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Evaluating the national evaluation system in South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?
Evaluation Five years into implementing the NES, DPME started an evaluation of the entire system. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess whether implementation of the NES since 2011/12 is having an impact on the programmes and policies evaluated, the departments involved and other key stakeholders; and to de…
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Evaluating the national evaluation system in South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?
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http://www.aejonline.org Open AccessAfrican Evaluation Journal
ISSN: (Online) 2306-5133, (Print) 2310-4988
Page 1 of 11 Original ResearchRead online:
Scan this QR
code with your
smart phone or
mobile device
to read online.
Authors:
Ian Goldman1,2
Carol N. Deliwe3
Stephen Taylor3
Zeenat Ishmail4
Laila Smith2
Thokozile Masangu5
Christopher Adams6
Gillian Wilson7
Dugan Fraser2
Annette Griessel8
Cara Waller9
Siphesihle Dumisa1
Alyna Wyatt10
Jamie Robertsen10
Affiliations:
1Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation
(DPME), Pretoria,
South Africa
2Centre for Learning on
Evaluation and Results,
Anglophone Africa,
Johannesburg, South Africa
3Department of Basic
Education, Pretoria,
South Africa
4Strategic Management
Information, Western Cape
Provincial Government,
Cape Town, South Africa
5Evaluation and Research,
Department of Rural
Development and Land
Reform, Pretoria,
South Africa
6Provincial Budget Analysis,
Intergovernmental Relations,
National Treasury, Pretoria,
South Africa
7National Treasury, Pretoria,
South Africa
Background: South Africa has pioneered national evaluation systems (NESs) along with
Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Uganda and Benin. South Africa’s National Evaluation
Policy Framework (NEPF) was approved by Cabinet in November 2011. An evaluation of the
NES started in September 2016.
Objectives: The purpose of the evaluation was to assess whether the NES had had an impact
on the programmes and policies evaluated, the departments involved and other key
stakeholders; and to determine how the system needs to be strengthened.
Method: The evaluation used a theory-based approach, including international benchmarking,
five national and four provincial case studies, 112 key informant interviews, a survey with 86
responses and a cost-benefit analysis of a sample of evaluations.
Results: Since 2011, 67 national evaluations have been completed or are underway within
the NES, covering over $10 billion of government expenditure. Seven of South Africa’s
nine provinces have provincial evaluation plans and 68 of 155 national and provincial
departments have departmental evaluation plans. Hence, the system has spread widely
but there are issues of quality and the time it takes to do evaluations. It was difficult to
assess use but from the case studies it did appear that instrumental and process use were
widespread. There appears to be a high return on evaluations of between R7 and R10 per
rand invested.
Conclusion: The NES evaluation recommendations on strengthening the system ranged from
legislation to strengthen the mandate, greater resources for the NES, strengthening capacity
development, communication and the tracking of use.
Keywords: evaluation; national evaluation system; evaluation system; South Africa; cost-
effectiveness; M&E, evaluation capacity development; institutionalisation; evaluation use;
evidence use.
Evaluation2 – Evaluating the national evaluation system in
South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?
Read online:
Scan this QR
code with your
smart phone or
mobile device
to read online.
8Policy, Stakeholder Coordination and Knowledge Management, Department of Women, Pretoria, South Africa
9Twende Mbele – an African M&E government partnership, Johannesburg, South Africa
10Evaluation for Development, Genesis Analytics, Johannesburg, South Africa
Corresponding author: Ian Goldman, ian.goldman@wits.ac.za
Dates: Received: 03 Apr. 2019 | Accepted: 15 May 2019 | Published: 28 Aug. 2019
How to cite this article: Goldman, I., Deliwe, C.N., Taylor, S., Ishmail, Z., Smith, L., Masangu, T. et al., 2019, ‘Evaluation2 – Evaluating the
national evaluation system in South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?’, African Evaluation Journal 7(1), a400. https://
doi.org/10.4102/aej.v7i1.400
Copyright: © 2019. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Introduction
The South African Cabinet approved a Government-Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System in
November 2007. The three domains included were programme performance information, socio-
economic and demographic statistics and evaluation. The first two frameworks were produced in
2007 by National Treasury and Statistics South Africa, respectively. The Department of Performance
(later Planning), Monitoring & Evaluation (DPME) was established in the Presidency in South
Africa in January 2010. In November 2011, Cabinet adopted a National Evaluation Policy
Framework (NEPF) (DPME 2011) providing the last of these three domains. An Evaluation and
Research Unit (ERU) was established in DPME in September 2011 to operationalise the National
Evaluation System (NES).
