| Overview : The Second Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS II), covering the period 2011 to 2016, is the country’s medium-term national development strategy. The objective of MGDS II is to continue reducing poverty through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development. To achieve this goal, six thematic areas have been identified and nine key priority areas. The key responsibility for monitoring for development results is within the M&E Division in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development (MoFEPD). The National M&E Master Plan was updated in 2012 to respond to the MGDS II requirements. Monitoring and tracker tables with definitions, baseline data and annualized targets are provided in the Results Monitoring Handbook for MGDS II. The M&E Division does not have an automated sector-wide Information Management System for monitoring development results. The Development Division has a database for the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP), but it includes only the development projects for the coming five years. Public expenditure is managed through the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), while the Aid Management Platform (AMP) is a database used in the Debt and Aid Division in MoFEPD to track on and off budget funding from development partners. Plans are underway to improve information by capturing links between AMP, IFMIS and PSIP. However systems integration will be incomplete if no links are provided with performance information. The National Statistical Office (NSO) is the agency tasked with providing high quality, timely and independent statistical information. It has its own systems for data management and processing. National data is made publicly available through MASEDA, an online platform where users can run queries and view results. However this data is dderived mostly from national surveys and it is therefore not real time. Furthermore, each ministry has its own monitoring and evaluation processes and systems and is responsible for collecting and managing its own administrative data. In some sectors, there are joint sector reviews as an annual forum for joint assessment of progress in the sector. Sector submissions are the basis for the broader annual review of the national development strategy. Currently there is little collaboration on the specifications and requirements for Management Information System (MIS) between different actors. Interoperability between the different MIS has been explored with the best-fit conclusion being that of CSV (Comma Separated Values) exports that can then be easily imported in the other MIS. However, these changes are not yet implemented. In addition, this still leaves the problem of accurately tracking data to the level required. This may be possible using an automatically generated common identifier (ideally generated at source) that can then be used when statistical analysis of the raw data is conducted in order to produce the kind of useful information required for the purpose of M&E. A District Data Bank System (DDBS) is deployed at district level for capturing reporting data from the sectors. However, the DDBS – despite having been deployed to district councils for a number of years – faces a set of technical and management challenges that have effectively prevented it from becoming widely accepted and used as a standard tool for data collection, storage, analysis and reporting. The only DDBS module currently working effectively is a component supported by the National Aids Commission (NAC). The Government also introduced performance contracts for tracking organizational performance of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and established a Performance Enforcement Department (PED) in the Office of the President and Cabinet. The MDAs are required to define their core business through strategic plans to be implemented within the framework of the national development strategy. Targets are consolidated into organizational performance agreements, which are signed between the Controlling Officer on behalf of the institution and Chief Secretary to the Government on behalf of Government. Performance information is also included in the annual budget. Currently ministries and departments are required to prepare Output Based Budgets. The Government is however piloting Programme Based Budgeting (PBB) to shift the focus of public sector institutions from inputs and outputs to results and impacts. The aim of the PBB is to bring together and more closely align policy, planning and budgeting. A successful PBB will make budgeting more accessible to the public and create a greater demand for information on government operations. A PBB should also help focus efforts to improve value for money. With support from the Joint UN and EU Development Effectiveness and Accountability Programme (DEAP), in 2014 Government undertook a comprehensive Review of State of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in Malawi. Government is currently working on a revamped strategy of M&E system around an integrated information system of web-based flow of quality data, disaggregated to reveal inequalities and drawing on front-line registers and community reports. The system will be generated automated reports openly accessible to central and sector ministries, Parliament, local authorities, the media, academia, civil society and communities for analysis of policy and programme design, resourcing, implementation, monitoring and correction and evaluation of organisational performance. The emphasis is on reliable, accessible, timely and relevant disaggregated data and indicators that show progress on important national programmes and projects and their contribution to inclusion and equity. An efficient development results management system will provide the basis to better understand the reasons for progress as well as challenges in programme implementation. It will also strengthen the Government’s ability to monitor and evaluate country-led results frameworks and will enable efforts to pursue results-focused and evidenced-based decisions. | 
