Business Plan 2010 – 2012
The evaluation sampled four of the seven JFA-funded subprogrammes, namely (a) macroeconomic analysis, finance and economic development (b) regional integration, infrastructure and trade, (c) governance and public administration; and (d) gender and social development. A combination of an analytical framework that focused on context, inputs, outputs, outcomes/impacts and sustainability of the subprogrammes and a five-point criteria were used to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the selected subprogrammes.
Findings of the evaluation:
(a) The four subprogrammes in the ECA Business Plan were found to be contextually appropriate and strategically sound. The resources invested from JFA II were in the form of technical assistance and the process was mainly knowledge generation and sharing. The process included training workshops, seminars, dialogues and consensus building forums, research and advocacy platforms and, above all, production of flagship publications.
(b) Discussions in SROs, member States and RECs revealed that both the activities and outputs of the programme contributed greatly to enhancing awareness and knowledge in areas such as social policy, economic policy management, regional integration, market analysis and modeling, trade policy, gender mainstreaming, election and democratic processes.
Besides the acquired knowledge, specialized skills like negotiations in international trade, dispute settlement procedures, and international contractual arrangements were applied and helped build the capacity of RECs and member States.
(c) The impact of the ECA programme was widely reported by key respondents in the field and the review of literature and various reports of meetings and workshops confirmed their value addition. Elections, political dialogues, free trade areas, relatively better intra-Africa free movement of goods and people are steadily becoming common. RECs are also gradually gaining development momentum with steps of merger among some of them.
Officials in many of these institutions have reflected on the importance of the contribution of the XB in general and JFA in particular.
(d) The JFA programme, in terms of its features and accomplishments, including mechanism of funding and modality of operation, was found to be relatively efficient, flexible and generally a sound and useful arrangement. As a working mechanism, JFA has helped to substantially augment the XB part of ECA resources and has set an example of a relatively efficient platform that others are beginning to emulate.
(e) Challenges identified in both the programme and the JFA mechanism include(i) a weak link between the plan’s objectives, strategies, indicators of subprogrammes and the intended results(some multi-year programmes between ECA and individual RECs were found to be out of date); (ii) lack of effective SRO support to member States and RECs;
and (iii) Business Plan priorities inconsistent with those set by the funding partners. The other challenge identified was the difficulty for all partners in the JFA Agreement to break away from the project culture to a programme approach. The evaluation also identified a
major challenge in the current ineffective distribution system of ECA flagship knowledge products.
Lessons learnt:
(a) The JFA mechanism provides an effective model for programme implementation with medium term provision of resources used with some flexibility and joint monitoring of programme implementation by the joint partners including ECA.
(b) The other lesson on capacity building comes from the IDEP tailor-made flexible policy training short-term and long-term courses targeting policy makers and using ECA major publications as part of the training materials.
Best practice case: IDEP
The work of IDEP and its associated African Governance Institute provides a best practice of how training in policy and planning can become most effective and achieve capacity targeted results. After many years of challenges, IDEP has devised a new strategy, which targets training of policy makers in relevant short-, medium- and long-term training programmes. The Institute has struck close working relationships with member States, RECs and non-State actors, which have succeeded in bringing in trainees and resources. The Institute selects its trainees according to clearly set and strictly criteria that ensure that only those with appropriate work experience, qualification and endorsement from a senior government supervisor are admitted. IDEP also has a deliberate policy to track and follow-up the progress of its alumni. Finally, the Institute has also become central in the distribution and advocacy of ECA flagship products.
Recommendations
Knowledge products and tools as ECA niche – the production of well researched and policy oriented knowledge prod-ucts and tools, have given ECA an edge over many development partners. Given the Commission’s stronger potential to enhance capacity of member States, RECs and AUC, it is recommended that these are maintained and continu-ously improved .
Merger of some flagship reports – for better efficiency, focus, impact and sustainability ‘flagship’ reports such ERA, EOA and MDG and MRDE should be merged into one annual economic report.
Process-oriented knowledge products and tools which cater for not only high level decision makers but engage a cross-section of citizen stakeholders must be prioritized as they enhance capacity, increase ownership, create collec-tive learning and produce tangible country specific tools for reforms at member State level.
New strategies for outreach and dissemination of ECA’s knowledge products and tools are needed. Stronger market-ing through radio, television, print media and social media networks would go a long way in brmarket-ingmarket-ing ECA’s work to the Continent’s general population.
Capacity building strategy of RECs and AUC should be intensified and broadened to include secondments, attach-ments, short-term training and institutional building within the operations of recipient partners.
JFA mechanism applied within the context of defined priorities of ECA has served a useful purpose in programme de-livery effectiveness, efficiency and contribution to impact and it should be improved along the lines of budget support and broader flexibility limits defined by the joint partners.
Extra-Budgetary (XB)support remains a critical aspect of the overall ECA’s resources and will be indispensable for the next Business Plan. It is recommended that funding partners re-commit to support – Business Plan 2013 -2015 within the context of JFA mechanism.
ECA must consistently address issues of role clarity, capacity, resourcing and coordination of SROs and their align-ment with divisional work to improve synergies, effective and efficient service delivery.
ECA must consider broadening its activities in the social agenda so that it can more appropriately support relevant AUC’s programmes and also ensure that regional integration addresses human resource and higher education devel-opment particularly critical for the continent’s young population.