Rationalization of Regional and Provincial/City Monitoring Systems

The NEDA Regional Office VI, in cooperation with the Decentralization Program-German Technical Cooperation (DP-GTZ) conducted a series of forum in the rationalization of regional and provincial/city monitoring systems. The technical assistance came about to address the problems in data generation for the Regional Development Report (RDR). Ideally, a good system of monitoring really captures how plan targets are being accomplished, including the indicators of assumptions used in the plan. As it is, the delay in the publication of the RDR is caused by late and incomplete submission of desired data on indicators. Key indicators under the Local Government Performance Management System (LGPMS) of DILG, and monitoring systems of oversight agencies like the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) of the Department of Finance, are useful for the assessment of the regional plan, but these are not timely available. The series of forum conducted provided the venue to come up with doable measures to make the existing monitoring systems more attuned towards efficient and effective assessment of regional and local plans.

The workshops were attended by representatives from local government units, regional line agencies and oversight agencies (NEDA, DILG, DBM and BLGF). The workshops were made possible through assistance from the Decentralization Project-German Technical Cooperation.

Workshop I was conducted on October 23-24, 2007 at Iloilo Grand Hotel, Iloilo City to review the relevance of existing monitoring systems to regional and local plans. A Bridging Workshop ensued on November 21, 2007 in order to take into account the lessons learned in Workshop I and linking it with the identification of doable M&E systems improvements in Workshop II, which was conducted on November 23-24, 2007 at Amigo Terrace Hotel, Iloilo City.

The latter workshops were attended by guests from the Asian Development Bank, namely Mr. Bruce Purdue and Ms. Therese Ng. Likewise present was Mr. Emmanuel J. Solis of DP-GTZ.

Lessons Learned:
The lessons learned from these three workshops are highlighted below. In general, all these learnings should serve as a big challenge to the participants. Premium should be placed on M&E as part of development goals so that we, in the planning business, will not only be balance but become good managers of development for results.

1. It is evident that the M&E aspect of the development cycle is generally weak. Planning, programming and implementation are done actively but M&E does not come as important as the others. There is a need to balance the elements of the cycle for development results to be achieved. With the increased knowledge and awareness related to M&E, it is hoped that the balance will be achieved;

2. The existing M&E systems in the region are primarily focused on project monitoring, thus the need to harmonize both plan monitoring and project monitoring to see the extent the benefits of the projects reach the community;

3. There is a need to generate timely & adequate information for indicators in M&E. It is equally important that the indicators should be relevant. The participants have reviewed the different sets of indicators and the LGU representatives have acquiesced to provide the needed data.

4. The importance of M&E as a tool & process for good governance as it equates with transparency & accountability is highlighted. M&E will play a great role towards achieving transparency and accountability. Good governance also means managing for development.

5. In the development cycle, M&E should lead to adjustments or should steer development towards what was initially planned so that in looking back, M&E is not an end in itself but should lead towards the next cycle of the planning process. As emphasized by Mr. Bruce Purdue of ADB, the indicators are not an end in itself.

6. Finally, there are various local initiatives that have been done in the region. In the case of Iloilo province, the M&E was linked with ODA. In order to enhance initiative, external sources need to be tapped. The NEDA and other national government agencies, ODA and British Embassy can be good sources of external sources. The British Embassy will be financing Iloilo’s initiatives given that Western Visayas is a priority region by the British Government. ADB’s Community of Practice can also be tapped through linking with the website. It is not just a source of ideas but also a good source of funds.


Recommendations:

1. Come up with League of Monitors by province with the Provincial Monitoring Office forming this organization. This was commended by Atty. Raul Anlocotan of NEDA, as he shared the idea based on his experience when he went to China. He shared that there is a school that solely focuses on evaluation. One of the agencies there is also named Evaluation Board. This board simply manages results.

2. National agencies should also present their M&E process so that a comparison between LGUs and national line agencies may be looked into. Because of the workshop, the national line agencies appreciate the way LGUs do their own M&E systems.

3. Publish learnings as well as the questions because they have become a rich source of information.

4. After the workshop, everybody is enjoined to enroll in the Community of Practice. Also, the LGUs as well as line agencies are encouraged to make a proposal to GTZ or ADB to finance an activity that would put importance on the M&E practices in the provincial and public expenditures managements systems.

5. Monitors should use the tools for evaluation like the 10 steps to management of development results.

6. Plan another workshop that would show outcome indicators to see whether or not LGUs have the same indicators. However, Mr. Altura commented that the workshop did not primarily focus on uniformity but rather harmony of indicators.