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Evaluation Capacity Building for Parliaments — Philippines, Uganda and APNoDE
A comparative case study on building evaluation capacity in African parliaments
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Evaluation Capacity Building For
Parliamentarians To Strengthen
Their Oversight Role
Parliament hold the executive branch of government to account on behalf of the people, ensuring that government policy and
action are both efficient, effective and that it reflect the needs of the public.
01. Introduction
Twende Mbele is a peer-learning initiative between six partner countries (Benin, South
Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Niger), with an objective of fostering
knowledge sharing, peer learning and collaboration among partner countries to build
their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, and to strengthen government
performance and accountability, this includes the competencies of parliamentarians in
M&E processes.
Twende Mbele has previously conducted M&E capacity building activities in South Africa,
Uganda and Benin in 2018/29, with the aim of strengthening the capacity of members of
parliament who have the responsibility of providing oversight to the executive and
government ministries. This is premised on the understanding that members of
parliament can serve as strategic allies in advancing the use of evidence to deepen good
governance through their legislative, oversight and representative roles.
02. Objective
The aim of the capacity building and peer-learning workshop for members of parliament
workshop was to:
Enhance the capacity and strengthen the demand and use of evaluation evidence
among members of parliament and parliamentary support staff.
Link evaluation practices to the oversight roles of members of parliament;
Integrate evaluation into planning and budget processes of parliament.
03. Delivery of the Workshop
The workshop was conducted from the 29 to the 31 of May 2025. The workshop brought
together participants, notably Members of the South African Parliament (members of the
Portfolio Committee on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Chairpersons of allied Portfolio
Committees, MPs and content advisors) each Twende Mbele member country parliaments, as
well as a select number APNODE (African Parliamentarians Network on Development
Evaluation) members.
th
The three-day training covered the following thematic areas:
The importance of M&E and building a culture of using evidence in oversight and
accountability
Evidence-based policy-making cycle and Medium-Term Development Plan
Integrating evidence in planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes
The importance of theory of change in measuring outputs, outcomes and impact,
assumptions and risks in implementation of policy plans, strategies and programme
The role of research and sources of empirical evidence in M&E processes
How to use credible, reliable sources of data in problem diagnosis and decision-making
Developing actionable recommendations and improvement plans
Collaboration between parliamentary committees and key stakeholders
04. Post Workshop Assessment
The overwhelming majority (92.3%) of respondents to the post-training survey rated the
workshop as very pertinent to them/their work. Further, most respondents found the
training content to be timely and informative (76.9%), while almost everyone (92.3%)
highlighted the need for a follow-up training.
05. Recommendation
Twende Mbele Proposes for a follow-up session (hybrid)
that will deepen what has been done thus far by mainly
focussing on practical tools to embed the use of M&E
evidence in the work of Parliament such as stakeholder
mapping, evidence synthesis and visualization which can
help researchers and content advisors to identify and
utilise a variety of sources of evidence.
Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4
20
40
60
80
100
Evaluation Capacity Building For
Parliamentarians To Strengthen
Their Oversight Role
Parliament hold the executive branch of government to account on behalf of the people, ensuring that government policy and
action are both efficient, effective and that it reflect the needs of the public.
01. Introduction
Twende Mbele is a peer-learning initiative between six partner countries (Benin, South
Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Niger), with an objective of fostering
knowledge sharing, peer learning and collaboration among partner countries to build
their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, and to strengthen government
performance and accountability, this includes the competencies of parliamentarians in
M&E processes.
Twende Mbele has previously conducted M&E capacity building activities in South Africa,
Uganda and Benin in 2018/29, with the aim of strengthening the capacity of members of
parliament who have the responsibility of providing oversight to the executive and
government ministries. This is premised on the understanding that members of
parliament can serve as strategic allies in advancing the use of evidence to deepen good
governance through their legislative, oversight and representative roles.
02. Objective
The aim of the capacity building and peer-learning workshop for members of parliament
workshop was to:
Enhance the capacity and strengthen the demand and use of evaluation evidence
among members of parliament and parliamentary support staff.
Link evaluation practices to the oversight roles of members of parliament;
Integrate evaluation into planning and budget processes of parliament.
03. Delivery of the Workshop
The workshop was conducted from the 29 to the 31 of May 2025. The workshop brought
together participants, notably Members of the South African Parliament (members of the
Portfolio Committee on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Chairpersons of allied Portfolio
Committees, MPs and content advisors) each Twende Mbele member country parliaments, as
well as a select number APNODE (African Parliamentarians Network on Development
Evaluation) members.
th
The three-day training covered the following thematic areas:
The importance of M&E and building a culture of using evidence in oversight and
accountability
Evidence-based policy-making cycle and Medium-Term Development Plan
Integrating evidence in planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes
The importance of theory of change in measuring outputs, outcomes and impact,
assumptions and risks in implementation of policy plans, strategies and programme
The role of research and sources of empirical evidence in M&E processes
How to use credible, reliable sources of data in problem diagnosis and decision-making
Developing actionable recommendations and improvement plans
Collaboration between parliamentary committees and key stakeholders
04. Post Workshop Assessment
The overwhelming majority (92.3%) of respondents to the post-training survey rated the
workshop as very pertinent to them/their work. Further, most respondents found the
training content to be timely and informative (76.9%), while almost everyone (92.3%)
highlighted the need for a follow-up training.
05. Recommendation
Twende Mbele Proposes for a follow-up session (hybrid)
that will deepen what has been done thus far by mainly
focussing on practical tools to embed the use of M&E
evidence in the work of Parliament such as stakeholder
mapping, evidence synthesis and visualization which can
help researchers and content advisors to identify and
utilise a variety of sources of evidence.
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