Assessing decentralisation and local governance in West Africa: Taking Stock of Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity of Local Actors

In June 2005, REDL, a Malian network of 12 development organisations working in local governance and the Malian Ministry of Local Government and Territorial Administration initiated a “process of capitalisation”. The process aimed to:

• identify, document and analyse approaches to building capacity with local actors for monitoring and evaluating democratic decentralisation and local governance in West Africa;
• facilitate a structured exchange of experiences and provide an opportunity for networking and learning about available approaches and tools;
• encourage stakeholders to feed their experiences into the wider policy debate at the country, regional and international level. 
  SNV-Mali and ECDPM were mandated to facilitate this process. In so doing, three main activities were undertaken. 

  Firstly, a methodological approach to joint stocktaking and analysis of experiences was developed with local stakeholders. 

  Secondly, case study teams were formed at the country level. They prepared eleven studies on a diverse set of innovative experiences with approaches and tools for monitoring and evaluating the effects and impacts of outcomes of decentralisation and local governance on poverty reduction and local development. 

  Thirdly, support was mobilised for a regional seminar. This event was held in May 2006 in Bamako, Mali with more than 100 participants from local and central governments, civil society, private sector and development organisations. They came from from 6 West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali and Niger). 
  
  The following development organizations, who are all members of the REDL network, contributed to this activity:

• The Programme d’Appui aux Collectivités Territoriales (PACT-GTZ)
• Norwegian Church Aid (AEN)
• HELVETAS-Mali
• CARE International au Mali
• Solidarité – Union – Coopération (SUCO), a Canadian NGO
• The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)

Photo By CGIAR Climate