Development partners

Synonyms:
Donor organisations; Multi-lateral entities; Bi-lateral entities

Development partners, including UN agencies, development banks, and bilateral international development agencies of national governments, often hold pivotal roles in national M&E systems across countries.

They frequently provide financial backing for enhancing M&E system components and may directly fund specific evaluations. Understanding the range of evaluations sponsored by these partners can offer invaluable insights into their influence and contributions to the M&E domain.

In many national contexts, development partners strengthen M&E capacity by channelling resources for training. They might also directly offer training in the sectoral ministries they collaborate with. Additionally, they sometimes engage in M&E activities directly by utilising the country's existing systems, thereby ensuring alignment and coherence with national priorities.

Examples

In Lesotho, UN agencies such as UNICEF, WFP, and the UNDP; the European Union (EU); the International Monetary Fund (IMF); and the World Bank play key roles in supporting development activities and in M&E. The various roles include strengthening M&E capacity by providing funds for training and, at times, offering training in the sector ministries they work with. For instance, the FAO, IFAD, and the World Bank finance various programs in the agricultural sector.

They also provide technical assistance, such as the development of indicators. In 2019, both UNICEF and UNDP provided much-needed financial and technical support in the form of consultants to the Government of Lesotho during the process of undertaking the Voluntary National Review of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP supported the Government of Lesotho's participation at the 2019 National Evaluation Capacities Conference in Hurghada, Egypt.

Source: University of the Witwatersrand (2021) in Global Evaluation Initiative (2022)

Global Evaluation Initiative (2022). MESA Guidance Note: Diagnostic Tool for a Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.globalevaluationinitiative.org/mesa

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