Diagnostic tool for a monitoring and evaluation systems analysis (MESA) - Guidance Note

The MESA is a diagnostic tool created by the Global Evaluation Initiative that guides country stakeholders in gathering, structuring and analyzing information on the current capacity of their country's M&E ecosystem.

The framework for the analysis makes up the bulk of the guidance and is organized around five key parts:

• Background to the country and its current status in relation to M&E: To understand the current M&E situation and possibilities for improvement, it is important to have essential background information on the country, such as socioeconomic variables, the government structure, and the political and cultural environment. It is also important to understand current levels of interest in M&E and motivation for strengthening the country’s M&E system.

• Overview of the country’s overall public sector management capacity with focus on planning, budgeting and M&E systems: This includes analysis of the legal and policy basis for these systems, the roles of key actors, how the planning and budgeting systems function, the key characteristics of the country’s M&E system, the status of statistical and administrative data; resources available for M&E,how M&E results are communicated, and the extent to which equity, gender, climate change and environmental sustainability considerations are integrated into these systems.

• Monitoring and reporting systems: A more in-depth analysis explores monitoring and reporting mechanisms at national level, in line ministries and/or sub-national levels, the role played by parliament and civil society, the systems and incentives for acting on monitoring information, and how monitoring information is used.

• Evaluation systems: This section provides a more in-depth look into the country’s evaluation systems and practices at national, line ministry and/or sub-national levels, including government capacity to manage, commission and undertake evaluations, capacities to manage and coordinate an evaluation system, systems and incentives to use, and actual use of evaluation findings by government, parliament, civil society and media.

• Findings, conclusions and recommendations: A MESA concludes with an analysis of what is working well, and less well, in the national M&E system, with recommendations for capacity development interventions that can trigger wider system change and improve development outcomes.