| Overview : In 2008, the Government of Malawi introduced the sector working groups as a means of enhancing the execution of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) and the Development Assistance Strategy. Sector-Wide Approach was adopted as the ‘best fit’ to eliminate duplication and fragmentation of effort, enhance synergy, and reduce transaction costs. The Democratic Governance Sector (DGS) is among the 16 Sector Working Groups defined in the MGDS II. Through a rigorous and consultative process involving Government institutions, Development partners and Civil Society Organisations, the Sector Policy Framework Paper and the five-year Sector Strategy were produced and approved by Cabinet in 2012 to guide the long term aspirations and operations of the Democratic Governance Sector Working Group. The Democratic Governance Sector Strategy seeks to strengthen the democratic character of Malawi’s processes to achieve the country’s stated development priorities and outcomes specified in the MGDS II. To achieve this, the DGS identifies the following as the cornerstones and key result areas: a) Effective democratic governance sector institutions; b) Strengthened rule of law, improved access to justice, public safety and security; c) Improved promotion and protection of human rights; d) Free and credible elections; e) Transparent, accountable and responsive democratic governance sector institutions and; f) More effective independent and representative legislature. Prior to the launching of the two policy documents, capacity assessments were conducted in 2010 by the Sector. These led to serious revelations about the fragility in democratic governance institutions. The shortfalls ranged from low citizen participation, weak legal frameworks, low compliance with international and constitutional mandates, human resources that are insufficient and/or inadequate and outdated infrastructure. However, ccentral to these challenges was the lack of capacity and ability of sector institutions to manage data to inform policy making across most of the sector institutions. This defeats the spirit of the sector strategy that recognizes M&E as an integral component that is meant to enable the sector to make informed decisions which are built on reliable, realistic and nationally owned data, supported by credible administrative and survey based data. In order to close the foregoing M&E gaps and to be able to consistently track implementation progress and attainment of the outcomes of the strategy, Democratic Governance Sector Working Group through its Secretariat (Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs) intends to develop a Sector Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. It is envisaged that the framework will guide all stakeholders in the Sector in undertaking their designated M&E roles as well as provide a harmonized approach in systematic data collection, analysis, interpretation, utilization and dissemination of information related to the Sector. In so doing, the Sector M&E Framework will facilitate the transition from monitoring and evaluation of the individual Key Result Areas of the Strategy into a wider national assessment of the democratic governance in the country. Responsibilities and main activities and processes: - Specifically, the Consultant will do the following;
- Conduct consultation meetings with DG-Sector member institutions and identify priority areas requiring M&E intervention;
- Assess individual institutional M&E status to inform the overarching Sector M&E framework;
- Apply the theories of change to validate or define relevant, achievable results and appropriate indicators to monitor their achievement and related assumptions and risks;
- As part of “3” Identify and develop SMART and gender sensitive indicators that:
Cover all DG-Institutions;
Measure short-term and long-term targets;
Measure output, outcome and impact level performance;
Track annual work plans and budget expenditure at the sectoral level.
For more details, please read through the attached documents. |