The DPME was envisioned as the ‘champion’ of government-wide monitoring and evaluation
(M&E) in South Africa with its primary goal being to improve government’s performance and
ISSN: (Online) 2306-5133, (Print) 2310-4988
Page 1 of 11 Original ResearchRead online:
Scan this QR
code with your
smart phone or
mobile device
to read online.
Authors:
Ian Goldman1,2
Carol N. Deliwe3
Stephen Taylor3
Zeenat Ishmail4
Laila Smith2
Thokozile Masangu5
Christopher Adams6
Gillian Wilson7
Dugan Fraser2
Annette Griessel8
Cara Waller9
Siphesihle Dumisa1
Alyna Wyatt10
Jamie Robertsen10
Affiliations:
1Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation
(DPME), Pretoria,
South Africa
2Centre for Learning on
Evaluation and Results,
Anglophone Africa,
Johannesburg, South Africa
3Department of Basic
Education, Pretoria,
South Africa
4Strategic Management
Information, Western Cape
Provincial Government,
Cape Town, South Africa
5Evaluation and Research,
Department of Rural
Development and Land
Reform, Pretoria,
South Africa
6Provincial Budget Analysis,
Intergovernmental Relations,
National Treasury, Pretoria,
South Africa
7National Treasury, Pretoria,
South Africa
Background: South Africa has pioneered national evaluation systems (NESs) along with
Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Uganda and Benin. South Africa’s National Evaluation
Policy Framework (NEPF) was approved by Cabinet in November 2011. An evaluation of the
NES started in September 2016.
Objectives: The purpose of the evaluation was to assess whether the NES had had an impact
on the programmes and policies evaluated, the departments involved and other key
stakeholders; and to determine how the system needs to be strengthened.
Method: The evaluation used a theory-based approach, including international benchmarking,
five national and four provincial case studies, 112 key informant interviews, a survey with 86
responses and a cost-benefit analysis of a sample of evaluations.
Results: Since 2011, 67 national evaluations have been completed or are underway within
the NES, covering over $10 billion of government expenditure. Seven of South Africa’s
nine provinces have provincial evaluation plans and 68 of 155 national and provincial
departments have departmental evaluation plans. Hence, the system has spread widely
but there are issues of quality and the time it takes to do evaluations. It was difficult to
assess use but from the case studies it did appear that instrumental and process use were
widespread. There appears to be a high return on evaluations of between R7 and R10 per
rand invested.
Conclusion: The NES evaluation recommendations on strengthening the system ranged from
legislation to strengthen the mandate, greater resources for the NES, strengthening capacity
development, communication and the tracking of use.
Keywords: evaluation; national evaluation system; evaluation system; South Africa; cost-
effectiveness; M&E, evaluation capacity development; institutionalisation; evaluation use;
evidence use.
Evaluation2 – Evaluating the national evaluation system in
South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?
Read online:
Scan this QR
code with your
smart phone or
mobile device
to read online.
8Policy, Stakeholder Coordination and Knowledge Management, Department of Women, Pretoria, South Africa
9Twende Mbele – an African M&E government partnership, Johannesburg, South Africa
10Evaluation for Development, Genesis Analytics, Johannesburg, South Africa
Corresponding author: Ian Goldman, ian.goldman@wits.ac.za
Dates: Received: 03 Apr. 2019 | Accepted: 15 May 2019 | Published: 28 Aug. 2019
How to cite this article: Goldman, I., Deliwe, C.N., Taylor, S., Ishmail, Z., Smith, L., Masangu, T. et al., 2019, ‘Evaluation2 – Evaluating the
national evaluation system in South Africa: What has been achieved in the first 5 years?’, African Evaluation Journal 7(1), a400. https://
doi.org/10.4102/aej.v7i1.400
Copyright: © 2019. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Introduction
The South African Cabinet approved a Government-Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System in
November 2007. The three domains included were programme performance information, socio-
economic and demographic statistics and evaluation. The first two frameworks were produced in
2007 by National Treasury and Statistics South Africa, respectively. The Department of Performance
(later Planning), Monitoring & Evaluation (DPME) was established in the Presidency in South
Africa in January 2010. In November 2011, Cabinet adopted a National Evaluation Policy
Framework (NEPF) (DPME 2011) providing the last of these three domains. An Evaluation and
Research Unit (ERU) was established in DPME in September 2011 to operationalise the National
Evaluation System (NES).
The DPME was envisioned as the ‘champion’ of government-wide monitoring and evaluation
(M&E) in South Africa with its primary goal being to improve government’s performance and
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