The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) recently signed the National Evaluation Policy Framework that calls for the purposive conduct of independent evaluation of government programs and projects.
“With numerous programs and projects being implemented, the government needs to determine whether and to what extent these benefit the people and the country,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said during the signing of the joint memorandum circular with Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad on July 15 at the Neda Central Office in Pasig City.
“This evaluation policy framework is part of a comprehensive good governance agenda that complements reforms in planning and budgeting,” Balisacan said.
“While we exert our best efforts to ensure that resources are efficiently allocated, we also need to make sure that what we spend on are actually delivering positive results,” he added.
“This joint memorandum circular is a significant step toward improving the evaluation practice in the country. This, and other monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, are important in assessing the progress of our development goals, and in determining whether our initiatives are making a significant impact on the lives of the Filipino people,” said Balisacan, also Neda director general.
The said framework, developed by Neda and the DBM, with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) structures the purposive conduct of evaluations in the public sector. By the use of a standardized evaluation procedure, projects and programs nationwide will be assessed in terms of their efficiency, outcomes and impacts based on national priorities.
Implementing agencies will use the evaluation findings for recommendations and appropriate management response, including follow-through actions by concerned units. Results will also be utilized as inputs to the planning, budgeting and designing of subsequent similar projects.
The policy framework applies to programs and projects being implemented by all government agencies, including state universities and colleges, government-owned and/or controlled corporations, and government financial institutions.
Civil society organizations and other third parties’ programs and projects contracted by a government implementing agency are also involved.
“All their implemented projects and programs, whether local or foreign funded, will be evaluated at least once at the end of the program or project lifecycle, or as frequent as necessary,” the Cabinet official said.
The secretaries of Socioeconomic Planning and Budget and Management will act as the chairman and co-chairman of the Evaluation Board, respectively. TMM