x-section of participants at the Meeting (Front Desk L - R Executive Secretary NCC, Representative World Vision, Representative AVSI)
Kigali August 22, 2013 -The national integrated monitoring and evaluation work plan was approved in a one day meeting that convened about sixty participants from different organizations engaged in child rights protection interventions.
Opening the meeting officially, Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Governance Board, Prof Shyaka Anastase, said that, monitoring and evaluation is increasingly becoming an essential program management tool to better position any approach, aimed at child rights protection. He added that, good governance involves children as well. Prof Shyaka said, “We cannot have good governance without protecting and promoting the rights of children and catering for their needs.”
The national integrated monitoring and evaluation work plan for Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC) for Rwanda will help to reveal how all interventions combined have the greatest impact on the rights and wellbeing of children. According to the Executive Secretary of National Commission for Children (NCC), Ms Zain Nyiramatama, monitoring and evaluation tracks not only what is being done in a program or project, but also shows whether or not that program/project at hand is making a difference. Zaina elaborated, “Using data from the monitoring and evaluation activities, national organizing bodies will be better positioned to share lessons learned that would promote sound programming initiatives.”
To that end the national integrated monitoring and evaluation work plan was linked to the integrated child rights policy (ICRP) to examine and analyze the impact, cost effectiveness, and quality of services being provided in order to predict and compare outcomes for future programming and to identify those geographic regions most in need of both physical and technical assistance.
Through regular monitoring visits, field surveys/assessments and reporting by all organizations engaged in OVC, the national integrated monitoring and evaluation work plan will generate ongoing data showing progress on indicators.
Presented during the meeting was also the status of identification of the Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) and partners’ involvement as well as creating an exhaustive data base on the MVC. The data base will eliminate duplication of services provided to MVC and at the same time best practices and other lessons learned will form a major guide for assisting not only the increasing numbers of children in need of assistance but also increase knowledge about the quality and impact of services being provided.
The major thrust of this data base will be to scale up activities to meet the needs of MVCs as well as impact their families and communities. One of the major data base objectives is to generate accurate information that will be used to assess the impact of MVC programs, to generate information that will be used to assess the quality of MVC programs and to provide sound data and findings to inform policy decisions.
Additionally, the data base will facilitate to coordinate planning, monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating of MVC services which will enable developing strategies and mechanisms to ensure a correct dissemination of all critical information among all stakeholders, implementing agencies, beneficiaries and the general public.
The meeting was organized by NCC and attended by participants representing government institutions, NGOs and development partners engaged in child rights protection interventions.
Members engaged in a group discussion