui aux Collectivités Territoriales (PACT), a project in support of local government run by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ); Norwegian Church Aid (NCA); CARE International in Mali; the Programme d'Appui aux Acteurs de la Décentralisation (PAAD), a development programme of HELVETAS-Mali (the Swiss Association for International Cooperation); Solidarité, Union, Coopération (SUCO), a Canadian NGO; the Association of French Volunteers (AFVP); and the Programme 4 Gouvernance Partagée (PGP), a programme financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) these case studies are being published in both French and English and will also be included in a more comprehensive publication, bringing together all the case studies and the results of the regional seminar held in May 2006. We would also like to express our gratitude to Mr. Ibrahima Sylla, decentralisation advisor at the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Government of Mali, for his indefatigable support for the success of this joint initiative. Last but not least, they would like to thank the people who were involved in the language editing and translating of this document: Valerie Jones, Kathleen Sheridan, Tony Parr, Bianca Beks, David Harris, Josh Dillon, Claudia Backes and Annelies Vredeveldt. 5 INTRODUCTION In the context of the democratisation movements of the late 1980s, many African countries launched a new generation of decentralisation policies aimed to build or strengthen more democratic, participatory and accountable forms of governance. In the years since, these reform efforts have attracted substantial development assistance provided by the international community. Implementation of decentralisation programmes, The African governments involved in ‘democratic particularly the creation or strengthening of local decentralisation’4 also acknowledge the need to government, with elected councils, legal persona invest in national and local capacity to monitor and