The government has come out with rules guiding mandatory assessment and review of all projects being rolled out, aimed at ensuring good governance, transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making.
The heads of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Wednesday signed Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2015-01, which will put in place a “national evaluation policy framework.”
“To further sharpen the results focus of the government, it is imperative that it be able to gather evidence whether its policies, projects, and programs are achieving their intended development results (outputs, outcomes, and impacts) and to adopt alternative strategies when evidence suggests that results are not being achieved. Effective development thus involves project/program planning and implementation characterized by evidence-based decisions, accountability, and learning which, in turn, are supported by systematic, rigorous, and impartial evaluation,” the joint DBM-Neda circular noted.
Hence, “[i]n line with government’s continuing efforts to improve on all the components of the public sector management cycle (i.e., planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation), Neda and DBM developed a national evaluation policy framework which primarily aims to provide a framework for the purposive conduct of evaluations in the public sector in support of good governance, transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making,” the circular read.
“By the use of standardized evaluation procedure, projects and programs nationwide will be assessed in terms of their efficiency, outcomes and impacts based on national priorities,” the Neda said in a statement.
“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 planning, budgeting, and designing of subsequent similar projects,” the Neda added. Ben O. de Vera