How to Build M and E Systems to Support Better Government

This volume, from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank, details how governments in developing countries can strengthen their monitoring and evaluation systems and capacities. It synthesizes the current knowledge about the topic, drawn from a variety of publications from the IEG, including guides, country diagnoses, examples of evaluations, and didactic material on monitoring and evaluation tools and impact evaluation. First explaining what monitoring and evaluation has to offer governments, the volume then presents a primer on the topic, and discusses ways that monitoring information and evaluation findings have been used to improve government performance, and how specific countries have built successful systems, such as Chile, Colombia, and Australia. Thirteen key lessons from implementation experiences are then enumerated, as are ways to strengthen a system, including conducting a country diagnosis, and issues where national experiences with government monitoring and evaluation systems are not well understood or documented. Common questions are also answered. There is no index. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)