Egypt’s Planning Ministry, UNDP organize a Workshop titled “Procedural Guide for Monitoring & Evaluation”

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MPED) held in cooperation with the United Nations Developmental Program (UNDP) a workshop titled, “Procedural Guide for Monitoring & Evaluation”, with the participation of monitoring and evaluation officials from different governmental institutions, and representatives of several civil and international organizations.

 

The opening session of the workshop witnessed the participation of the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Dr. Jamil Helmy, Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Development for Sustainable Development Plan Follow-up Affairs.

 Dr. Heba Gad Al-Haq, Assistant Head of the Central Agency for Organization and Administration (CAOA), and Dr. Ashraf Salah El-Din, Vice President of the Institute of National Planning (INP) were present.

The opening session has been moderated by Amira Abdel Latif, Evaluation and Follow-up Officer at UNDP.

Regarding the role of the Strategic Administration in the Ministry of Planning in providing technical support to ministries and other entities, the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry, Mohamed Ibrahim highlighted the resolution issued in 2019 that entails the establishment of Strategic Administration Units in all ministries.

He further noted that the Strategic Administration Unit at MPED would provide technical support to the different ministries in the state’s administrative apparatus to establish similar units.

The aforementioned goal was the main drive for the completion of the strategic management unit at MPED to be an exemplary model, and to transfer its expertise to the other ministries, according to Ibrahim.

 

The Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development highlighted the effort made by the Ministry’s Strategic Administration in developing a strategic map for MPED, and monitoring and evaluating the projects and programs that are implemented according to MPED’s strategic objectives. In addition, he stressed the importance of establishing this administration in the various ministries as it acts as the brain of each ministry.

 

Ibrahim added that, internationally, this department is known as the “Strategic Planning and Institutional Performance,” pointing out that the second part of the name expresses the actual role of the department and how it guides the organization’s performance, from setting goals and indicators, follow-up, and evaluation to identifying the gaps in the form of adjustments presented quarterly to reach integrated institutional performance.

On the other hand, Dr. Jamil Helmy discussed the role of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in monitoring sustainable development programs and plans, referring to the launch of the Government Programme of Action in 2018, and the Prime Minister’s emphasis on the importance of having a program for the government that can be measured and monitored and based on results and performance indicators. He further explained that the introduction of such a program indicates the growing interest in the monitoring, and evaluation process, and the application of program and performance methodology, which helped develop the monitoring and evaluation of government performance systems.

 

 

Dr. Jamil Helmy continued that an implementation plan based on program and performance indicators, through which the roles and responsibilities of each party are defined, would help to build a “performance” system for the first time offering the Egyptian government an electronic system based on the program and performance methodology that sets quantitative goals for each ministry that each entity is required to achieve whether in their annual and quarterly plans.

 

Helmy stressed the importance of shifting from the financial follow-up method to monitoring the outputs and results of expenditure to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness of government expenditure, adding that this was emphasized in the new general planning law and the new unified public finance law, which means that these methodologies, foundations, and principles are the ones that are adopted and emphasized right here. 

 

For her part, Director of the Central Administration for Strategic Management Engineer Omnia Kamal presented, during the second session, the stages of preparing the “Procedural Guide for Monitoring and Evaluation”, explaining that the guide comes within the framework of the MPED’s ongoing effort to facilitate the strategic management process.

She further said that the guide was prepared based on specialized applied and scientific sources, best practices, and experts and practitioners in the state’s administrative apparatus to ensure that the guide reflects the Egyptian reality and the needs and expectations of users.

 

Eng. Omnia added that the guide aims to provide a comprehensive and unified reference for monitoring and evaluation specialists in the various units of the government sector and the state’s administrative apparatus.

 

UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt Alessandro Fracassetti, Assistant Minister for Sustainable Development Dr. Mona Essam, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Affairs Eng. NihadMorsi, Head of the Regional Planning Sector Dr. Heba Moghei, Director of the General Department of Monitoring and Evaluation Prof. Camelia Al-Khouly, Director of Policy at the Ministry Dr. Lobna Saeed, the Ministry’s Strategic Planning Department team, and other representatives of the UNDP participated in the event.